Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

HI, (I hope this explains things a little better)
I do not have any problems growing tomatoes indoors.
But, this is because of really exploring plant physiology in and
surrounding how different wavelengths are absorbed in plants.

You may not be intereseted in how and why things work, or may not have the
time to really research this out.

Here are some fast learn sites:
http://www.tomatodirt.com/fluorescent-grow-lights.html

http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/VegFruit/tomatind.htm

http://homeharvest.com/fluorescenttubes.htm

Here is what I am doing presently. And first you need to know, that becasue
I can greatly extend the season by using 4 season gardening methods, the
length of time I need to use the more expensive grow bulbs is minimal.

I use a closet cube frame that is standing upright. it looks like the frame
of a walk in closet. This is for flowering and fruiting tomatoes, but I
start them on the horizontal racks.

The verticle grow rack is as follows:
From the top of the ceiling, or in this case the top of the frame I start
out by hanging 3 shop light fixtures vertically. Back to back they form a
triangle shape in the middle between them and are hanging lengthwise.. I
line the inside walls of the cubical with mylar sheeting. This helps to
maximize the light waves available to the plants and keeps a little warmer
in there.

I grow my tomatoe seedlings indoors ina horizontal rack that is next to a
window. I do this becasue the little extra light from the outside sun even
in the winter contains some different waqvelengths that just are not
available in Flourescent bulbs. These run mostly yellow/white....lights
like Sylvania T-12's, T 5's the more intense lights...

I have prepared my soils months ahead of time so the soil microbes are
developed. I have prepared some vermi compost teas to spray on the outside
of the leaves, which are absorbed by the leaves. I have preapred
Mittleider Fertilier formulas to feed the tomatoes via feeding the soil.
Tomatoes are big feeders.

Then I warm up the soil and I make tiny seed plugs and sow the seeds in
these little tiny cubes and set them on a grow heat mat inside a seedling
tray on top of a Stainless Steel screen that I lay across the bottom of the
seedling tray to enhance drainage...I can place many of these on this heat
mat by placing little cubes on them. (the mini blocks)
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-455-soil-block-makers.aspx

The shelf these are on is not very tall like the other shelves...just tall
enough for the heat mat and the seed trays that hold all of the little cubes
(no lights yet)....about 6 inches high, I pull them out to inspect for
problems and to mist water them and then shove them back into the rack, like
opening and closing a drawer...this allows me to have 5 shelves on this
rack. They need the extra heat to germinate from the grow mat and to rev up
their metabolisms for the long ride they have ahead.

So I dont have my seeds under lights until after they germinate (why waste
the energy..what they really want tat that piont is the soil to be at a
certain temp adn to have the moisture they desire) and I see the green tops
peeping through the soil.

Then qwhen I see some green starting to pop through the tops of the cubes
these seed plugs are put into a 2 inch grow cube, which is a different soil
mix and Mittleider fertilizer prepared. These sit on a taller shelf where
there is an inexpensive 1 cool and 1 warm 4 ft long Sylvania Grow
light....This shelf is only about 12 inches tall...just enough room for the
light dfixture to shine on these seedlings until they are too tall to be
under those lights....

So at this point the seedling plants are growing strong and healthy a good
green and thick short stems and leafing out well...If you raise the lights
to far from them they will start to grow tall and spindly to catch up with
the light.

From this point they either go to the greenhouse for flower fruit
wavelengths if the greenhouse is prepared to keep them warm enough...and the
sun provides the wavelengths completely.

OR if it is in the winter cold and I am growing indoors...I shelf them up
one more shelf where the shelf is now 18 inches tall and I let them grow
another week or so with the same lighting...as soon as they show signs of
wanting to start to flower (you just can tell after watching them for
several seasons) I start to transition them in to the vertical closet shaped
frame and transplant them into a larger pot on the floor or from a topsey
turvey hung from the top of the rack.

