Roma Tomatoes - Day 20

So it is now day 20 on the Roma tomatoes.   It keeps getting bigger but I am thinking the 10W 6500K bulb may be too little.  Last Monday night I changed the nutrient solution to the 'mid growth' formulation.   Looking at pictures it seems to be growing 1/8-1/4" a day.   A time lapse video is on the way.




One thing I have been concerned with is what is this costing me in electricity?  So enter the Kill A Watt P3 meter.




This is an excellent little tool that will measure the power usage of whatever is plugged into.  Plug it into a DVD or BluRay player and watch how much power is used while it is turned OFF.  So this meter was plugged into the bubble bucket about 8.5 days ago, 206 hours to be exact.  With the Elite 801 air pump running 24x7 and the 10 watt Ultra Sun 6500K CFL bulb and timer it has used 2.02 kilowatts.  The current this system draws is about .15 amps.  My electricity comes from Lee County Electric Co-Op and with taxes costs an average of 12 cents a kilowatt hour.  That means to run this system in its current configuration for one week is about 20 cents.  For about 80 cents in a electricity a month is not that bad!  At under $30 this meter is money well spent.


Lettuce Day 10

Things are not going well for this. The lettuce is growing and the nutrients will be changed tonight.  Thus far the roots have not penetrated the bottom of the rockwool cube.   It seems the roots are pushing the seedling out of the cube.  The hood was moved closer to the plant but it just may be not enough lumen.




But I will press on with this one.   It may have been started wrong or multiple other things. Comments would be appreciated.   Thanks.

Roma Tomatoes - Day 13 through 16

Not much to update but I do have some photos. The first is the tomato plant at 13 days.



This is the plant at 16 days. It has grown a bit taller and has a thicker stem.



In two days I will be changing the nutrient solution. This time it will be the Mid-Grown formulation according to the General Hydroponics chart.

Lighting source - pt. 2 DIY reflector hood.

The first part of the grow was started with a CFL bulb in a clip on light hood.  These are under $7 at Wal Mart and it is handy to have a couple around the house.  For the second part of the grow a 10W 6700K CFL bulb for a coral reef nano aquarium is being used.  It is longer than your typical CFL spaghetti bulb and thus a different style of hood is needed.  A proper hood was made from a piece of 12" x  24" aluminum picked up from Lowes.



A template was drawn up in TurboCAD and then transferred to the aluminum sheet. 



Used some tin snips to cut the aluminum.  Bent the metal up and pop riveted it together.  One of the original lamp hoods was used for it clamping brackets.  Drilled a hole and threaded the lamp base on.  Fit like a glove.  This is what it looks like from the bottom.



If I were to do it all over again I would make it 1.5-2" shorter.  All in all it did not come out bad and will be effective.

Lettuce - day 3

This is a second hydroponic setup. It is a one station raft system.  The water container is a CD case picked up from Wal Mart and wrapped in black duct tape.  A small airstone is at the center under the net cup.  The foam is recycled from a Star Wars Millennium Falcon plate.  With this foam the net cup sits 1/4" below the foam.  Air is provided by a Top Fin air pump sized for a 10 gallon aquarium.  A aluminum hood has been made for my 5x5 LED array.  This setup has the main purpose of testing the LED array.



Three days ago lettuce was started in rockwool cube the same way the Roma tomatoes were started. I used the "black seeded simpson" lettuce from Ferry-Morse. It only took two days to sprout.



This system holds 3/4 gallon of nutrient solution. I mixed it as a one gallon batch. Used 2.5 ml of FloraMicro, 2.5 ml FloriaGrow, and 2.5 ml FloraBloom. There is a little bit of waste of 1/4 gallon but that is ok. It will be put on my dirt garden outside.

Roma Tomatoes - Day 11

So the seedlings started showing roots through the bottom and sides of the rockwool cube.  Time to set one of them into the bubble bucket.  First the nutrient solution was mixed up.  It is important to mix the Floragrow nutrients in the correct order.  My system is 3 gallons.  To the water I added 7.5ml of FloraNutrients and then mixed well.  Then 7.5ml of FloraGro and 7.5ml of FloraBloom, mixing well after each is added.  Don't premix or add all 3 at once or some of the nutrients will not be available to the plants.  After the nutrients have been added and mixed adjust the pH of the solution.  Always do this after adding the nutrients as they change the pH.  When adjusting the pH up or down do it in small steps.   Once the pH is right the solution is then added to the bubble bucket and the airstone is turned on.




This is the system setup in my closet.  It was put here just to be out of the way.  All gardens need a Nome.




Now with the hydroton and the tomato seedling planted.  This will be what the system will look like.  Hopefully the light I have selected will work out.  At 10W that is the equivalent of a 40W bulb according to sources on the internet.

Lighting source

In previous attempts I had made a LED array. This time around I will be using CFL bulbs. For seed starting a lower power CFL is being used. This bulb was purchased for photo developing circuit boards. It was chosen for the amount of UV rays it produces. In the past I have used it with seed starting with great success.




The hood used to hold the bulb is a clamp on lamp. Have had a pair of these for years and they work great. A 1" x 1" x 4' strip of wood has been screwed to the wall. This will allow the light to be adjusted up and down as needed. For the main grow bulb I have chosen a Ultra Sun 6500K 10W CFL.




This bulb is used in salt water aquariums with small reef tanks for growing coral. It will replicate the sun here in Florida and should be good for plant growth. 6500K lights are also sold for hydroponic use but are much more expensive. This bulb cost under $11 where a similar bulb sold a hydroponics supplier would be $20-80. Time will tell if this is a good choice for hydroponics or not.

Roma Tomatoes - Day 6

After starting the seeds is rockwool cubes it only took 2 days for seedlings to appear.  On day three the rockwool cubes were taken out of the plastic bag and they were put in a clear plastic dome.  A ziplock resealable bowl was used.  Not clear but it let enough light pass through.  On day 4 the dome was taken off and I just made sure the cubes did not dry out.  This is at day 6 and the seedlings are about 1.5" high and have already started on there second set of leaves.  Won't be too long before I plant then in the net pot an put them in the hydro system.