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-   -   What light requirements need for tomatoes to ripen? (http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2036)

furniture@finewoodstudio. 07-17-2011 04:00 PM

What light requirements need for tomatoes to ripen?
 
For my two tomato plants I have CFL 2800K 125W, 6500K 200W, 5000K 200W and they are gowing and producing fruit like crazy. But my question is whta light requirement is needed to ripen the fruit? I read an ad for HPS lighting the said that you need 10,000K to ripen the fruit, is that true? In the grow room the plants receive about 12000lx. During the warmer days here in the Pacific NW I have the plants on a dolly and I can move them outside. But it is so cold this year that I cannot leave them outside. It has been 5-15 degrees below normal.

T'Mater 07-19-2011 05:06 PM

Not sure and will be interested in feed back. I made a post a long while back cause my plant's wouldn't even flower. Turn's out i didn't have the right type of lighting going on and soon as i moved them outdoor's they are popping tomatoes all over. Sorry i couldn't help but good luck, i'm sure some of the ppl that helped me will give you everything you need to know soon.

GpsFrontier 07-20-2011 12:09 AM

I had planed to reply before, but the question is confusing to me so I just forgot to get back to it. First I don't believe (or really even bother to read) propaganda put out by manufactures, their just trying to sell their products any way they can. Second what cfl's are you using with that much actual output, the wattage posted is probably just the wattage equivalent, and not the actual wattage I'm guessing. Third, if you are using 525 actual total watts, why not just use a 400 watt HID light and save 125 watts of electricity? Forth the "K" number is a measurement of the spectrum (color/wavelength) of light, and I believe "lx" is a measurement of light intensity (strength), so their not comparable. Basically "lx" is only comparable to "lx" unless you have a conversion chart. That is you cant compare "lx" to other measurements of light intensity like "par", to "mol", or "lumens" unless you have a chart to convert the measurements into the other ones. That would be like saying 1 cup is the same as 1 liter (both measurements of volume, just using a different scale). Or like saying 70 degrees Celsius is the same temperature as 70 degrees Fahrenheit (both measurements of temperature, just using a different scale).

Then there is the hart of the question which is basically what is the requirement to ripen fruit, and that dosen't really have a cut and dry answer. The plants need to be able to do photosynthesis to grow and ripen fruit. But how well it can do that is up to how much, as well as what the quality of light the plants regularly receive is. How well the plant is able to do photosynthesis is even related to the temperature and humidity. It's not like if you have a specific measurement of light the fruit will ripen, and if you don't the fruit wont ripen. The plants need the light intensity to grow and ripen fruit, and the more the light spectrum is in the red range, the more it generally will help the plant produce the sugars and other compounds the plant needs for the fruit to taste better. Same goes for light intensity. In general the more light intensity, the more photosynthesis the plants can do. Thus more sugars and compounds, thus bigger better tasting fruit, as well as plants with better foliage. Again, temperature and humidity will affect the plants ability to do photosynthesis as well.

Think of it like having two pitchers of water, and you place one package of unsweetened cherry kool-aid in each. Then in one the pitchers you add a cup or so of sugar, and mix well. They both still look the same nice refreshing color right (like ripe fruit), but they don't taste the same.


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