At this point you can do one of 2 things:

You can hang some shop light fixr=tures lengthwise by drilling some little
holes at the ends of your fixtures and hanging them the long way....does not
hurt them a bit...and hanging them from a cross bar on the top of your
verticle grow cubeicle, or you can buy a good quality Switchable magnetic
balast that will allow you to use both a 400watt HID/or 1 High Pressure NA
bulb. YOu can buy these in a kit from the garden supply store above if you
want.
http://homeharvest.com/fluorescenttubes.htm

In my experience, I can still get tomatoes from just the flourescent
bulbs... and I usually use this a lone...but they dont produce as many
flowers and thus dont set as much fruit.

So I start out with one 400 watt metal Halide (which is plenty for the 3
foot 6 inch square and 8 foot tall cgrow cube) to transition the plant into
flowering adn fruiting. I need more blues and lots adn lots of red waves at
this point and am going to fairly quickly switch to the High Pressure Sodium
400 watt Bulb...the fruit will be juicier and taste better...

It pulls about the same energy as all of the the flourescent bulbs.

SO the tomatoe plants on average but not always are 3-5 weeks in vegetative
and 8 weeks in flowering adn fruiting stage...
I use the less expensive T-12 fLourescents for about those 3-5 weeks adn
then transition these into T-5's which are more intense for the first couple
of weeks into the 8 week flowering and then on to a week or 2 of HID's and
then finally red red red with the High Pressure NA bulbs...and just one of
them hung from the top or bottom of the cubical in the verticle tomato grow
cubical...

Vermicompost tea and seedling trays:
I do use a vermicompost tea that I make up myself from the vewrmicompost I
produce myself. I mist this on the green part of the plant, but try to
avoid the flowers..it makes it harder to pollinate if the flower is wet
inside....inndoors I use long sterile Q tips from medical supply outlet and
then pollinate each flower. The vermicompost is something that visibly
increases the vitality of the plants when growing indoors. I do not add
this to the soil. The Mittleider Minerals absolutely take care of the soils
needs along with some watering with processed water. There is another
stress on the plant from being cooped up indoors(denied sunlight and , the
chemical mix of air outside and some wind I think) though and using the
Vermicompost tea helps to put things back in balance. I have tried this
with and without and there is a noticeable difference if I do not use it.

All of the soil blocks until transplanted into the final growing pots are
placed on seedling trays with slits in the bottom. These trays are placed
inside solid bottomed trays so I have one tray insisde the other. This
addes drainage and areated the bottom of the soils blocks some...they need
O2.

I do not grow melons adn peppers in the same vertical cube as I grow
tomatoes. I do something quite differnt with these adn do grow pepers adn
melons toegther in the same cubicle in the winter.

At some point the weather changes so I can finiihs tomatoes off in the
greenhouse in the early sPring.. Using an easy carry topsey turvey and
covering with long garbage bags I transfer them to the new environemnt ot
harden over the course of a few days adn keep them inside at night until
they are ready to finish ripenig or where ever they are in their growth
cycle.

I have had a tough time taking Melons outside though for finishing...these
seem to be a little more squeemish about moving anywhere and they are
aharder to transport.. Last winter I built a little portable shelf unit
that sits on my dolly.,...so I can out the pot on the bottom of the dolly
and carefully place the vines with the melons a little high on the dolly
shelf...this worked a little better adn I cover them up real good to fgo out
in the cold until they get to the warm greenhouse....
Peppers adn such dont seem to be problematic in moving they just dont want
to know they are being moved (keep them covered walking them out to the
greenhouse....

I also leave the lights on for 16 hours a day and keep the lights as close
as the plants will tolerate without hurting them. Others say to not put
them closer than 3-4 inches. In my experience the plants like them closer
and some will hug the lights and be perfectly satisfied.

I have some tomatoe and tomatillo seeds started on the 6 inch tall
germination shelf for later this Fall and Winter right now. POtatoes work
really well in this set up. I grew about a few hundred pounds of potatoes
last year doing this...but mostly mine are already mostly grown adn under
the hoophouses outdoors waiting to be dug up and eaten all winter long....

I hope this helps some.

I will have some video clips/pictures out soon enough and I do the same as
you do with the greens...I rotate them through the shelves as they
mature...this helps to rotate them to the kitchen table :). I dont use the
warm lights with these though...just cool lights for now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBKr9kPrpzU

KO

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