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indoor advice for indoor growing?

Wild Man Matt

Wild Man Matt

I probably shouldn't leave this as a wide open question, I don't mind doing my homework, so if you found a book was really helpful let me know, there seems to be plenty of them. I would like a point in the right direction, google is providing TOO much information. I am thinking of growing a few pepper plants indoors, just for personal consumption. I figure a few plants will suit my needs for a year or so.

I am rocking the condo life ATM, so while I would rather be sitting on a dozen acres instead of listening to my neighbors Italian opera's every Sunday, (no offense to opera) I have my basement and a couple closets that could be used for growing.

Having said that, I am also pretty sure that for my first go-around I would like to avoid spending a lot of coin on a bunch of equipment if possible. It seems like a mylar lined box of some kind with a couple florecent grow lights would do the trick. That sounds like something I could accomplish with a trip to home depot and an afternoon. However, I was thinking that the growing season for some varieties I am interested in like Jolokia is quite long, and some plants do not produce their best potency in the New England climate, even indoors they will probably not get the heat they prefer. Anyone have any creative solutions to this? Energy efficient heat sources?
 
Yeah I was reading through that, and when I got to Milk Man's post where he has 4 different kinds of lights, I figured it might be time to beg for mercy.
 
I dont have 4 different types of lights anymore ;)

There's really two components to indoor growing, lighting and choice of soil or soilless growing.

In regards to lighting, it will entirely depend on your budget:

MH (Metal Hallide - Used for growth) and HPS (High Pressure Sodium - Used for flowering/fruiting) are the main type of light used in most indoor lighting setups at the moment. The only problem I found is that you need a 400W or 600W light to get decent results, and they cost a lot after a while. They also give off a lot of heat.

CFL (Compact Fluoro) lamps run quite cheap, but don't give off a whole lot of power. You can get long tubes or smallish lamps that fit into shades, quite a number of people here use this type of lighting because of how cheap they can be to run

LED (Light-emitting diode) grow lights are getting a tremendous amount of research at the moment, even NASA are getting on board. Since LED's can generate specific light wavelengthes, there are theories that they can be used for growing plants. Problem is that plants use specific differences light at different stages of growth, blue for growing - red for flowering. At this stage, it is unknown whether other parts of the spectrum is required by the plants, this is where the experiments are being carried out. The initial cost of these units for quality grow lights is quite expensive, but they should be a lot cheaper than MH/HPS over time, and definitely last longer.

I'm running a 90W LED grow light at the moment, had tremendous growth (very compact growth too), but haven't seen any flower buds at the moment. I suspect its due to the height of the light from the plant canopy, which is why I've dropped it down to about a foot from the plants now, and I think I'm finally starting to see some buds form.

You may have areas of the house that get lots of natural sunlight, go with this if you can, or maybe use that and suppliment it with some cheap CFL lighting for when the sun goes down.

In regard to soil or soilless growing, this is entirely up to you. Hydro setups work real well, but you also have to maintain them pretty heavily. There's no problem with growing indoors with soil, but you are probably more prone to soil based diseases/pests than using a soilless setup.

Growing indoors is fun, you can have a few small ones and treat them like house plants, or you can go all out and have a professional hydro setup and spend thousands of dollars.
 
Does condo translate into any outside space or a porch or balcony? Peppers grow well in pots and tubs if you make sure they have plenty of room. JMO
 
MiLK_MaN said:
In regard to soil or soilless growing, this is entirely up to you. Hydro setups work real well, but you also have to maintain them pretty heavily. There's no problem with growing indoors with soil, but you are probably more prone to soil based diseases/pests than using a soilless setup.
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Not necessarily, unless you consider topping off the reservoir heavy maintenance lol. IMO, once you get them set up, they are less maintenance than soil, since you probably have to water soil more frequently than you have to refill reservoir.

The heavy maintenance in hydro comes from trimming your plants because they're too damned big ;)



And if you really want a lot of good information and instructions for DIY grow setups, check out the pot forums. If you want i can PM you some good links
 
pepperfever said:
Does condo translate into any outside space or a porch or balcony? Peppers grow well in pots and tubs if you make sure they have plenty of room. JMO
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Thanks for the tip! I do have a deck, but here in CT I think that without a greenhouse a pepper native to India would really only be 'happy' outside for 2 or 3 months in the summer. The other 5 would have to be supplimented with something else...I could be totally wrong, I am making some assumptions from what I read online about Bhut's liking soil temperatures in the 90's throughout the entire growing cycle etc. I have a buddy who grew some in a greenhouse successfully, but I would say they are only about as hot as a Hab. (still pretty hot!)

As for the hydroponic stuff, I am not too sure. It sounds like a lot of equipment, and If it looks like a pot farm, I am not sure how that would go over!
 
Wild Man Matt said:
As for the hydroponic stuff, I am not too sure. It sounds like a lot of equipment, and If it looks like a pot farm, I am not sure how that would go over!
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I'm a strong advocate of using coco coir. You get hydro-like results but can hand-water it unlike most hydro mediums, negating the need for any equipment besides a pot, watering bucket, nutrients & pH adjuster. It's what I'm growing in this year. Redeyes is also using a coco coir based soilless mix here:

http://www.thehotpepper.com/showthread.php?t=8324

Check his thread out, his plants are barely 2 months old and HUGE!


