Grow chamber

[wordwiz]

My daughter bought a new chair today and to make room for it, she got rid of a nice amroire - AKA a cabinet with shelves. It is 36" wide, 18" deep and 60" tall. If I can figure out a way to remove the center piece of wood, I can easily have three shelves that will hold about 150 plants each, plus have room at the bottom for a heating pad and supplies.

The shelves are currently 12 inches apart, which means the plants can grow to about eight inches before they need to be moved. By that time, they better be ready to move outside into the hoophouse (though it won't be hoops, per se) I'll have to harden them for the summer to come.

I'm pumped for the coming season!

Mike

 

[Chiliac]

making grow chambers from stuff others would throw away is great and fun, too! Got any pics to give us an idea?

 

[wordwiz]

As soon as I cut out the center board and finish making the shelves.

I'm thinking about lining the doors with the Velco tape that one can buy to stake plants with. It should keep the doors closed tight as well as help seal the chamber.

The challenge will be building containers that will hold a section of plants (I'm thinking about 72 ) so I can pick them up, drop them into some water and let them get their feet wet.

Hey, I have to build a better "mousetrap" than AJ.

Mike

 

[AlabamaJack]

The challenge will be building containers that will hold a section of plants (I'm thinking about 72 ) so I can pick them up, drop them into some water and let them get their feet wet.

Hey, I have to build a better "mousetrap" than AJ.

Mike

Competition in the workplace is the mother of invention...at least from my point of view it is...I got a pretty neat project I am going to build this fall but I am keeping it under wraps until I get the planning and drawings done....in other words Mike.... bring it on...

what type of containers are you going to use to grow in Mike?

 

[wordwiz]

AJ,

I'm leaning toward using nursery flats, ones that are 2" x 2.25" x 3" cells for 288 plants and 4" cells for another 144. Some of the smaller plants will be transplanted into 5 or 6 inch pots for those fools who want to pay an extra buck-fifty to get a larger pot. Most of my toms I transplanted came from 1" square cells that are 2" deep and they did great.

It's not comparing apples to apples, as the temps upstairs will be much cooler this winter than they are this summer, but I sowed some toms on July 15. You can see what their size is less than a month after sowing. These have been under the high power LEDs almost since they germinated.

A lot may have to do with what kinds of lights I can get. I'm committed to the LEDs as I've seen how they work. I may end up going with the cheap 36 cell starter trays and then transplanting the seelings to 4-6 inch pots. I would have room for 540 plants using that size. If I can get the seeds to germinate quickly and get large enough to transplant to larger containers in eight weeks, that would be my best bet, especially if I have lights to cover 300 plants for a couple of weeks. By the middle of April, they have to be outside in some kind of a greenhouse.

But before you get too smug, I may just build a new grow chamber. Six feet tall, four feet wide and two feet deep, with three shelves. Or maybe larger, large enough I can add six 25 watt, 2700K lights per shelf - with mirrors!

This could be fun, AJ!

Mike

 

[AlabamaJack]

Right on Mike...this will be fun...I could say...hmpfffff...I already have a 6 foot tall grow chamber that is four feet square but I won't bring that up right now...


my little project is similar...I have the one two chamber germinator that I built last year...will hold four 72 cell trays in each chamber...I am going to mirror that design and build another one...that will let me bring off 1152 seeds at a time....what I will need to do is double the space I already have to grow in after I transplant to 3" square containers (those fit my grow areas perfectly in 20 count trays)...I now can accomodate 480 seedlings that I can grow up to 14" tall before they start hitting the lights...that is probably as big as I will sell and like you, if the people will pay 2 bucks more for a plant that just came out of a 3" container and into a 6" container...so be it...heck, all they will do is transplant it anyway....

sorry to ramble my friend but this is planning strategy for next year...I figure if I can bring off successfully over 900 seedlings, I can make a go of my first year in business selling the plants for 3 to 5 dollars depending on the container size...I will not sell anything but "exotic superhots"...scorpions, 7 pot, the naga/jolokia family, chocolate habs, caribben reds, and some others plus some scotch bonnets and red mushrooms...just peppers you can't go to walmart/lowes/home depot or your local nursery and buy...I will give them the jap/serrano/cayenne market, I want the exotic chilehead market here in Fort Worth...

rambled some more didn't I?

 

[wordwiz]

AJ,

The number of plants I start and the types will depend largely on whether I can sell them at a Arts & Crafts (and Plants!) Festival in early May. If they agree to allow plants, I'll have a much larger number of plants as well as a lot more types - toms (about six types), eggplants, cucumbers, herbs and several varieties of peppers. Perhaps 700 plants in all. I know, that pales compared to you but if I can sell 600 of them I would have enough cash that my garden would be completely free, even if I didn't sell a single pepper or tomato from it.

