KennethT

My wife and I will be spending a short holiday in South Island over Christmas this year.... we're planning on spending most of our time seeing the many natural wonders of Otago - we're not really into bungee jumping or anything like that - but we do like hiking with nice scenery, kayaking, and other non-energetic stuff! We were thinking about staying in Queenstown as it seems to be central to a lot of the attractions of the region. We'll have a car, and don't mind a bit of driving - I'm actually looking forward to driving on the left side of the road, and driving around beautiful scenery with very little traffic - it will be a nice change of pace from my daily commute here in New York City! Is this a good idea, or are there any suggestions on other places we should use as a base of operations instead? Also, please chime in with any dining recommendations as well for good local fare...

I was looking into tabletop IR grills a long time ago, but never wound up getting it as I live in a small apartment with no outside ventilation. While I love the process of putting a shower cap on my smoke alarm, if it gets too smoky, the neighbors get worried.... But at the time, I was looking into these: https://solairegasgrills.com/products/portable-grills/

I think it's a burger in a mo....

If you ever come to NYC, you HAVE to go to Murray's original store in the West Village... it will blow your mind...

Holy crap! Did Murray's open a store local to you or do they ship? I love Murray's!

I know what you're saying... you can actually get started for very little $$$... it doesn't take that much to keep plants happy. For me personally, I've been doing experiments in growing high value crops indoors as a business.. I have some extra warehouse space, and I enjoy doing this stuff, so I figured it would be a good fit. But growing for $ vs growing for yourself is very different, at least if you want to be profitable. To get there, it's all about optimization, getting the best tasting, highest yields out of the least amount of resources.

There's nothing bad about using fluorescent shop lights for seed starting - it's actually very common. Large growers have switched to LEDs for this just because it saves a ton of $ on energy usage, but the upfront cost is pretty high. Before I switched to LED, I used a cheap CFL for seed starting and cloning... it worked great. In fact, fluorescents are good for it because they put out a good amount of blue light and not as much red which helps keep plants from getting leggy.

Never had it myself, but Superiority Burger gets really good reviews

@dcarch Exactly. I've done a lot of research into light and plant response... it's a lot more complicated than people think. Many years ago, researchers found that Chlorophyll A and B are most efficient at producing sugar when exposed to 2 different wavelengths - the blue and red, that when combined, form that magenta color that so many plant lights use. It is also a happy accident that those colors are the most efficient in energy usage for LEDs. As time has gone on, however, researchers have found that other wavelengths are important also... far-red induces plant stretch - too much far-red causes leggy plants... it turns out that when plants are shaded, there is a large amount of far-red present in sunlight shade - so plants developed a response to grow taller when in shade to try to get out of the shade. Conversely, short wavelengths - like the blues, cause very limited stretch and will create much more compact plants. For years, many people thought that green wasn't used at all by plants, but now, we know that is not true - while green is not very efficient for creating sugar for the plant, it does have a big role in plant morphology. Also, green light is transmitted through the canopy, whereas the reds and blues are almost completely absorbed by the top of the canopy, leaving the underlying leaves in shade. Having green in the spectrum allows more light to penetrate the canopy, giving more light to the underlying leaves - even if they don't utilize green as efficiently for photosynthesis, it is used, and some light is much better than practically nothing. UV triggers plants to create more terpenes (the smell and flavor molecules) because these molecules help protect the plant from UV damage. Personally, if I'm growing in a completely indoor environment that never sees natural sunlight, I'd want to use a full spectrum (looks white) light rather than just the blue and red. But, if I'm in a greenhouse (or sunny windowsill), the blue and red is fine because it boosts photosynthesis, and the plant can get its other cues from the sunlight.

@TicTac Sunglasses generally work in a simple way. Different materials (plastics) are transparent above certain wavelengths, but opaque to wavelengths below that threshold. As an example, I was looking into getting a manufacturing laser for work, and when you use these types of equipment, special safety glasses are necessary - but the glasses aren't really all that special - they're made from a type of plastic that is opaque to UV (which is the wavelength the laser puts out). In fact, the glasses look clear, because they are transparent to wavelengths above UV. Sunglasses, in general, are made from plastic that is opaque to UV, but are tinted to dim all the light coming through them so it's comfortable to be out in bright sunshine without squinting. So, normal sunglasses that say they block UV will protect your eyes from your light, but the "special" glasses would help with color correction so things don't look so purple, so you can identify problems with your plants. ETA - if you don't want the special glasses, just put a normal type of light to inspect your plants for problems - you turn it on during inspection, then turn it off.

@TicTac OK, I just checked out KIND's specs... I had always heard of them, but never got into the nitty-gritty. According to their website, they include UV in their spectrum - it seems that their spectrum goes down to about 380nm (they don't specify directly, but that's what I inferred from their spectrum diagram). In their FAQ, they mention using protective glasses because the lights are so bright, and color corrective glasses to make it easier to see what you're doing while in the purply-ness which, without color correction, it can be challenging to identify nutrient deficiencies, etc. The main light I have (made by Fluence) is full spectrum white - but it is made up of hundreds of LEDs of different colors to put out a specific spectrum in specific quantities. So, if you look at the spectral outlet of my light, its "white" is very different from a fluorescent "white" which is not tuned to create a specific spectrum, but instead made to put a "color temperature" which basically is the ratio of blue to red. But, they specify in their information that the lowest wavelength is just above UV - so eye protection is not required - although if the light is on full brightness (an average PPFD of 1450 umol/m2/s!!) and you were spending any time under it, you' d probably want to wear sunglasses because it's like looking directly at the sun (without the UV or infrared, and very little far-red).

