Noob to hydro, first attempt at NFT system
 

Hello everyone,

I'm fairly new to gardening, and very new to hydro. The wife and I are engaged in a friendly competition. She will be growing strawberries outside, I am growing them inside with hydro.

Here is my NFT system, this picture was taken day 2 after planting my bare root plants sourced on amazon.

I'm running 3 LED lights currently, two 5w and one 12w and i'm getting between 94 and 100 lux at each plant.

I'm using 24-12-32 strawberry fertilizer, mixed in a 17 gallon reservoir.

I started doing daily logs on my setup here: http://brandonbelew.webfactional.com/ if anyone is interested.

Hello brandonbelew,
Your lighting is severely lacking. You might be OK if you used one of those 12 watt bulbs over each plant, and didn't place it more than 6 inches above the plant. But at this point, my money is on your wife's plants simply because her natural light (sunlight) is much better than what you currently have.

If I added 2 - 4' t5 fluorescent grow lights hanging a few feet above and use the LED's as fill, do you think that would be sufficient light?

Also that picture was taken at night, 6' in front of the nft setup is a window facing east. So during the day it's also getting some natural light mixed with the led's. I run the lights from 6am to 10pm.

Thanks!

No,. First, like LED's the light intensity (lumens/lux, ect..) drops significantly beyond 2 feet. Second strawberry plants are fruiting plants and need more light than non fruiting plants. You might be able to get by with a twin bulb T5 light fixture 6 inches above each row, but I still think for fruiting plants that may be lacking.

I think your biggest lighting issue are the lighting choice and coverage ability. If you placed the rows side by side instead of on top of each other, you can get much better coverage. For the LED, I would still think you would at least need one of those 12 watt bulbs per plant, six inches above the plant. But the close proximity should increase the light intensity at the plants, and ultimately yield better results simply by the different configuration. You could also place a reflective surface underneath to bounce residual light back up.

Again I would still expect to need a twin bulb T5 light fixture for each row, but again the close proximity will increase the light intensity at the plants for all the rows. Bottom line though, watt for watt, HID lighting will give you better coverage, and better results/light intensity for fruiting plants. But that's just my 2 cents.

Ok thank you. I'll look at building arms that come up next to each row and hold a double lamp t5 about 6-12" above each row. Or at modifying my setup to make it flat on the top. I found a 5 pack of 6400K t5 bulbs on amazon for $25.

The reason I went with a lean-to style was I figured I could add more rows. I have 3 right now, only using 2 and could add 2-3 more. But with the lighting requirements this complex, I might as well just flatten it out and make it a 4'x4' table. Downside is the natural light from the window across the room won't reach the plants closest to the wall.

That's kind of my point. 3 twin bulb T5 light fixtures (one for each row of plants) using 6 T5 bulbs (52 watts ea) is 150 watts of electricity. One 150 watt HID bulb will cover a 4x4 area and with better coverage and light intensity. In other words for the same electricity, you get better coverage and intensity.

I might still make it a flat table at some point. It shouldn't be very hard to convert it. Just need to buy a 2x4 and do some cutting. I went ahead and ran out at lunch and picked up 2 - 2 bulb 4' T5 fixtures and ordered a 5 pack of 6400K 4850 lumen grow lights from amazon. I'll position them a few inches from the plants and either use my led's for other plants or just added light. I don't plan on using my third tube at the moment, i'll add another fixture then if I do.

Hello brandonbelew,
I'm sorry, I Just needed to make a major correction to my last post. I could have just edited the post, but it's a major correction. I said that 6 T5's (52 watts each) would use 150 watts of electricity. But in reality 6x52 is over 300 watts. Double what I said in my last post. A typical 4 foot T5 bulb is rated at 52 watts (32 watts for a foot long T8). So a 4 foot long twin T5 bulb fixture uses 104 watts. Times 3= 312 watts. The rest of what I said remains the same. In fact you could use two 100 watt HID bulbs, and still use 1/3 less electricity.

Here is an electricity cost calculator so you can calculate the monthly costs:

http://www.handymath.com/cgi-bin/ele...i?submit=Entry

All you need is to find out is how much you pay per kilowatt hour, and that will be on your electric bill. Make sure to include the surcharges. The national average is 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Then fill in the wattage used, and how long it will be on per day. Then multiply the daily cost by 30 for the monthly cost.

Calculating at the national average of 10 cents per kilowatt hour

312 watts, on for 18 hours a day= $0.56 per day
$0.56 per day x30 days= $16.80 per month

A 150 watt HID light will provide better light intensity for the same space (4 foot x 4 foot space, about 2 feet above the plants), but even calculating for two 100 watt bulbs (200 watts) you still save $6 in electricity a month.

