2'x6' Grow Closet With 8 Tube 432 Watt Fluorescent Light - An Ongoing Log

ASFx2600 · January 14, 2011

I live in Las Vegas, and for a long time i've been wanting to try growing some full size vegetables in my house over the winter. I do have a garden in my back yard with four 4'x8' raised beds, but it can get down to 20 degrees here (with snow) in December and January. So during the cold season, growing Summer veggies like peppers, tomatoes, and basil indoors during the winter is the only option for me.

Since I had limited space in my house, I figured i'd pull out the wire shelving in one of my 2'x6' closets and hang an 8 tube fluorescent light in there (Quantum badBoy T5). I screwed two hooks into the ceiling and hung it using two ropes with ratchets at the bottom so I can easily move the light up and down as needed. This closet was too small to use a light that generates high heat like an HID. There would also be no way to vent that type of heat properly without cutting holes in my wall or ceiling, so an HID was not an option. Since the closet was already painted white inside, I decided not to go through the hassle of trying to hang mylar.

I'll be growing primarily tomatoes and peppers using soil. The tomatoes will be grown in these 5 gallon buckets. I'll drill holes at the bottom of the top bucket, then insert it into another bucket so it's able to drain. For peppers, i'll put them in smaller containers, maybe 2-3 gallon. They'll sit all around the tomato buckets along with some basil.

As for the tubes in the fixture, there are four cool 6400k tubes, and four warm 2900k tubes. This should provide a good balace of foliage and flowers. I thought about using all 6400k at first, then switching to all 2900k for flowering.. but we'll see how this goes first.

For the growing method on the tomatoes, i'll be setting up a "scrog" which means "screen of green". I'll put a grid with 4.5" squares across the entire closet, about 2ft up from the edge of the buckets. Once the tomatoes start hitting the grid, i'll train the branches outward along the bottom of the grid for maximum light exposure.

So that's about it. I'll post my log here and we'll see what I can grow with 432 watts of fluorescent tubes

ASFx2600 · January 16, 2011

I've been waiting for my new order of seeds and they finally arrived today. I just planted a bunch of tomato, pepper, and herb seeds in plastic cups using Fox Farm Happy Frog soil. Once they germinate, i'll stick them in the closet under the floro light, and i'll take some new pics. I've always had great results using this potting soil for both germination and transplants, so i'm going to stick with it.

Once the seedlings grow a few inches tall i'll transplant them into the 5 gallon buckets which will be filled with Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil. It can be dangerous to plant seedlings in the Ocean Forest soil too early since it's a pretty "hot" mixture (lots of nutrients), but so far I haven't had any issues.

les matzek · January 16, 2011

for best growth you will have provide air movement for best results,you
can use a small fan set on a timer to get air movement every 4 to 5
hours,i get good results by doing this,good luck,regards.

les

ASFx2600 · January 16, 2011

So as I think about it more, I'm thinking I may not do the scrog this time. It seems like i'd really be limiting the amount of usable space in this closet, and i wouldn't be able to grow as many peppers as I want. The tomatoes in the scrog would start to grow right over the tops of the peppers which wouldn't be good. The scrog will still be great if i decide to do indeterminate tomatoes later, but for this grow, i'll stick with all peppers and smaller varieties of tomatoes that should only grow 2-3 feet tall, to stay in line with the average height of the pepper plants.

Here's a pic of the layout I was thinking of using for the buckets:

Two rows of buckets fit in there PERFECTLY, but just by a fraction of an inch. I can slide the closet doors shut without them hitting the buckets.

For the fan, I was thinking of mounting a large 16" fan to the wall above the light, turning it on high, and letting it circulate within the closet. I think this should still provide some nice air flow to all the plants even though the fan would be above the light.

sprtsguy76 · January 16, 2011

Well keep us posted on your progress, looks good so far. Good luck.

Damon

ASFx2600 · January 17, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprtsguy76

Well keep us posted on your progress, looks good so far. Good luck.

Damon

I definitely will. I'll be recording all the relevant details. Right now i'm shopping for a good wall mount fan while I wait for the seeds to germinate. The next couple months will be fun

bullish · March 22, 2011

Any progress updates? The set up looked promising!

ASFx2600 · March 23, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullish

Any progress updates? The set up looked promising!

Yup there are quite a few updates

Unfortunately I forgot to update my log here. I've been updating it at the hot pepper forum. I'll post ill my updates here too right now though.