@TicTac I'm not @dcarch but what I think he meant by that is that within your light bar, each individual LED puts out a single wavelength. Light bars put out a spectrum by using lots of different types of LEDs. COBs are similar, but the many different LEDs are packaged within a single unit.

@TicTac If you're concerned about UV, you need to contact the manufacturer of your light for its spectral output. I don't know where the statement "most quality LED grow lights produce UV rays" comes from. Also, I think a lot of articles in MY are written by writers who have no growing experience... much of what I've read from them is filler that is just general information that seems to be regurgitated over and over. Personally, my main grow light does not produce any light below 400nm, and the amount emitted in the region between 400 and 430nm is so low, (and my exposure time is so short - I don't spend that much time hanging out under the light) I'm not concerned about it. I would assume that since @dcarch built his light from COBs himself, he would have access to the spectral output of the COBs and would know whether or not his lights pose any risk to him.... but again, most people don't hang out for long periods of time under their lights, so health risk is minimized by small amounts of exposure... it would be different if you're working in a greenhouse or an indoor farm that utilizes UV - some indoor cannabis farms specifically use large amounts of UV (there are even pro lights you can get that only emit UV) during the last couple weeks of flower as it encourages terpene output - so glasses and sunscreen or cover up is definitely necessary then.

@dcarch Where did you get the heatsinks?

@sartoric Very nice... but where's the sweet soy sauce?

@dcarch Very nice! You probably don't need to verify for seedlings, but rather than looking at it from a brightness scale, the best thing to do is to get a PAR sensor to check PPFD at plant level. Apogee makes great, affordable sensors that you can plug into a USB port on your computer and read the value using their free software.

While I have no experience with professional pastry or food of any kind, I have a lot of experience running a labor intensive factory. If equipment is too expensive, I'd start by trying to get the most out of your team. First, break down your process into small chunks. Labels on bags can be one operation, adding silica another, product, sealing etc. Then divide your staff so one person does one job at a time and batch your work so each step is very repetitive. That's part of the key - the repetitive motions will get refined over time and will go much faster. The other issue is employee motivation. I find nothing motivates people doing boring repetitive work like money. We use an incentive system that is quite effective in getting the most out of our employees and keeps wasted time and motions to a minimum. Basically you create a realistic rate for each job. The rate should seem impossible to a new employee who is all thumbs, but an experienced, motivated worker can do 20% more than the rate. In addition to the base rate of pay, you pay extra for production that is faster than the rate, but the quality of the work can't suffer for it. But, if the worker does 5 hours worth of work (according to the rate) in say 4 hours, they would be paid for 4 hours + 1 hour production bonus.

zip lock bags work well... anything to keep the humidity in, really...

It doesn't hurt to have one of those cheap $7 temp/humidity readers you find on Amazon - if you have kids, it's a "fun" project to check humidity and if it's too dry, mist away! Also, in the tent, a cheap way to raise humidity is to hang wet towels from the ceiling or even better, blow a fan on them. Most LED grow lights produce no UV, unless they say that they are supposed to make UV. Not only that, but an 80W LED isn't that bright - I have a 200W one in the middle of my living room hanging from the ceiling shining down on my lime tree... only one person (who everyone thinks is hypersensitive) ever remarked about it - she said "arrgghh... it's burning my retinas!", but really, it's not THAT bright... now the monster I have in my grow tent is another story! It's a 550W beast that puts out almost 1400 umol/m2/s!!!! (translation, it's really really bright). Sometimes people will use special grow glasses when using the magenta colored LED lights - the purpose of which is to try to normalize the color which makes inspection (looking for pests, nutrient deficiency, etc) easier... but not needed for normal pruning, trimming harvest, etc unless you're bothered by it.

Plastic wrap is ok - anything that keeps in the moisture... otherwise, when it's so dry out, the surface dries out pretty quickly - so it just makes it so you don't have to spray 5x a day. A lot of pro growers germinate their seeds in a humidor - many times, a rolling cart with shelves that can be sealed and humidity/temp controlled. I've typically read that you want 90-100% humidity prior to germination, then once sprouted, I think 70% RH is good so they don't get too much shock - the problem is that seedlings don't have a root system to deal with lots of transpiration which is needed with low humidity, so in order to not stress teh plant out, a higher humidity mitigates the need for lots of transpiration.

@TicTac Nice... Do your seedling trays have a humidity dome? If not, maybe consider a humidifier for your tent as it can be really dry right now - my tent had a RH of about 30%, which is horrible for just about everything except for ripening, ahem, certain flowers, so I have a humidifier attached to an Arduino and RH sensor to keep humidity about 70% while starting my seeds... Once everything gets going, I'll dial the humidity down to 50-60%...

A nice light dinner tonight.... Laab salmon sashimi, served with sticky rice

I belong to a few FB gardening groups (mostly hydro but many grow outdoors), and many people put a heavy pole on each side of the row and string a wire between them. Then you tie a string from the base of each plant to the horizontal string and train the tomato plants up. You can secure the plants with a tomato clip, or just wrap the string around the plant at each truss. Google greenhouse tomato farming - that's how the pros usually do it.

Do they come a particular region? I wonder if they come from Yunnan, somewhere else or all over...

@TicTac and @liuzhou Wow! That is crazy cheap... around here they're about $50/pound!