Garden!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fullrut]

For the tomato lovers, try a variety called "fourth of July". I'm lucky enough to have an excellent green house a few miles away that I buy started plants from. She turned me onto these a few years ago. Early maturing, solid meat, about twice the size of a golf ball and produce like crazy. Mine usually produce until freeze up.

http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/tomato-fourth-of-july-hybrid-prod000988.html

 

[Lycanthrope]

Did someone say garden? Im harvesting cucumbers already!!! These were taken last week... No reason to quit growing just cuz its cold out :;:thumbsup






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BTW I keep my seeds from year to year. I got some little plastic vials that are air tight and keep them in the freezer with a few of those silica gel desiccant packets in the larger container to keep moisture/condensation down. Ive got seeds that are 5 years old that Im still using. Some seeds keep better than others, but when they are kept frozen, even delicate seeds will keep several years.

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Vollmer, I deleted that bottom picture cuz it wasnt the one I wanted in the post, but it is still showing up as 'attached image', not sure why, those were recently transplanted and arent looking so hot...

 

[Davy Crockett]

Nice setup Lycan , Are those Led lights ? I was doing like you are but only have giant 400 watt HPS shop lights and they are so big and bulky that I quit growing in the winter. The indoor cucumbers were the best , Mine never got very big because we couldn't wait to eat them.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Yeah, most are LED's I built myself. Its pretty easy and much more efficient, also takes up less space, no replacing bulbs necessary, etc. I dont bother making super pretty lights, but they work very good! The cucs and tomatoes/peppers are under a 220w, four cob fixture. If you are interested I could give some tips. Pic from a couple weeks ago...


Nice thing about growing indoors in the winter, its VERY cheap cuz almost 100% of the electricity used is converted to heat eventually, which goes into your house. In the summer all the heat needs to be sucked out via AC which almost doubles the cost versus running the lights alone. NG is still a cheaper way to heat, but still makes it seem more like an investment than a cost, the electricity I mean... BTW a good 200w LED will produce more light of higher quality than an old style HPS, nothing on the market right now can compete with led although CMH and DE HPS (gravita) is close in some circumstances. Not all LED are created equal tho and you get what you pay for typically.

 

[Davy Crockett]

Yes I'd like to learn more Lycan .

 

[Lycanthrope]

Are you familiar with basic electrical? Have some tools? First thing you need to decide is what size area you want to grow in and what your budget is. If you are going to build something yourself, you can usually do it for around $1/watt, that 220 watt light cost me around $200 for parts, which is about 1/3 what a commercial product would cost. For low light plants like lettuce youll want 10 to 20 watts of fixture / square foot of floor space. For higher light plants like cucumbers/tomatoes/peppers, shoot for 25-35 watts of fixture / square foot. That light I built is great for up to a 3x3 area. You can go with less light, but it could affect your plants, depending on your growing skill.

 

[Davy Crockett]

Thans Lycan, I just took a crash course on Youtube , Not sure if it was good or bad info but I learned about the basics but still have questions.

Is there an industry "standard" with LED components ? Are all bulbs and drivers interchangeable or do they vary ?
I went looking for parts on Ebay and ran across these, If they aren't junk I'd take a gamble on these if I knew I could find parts incase they fail.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2PCS-Mars-H...1986470?hash=item565f0eb3a6:g:2voAAOSwOgdYqor-


I have a pretty decent setup with windows to the south so the sun also provides some lighting and grew veggies for a few winters but the ugly shop light that I was using weighed about 50 pound was quite the eyesore.

 

[Lycanthrope]

If you want to buy a pre-made one there are a few companies that provide good products. I wouldnt order a cheap chinese panel, lot of people start there and rarely end up happy.