ASFx2600 · March 23, 2011

Week 1 Update:

Just hung up a layer of panda film along the walls, moved all the buckets in, and turned the lights on. I'm going to leave the seedlings in the cups until they get larger then i'll transfer them to the buckets. I'll also thin them to 1 plant per bucket of course. Feels good to make some progress.

I also received my heat mat so germination should be much faster next time. The potting mix i used in the buckets is Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting mix, and the soil i used in the plastic cups for germination is fox Farm Happy Frog potting mix.

ASFx2600 · March 23, 2011

Week 2 Update:

Things are looking good. True leaves are up and i thinned out a couple cups today after I took these pics. I decided to go with the General Organics line of nutrients. I contacted them and requested a sample box that contained some smaller bottles of everything in their organic line, so they should last easily through this whole closet grow.

ASFx2600 · March 23, 2011

Week 3 Update:

Things are still going nicely. I'm still waiting just a tiny bit longer to thin them since a few cups didn't have an obvious winner yet. I'll thin them by tomorrow no matter what though. I gave them a light dose of the organic fertilizer for the first time today. I forgot to poke holes at the bottom of a couple of my pepper cups (oops), so the leaves started curling a bit, but i recognized that right away and poked more holes at the bottom of the cups. The leaves are already starting to go back to normal so that wasn't a big deal.

For the fertilizer, i started following the "week 1" line on the feeding chart I posted below, with 5ml bio root, 5ml biothrive grow, 5ml CaMg, 2.5ml bio weed, and also added 15ml of the diamond black. The reason i'm starting their week 1 feeding program at week 3 is because I already started all the seeds in fox farm soil which is already a very good potting soil. I also don't usually like to use much fertilizer (if any at all) while the cotyledons are still nice and green. On the next watering i'll just use plain water again, then after that, i'll probably move to their week 2 feeding schedule.

I have a min/max thermometer in here as well, and with the fan on it hovers around 80 degrees during the day, and 73 at night. I tried turning on the fan off to see how high the temp would go, and it went up to 86.

Dewayne mater · March 23, 2011

Wow that is an impressive effort. I have always thought that tomatoes needed sunlight and heat to produce fruit that tasted good and was not mealy textured. I hope you'll prove that wrong. Your method seems likely to eliminate some standard issues such as bug infestations and probably leaf disease as caused by exposure to pathogens.

I'm also going to be curious what you do when those plants get really large as in outgrow your closet space? Good luck. I look forward to future updates.

ASFx2600 · March 23, 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

I'm also going to be curious what you do when those plants get really large as in outgrow your closet space? Good luck. I look forward to future updates.

I won't let anything get much taller than 3ft or so. After that, you really start to get diminishing returns with artificial lighting. I'll just start topping the plants and forcing them to focus energy on the fruit

bullish · March 23, 2011

Looking great! Thanks for the updates! I cant believe how fast that tomato plant grew!

ASFx2600 · March 24, 2011

Week 8 Update:

Im getting quite a few tomatoes setting now. All the peppers are still falling behind somewhat. The first bell pepper flower finally set in the last couple days, and it looks like a purple one. I still feel like some plants got stunted because of the earlier problems, but I think things are recovering, especially now that I have RO water. I've been able to do a higher PPM nutrient mix, and i've been making sure to add no less than 5ml cal/mag per gallon. Oh and that mutant bell pepper plant is doing better and growing a bit more vertical now, and it has tons of flowers on it

I can't wait to see how many pods I get off of it.

New Big Dwarf Tomato:

Window Box Roma Tomato:

Red Robin Tomato: (wow there's at least 20 tomatoes on this plant already)

Carnival Bell Peppers:

First Bell Pepper showing:

January 14, 2011	#1
ASFx2600 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 40	2'x6' Grow Closet With 8 Tube 432 Watt Fluorescent Light - An Ongoing Log I live in Las Vegas, and for a long time i've been wanting to try growing some full size vegetables in my house over the winter. I do have a garden in my back yard with four 4'x8' raised beds, but it can get down to 20 degrees here (with snow) in December and January. So during the cold season, growing Summer veggies like peppers, tomatoes, and basil indoors during the winter is the only option for me. Since I had limited space in my house, I figured i'd pull out the wire shelving in one of my 2'x6' closets and hang an 8 tube fluorescent light in there (Quantum badBoy T5). I screwed two hooks into the ceiling and hung it using two ropes with ratchets at the bottom so I can easily move the light up and down as needed. This closet was too small to use a light that generates high heat like an HID. There would also be no way to vent that type of heat properly without cutting holes in my wall or ceiling, so an HID was not an option. Since the closet was already painted white inside, I decided not to go through the hassle of trying to hang mylar. I'll be growing primarily tomatoes and peppers using soil. The tomatoes will be grown in these 5 gallon buckets. I'll drill holes at the bottom of the top bucket, then insert it into another bucket so it's able to drain. For peppers, i'll put them in smaller containers, maybe 2-3 gallon. They'll sit all around the tomato buckets along with some basil. As for the tubes in the fixture, there are four cool 6400k tubes, and four warm 2900k tubes. This should provide a good balace of foliage and flowers. I thought about using all 6400k at first, then switching to all 2900k for flowering.. but we'll see how this goes first. For the growing method on the tomatoes, i'll be setting up a "scrog" which means "screen of green". I'll put a grid with 4.5" squares across the entire closet, about 2ft up from the edge of the buckets. Once the tomatoes start hitting the grid, i'll train the branches outward along the bottom of the grid for maximum light exposure. So that's about it. I'll post my log here and we'll see what I can grow with 432 watts of fluorescent tubes Last edited by ASFx2600; January 15, 2011 at 12:35 PM.

January 16, 2011	#4
ASFx2600 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 40	So as I think about it more, I'm thinking I may not do the scrog this time. It seems like i'd really be limiting the amount of usable space in this closet, and i wouldn't be able to grow as many peppers as I want. The tomatoes in the scrog would start to grow right over the tops of the peppers which wouldn't be good. The scrog will still be great if i decide to do indeterminate tomatoes later, but for this grow, i'll stick with all peppers and smaller varieties of tomatoes that should only grow 2-3 feet tall, to stay in line with the average height of the pepper plants. Here's a pic of the layout I was thinking of using for the buckets: Two rows of buckets fit in there PERFECTLY, but just by a fraction of an inch. I can slide the closet doors shut without them hitting the buckets. For the fan, I was thinking of mounting a large 16" fan to the wall above the light, turning it on high, and letting it circulate within the closet. I think this should still provide some nice air flow to all the plants even though the fan would be above the light. Last edited by ASFx2600; January 16, 2011 at 11:56 PM.

January 16, 2011	#3
les matzek Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Landers, CA Posts: 191	for best growth you will have provide air movement for best results,you can use a small fan set on a timer to get air movement every 4 to 5 hours,i get good results by doing this,good luck,regards. les

January 16, 2011	#5
sprtsguy76 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2007 Location: Santa Clara CA Posts: 1,125	Well keep us posted on your progress, looks good so far. Good luck. Damon

March 22, 2011	#7
bullish Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Oceanside, Long Island, NY, USA Posts: 48	Any progress updates? The set up looked promising!

March 23, 2011	#9
ASFx2600 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 40	Week 1 Update: Just hung up a layer of panda film along the walls, moved all the buckets in, and turned the lights on. I'm going to leave the seedlings in the cups until they get larger then i'll transfer them to the buckets. I'll also thin them to 1 plant per bucket of course. Feels good to make some progress. I also received my heat mat so germination should be much faster next time. The potting mix i used in the buckets is Fox Farm Ocean Forest potting mix, and the soil i used in the plastic cups for germination is fox Farm Happy Frog potting mix.

March 23, 2011	#12
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	Wow that is an impressive effort. I have always thought that tomatoes needed sunlight and heat to produce fruit that tasted good and was not mealy textured. I hope you'll prove that wrong. Your method seems likely to eliminate some standard issues such as bug infestations and probably leaf disease as caused by exposure to pathogens. I'm also going to be curious what you do when those plants get really large as in outgrow your closet space? Good luck. I look forward to future updates.

March 24, 2011	#15
ASFx2600 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 40	Week 8 Update: Im getting quite a few tomatoes setting now. All the peppers are still falling behind somewhat. The first bell pepper flower finally set in the last couple days, and it looks like a purple one. I still feel like some plants got stunted because of the earlier problems, but I think things are recovering, especially now that I have RO water. I've been able to do a higher PPM nutrient mix, and i've been making sure to add no less than 5ml cal/mag per gallon. Oh and that mutant bell pepper plant is doing better and growing a bit more vertical now, and it has tons of flowers on it I can't wait to see how many pods I get off of it. New Big Dwarf Tomato: Window Box Roma Tomato: Red Robin Tomato: (wow there's at least 20 tomatoes on this plant already) Carnival Bell Peppers: First Bell Pepper showing: