The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Grow box during the summertime – UPDATE

15.4 years ago computer, indoor growbox

UPDATE: With weather climbing my grow box got up to 111.5 degrees today with the lights off.  If I was using one of those fancy computers with temperature sensors it would have turned itself off by now.  Turning off computer so I will have something working this winter…

[July 25, 2009] I was planning on growing my jalapeno peppers in my grow box this summer, but given the higher than average weather we have been having.

With the weather being in the 90’s 100’s and given the CFLs on average increase the temperature by around 10 degrees the grow box has not been great place to grow plants unless I was thinking of growing cacti.  Looking at my historical data the highest temperature this summer was 107.6 111.5 degrees.

As you can see above I have been making some progress on the computerized grow box, which I will plan on writing it up soon…

Tags: cheap, grow lights, growbox, outdoor plants, pepper plants, vegetables

Growing peppers at high latitudes

15.7 years ago hydroponics, indoor growbox, peppers

Here in the Seattle area we are, as you say, latitudelly challenged. We are fortunately to have the Pacific Ocean to give us mild winters and summers though our distance from the equator provides our plants with less intense light and a relatively short growing season for summer crops. One in particular difficult summer crop are peppers.

This is important because one of the major exports of my garden are the ingredients to allow me to make homemade garden salsa (tomatoes, garlic, onions, cilantro, jalapeño peppers) Al ingredients come from my garden (except for jalapeño peppers) This year I am determined to fix this.

I have a couple strategies for doing this, the first is to “start early” pepper plants require 80-110 days from seedling to harvest, timing is everything. Given our late winters here over the past couple years, I don’t really have much of a cushion here and would also be nice if the peppers were ripe when the tomatoes are getting red as well. To get a head start many weeks ago I planted several jalapeño pepper seeds and they currently are turning into some great looking pepper plants in my grow box. As they have grown I have potted them up to encourage them to continue to grow vigorously.

Not wanting to put my eggs peppers in one basket, I have decided to try a few different techniques in case one completely fails I hopefully have a couple backups:

1. Grow pepper plant in grow box in WonderSoil
2. Grow pepper plant hydroponically using a Grodan Gro-Blocks
3. Grow pepper plant in the ground beside my tomatoes
4. Grow pepper plant in large pot in sunniest location

I honestly can not really predict the outcome of this experiment. The grow box as the advantage of accurate temperature control but the CFLs though work great can’t compare to full sun. On the other hand outdoors has the great light intensity of the actual sun though given the pepper plants can stop growing lacking 60 degree nights and at least 70 degrees during day. Given we don’t have too many nights greater than 60 degrees the grow box might have a chance.

UPDATE — 05/25/2009

Plant grown in WonderSoil in grow box at temperature controlled to remain above 60 degrees at night and a high of 80 during the day.  This is amazing results compared to the 2.5 inch plants I started with less than a month ago.

Plant grown hydroponically using a Grodan Gro-Blocks also in temperature controlled grow box.

Plant grow in actual dirt outside in good light

Plant grown in pot outside…well this one is already out after some high winds and cold mornings this one was looking pretty bad to I brought to the infirmary (the grow box) to bring it back to life, which seems to have done wonders.

The obvious winner at this point is the pepper plant in WonderSoil in the grow box, though I have noticed some recent growth in the outdoor plant now the weather has started warming up, so might be some time for Mother Nature to redeem itself.  Overall I have been very impressed with the results of the grow box but still need to see if I can get flowers and fruit…until the next update…

UPDATE — 06/20/2009

We were blessed with some warm weather so the outdoor potted plant has been doing great blossoming and almost a dozen of good sized peppers growing.

I have seen plenty of blossoms on the pepper plants in the grow box though I have not have and fruit set.  I have two theories what is causing this, first is we have hat some hot weather with the garage getting over 85 degrees even with best exhaust and airflow it was hard to keep the temperature from exceeding 90 degrees which causes the blossoms to drop.  The second reason is I have been attempting to hand pollinate the flowers with the absence of some nice bees to do the work for me.  I have been using a fine paintbrush without much luck.  Switching to having better airflow and using a Q-Tip to simulate a bees bottom.