A few sites I know that offer good products are








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This site is so buggy sometimes, I guess you cant add multiple links consecutively
http://www.tastyled.com/

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https://northerngrowlights.com/

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I got some of my parts from https://cobkits.com/

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As far as 'bulbs' Cree is kind of the industry standard but their products are overpriced for what you get IMO. Id look into citizen chips and stick with meanwell HLG drivers if you plan to build something yourself. If you wanna learn the basics, start out with this guys series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlM5uvO7sao

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Another good kit/light site = http://timbergrowlights.com/

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I am trying a few new peppers this year.

http://www.superhotchiles.com/peachghostgallery.html




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http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kung-Pao-Asian-Pepper-Seeds-Used-in-Chinese-stir-fry-dishes-fantastic-flavor-/301514210004?var=&hash=item4633a5bad4:m:mwe7evGpBxQtDAIc8-SotJg





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http://www.ebay.com/itm/40-YELLOW-SCOTCH-BONNET-PEPPER-very-hot-Jamaican-Capsicum-Annuum-Vegetable-Seeds-/322149688342?hash=item4b019e2416:g:NwcAAOSwvg9XXxRE



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http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-Grande-Jalapeno-Seeds-Huge-and-Hot-/391159921236?hash=item5b12f2ba54:m:mh-c81CDBkvYakF69drU5MQ

 

[ndbwhunter]

I would be perfectly fine with not giving any of the super 100s away. those damned things are so good they should be their own food group. Wife is finally giving in to the idea of some raised beds in the back yard. We don't really have a spot that would be good to till up so I'm trying to get her to agree to something like an 6' x 40' raised garden to do our planting in.

I'm hoping to build some raised gardens this year as well. My in-laws have five 4x8 raised beds with 2 foot walkways between each one. Allows for plenty of access, and you can still water everything in one shot. The corn still goes in the "field", but all the little stuff gets put into the beds.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Im not sold on the raised garden idea myself. I can see needing to do it in areas where the soil is horrible, but IMO most people would be better off amending their soil and making it better in the ground than dealing with raised beds that will break down over time and require extra maintenance and watering, etc.

 

[Davy Crockett]

Holey cow Lycan, I watched that video and for me that would be like starting another hobby.

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I was hoping they were more like Legos.

 

[LBrandt]

Light got my interest until I seen prices. HOLY COW hard to justify.

 

[Lycanthrope]

Light got my interest until I seen prices. HOLY COW hard to justify.

Like I said, if you want to build a good light, itll run around $1 / watt but they last forever almost. HLG power supplies have a 7 year warranty and typical life for the COBS is 100,000 or more hours. So at 18h / day, running all year long, you are looking at a life expectancy of greater than 15 years. Course youll probably want to replace them sooner cuz better tech will come out making them obsolete long before that! If you want to just grow greens you could just order some cheap strip/shop leds from dhgate, like these:
http://www.dhgate.com/product/double-row-led-t8-tube-4ft-28w-8ft-72w-7200lm/385765616.html




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They figure out to about $10/strip, me and some buddies just ordered a case of them to replace the lights in our garages and are a great improvement over the tubes I had before.

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Holey cow Lycan, I watched that video and for me that would be like starting another hobby.

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I was hoping they were more like Legos.

They can be like legos if you get the right parts, no soldering or drilling required, but knowing what to order can be a little tricky sometimes.

 

[LBrandt]

Looked at long range forcast and looks like potatoes going in on Good Friday. Going to try some Yukon Gold This year along with my normal reds.

 

[BDub]

I've always had good luck with Yukon Gold potatoes. A few years ago the NDSU garden trials grew Yukon Gold Gems. Apparently they did quite well, better than Yukon Gold. They are hard to find except online.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I grew yukon gold in my garden in 2015 and 2016, They did very well but took up too much room. Im thinking about getting one of the community garden plots this year just for potatoes...

 

[BDub]

It's time to get those tomato and pepper seeds started if you haven't already. 7 weeks and they will be ready to go the last week of May.

 

[Lapper]

I have the ability to kill everything in a garden just by getting with 30 feet of it, therefore, I don't garden!

 

[Lycanthrope]

And onions!

 

[Vollmer]

Tilled mine last night. Ready!