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Gardening: (2016– )

Nancy in Pátzcuaro
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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, TicTac said:

I was at Lee Valley (an unreal store which could warrant its own thread!) looking for items for my seed starting venture this season and was talking to the folks about tomato supports.  They have this metal post that kind of 'swirls', meant to make it easier to tie onto.  I suggested my metal re-bar with its textured pole would be more than sufficient and half the price.

 

Guess I am going back to 1 post per plant method!

 

If you go to http://www.tomatoville.com and search "support, "trellis" or "Florida weave" you'll find a gazillion different ideas.

 

 

 

 

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)
  • Like 1

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted
On 2/17/2019 at 10:34 AM, kayb said:

 

I've used both commercial cages and cane poles stacked as "teepees" and tied at the top. With cages, you generally don't have to tie the tomatoes. With any kind of poles, you do. I find the legs cut off panty hose work wonderfully; they don't cut into the plants.

 

That is what I used in Memphis. I had to wear pantyhose all the time for work and they are so fragile and tear up at the drop of a hat. BUT they do stretch like crazy and don't damage plants you tie up with them.

 

I do have to love it when I see everyone from Congresswomen to Fox News female hosts not wearing these horrible pantyhose anymore. But yeah. Cut strips from worn out tee-shirts work nearly as well. I have used these too and they work very well.

  • Like 2

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

kayb

kayb

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

That is what I used in Memphis. I had to wear pantyhose all the time for work and they are so fragile and tear up at the drop of a hat. BUT they do stretch like crazy and don't damage plants you tie up with them.

 

I do have to love it when I see everyone from Congresswomen to Fox News female hosts not wearing these horrible pantyhose anymore. But yeah. Cut strips from worn out tee-shirts work nearly as well. I have used these too and they work very well.

 

Straying from the topic, but...

 

I rarely ever wear the things any more, either. I THINK I still own a pair or two.

 

Guess I'll have to go to the strip-off-the-plastic-supermarket-bag method.

 

  • Like 2

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

haresfur

haresfur

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, kayb said:

 

Straying from the topic, but...

 

I rarely ever wear the things any more, either. I THINK I still own a pair or two.

 

Guess I'll have to go to the strip-off-the-plastic-supermarket-bag method.

 

 

Never was much for pantyhose and we have gone to reusable grocery bags. I splashed out on a ball of cotton material to tie up plants. For bigger trees, garden hose works well. Which reminds me, my curry tree is listing to starboard.

  • Like 1

It's almost never bad to feed someone.

Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted
On 2/18/2019 at 11:15 PM, kayb said:

 

Straying from the topic, but...

 

I rarely ever wear the things any more, either. I THINK I still own a pair or two.

 

Guess I'll have to go to the strip-off-the-plastic-supermarket-bag method.

 

 

If you've got worn out cotton tee-shirts, they will work better than cut plastic strips which are 1. not stretchable and 2. not breathable. Just sayin'

 

And Thank the Good Lord nobody has to wear those hateful garments anymore! 

 

I still have some in my drawers as well, but I could not be paid a lot of money to put them on again.

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

chromedome

chromedome

Posted
Posted

When I was a youngster, working out in Saskatchewan as a security guard, I wandered into the truckstop one night to refill my thermos with coffee (it was -42 C, IIRC, and hot coffee was a must for outdoor patrolling). While I was wandering the aisles, I was startled to see - in among the Playboy-logo air fresheners and mirrored stick-ons of unclad/shapely females - boxes of nylons boldly labeled as "Man-T-Hose." 

 

Apparently truckers wore them in the seriously cold weather as an under-layer beneath their more conventional winter warms. I was both amazed and amused. :)

  • Haha 4

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, IowaDee said:

Joe Namath was a well know football player who wore them  I think he even modeled a pair for an ad.

 

A sad day in American history. 

 

But now we have a different story, and we are all going to have to go to stashed pantyhose we never wear anymore or old T-shirt strips, which work just about as well to hold up garden vines.

 

Good riddance! 🙂

 

  • Like 1

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

TicTac

TicTac

Posted
Posted

Back on track...

 

;)

 

Got my 2 x 4 'grow tent' setup and will have my 80W LED hanging shortly.  Only thing I still have to purchase is a little fan.

 

Procured 2 x 36 cell 'self watering' seedling trays, so 72 plants should more than suffice!