The other thing I have to build or find is a watering trough. Last year, I would pick the cups up, one or two at a time and stick them in a large cartainer. This year, I want to be able to water at least 72 small ones or 36 large ones at a time.

Mike

 

[AlabamaJack]

The other thing I have to build or find is a watering trough. Last year, I would pick the cups up, one or two at a time and stick them in a large cartainer. This year, I want to be able to water at least 72 small ones or 36 large ones at a time.

Mike

I will only have a few more plants than you but then again, you will have plants other than peppers too...I am trying to reach a very specific target...

The watering thing is why I went to the 3" square containers in the 20 piece holders...bottom watering...(I got 20 3" containers plus the tray for 2 bucks total and they are perfect for bottom watering)..I bought a clear plastic container (at the container store) that is 36" long, 16" wide, and 4-5" deep....this will comfortably hold 2 of the 20 count trays at a time...I will probably get 2 more of these containers for watering purposes...if I have 3 of the containers I can water 120 seedlings at a time....with the number of plants I will have, it will still take me about 3 hours to water all of them...

I won't worry about a container to bottom water the 72 cell seed starting trays because I will just use the bottom of the tray...

 

[wordwiz]

I got 20 3" containers plus the tray for 2 bucks total and they are perfect for bottom watering.

Where? I sort of like those 3" containers. What I tried toward the end of winter, and had great luck with was filling them about 1/2 the way when I sowed the seed. A couple of weeks after it sprouted and the plant got a little leggy, I added more potting soil. They still developed a great root ball without a long stem.

I'm pretty impressed with the LED light, at least for the toms. I have a Scorpion that is not growing very fast, but it well may be completely root bound. I sowed it probably in the middle of March.

As soon as I get time, I want to plant some more peppers - an annuum, Chinense and a Frutescen and see how they grow using just this one light. If they grow as fast as the toms, I'll be in good shape.

Mike

 

[cmpman1974]

My favorite pot size for seedlings is the 2.5" x 2.5" x 3.5" deep ones Cross Country Nurseries and TheChileWoman use for their mail order business. You can grow some nice seedlings to sell in those. I don't sell them, but it would be my desired size.

Chris

 

[AlabamaJack]

Where? I sort of like those 3" containers. What I tried toward the end of winter, and had great luck with was filling them about 1/2 the way when I sowed the seed. A couple of weeks after it sprouted and the plant got a little leggy, I added more potting soil. They still developed a great root ball without a long stem.
Mike

I got them at my local nursery...not a bad deal huh...I like them because both the tray and containers have holes in the bottom...here is a picture of two new ones I have in my "watering trough"....I will get two more "troughs" before the first of the year...I will need a bunch more of these 20 count container holders and containers. I have 200 containers right now and 10 trays.

I don't start my seeds in these Mike, these are the first transplant containers out of the 72 cell starter tray...works well....we just are doing things a little different...I want a good compact rootball before I transplant out of the starter tray and I figure a 1" cube root ball is great to transplant into these 3" containers...then when I transplant out of these I want a good rootball...I suppose I am just making my root ball more compact than you are...

My favorite pot size for seedlings is the 2.5" x 2.5" x 3.5" deep ones Cross Country Nurseries and TheChileWoman use for their mail order business. You can grow some nice seedlings to sell in those. I don't sell them, but it would be my desired size.

Chris

these containers are very close to the size you quote Chris, 3" X 3" X 3.625"...they are 2" at the bottom and 3" at the top...I love them plus they are cheap...can't beat 2 dollars for the containers and tray...

 

[wordwiz]

AJ,

To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what I will do come late January or early February. I'm not into transplanting a bunch - too much work for me, given the time I have available. A lot will depend on my experiments between now and then, how much produce I can sell this summer, if I can sell plants at the Arts & Crafts Festival.

But here is my basic design for my grow chamber: http://www.valleycat.net/garden/chamber.html

I'll have a CFL on the front wall as well. By painting the walls white, I should be able to generate at least 3,000 lux per level, which will be enough to develop decent plants.

If, and that's a big IF, the powers to be allow me to sell plants, I'll build another unit but one that is two feet wider and four inches deeper. I'll use the high power LED lights in it. That would give me enough room to grow well over 1,000 plants. Even nicer, I would only use 680 watts of power per hour.

I can see I'm getting consumed by this growing idea but I look for Gannett to offer me millions of dollars for my paper (I wish) and using the proceeds to open my store. Then I'll grow my plants in it and sell them!

And you think you ramble!

Mike