My indoor garden pics

[serial_killer]

This is my indoor garden. I just got the light today, its a 1000 watt metal halide, I made the shroud but got the bulb, ballast and socket/cord for $100 from this really cool guy off craigs list. I had been using multiple CFL's and T12's till now but wasnt happy with the results, the banana is doing horrible from the poor light it had and my lettuce is no where near the lettuce at the hydro store that is the same age and in near the same system but under a 1000W MH.

The lettuce is in a home built 22 site AeroFlo2 system. In the green rubber-made tub is Romanesco Broccoli, in the tuperware dome is opal basil seedlings that will replace the lettuce after its harvested in about a month. There is a few smaller house plants- a Ghost plant and 2 rooted leaf cuttings from it, Jade, it and one of the ghost cuttings are in the terrarium I made from a nice sized jar I found. An Aloe plant and a Christmas Cactus in the red and blue pots. The tree seedling next to the Dwarf Cavendish banana is a young Grumichama seedling, its a Thai tree that produces cherry like fruit. The banana tree is also suffering from transplant shock, I just got it about 3 weeks ago and put it into my waterfarm, it was in soil up till then.



Week old Opal Basil seedlings

Terrarium


Broccoli, just breaking ground.


And just incase you've never seen a 1000 watt metal halide bulb, it's ginormous.

[rainbowgardener]

You know we recently created a whole hydroponics section, just for people like you! This post might have fit better over there...


I've never used metal halide, just regular fluorescents. Is it because it's halide that the light is so far above the plants? Do the halides give off heat? Are they that much brighter that you need to keep them so high? My fluorescents hang 2-4" above the plants.

[Big Vine]

I'm sure the OP can 'shed more light' on this than I can , but yes, it is my understanding that the metal halides give off quite a bit of heat which makes it necessary to keep them from getting too close to foliage. Any moisture on the bulbs is a big no-no as well, which is another reason to keep them a distance away from plants. I think that's also why the OP has gloves on in the pic where he's handling the bulb---even the little bit of moisture from the oils on your skin can cause them to shatter once they heat up!
BV

[serial_killer]

lol, yeah what this site really needs is a dedicated picture section. Its not all hydro, there lots of soil in there too, plus hydro is technically a just a container, so I though it would fit here. Sorry, I just like to show off.

The light it really hot, the metal halides burn at 1750*F so TONS of heat is coming off it. You wouldnt want to even brush up against the shroud when its running. Its so hot, you can see the heat waves coming off. For comparison a 48" long 40 Watt T12 (1.5" diameter bulb) put out 2200 lumens each, a 2 bulb shop light puts out about 4000 lumens (lumens don't add up totally, since the source of the added lumens isnt originating from the exact same spot some are lost when using multiple bulbs). This single bulb puts out 110,000 lumens. So the reason for the height is heat, and area coverage. With a light this size under about 24" from the plants and it'd cook them, plus the spread at this height is 7'x7' so I can throw some more plants under it too eventually, I have big plans.

Nice pun Big Vine, lol, your right on why I'm wearing gloves, even a single finger print could be catastrophic, is will cause a hot spot on the outter glass and that will crack, once that happens the light will be harmful to people since the outter glass contains the UV radiation. And eventually with air getting to the arc tube its self it will crack and the bulb can shatter or possible even catch fire, though the ballast has fail-safes that it will detect a problem such as this and extinguish the bulb before something bad happens. Supposedly it will do this the instant a crack in the glass were to happen.

I got some pretty sweet shots of the arc tube in the bulb that I took threw my welding helmet but the wife decided to format the camera last night and then take it to work this morning.

It takes about 5 minutes for the light to fully warm up when it first comes on (and it wont restart for 15 once its been running and goes off) it puts off really pretty shades of blue and green white its warming up and its not very bright so you can see the arc dancing around in the tube, mesmerizing.

[rainbowgardener]

Jeeeeez!! and other exclamations! How much electricity does this beast consume!?! Sounds like something that would drive up your energy bills.

