Wow Frank -- you are one awesome guy and that is an amazing setup. This year when most people are sadly watching the advance of fall weather you will just be anxious for indoor gardening weather! I showed the pics to my husband and he wondered if you have rigged up an electrical bypass!!!!(that seems to be one important feature of the "grow-ops" that get busted by police around here!) Happy growing!
Jan

Mine are up as well.....

Pieter

I have two dedicated electrical circuits for the basement setup. One for the lights and the other one for the space heater. We already have the highest utility bills in the neighborhood. They send out comparisons to your closest 100 neighbors. We always win! lol They are used to our bill jumping up and down. I had a 180 gallon reef aquarium with three 400watt metal halide lights on it plus a lot of pumps. The lights in the basement total 880 watts and the ones upstairs are about 800 watts. I will probably have to build a second setup in the basement since growing hosta seeds next winter is going to use up a lot of space. Both tables can drain into the stock tank that holds my water and I can build a manifold with shutoffs so the pump can fill either table. Total cost for doing this was under $400.00 but I had the stock tank, sheet of plywood, pump, power strips, 1x2's, screws, nails, most of the pvc pipe, pvc fittings and the old kitchen cabinets that I used as the stand.

I just finished moving a bunch of plants downstairs. That was fun.
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I think it is a PITA to raise and lower lights on chains so I had to make it as easy as possible. It only took 33 screw eyes, 250' of 1/8" rope and 22 nails. I can adjust the lights in about 1/4" increments.
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Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!
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St. Elmo's Fire. Still glowing like crazy. This is it's first year with me so I am hoping it holds the glow as long as possible.
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I accidentally brought a one gallon pot of Golden Tiara indoors with the others. My bad. I have way too much of it. It will make a nice surprise early Spring present for a neighbor six blocks away that is very into gardening and hosta.

Frank, there you have a nice early and expansive garden and will also have it starting October. Mine are up too - seedlings. And you keep everything clean. I took pictures again of my seedlings, had to move trays out of the shelf and splattered brown water over pants and carpet. Here are parts of my seedlings from streakers (most turned green now):

Hosta seedlings! YAAAAAAAY!

I have a few up about 1/4". Atlantis x OP and Clovelly x OP. My first attempt at hosta seed starting and I am surprised it worked since I just went outside a couple weeks ago and grabbed some seedpods on scapes that were still standing. This year will be intense and I can hardly wait. Documenting all of the bloom times for 200+ varieties and doing all of the crossess that I am hoping will produce some nice traits. I definately want to work to get fast growing in there. Bright bright bright is another. Piecrust variegated and or streaked using Clovelly. Using my giant Samual blue to go for streaked giant, variegated, yellow. So many ideas. I will be doing a lot of long term pollen and seed storage. Leave it to me to dive right in and go overboard!

Very impressive. What bulbs are you using ? What is the light spectrum. If you are using a pump on a timer I would put a overflow with a return to your stock tank. I know you said you have a drain but was not sure how you set it up. I would skip the R/O system. As long as the water sits for a day uncovered the chlorine will disapate. If you start with hot water in a 5 galoon bucket. The chlorine will be gone when it has cooled to room temperature. Trace elements in most drinking water are good for the plants.

Hey, Frank. All I did was buy some red solo cups and a plant light. Project Man rides again.

Steve

Pretty neat Frank. Our non-paying renters are finally gone. I'm going to use the main floor for my income tax office and the downstairs for a guest suite. This means I'll have more room in our home to grow hostas next season. I like the self-watering idea as I'm very busy with my business this time of the year.

Pieter, are your hostas outside or did you bring them in?

Gesila

The bulbs arre 40 watt cool white plus, 4,100K, 3,000 lumens. I am using the RO filter since I already had it mounted on the wall there and it was still hooked up from doing the reef aquarium. We have very dirty water that runs around 500-600ppm of TDS. The filter takes it down to 17ppm. I don't have the pump on a timer. It is only on when I plug it in. It fills the table pretty quickly using about 50 gallons of water. I used three outputs of 1" pvc so the water didn't come out as a jet.

I need to find small drains that I can install on my big seedling cart upstairs so I can water their in the same way. I used a bar sink drain in the basement. Flood the top tray then drain it to the middle tray before draining it to the bottom tray. I'd have to drain the bottom one to the basement since there wouldn't be room low enough for a reservoir. I can set up a low voltage relay to the pump in the basement to pump the water back upstairs from a manifold.

In my dreams I wish I had space to put in a set up like that. No basements here and tiny yards. Mine also are are just beginning to poke. The early ones (the same usual suspects each year) Spartan Arrow and Lederhosen.

Mine are all outside in a covered atrium.