 

Have been reading a lot about utilizing cold temps to strengthen the plants, very interesting stuff (and counter intuitive to what we have been led to believe!).

 

I think next weekend I will get the seeds in the 'soil-less' organic growing medium, on top of a heat vent (the only time they REQUIRE heat) and covered in some plastic wrap.

 

Exciting stuff - new to growing from seed (*ahem*, least veggies, that is :P)

  • Like 2
KennethT

KennethT

Posted
Posted

@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%...

TicTac

TicTac

Posted
Posted

@KennethT - Interesting feedback - thank you.  Are you suggesting that past sprouting (with the plastic wrap, that should maintain humidity until they emerge) I will have to be cautious, even if I keep it moist w spray bottle?

 

I do not have a humidity dome...I have read about people using plastic wrap to create a tent...

 

If I am keeping the medium moist and the seeds sprayed, is it still necessary? 

 

This is certainly going to be a learning experience for me - but I am excited to see what happens.

 

Also plan on using the tent post seedlings transplant to grow some other edibles (ordered some Chinese greens) as well.

KennethT

KennethT

Posted
Posted

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

TicTac

Posted
Posted

I suppose I will have to purchase a humidity reader then - great info, Ken - appreciate it.

 

I will do the plastic wrap method prior to germination and then (at the very least) place a water container near the fan in the tent -

 

My guess is that my kids will love this project and we will be down there a few times a day checking in.

 

Question which you may know, Ken - with LED grow lights, are 'special' grow glasses required, or would regular high quality sun glasses suffice?

 

Cheers.

KennethT

KennethT

Posted
Posted

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.

heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted

Several horticulturists favor zip bags. Closed till grminated then slowly wope kore and m0re. They sell those big ones to store your sweaters in. 

  • Like 1
dcarch

dcarch

Posted
Posted

The Sun Will Come Out, Tomorrow

Today, Everyday, ---- Just flip a switch.

 

It has become easy to build your own high power LED grow light. COB 110vac LEDs are not expensive. No more need to have complicated power drivers..

I made 4 COB LED grown lights, each with two 150 Watt chips.

Cooling fans and heat sinks and switches. Plus Acrylic rods for focusing.

1,200 Watts of light. So incredibly bright. It's like having my own sun! 

408008819_LEDgrowlight2.thumb.jpg.b717cb40c4934a30fd5a59d3a4bad0bb.jpg

 

92223238_LEDgrowlight.thumb.JPG.f438bfee2a0bd84de48d376e1517aa08.JPG

315172134_LEDgrowlightc.thumb.jpg.26a07f36dfd89892b34d6e387fa34f7a.jpg

1400073282_LEDgrowlightb.thumb.jpg.86c06bab54a864d170b55dec7d9104c0.jpg

 

With only one light turned on

753341103_LEDgrowlighta.thumb.JPG.55de36f6dc691de27919aecbcc0122a1.JPG

 

No, nothing medicinal or recreational. 9_9

474215897_LEDgrowlightd.thumb.jpg.21baeba51b2b744af4d7505e7835c9e4.jpg

 

dcarch

  • Like 8
KennethT

KennethT

Posted
Posted

@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.

dcarch

dcarch

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, TicTac said:

@dcarch - Do you use any eye protection when working under those?

 

There is no need to wear eye protection. LEDs produce no harmful rays. I sometimes wear sunglasses mostly because the glare from the brightness.

 

 

2 hours ago, KennethT said:

@dcarch Where did you get the heatsinks?

 

I was lucky. A guy on eBay was selling those used huge heatsinks. I was searching on ebay and Amazon for a long time.

dcarch

  • Like 2
KennethT

KennethT

Posted
Posted

@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

dcarch

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, TicTac said:

@dcarch - Are you sure about that?  Most quality LED grow lights produce UV rays...

Here is one link which talks about a number of variables...

https://www.maximumyield.com/eye-care-growroom/2/1458

 

Sure, it is possible most LEDs produce UV light, question is what kind of UV  light and how strong. LEDs are monochromatic, almost single frequency (wave) devices. Unless they are specifically UV LED chips, all others are devices using phosphorus  coating to turn LED light into multi-light wave devices. The UV light from these LEDs are very weak. As someone has said, for your eyes to be damaged, you will need to tape the LED to your eyeball.

 

dcarch

 

 

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