Tomatoes Indoors? Anyone?

[plantcrazed101]

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 1:15 am Post subject: How can I grow these indoors?
I want to grow tomatoes indoors, year round. I also want to grow other edibles as well. What I need to figure out is what lights I need. I've been looking around and I did find some high-output fluorescent lighting, is that enough? It's different than regular fluorescent lighting... here is the link:

https://www.growwurks.com/sun-system-tek-light-t5-4ft-2-lamp.aspx


Or should I just get this:

https://www.gchydro.com/sunsystem/SXH_H40.asp



I'm new here,

a little bit about me:

Hi there! I ran into this forum while looking for info on what the right lights would be for growing tomatoes indoors in my apartment. I'm sure not the easiest project to take on, but I'm doing looooots of planning so that should help.

A little about me, I'm a singer and voice teacher, I'm interested in health and fitness, and of course, I'm a plant fanatic. I have a small apartment with a small balcony (it's south facing but it doesn't get lots of sun because of the stupid giant awning) and because I live in North Texas, the heat in the summer kills my chances of growing stuff like...tomatoes. So I'm trying to find a way to get homegrown (or should I say "apartment-artificial-light-grown") tomatoes. If the tomatoes are successful, I will begin adding other yummy plant delights.


I'm also a HUGE African Violet fan.

I follow lots of blogs.

I want to join more gardening societies...they are super fun.

I need more real-life friends.

I definitely want more online friends too.

I'd really like to merge the two.

How did this become a journal entry?-I don't know

[rainbowgardener]

Sorry, I believe the T5 fluorescent bulbs will be good for sprouting seeds and growing seedlings, but not for growing tomatoes to maturity and fruiting. For that you need the HPS (high pressure sodium).

If you were going to get T5 fluorescents, you could get them WAY cheaper at the the local big box store. Just get a cheap shop light fixture and the bulbs. You can probably get the whole thing for under $50 at big box stores.

I'm thinking even the HPS you linked wouldn't be enough. It's 400 watts, you probably want more like 1000. But the sun-system co seems really expensive. I think you could get a 1000 watt system for what they are asking for the 400 watts. Look around on-line.

( e.g. [url=https://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=safari&rls=en&q=1000+watt+hps&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=13724593801612349338&sa=X&ei=l4ifTtGJOaGQsALtxdylBQ&ved=0CHoQ8wIwAA#ps-sellers]1000 watt HPS[/url]

Browse around here first. Type indoor tomatoes or tomatoes AND indoor into the Search the Forum Keyword box and read what people have written about it.

Here's one to get you started

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=222016#222016

Note that the HPS lights will suck down power and your tomatoes will be quite expensive. You would need to run the lights 15 hrs a day all the time. I've seen an estimate that running a 1000 watt HPS 12 hrs a day costs $20 - $30 a month in electricity and I don't think 12 hrs a day would be enough, so figure $25 - $35.

So do a lot of homework first and then decide what you want to do.

Incidentally welcome to the forum and good luck with your indoor gardening project!