200 watts, on for 18 hours a day= $0.36 per day
$0.36 per day x30 days= $10.80 per month.

That's a what I mean when I said "watt for watt HID lighting will give you better coverage, and better results/light intensity for fruiting plants"

P.S.
I'm not trying to change your mind or plans. I just wanted to correct my earlier statement, and provide some elaboration on calculating electrical costs while I'm at it.

I understood where you were getting at on the wattage. I went with the 4' flourescent tubes, but only 4 total. This year i'm only going to go with 10 plants and just have my run with the other 5 bypassed. I think i'll have a hard enough time not killing the 10 I have :).

The only issue I have with the hid/hps lights is the heat put out by them compared to led/fluorescent.

I think my light situation will be resolved once the bulbs come in tomorrow. My original statement of 94-100 lux at each plant was wrong as well. I was using a Vernier Light Probe and had never used it before, and was holding it wrong.

The plants, well most of them, seemed to be doing great with the LED's as they were, at least at this stage of life. So hopefully with the new lights they'll do even better.

What i'm battling now is I appear to be losing a couple plants. One of them had a couple offshoots with leaves yesterday, and today one had died. I clipped it off. Another one just doesn't seem to be taking in nutrients. I see no new root growth on it and it's limped over and dying as well.

This is the one that I don't see new root growth on and is not perking up, picture taken last night.
http://brandonbelew.webfactional.com...6-768x1024.jpg

This one just lost one of it's branches
http://brandonbelew.webfactional.com...9-768x1024.jpg


Overall the plants seem to be growing though, here is a comparison from Day 1 to Day 3.

http://brandonbelew.webfactional.com...0-768x1024.jpg

Day 3
http://brandonbelew.webfactional.com...1-768x1024.jpg

Hello brandonbelew,

Just to clarify, HID (High Intensity Discharge), Refers to and Includes both MH (Metal Halide) and HPS (High Pressure Sodium)
P.S. I didn't include any of the previous advertising links. The forum administrators use software to automatically turn some keywords into advertisements the first time those words show up in a post.


I know, a lot of people are fearful of HID lighting because of heat. But if you think about it, wattage is not only a measurement of electricity, but watts are also a measurement of heat like BTU's are a measurement of heat. In fact electric heaters are rated in watts (the electrical conversion from electricity to heat energy), and most electrical heaters are rated at 1,500 watts. More than that would blow a typical household 15 amp breaker. Watts are directly related to amps. If you don't know the watts used by an electrical device, just multiply the amps by volts to get the watts.

Examples
115 volts x 3.5 amps= 402 watts
120 volts x 12.5 amps= 1,500 watts
120 volts x 0.57 amps= 68.4 watts
110 volts x 4.35 amps= 478.5 watts

If your using more wattage in florescent, the florescent are actually putting out more heat. The difference is with florescent bulbs the heat is spread over a wider area because of the 4 foot bulbs, so people often think they are cooler. The heat is more concentrated in one spot with HID making it seem hotter. The 4 foot long T5 bulbs are rated at 52 watts, (32 watts for T8's). Typical HID bulbs are 400 watts. So naturally 52 watts is 1/8 the amount of heat, (twin bulb 104 watts total 1/4 the heat), and when you spread that 52 watts out over a 4 foot area it seems even cooler. But over all 300 watts of florescent will put out twice the heat of 150 watts of HID. Two twin bulb T5's= 208 watts, that's still more than than a single 150 watt HID light, or about the same as two 100 watt HID bulbs. Florescent lights also need to be within 6-8 inches of the plant, HID can easily be 2-4 feet away. So while the heat from HID is more concentrated in one small space, that HID light (heat source) can be 6-8 times farther away from the plants.

Another thing to consider I touched on earlier is blowing the breakers. If your going to need multiple light sources, you want to make sure your not going to blow the breakers when you include other things like water and air pumps, fans etc. So you want to add up all the amps that will be on the same circuit breaker, and not exceed about 12.5 amps for a 15 amp breaker, or 17.5 for a 20 amp breaker. Otherwise you run the risk of blowing breakers. If you need more than that, you'll have to figure a way to split what you need between two or more circuits.

The bare root plants will grow in the dark the size they are. I bought bare root strawberry plants last year. I wasn't quite ready to plant them when they arrived, so I just left them in the box. I was surprised to find they were already growing in the box in the dark. When I opened the box they were already as big, and some even bigger than the ones in your pictures.

1. Did you wash the dirt off the roots well before transplanting them into the system?
2. What is the water and air temperatures (day and night).
3. What nutrients are you using?
4. How are you mixing them (what ratios)?
5. What is the pH?
6. What does the water look like? Is it clear or cloudy?
7. What does the water smell like? Does it smell musty?
8. What is the water level in the tubes? Is the water touching the baskets?
9. Are you running the water pump 24/7 or on a timer?