-Babka

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Frank, what is your water PH ?. I will agree that the r/o filter is giving you a benefit. It may be helping your ph down to a good level also. Rob

I don't even remember what the PH is. It has been awhile since I have had to do any water testing.

Rob, what is the recommened PH for hosta seedlings? I have a test kit that came with my hydroponics planter, but didn't really know what to do with it.

Babka, how wonderful! We are so looking forward to seeing ours come up but we have almost three more months to wait!

Gesila, I have no confirmed data but around 5 is what I think is adequate. That being said I have tested my well water and it is around 8 and I have grown thousands of seedling without adjusting the ph. You can buy ph up or down solutions. I have just started playing around with ph. The ph can effect the plants ability to absorb nutrients. I am not sure if the cost is worth the results. I have tested r/o water that was around 4 ph. I think that can vary a lot also depending on the r/o equipment. Starting seeds and growing plants are two seperate issues. I use 5500k spectrum bulbs. A pro grower may use 6500k. This spectrum produces vegatative growth. Flower growers use a lower spectrum. Lumens determines how far the light source can be from the plants. I have enjoyed your experiment very much. Do you cycle the lights or run them 24/7 ? Do you have nutrients in your hydro system ? If so what are you using ? Rob

pH up is easy: add baking soda!

Pieter

Rob,

I use Sun Blaze T5 light strips with 6500K T5HO Blue Bulbs 24/7 with the seedlings in Root Riot Cubes until there were three leaves and the roots were about three inches out of the cubes. I also kept the dome over them during this stage. The Root Riot Cubes have nutrients in them. I used bottled water to moisten them.

The seedlings have been in the hydroponics planter for a couple of days. I'm using a 9-5-18 nutrient solution in our hydro system. They are getting natural sunlight until mid afternoon. Right now, I have a regular shop light running 24/7 with 2 florescent bulbs. I'm going to pick-up another Sun Blaze to put over the hydro planter when I can get over to the side of town next week.

Gesila

Ah, mercy!! Franknjim, you need to watch the movie SAVING GRACE. It is a British comedy that had me laughing myself into tears. Talk about a power bill!

Presumably you've had no visits by law enforcement, you're known to be growing legitimate grade plant material, but just to be sure you get no raids in the middle of the night, invite your friendly neighborhood patrolman in to see your neat plants.

Also, I won't be showing your setup to my DH. He is coveting my Teahouse space for starting his veggie garden, and it just ain't goin to happen, homegrown tomatos or not.
:)

If the cops were going to show up, they would have done it when the 180g reef was going. It added about $200.00 a month to an already high bill.

Very nice set up frank. Bottom watering is the best way, I think, too water, less compacted soil mix. 2 years ago had the cops stop by my house. I have a second story room I have setup for growing. Lights run from 2-10 pm. It really lit up the yard, you could see the glow 2 blocks away. He came to the door a said someone had called so they had to check it out. Showed him the setup and told him to come back in the Spring when things warmed up and buy some plants. He was grinning the whole time.
Paws

The spare bedroom here lights up half of the front yard at night. The cops have been on this small Court enough to know that I am a gardening nut since the front yard looks like a jungle and there are flowers everywhere.

I envy you that you can be that be that enthusiastic about hostas. But,for me I am a retired married man and I have to think of keeping it under control(the power bill,that is)! In only 6 days,hostas will be coming up here,also,but outside in the garden. Lol! Phil-

If the hostas weren't enough I have about 15 flats of annuals going and I just decided a few days ago to start growing monster sized African Violets. On Monday I ordered leaves from 18 varieties, got them yesterday and have them set up to make babies. I have been ordering some of the supplies for them over the past couple days along with a book on Growing to Show. I will have to buy more lights since these can get to be 18"-24" wide each. I get enthusiastic everytime I do anything. I have a couple dozen hobbies and I usually learn a new one every year or two. I will still be starting hosta hybridizing this year as well then major hosta seed starting in the fall.

Our gas/electric bill usually runs about $450.00 a month. Firing up all of the plant lights will probably add on about one hundred. I could die tomorrow so I am going to enjoy today! lol

OK,I know this winter has been warmer than usual,but I have to report a hosta sighting! My montana Aureo,Stilleto,Wolverine,Little Miss Magic and some Undulatas are showing eyes above ground. Nyah,nyah,na,nyah,nyah!!! Phil

That might not be a good thing if you get a hard frost. I don't want mine starting to come up out in the yard until April.

This isn't my first year growing hosta. I watch the weather forecasts closely this time of year.Except for montana,the others can easily be covered by leaves. I have a big cardboard box for montana. Sorry for the jibe! Phil

I have been out there late at night on more than one occasion with a hundred pots from 1 gallon to 30 gallon and putting sheets over the big ones that were already leafed out too much.