[a0c8c]

Jeeeeez!! and other exclamations! How much electricity does this beast consume!?! Sounds like something that would drive up your energy bills.

With one bulb he shouldn't spend much more than an extra $35 a month on electricity. Which can add up. I had a friend that used two that size for his 400 gallon aquarium, and it cost him about $75 a month just for those two bulbes alone.

I'd get an electrition in there to get you a dedicated fuse for the socket. That's a must as far as safety goes. There was a couple people on my aquarium forum that have stories of kitchens and living rooms burning down due to those bulbs. And without a dedicated fuse, or an electriition atleast inspecting it, your home owners insurance won't cover it(atleast most won't, it's considered unauthorized electrical work or something like that).

[serial_killer]

With one bulb he shouldn't spend much more than an extra $35 a month on electricity. Which can add up. I had a friend that used two that size for his 400 gallon aquarium, and it cost him about $75 a month just for those two bulbes alone.

I'd get an electrition in there to get you a dedicated fuse for the socket. That's a must as far as safety goes. There was a couple people on my aquarium forum that have stories of kitchens and living rooms burning down due to those bulbs. And without a dedicated fuse, or an electriition atleast inspecting it, your home owners insurance won't cover it(atleast most won't, it's considered unauthorized electrical work or something like that).

I ran that plug off my box with a dedicated 40amp breaker so thats covered. Maybe not by insurance standards, I'm no certified electrician, but it is safe so I got nothing to worry about.

There is an equation to figure out electric costs based on my rate, its about $32 a month extra running it 18 hours a day.

A lot of people don't realize that a 1000 watt light doesnt actually use all that much electricity, the average hair dryer uses about 1200-1400 watts on high and small space heaters can use up to 1600 watts. The only difference is the amount of time that its on per day.

[Hydrogardener]

Nice setup you have going there, but a little expensive to operate. I use 90 watt LEDs, which work great, produce no heat, and are 90% less expensive to operate. Also, the bulbs will last for ten years without replacement. I think it is the way of the future for indoor gardening.

[OldThymer]

Hydro, do you only have one plant per basket in that picture or multiple plants? I'm starting to do some hydro lettuce but I'm not sure how much to put in one basket. I'm using 3" net pots. I am doing one plant per pot for bibb and romaine but what about leaf?

[serial_killer]

Just do 1 plant per pot, they get big.

Here is the same lettuce in a redesigned system. I liked the old one but maintaining it was hard, you had to un-clog sprayers daily, at least you could find the clogged one, just look for the wilted plant.

Its now a flood and drain with them growing in 4x4 rockwool blocks and loving it! The 1000 watt light broke so they're down to a 400W that I run 24/0. I changed my opinion on lettuce needing a night period. These plants are spaced 7" apart.

This is day 10 of re-growth,I harvested them by chopping the entire "head" off just about an inch above the rockwool. They exploded once I started giving them full strength grow food. Another good thing about regrowing them is that even tho they have no to very small leaves after that, they are still mature enough to handle the full strength food and they grow MUCH faster than the first time.




You can see some leaves have been removed, but would you have guessed that less that 2 weeks ago this plant had ALL of its foliage removed?!

[Hydrogardener]

I always place one plant per pot. The system in the photo has six 4" net pots. For my aeroponic system I use 3" pots, but I have also grown lettuce in 2" pots.

[gixxerific]

Boy am I doing something wrong my plants (lettuce) are roughly that size under 4 t8's and have been there almost all winter.

[Hydrogardener]

My lettuce only takes three weeks from transplant to salad bowl. You might rethink your lighting and nutrients.

[emerald7]

Your plants look really neat. I am about to start indoor container gardening, using full spectrum CFL lights. Maybe I will post some pics when I get my indoor garden set up.

[Sage Hermit]

What else ya growin in there... ? I'm so doing the sideways jar!!!!


Thanks for updating us on your progress, I was wondering what happened to you I aint seen ya in a while! Can you say anything about the row in the white strip? Is that an aeroponics bay or hat kinda set up is that?