Starting out, need some guidance with lamps and other stuff.

10 years ago

last modified: 10 years ago

Hi. I have ~60 tomato plants, height 60cm each. They were seeded in pairs, so there's 30 pairs. I have not yet transplanted them, and they are confined in a tiny space say 70cmx70cm. Yes, Plant abuse, I know I know - I never planned it. Bought at the Amsterdam boutanical garden, figured 20% will grow. 95% did. 's like wanting a kid, and getting triplets, only here you can terminate past-term. Yes, I know, dark. *chuckles*. At any rate. My idea:

You stand between two shelves which would usually contain books. Only they do not. To your left there's a long double shelf. One shelf is at ground level, another is at 1 meter mark. The same two shelves are to your right. the shelves are 250cm long. Between the shelves there's 60cm space. which is where you stand.

I figured I would get LedBased lamps, 5 per "level", so each 50cm gets a led lamp which is 800lumins, and in the range of 2600, the colors coming out of it is yellow. 1 row of those lights is at 50cm height from the floor. Horizontally. another is at 150cm. Horizontally.

The tomatoes are single-stemmed. Basically just the main stem is there and it is attached to a stick going up. vertically.

The lamps I wish to use are these:

http://www.havells-sylvania.com/product/ro-ro/products/0027163

The tomatoes I am growing... I do not know. They are however F1. Might be a sort which is "heartbreaker" soemthing, or one of another 2. The reasons as to why I do not remember these things has to do with intoxicated states, and irresponsible behaviours. *grins* and lots of fun too tho ;).

Any and all help will be appreciated. I have no idea what I am doing. But I really wanna do it :).

there's a 33% that the sort is one of the 3 below:

http://www.prudac.com/index.php/en/tomatoes/tomato-haertbraeker-f1

http://www.prudac.com/index.php/en/tomatoes/tomates-dora-f1-english

http://www.prudac.com/index.php/en/tomatoes/tomato-heartbreaker-f1-vallery

They were planted 2 month ago. Belgium. No flowers yet or anything. right now they're outside, but I plan to bring them inside. Tomorrow. If I get enough information on the needed lights. Thus far I've read a lot and there seems to be varied opinion about what the plants need. Full spectrum? Floroscent also ok? Floroscent yet full spectrum? LED? *sighs* the local hardware store ain't got that much choice, and the plants seem to need their support system or a bigger container... They're growing like 5cm apart from each other, I don't even know how I'll be able to transplant them - their roots are prolly all tangled up with one another. Bah, what a mess. *grins*.

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Comments (6)

aruzinsky
10 years ago
Your proposed bulb is 640 lumens, not 800, and I can't find a spectral density chart for it. You need the bulb's spectral density chart to make a rational decision. This is an example of a spectral density chart:

http://www.designingwithleds.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Cree-T8-2-tubes-turn-on_wR9-e1400865278517.jpg

but you need to be able to see the numbers on the abscissa.

For additional ideas, see

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3150234/should-i-bother-adding-red-to-a-supplemental-led-light-for-lettuce?n=5
Alon Perel
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi,

Below you can see my setup. I gave up the other lamps, I figured I'll take the tested(somehwat) route amd go with them T8 lamps, so the two lights you see(there's two lamps there) are....F36w 865 t8 by Sylvania LuxLine plus, new generation. The distance from the plants is on average 30cm. Plants heights is 55cm from the ground.

The setup is incomplete, as I plan to have the shelves in a letter C formation, so I can have like 2 or 4 of these lamps lighting them all. Also, how important are, the back thingies which reflect light back? I attach pictures of their current state and how it all looks. Also I have some flowers out.

I would appreciate info and advice.
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Pyewacket
10 years ago
You need WAY WAY WAY more lighting than that for those plants. Try mounting some fixtures vertically along the sides and back. Are you trying to get these to set fruit indoors? If so that has some pretty specific requirements, as opposed to just keeping something alive over the winter until it can go back outside in the spring - which is what I do with my curry leaf trees, ginger, and lemongrass.
Alon Perel
Original Author
10 years ago
Hahahaha, this is hilarious. A month or so ago I still had no tomatoes, so I figured I'l cut my losses. I turned off the lamp (they still had a TIIIINY window tho), and I stopped watering them. 3 days ago I come in and there's small tomatoes on the floor and on the plant. What. The. HELL?! The skin was tough and the thing was rather inedible. YET, it seems like it needed soem stress?

This whole thing left me rather confused to be honest. Anybody can illuminate me as to what happened there?
rooftopbklyn (zone 7a)
10 years ago
A lot of plants will flower/set fruit as a last gasp stress response in an effort to reproduce before dying, sounds like that may have happened to you. Not sure if it tomatoes do this, but many plants do so that would be my guess.
donna_in_sask
10 years ago
I only grow mine indoors long enough to get to transplant size, so don't have any comments about the lighting needs...but I did want to mention, you had way too many plants in that container...so it may not have been solely the lighting that failed you. It would have been more productive in the long run to just grow one or two plants in that space.