Edit: wow this came out a lot longer than I thought.. but it is everything, and sorry about this, I am new to the site so if you guys think this would be better in it's own thread and want to to delete it from here, just let me know and I will do it. I just figured this thread is related to my issue.. so thanks! and sorry for the long read
Hey guys, I have been reading a lot about.. well everything, and I have grow hot peppers outside in the garden the last 3 years, but this year I really wanted to start growing them inside early, and bring about 12-14 plants or so in for next winter which I will be keeping in pots the whole summer.
I don't want to jack his thread, but I figured since everyone is already here and I am having a similar dilemma then it would be good to have all the info in one spot rather than posting all over again in a new thread. So.. here is my problem and potential set up.
What I plan to have/do- I plan to bring in about 12-14 fully grown plants next winter, I have already started growing about 12 of them so far, (just seedlings with most of them with their 1st true leaves and I think the new LED light I got fried a few of them since it was too close at first and slowed down the growing for a few others for now, but that is fixed and they are on the road to a slow recovery.) In a month or so I will be starting about 20-30 more pepper plants that will be going in the garden come spring, and my mom will be growing about 20 tomato plants as well that will also be going into the garden.
What I have already- I have bought a 400w MH/HPS light/fixture kit-
http://www.virtualsu...S400MS.asp?rt=2 that will be coming in the mail on Thursday. I also have a 130w LED light
http://www.sunflower...7x3%27-CAP.htmlthat I wanted to use but I really will only effectively be able to use this to start them out (since it can only cover a 3'X3' section at the most.. and I would think it is closer to 2X2') in addition to a few 6.5k CFL lights that I have set up in a rack from Walmart that I have setup now. I also have other CFLs that I am not using now because like I said I fried them a little when I first got my LED light by sticking it way to close for such small plants and it seems to be overkill. but I will get a picture of the setup that I have now in a little while. I also have a 400cfm inline venting fan.
http://www.amazon.co...=pd_sim_sbs_k_1
For heating I also have a 150w ceramic heating lamp that I have lying around for my Ball Python which I am not using at the moment, and since it puts off some good heat and since I will be paying for the increase in the power bill and would like to keep it semi-cheap, I think it should work maybe with the bulb pointed at one of the walls across from it in the inclosure, with the little 6" oscillating clamp fan blowing the air around at night when the lights are off.
What my ideas are about my setup now, and what I would like to possibly set up, and should it work- I want to have the setup in my basement, right now I have some shelves (just a wooden frame with plywood base for boxes and stuff) that measure somewhere around 5-6' long, by 3-4' wide, and the bottom bored is about a foot off the ground, since I plan to remove the upper shelf so I can have room to grow. My plan is to have me and my dad build an insulated box out of that, by taking inch thick ridged insulation board and using that to cover all of the sides, and most likely the ceiling and definitely the floor of that also and then I will cover the inside of that in that space blanket stuff. So with that sealed off for the most part, with the front section having a detectable piece to it or something, haven't really thought about that part yet. I just measured the basement with my dad's IR gun/camera and it measures at about 55-60 degrees. He is selling insulation and "going green" stuff for houses and businesses right now so he plans on insulating the basement better, since there are still a few concrete blocks with vents in them going to the outside in one section of the crawl spaces in there so maybe that will bring the temperature up to at least 60 consistently. I think that is it for now, I have been reading and thinking about this a lot lately so I may have forgotten something.
There was something I forgot to mention, I would like to run the lights at night when it is coldest and then have the heat lamp for during the day, I would have the 6" osculating fan on all of the time, and I would like to setup the 6" inline duct fan so that it only goes on when it gets too warm in the area.. so I would have 1 thermostat hooked up to the heat lamp (that only turns on during the day time, when the lights are off) and 1 thermostat hooked up to the inline vent fan which is hooked up to the MH lamp for that to only go on when the temp reaches a specific temp.. say.. 86- or whatever you guys think I can keep the plants at, I know I would like to keep the area around 80-85, but would 88 or something be ok for the fan to turn on, so that way the warmer area would take longer to cool off during the day? or are the few extra degrees not worth it and harmful to the plants?.. I would think 88 would be fine since it does get that hot during the summer..
I am going to check out how much it will cost to actually build and insulate this area, and if it turns out that it costs a lot, and if the price is close to $150 or even $100, I might just get
http://www.amazon.com/Quality-Reflective-Interior-Hydroponics-Growing/dp/B0060ID7JW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=IVYJUN6JKK4KX&colid=6F005PBAEEG6 and if I do, how many plants do you guys think I could fit in there? I could probably get like a metal mesh stand for the plants if I had to fit more in there or something.. I'm open for any ideas!
My problems and questions- First of all, for the rest of my equipment and setup I would like it to be cheap as possible without loosing quality.. that is to say, I really can't be spending much more money on this, but I want to do this correctly so that I don't end up wasting time/and more money trying to grow these peppers and have them fail in the end. I have been looking around for thermostats that have 3 prongs on them, for the heat lamp I only need a 2 prong and can use the same thermostat that I have for my snake cage right now
http://www.amazon.co...m=ATVPDKIKX0DER but I wanted to set up the inline fan that I have so that it is not running all the time, but only when it gets too hot, and I can't find any thermostats with probes that have the 3 prongs.. So what do you guys have set up for thermostats that would work in my situation.. this part has been bugging me, since I need 2 thermostats I think, 1 set to 75 degrees with the heat lamp, which only comes on during the day (when lights will be off)via the power strip/timer, and then the inline fan that only comes on during the night when the lamp is on set to.. 85-90 degrees, whichever you guys recommend.
Edit: ( I just looked again and found that the hydro farm one made for heat pads has the 3 prongs.. and that should work if I have 1 set up to the heat lamp and 1 set up to the duct fan.. but I also am not sure if the heat lamp isn't enough.. how I can run the 1500w space heaters they have from a thermostat set to 75 degrees..)
Another question/problem I have is, is 1 400w MH/HPS light (will be using the MH light and most likely will be getting another 400w setup with a HPS light next winter so I can keep producing peppers, but for now I just want them to grow and be ready to produce peppers once it gets warmer out.. if they produce peppers before then, than great!). but is the 1 400w light enough to support... the amount of plants I have.. or I guess the area really.. I have been looking online and I remember seeing how much of an area the 400w HID light can be effective, but I can't find it. Remember that in the end I will only really have 10-14 fully grown plants that I will be bringing back over the winter, the other 40-50 or so plants I am just starting out so that I can put them out in the summer.. but I guess I do expect them to get a decent size if I start them in January.. I would like to know how much area the 1 400w HID can handle but I am more concerned about the total area I will need, and if I need to get the 2nd 400w light eventually before the summer than that is fine, and I still have the 130w LED light that is suppose to be good out to 3X3'
I almost forgot, but these are the peppers I will be growing, I am curious to know if there are any particular needs for any of the plants, or which ones grow in some setup or another, like I have heard that Tepins don't like full sunlight, or at least people tend to put them on the outside of their grow area. I have only grown the cherry bomb peppers, and Bulgarian carrots but that was out in the garden, but anyways here are the peppers I am/and will be growing Tepins, Bulgarian Carrots, Hottie Hybrids (a habanero hybrid) Red Caribbeans, Jamaican Hot Chocolates (chocolate habs right?), Pretty Purple Pepper, Big Bomb Hybrid, Congo Trinidad, Cherry Bomb Hybrid, Fatalii. I will be only keeping some of these in pots for next winter, I am definitely going to be keeping at least 1 of the following; the chocolate habs, red Caribbean, Bulgarian carrots, tepins, fatalii, and the rest I will see once I grow them and see which ones I like more.. pretty much all of them except for the cherry peppers, but the total will be about 12-14 if I can
So sorry for the very long post but I wanted to get this all out there and give the full background so I can cover everything. I was able to teach myself with the help of a mazda forums how to completely tear apart my old 2003 mazdaspeed protege, as well as put on almost any mods short of engines and stuff that requires equipment and mainly time that I don't have onto my new mazdaspeed protege (I bought the same car because I liked the old one and so I could transfer my mods over and save money haha), and I have learned that if you give more information to your situation, you tend to have less problems that come up and bite you in the end, and usually costing more money..
So thank you very much for your time, I am new to this website, but I have been floating around for the last week or so reading and collecting information, but I have decided it is time I get some advise.
to the site. No worries about your post, I'm getting ready to switch to a grow log and it is probably better to keep this going with questions and solutions for people with our situations. The wife is off doing wife things today, so that means I have about 5 hours of CoD time, BUT after scanning the post I went 3 games averaging about 7-15 and decided to STOP getting PWND by 12 year olds on Christmas break and read and respond before getting back to the slaying...