1.) I rinsed and gently massaged the roots to remove as much dirt as possible.

2.) Not sure on that, I haven't been monitoring. But it's indoor, along an interior wall, and my house doesn't drop below 72

3/4) Following the instructions on the nutrients, I think it was 4Tbps per 5 gallons or something similar. I have 10 gallons, so 8Tbps total. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o06_s00

5.) around 6.5

6.) Fairly clear

7.) No noticeable smell

8.) I try to keep it just below the bottom of the basket.

9.) Water is 24/7


The plant that was dying seems to have made a decent come back. I clipped the dead stalk off down to the crown. Over the last couple days it has sprouted new and seems to be happy. All plants seem to be growing well and putting out a fair amount of new white roots.

Hello brandonbelew,

You'll need to start checking. I use a simple $2 glass aquarium thermometer. Water and air temps are important.

I couldn't find a link to the manufactures online website, and/or their mixing instructions..

Did the nutrient solution begin translucent, then get somewhat cloudy, or have they always been somewhat cloudy from as soon as you mixed them?

Are the plants roots already hanging out of the baskets? If not, how are the roots getting moisture if the water level is below the baskets?

I'll start monitoring the temperature. I didn't notice a change in how the water looked, but it's in a black container in a dark room. So it's kind of hard to tell. It looks just like normal flowing water going through the tubes.

I had several of the old roots through the bottom of the containers on each plant to get them started. They have new white roots coming off of them and there are more roots coming out of the bottom/sides of the cups now as well.

Hello brandonbelew,
The reason I asked whether the nutrients were translucent or clowdy is because that's often a sign something is growing in it. Most nutrients are translucent, but I'm not familiar with what your using, so I don't know what's normal with those. Also, I can't give any advice about the nutrients because I don't know their website. So I cant tell if their a complete nutrient, designed specifically for hydroponic plants, how they should be mixed, etc. etc..


As long as the roots have access to water. You would be surprised how many people build a NFT system, put plants in it and forget the roots actually need to be able to reach the water. I just wanted to make sure you weren't having that problem. You'll want to lower the water level as the roots get longer, strawberry plants don't like wet feet.


P.S.
I forgot to mention, I would probably lower the pH a little to 6.0

We had a RO system installed yesterday, so now I have nice clean water for my plants!

That said it's time for a nutrient change. You had asked awhile back about the nutrients, and unfortunately it doesn't say whats in it on the bag. It does say it has the required calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate though.

The mixing instructions are:

Seedlings: 24 grams per 5 gallons, adjust pH to 6.5-6.8, conductivity 800+source water.

Mature: 29 grams per 5 gallons, adjust pH to 6.5-6.8, conductivity 1200+source water.

Now the question is, what would you consider seedling, and what would you consider mature?

The attached picture is from a day or so ago.

Thanks!

Hello brandonbelew,

The package should have a label that states the "guaranteed analysis," but I didn't ask for a link to the nutrient manufactures website and mixing chart to determine what is in it. I have specific questions about them that you wouldn't be able to answer withough't a lot of back and forth, so it's much easier if I can just go to their website directly myself. Bottom line I don't know anything about those nutrients. I don't even know if their a complete nutrient, I don't know if they are actually designed specifically for hydroponically grown plants, I don't know if they are supposed to be organic, I don't know if their designed for vegetative growth, fruiting growth, or continuously fruiting plants, I don't know if they require additives, etc. etc..

Since you are having a problem, one of the first things to look at are the nutrients your using and how your using them. If I can't do that I can't rule possible problems related to nutrients out, or even give any advice. All I know is that you say 29 grams per 5 gallons is supposed to be full strength. That's not telling me much at all.

That's like saying when is the point a person goes from being an infant, to being an adult. Theirs a big range in-between. And if 29 grams per 5 gallons is full strength, then 24 grams per 5 gallons is about 83% strength. Would you feed 83% of a full meal for an adult to an infant?

P.S.
6.5-6.8 pH is not only to small of a range, it's also to high for 80% of the plants. If you were growing hot peppers the pH would be OK being that high. But your growing strawberry's. Plants can't absorb and metabolize nutrients/mineral salts properly unless the pH is in range, when the pH is on the far end of the range the plants can't absorb and metabolize the nutrients they need to grow and be healthy very well. 6.5 is the top end of the pH range for strawberries, 6.0 is right in the middle of the pH range for strawberries. 6.8 is outside the pH range for strawberries. If you want them to be healthy, you should try for a pH right in the middle of the pH range for strawberries (6.0). That gives the pH room to fluctuate either way and still be in range.

The bag doesn't have any detailed information, or a link. It just has the mixing instructions and the purchase from amazon link, and an email address.