As far as hydro goes:
Supplies for a DWC(deep water culture) hydro system = 1 rubbermaid container, 2 aquarium air stones, 1 aquarium air pump & x number of net pots. Total cost
 
Wild Man Matt said:
As for the hydroponic stuff, I am not too sure. It sounds like a lot of equipment, and If it looks like a pot farm, I am not sure how that would go over!
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Wild Man,

All you would need is a five gallon bucket, a net pot, air pump, airstone and some plastic tubing, plus your lights. I am putting two of them in the office window (one for lettuce, another for a tomato - the guy I rent the office from can supply the bacon) and I have about $21 total invested. Fifteen of that was from the pump.

You can grow them on your porch or balcony this spring and summer and when the temps drop bring them inside.

Mike
 
WMM, are you sold on hydro/aero-ponics or are you going to consider soil? (I'm a dirt farmer)
 
AlabamaJack said:
WMM, are you sold on hydro/aero-ponics or are you going to consider soil? (I'm a dirt farmer)
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AJ,

I think you are a "reformed" dirt farmer - you use raised beds or containers and line your rows with gravel. :cool:

The lady I bought a lot of my hydro and LED lights from grew a bunch of plants in hydro last summer - in her outdoor garden!

Mike
 
I am not sold on anything yet. My eyes have been glued to this forum since I found it, I am still just trying to gather information. Hydroponics seem pretty cool, it might be a fun experiment, but all of my growing experiance (very limited) has been in soil.

I am thinking the most likely location of my box will be in the basement, and it is currently hovering around 50 degrees down there...I would rather not turn on the heat for plant if I can avoid it :)

Heat and light are going to be the biggest issues. I would really like to use LED's but incandecents provide heat. Lot's of things to consider.
 
I found a couple incandecent grow lights from a previous adventure, I am going to out and see what I can find for LED to suppliment that. I don't have a hydroponic store nearby, so instead of guessing at stuff online I think I am going to go with soil.
 
I think you said earlier that you had a closet or two you could use...

If you use a closet with some kind of reflective material/paint, you could use the fluros and or CFLs. The CFLs put off a bunch of heat like the incandescents do. My 4' X 4' X 6' grow box now has eight T-12 40 watt 6500K fluros and eighteen 42 watt (150 eq) 2100K CFLs in it. Just checked and I am getting about 5K lux at the bottom of the box with the lights 3 feet away...total of ~70k lumens
 
Wild Man Matt said:
I found a couple incandecent grow lights from a previous adventure, I am going to out and see what I can find for LED to suppliment that. I don't have a hydroponic store nearby, so instead of guessing at stuff online I think I am going to go with soil.
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Incandescents should NOT be used for growing plants. They make acceptable heaters, but they waste the vast majority of the energy they are given producing heat, and they produce light in the wrong spectrum.

The incandescent "grow" lights, if they are the ones i'm thinking of, are designed for house plants, which are low-light to begin with. They put out a bluish light(because they're painted bluish, the light they generate isn't actually blue.) that makes plants look green and appealing but they don't put out hardly any usable light.

CFLs FTW. Plus they'll put out more than enough heat.

Get you a few 42watt cfls:
thumbnail_fc42-24542.jpg

http://www.1000bulbs.com/42-Watt-Compact-Fluorescents/

And some clamp lights(basically a reflector & socket with a cord attached, you can find these at home depot/lowes on the same isle as extension cords):
41B88PBW38L._SL500_AA280_.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Designers-Edge-Incandescent-Clamp-E-245/dp/B00076Q0FQ
 
Good tips, I think I will track some of that stuff down. Are you sure you are not thinking of 'plant lights' that are basically just tinted to make plants look nice?
 
Wild Man Matt said:
Good tips, I think I will track some of that stuff down. Are you sure you are not thinking of 'plant lights' that are basically just tinted to make plants look nice?
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Probably. But regardless, there is no incandescent light on the market suitable for growing plants. Not to mention the fact that a 42watt CFL puts out the same amount of light as a 200watt incandescent. And lasts longer. And really isn't that exepensive And comes in both blue(6500k) and red(2700K). ;)
 
Wild Man,

Before rushing out and depleting your checking account, consider this:

If you plant seeds today by the middle of May your plants will still be small enough to grow in a six-inch nursery container. By then, it will be warm enough to move them onto a patio, porch, deck or whatever you have. They can grow all summer and into early fall before the cool evening temps start to interfere with budding and pods ripening.

For the time being, buy a couple of cheap shop lights or CFL bulbs. They will be more than enough to get your plants as tall as they need to be to move to 5-gallon pots.

Save your money now and during the summer months, check e-bay, craigstlist, yard sales and stores that have sales. Your plants will do much better outside where there are natural predators and the sun is 10 times brighter than any light you are going to buy. By then, you will also have had a lot more time to study different lighting and decide what is best for you.

Just my 2ยข worth.

Mike
 
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