The plant I had in the ground eventually got overtaken by a pumpkin plant which I removed and moved to the grow box given it had not shown any significant signs of growth since I transplanted it there.

Right now seems the best method is grow the pepper plant to about 18 inches and just let mother nature take care of things at that point.

Tags: cheap, cilantro, garden seeds, garlic bulbs, growbox, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants, salsa garden, tomato plants, vegetables

Hardening off plants in the grow box

15.8 years ago computer, computer power control, cucumbers, electronics, indoor growbox, tomato

When you have seedlings growing indoors or a greenhouse during their life they have had the opportunity spending it in a near perfect environment with controlled temperatures, consistent lighting, no wind, etc.  If you take this happy plant and move it directly into the wild (your garden) it can, and probably will, go into shock leading to its sudden death.  The solution to this problem is to hardening off the plant.  This is a process of slowly getting the plant accustomed to the real world environment a couple hours at a time.

You start by bringing the plant outside for two hours in the late evening or early morning hours.  If the plant begins to wilt let it recover indoors until it appears healthy again.  Each day increasing the amount of time it is exposed to the outdoors over 1-2 weeks period, or until the plant can survive a full day/night outside.  At this time it is ready to get its permanent home in your garden.

This process takes a lot of patience, which as they say is a virtue.  Unfortunately I believe I am missing this virtue.  My history of hardening off plants follows a similar pattern; bring out a plant in the evening with the full intentions of bringing it back in after a few hours, unfortunately I forget and it spends its first day out in the cold all night which normally the demise of my summer plants.

This year I am using my grow box to harden off my plants.  Normally the grow box runs at about 68-72 degrees which is a great environment for my seedlings.  By allowing some hot air to vent and lowering the maximum temperature setting in the software I am able to bump the temperature down to a range of 57-65 degrees.  After a few days I will drop the temperature a few degrees until it has similar low temperature to the outdoors, while still staying at a safe temperature for the plants.

Given today using an unknown neighbor’s weather station we had a high of 48.2F and low of 35.1F I still have some time before I can safely bring my tomatoes/cucumbers outside but they should be toughened (hardening) up and ready to go when it is.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, growbox, led, outdoor plants, tomato plants, vegetables

Time lapse video of cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers in grow box

15.8 years ago cucumbers, indoor growbox, peppers, tomato

As you can see they are starting to take over the even larger box and the camera.

Tags: growbox, pepper plants, tomato plants

Growing with hydroponics in the grow box

15.8 years ago cheap, hydroponics, indoor growbox, tomato

There has been some major changes since I started the plants above in my cheap DIY hydroponic setup about a month ago.  Since then I have added a couple of pepper plants I saved from thinning.  I must say the plants are doing better than I expected.  I am still using the same homemade nutrient solution, 2 pumps of liquid plant fertilizer and half a teaspoon of Epsom Salts. 

The sickly plant on the bottom left is a cloning experiment which is not going great but the plant is growing roots and apparently surviving.

Some views from below:

Tags: cheap, growbox, outdoor plants, pepper plants, vegetables

Make your own supplemental LED grow light

15.8 years ago cheap, indoor growbox, LEDs

I never got a round to making a hydroponic system out of my Cafe Steamer, but I did use part of it to create a supplemental red LED light.  The construction of this was very easy and you can do the same thing with an old string of LED Christmas lights and some soft plastic (margarine or frozen dinner container) from your recycling bin.

Take the plastic and drill evenly spaced holes through the plastic.  Make sure to do a few test holes with a few different bits to determine which will allow a snug fit but not causing you to force/break the bulbs.  Once all the holes are drilled, carefully slide in all the bulbs, plug it in, and your project is done.

I am adding this one to my computerized grow box as a little supplemental light for my peppers plants, which I am planning on growing completely indoors this year.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, grow lights, growbox, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants, vegetables