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Old 10-14-2010, 10:30 PM
NorEastFla NorEastFla is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: North East Florida
Posts: 68
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Quote:
Originally Posted by halfway View Post
Nor, have you had a chance to grow the lettuce?
No, I haven't. I got caught up in some home repair and I doubt I'll be starting any other plants this year.

I'll have my seedlings well established by spring and ready for my new outside hydro garden.

I'm building a 20' x 40' screened greenhouse with a Plexiglas roof. I have several systems I'm going to test against each other, plant for plant. The following year, I'll change my entire process to the most advantageous combination of systems as the results tell the winners.

I'm pretty stoked about it. It's going to be a really fun year.

When growing under LEDs, to adapt to a plant which is normally tall, you can use a screen with 2" holes and weave the plant. Using the right mix of nutrients would also be important.

When your entire screened area is full, just let the new growth go upward from each branching node that starts a really nice branch. Clip any you don't want to grow.

It sounds like a job, but it could be done with a radical amount of power savings per/crop.

I have an experiment I'm going to try this coming year. I'm going to make a spiral of heavy wire, about 24 inches across and train a pepper plant along it, allowing off shoots to grow at exact spacing while climbing the spiral. I think I can keep the plants within 18" while producing fruit.

If so, then LEDs would work inside using the same spacing. While not comparable to sunlight, the LEDs will just make the plant grow much slower than having sunlight.

I think by using LEDs on this spiral system, I'll get a bunch of peppers.

The 180s should give you nice tiny internodal length and lots of foliage. With the right mix of nutrients, you'd be on your way to a bunch of fruit.

The T5s would also work, but not with as tight of internodal length. More nodes, more fruit, if everything else is dialed in.

I love hydroponics. I might have 5 or six systems going next year. It's going to be a blast.

Inside, I plan to try to lettuce/led growing.
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