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indoor greens year round
Posted by:
back2eden
()
Date: February 25, 2013 11:45PM I have a rack made of wood that has 4 shelves that are 2ft x 4ft. I have a 4 ft Double T-5 bulb fixture on one shelve. They are 54 watts each. They dont put out any heat and are very clean white light. I plan to grow greens and sprouts indoors year round. If your not growing your own food very soon you wont have any at all.
The shelves are all 18 inches apart. I have kale,spinach, arugula chard, and lettuce started. I am going to grow buckwheat, wheatgrass, pea greens and sunflower greens. I dont know if LED lights will work. I need to find some 12x16 trays. B2E Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
KidRaw
()
Date: February 26, 2013 03:28AM Sounds yummy - I've been craving micro-greens since this thread -
[www.rawfoodsupport.com] but I'm too lazy to do them myself. I wish they were available at the HFS. Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
swimmer
()
Date: February 26, 2013 05:06AM Great B2E. I grow greens indoor too.
108 watts is not much light though. You might need to boost the plants up to get them closer to the lights. Especially when they are small. Unfortunately, the inverse squared law effects the amount of light actually reaching the plant. My indoor grow area is about 16 sq ft. I use a 1000 watt metal halide lamp which is real bright, but it does put out a lot of heat. I've grow spinach, wheatgrass and a some herbs. Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
back2eden
()
Date: February 26, 2013 05:22AM The twin T-5 High Output bulbs together put out 8,500 to 9,500 lumens with no heat. They are too bright to look at directly! The 2 light up my whole cabin. I use no extra light for my computer. The rack is enclosed on 3 sides and painted flat white. The color temperature is 6,500 kelvin. They are the most energy to light output efficiant bulbs on the market. Yourlight may put out more lumens but cant get close to plants due to the heat output. And the color temperature is not optimum. The bulbs are made by Philips and cost 10 at home depoe. Fixture plus 2 bulbs was 60. Im using sea salt at 1000 ppm solution for nutrients in organic potting soil. Will have to make compost by the Geof Lawton formula when it warms up.
B2E Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
swimmer
()
Date: February 26, 2013 05:50AM Wow, I didn't know t5s were that powerful. thanks.
The metal halade color temp is 7500k, so it's fine. The heat is not too bad and the plants all do great anywhere in a 10 to 50 inch distance range. I've done well with this set up for a couple of years. It is a power hog though. I should get a t5 instead. Maybe something like this will work. It uses about half the power: [www.amazon.com] For nutrients, I make a compost tea in a 45 gal trash can using out-gassed water. I've never checked nutrient ppm, but keep the tea ph at 6.0 to 6.5. I use my rabbit's droppings, compost from my worm farm, and purchased molasses, alfalfa and bat guano for the tea brew. Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2013 05:56AM by swimmer. Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
back2eden
()
Date: February 26, 2013 06:33AM Make sure the bulbs are HO type for High Output. There are 2 types of T-5 Bulbs.
The rack is 15 feet away from me and im typing in about 8pt type size. Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
veganjuice
()
Date: February 26, 2013 11:20AM back2eden,
What are you using as a power source for your cabin? Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
back2eden
()
Date: February 26, 2013 03:31PM right now the grid, but there is a box of solar panels here the landlord has not installed yet.
and... We have a few experiments in progress that should do away with those. 1.my geet take off fuel reformer 2.a lockridge type device. 3.The new bedini zero force motor 4.ambient collectors with rodin coil interface. Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
back2eden
()
Date: February 26, 2013 04:26PM Im also going to make a spirulina photo bioreactor for growing spirulina indoors year round. It will be an improvement on www.Algaegeek.com incubator design using a sono tube and a coiled clear tube. What I still need to know is the proper nutrient solution. I have read that sugar can be a carbon scource and replace CO2 gas bubbled through the system. Any one with experience on this?
Forgot to mention above we have a "water purifier" to remove ethonal from water. We have David Blumes book on the subject. Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2013 04:31PM by back2eden. Re: indoor greens year round
Posted by:
veganjuice
()
Date: February 26, 2013 10:06PM You might want to check this guy out - I've followed him for awhile & I find him & his methods intriguing. He's off the grid/cabin/solar.
[www.youtube.com] I would like to be able to do that, but unless I would find a better/cheaper source of electricity, there's no way I could do it. Solar panels just aren't feasible yet, I'm not sure if they ever will be. For one person in a tiny "bug out" cabin like in the videos, he can make it work, very difficult doing it in a larger home with a family, wanting creature comforts...unless you are "made of money", that is, lol Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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