Thoughts?
What equipment do you recommend to grow 20 roma tomatoe plants in garage over winter?
- Thread starter gunslingor
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You can get some cheap LED light that will grow them just fine. Bloom Plus LED is 130 watt light that costs about $60 bucks. What makes this light so good is it is very inexpensive to run per year and the electricity draw is only equal to a single incandescent bulb.
I have both white and purple LED grow lights and both with and without fans built in for cooling. My Mars Hydro is white light without a cooling fan needed and my cheaper one is a purple light with 2 cooling fans built in, it's a Phlizon. It's good for starting seeds but I am constantly worried if those fans stop working what will happen? My Mars Hydro costs twice as much but there is no fans to worry about and the white light definitely grows plants much better and faster. Also the purple light is extremely annoying on the eyes and makes it hard to see the plants and any issues they might have. I don't have a light meter but my guess is the more expensive one puts out a lot more light for the plants even though both lights are the same watt etc, just much better LED bulbs in it.
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You can buy cheap clip-on fans and point them at the fixture. Use the same timer as the lights and the fans will keep them cool.
The lights with the internal fans are closed off with vents just like a desktop computer so I don't know if the fans blowing on them would cool them enough internally? Maybe. Even still having to buy a bunch of fans for the daisy chain and they extra electricity the fans would use as well as the cheaper less optimal LED bulbs used hindering the growth of the plants makes it worth spending the extra money to buy the better built more modern ones that don't use fans, at least of growing plants from start to finish to get the best harvest. It would also be a gamble that you discover a fan or fans stopped working before it fries the internal parts completely. Most home grow ops use the more expensive name brand lights for these reasons and use the cheap ones for starting plants early spring before transferring them to the garden.
That said, to each their own. If someone can't really afford the higher end lights then the cheap ones are the way to go. But if it's a matter of thinking the cheap ones work just as well as the higher end ones it's not at all the same, as everything if something is cheap it's because it's cheaply made with the cheapest parts used to bring down cost.
Lights, heat, moisture. But I think it's going to be hard to grow tomatoes that way.
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You really need a good breeze in any indoor garden. Using clip-on fans can save a lot of money, to move the air. I don't think spending $1200 for air-cooled light is to anyone's advantage unless they are in it to make money.
I don't want it to sound like I am arguing with you, I am definitely not.. I'm just having a conversation about it. But you have to keep in mind a $60 cheap 650 LED is not going to put out enough lumens to cover more then one medium sized tomato plant and it's going to grow below average because they are cheap dim lights used in the cheap grow lamps. But regardless of that if the op wants 20 tomato plants and the $60 lights only good for one plant then the op will have to spend $60 x 20= $1,200 anyway just on lights not to mention the ridiculous daisy chain that will need to be set up for all those 20 lights.
But even a high end expensive Spider Farmer 4000 dimmable LED light is under $500 and will cover much more area under it and grow much much bigger and better plants then a low budget light that can't penetrate the full plant canopy. I would rather spend a little extra $ not only for quality but also only needing a few large lights rather then 20 small little ones, to me that would be a nightmare.
I also agree it's not worth it value wise just to grow indoors regardless of the light size used, but I also don't think it's worth spending thousands of dollars to fly the family to Disneyland for a week's vacation every year but many do... different strokes for different folks. Hobbies and enjoyment can be expensive sometimes.
Lol, good convo... 1000$ for roma tomatoes is reasonable though, lol, jk.
I saw gorilla has a 8x16 foot grow tent, huge. Do you need a heater in the Georgia winter? Tough to pick our parts. Also looking at the vivosun 10x10. They don't seem to sell kits for the big ones.
I saw gorilla has a 8x16 foot grow tent, huge. Do you need a heater in the Georgia winter? Tough to pick our parts. Also looking at the vivosun 10x10. They don't seem to sell kits for the big ones.
I might buy a pop-up greenhouse with a heater and watering system for 4 or 5 hundred... that should work in winter for tomatoes right? Or does the winter light not enough to make fruit?
What about the ipower grow tents and equipment. Costs look more reasonable, I used em for grow bags and little starter lights, did fine. There is a 1500w led for like 170, 2 of those, the 10x10 foot tent, 1 or 2 fan things, thoughts?