Since my plants are flowering and purchased as bare root instead of seed, i'll consider these mature and mix full strength for this go around. They don't appear to be showing any signs of over feeding.

I think one of the issues I had with my first couple weeks was the nutrients didn't fully dissolve. I just dumped them into the reservoir as powder and expected them to dissolve. This time i'm dissolving them in a gallon of water, shaking occasionally.

Is there an affordable strawberry nutrient that you recommend?

Hello brandonbelew,
1. If the nutrient maker doesn't have a website and/or online mixing chart, and the only place they sell them is on amazon. I wouldn't consider them reliable nutrients. Their most likely made by some guy in his basement and he sells them on amazon (probably e-bay as well). Amazon is not a manufacture, their a collection of independent sellers like e-bay, the only difference is Amazon doesn't do auctions, and amazon has warehouses they store and ship the sellers products from. Amazon doesn't buy the products like stores do, they only store them in their warehouse, and when one sells amazon pays the seller for that one (less amazons commission of coarse). While legitimate company's sell products on amazon and e-bay, anyone can as well. The difference is legitimate company's sell their products in regular stores as well and have websites.

2. Those plants aren't mature yet. Their not seedlings, but their not mature. Like I already stated there is a big range between seedling and mature. If you expect plants to fall into either one category (seedling) or the other (mature), your sadly mistaken. Just like with my infant/adult analogy, you wouldn't go from feeding a growing person baby food one day to a stake dinner with all the trimmings the next. Nor would you feed the infant a stake dinner from day one and skip the whole baby food steep. You gradually increase the food as they grow. You do the same thing with plants.

3. First, not only is mixing nutrients full strength for small plants a waste of nutrients, but mixing them full strength even for mature plants should only be done under certain circumstances and for certain plants. Only mature, heavy feeders in cool conditions need full strength. For mature, mid range feeders 70-80% strength is better than full strength. Mature light feeders, 50-60% strength. With a PPM range of between 1260-1540 for mature strawberry plants (that assumes a mild climate), I would consider strawberry's on the low end of mid range.

Here is a direct quote
Nutrients - Over and Under Use, by Dr. Lynette Morgan

"When the EC is being run to high for a particular plant, this will show as visible symptoms within the crop. A high EC, effectively puts the plants under `water stress' since the plant cells begin to lose water, back into the more concentrated nutrient solution surrounding the roots. As a result the first sign of nutrient `overuse' is plant wilting, even when supplied with sufficient nutrient solution. If the high EC conditions re not too severe, the plants will adjust to these conditions and you may see growth which is `hard' in appearance - often a darker green then usually, with shorter plants and smaller leaves."

4. You do have to fully dissolve the nutrients. But you cant dissolve 5+ gallons worth of nutrients in one gallon of water then add it to the rest of the water. Doing so makes a super concentrated solution before you dilute it to it's normal concentration. When the nutrients are super concentrated they molecules tend to bond with each other, once they bond they become useless to the plants because the plants can't absorb them anymore.

5. I would use verti-gro nutrients for strawberry's, specifically the Hydroponic Plant Nutrient Combo (also known as Fcombo).

Thank you for your help. I ordered the vertigrow nutrients and will change them out once they come in.

I think i'll also slightly dilute my nutrients until the new nutrients come in. I do have darker green leaves and shorter plants, well at least on some of them. The plant that was basically dead a week or so ago is the one doing the best and gets larger each day.

Last night I changed the layout of my setup, I converted it to a table top instead of a lean-to style. I need to adjust the lights some more but I do see more coverage this way than the previous.

I also added a heater to my nutrients to keep them at 68 degrees and added a 12" air stone.

I've been having a hell of a time getting the water level right on my second tube. I had it at the perfect level last night and it seemed to be staying then I heard a gurgling sound and checked and it was empty. Tweaked it for an hour or so until it maintained it's level. I think the issue was I had the water turned off to my unused tube and the pressure was maybe erratic.

Hello brandonbelew,

Any drain/overflow line needs to have air coming in from above the water line. I attached some examples. Air pockets can form in the overflow line causing all kinds of weird things to happen. If there is a air intake in the overflow line above the water level, it allows the water to flow down freely.

Have you ever stuck a straw in a drink and put your thumb over the top opening, then pulled the straw out of the drink. The liquid stays in the straw, as soon as you take your thumb off the top allowing air in the tube, the liquid flows freely out the bottom. By adding an air intake in the overflow line you accomplish the same effect.

P.S.
So what was the temperature of the water before you added the heater? You never did say, you just said you weren't monitoring it and didn't know.

Thanks, i'll have to get creative and do something like this. Right now I just have a 90 degree coming out of the end of cap to tubing running to the reservoir.

I ran to walmart and couldn't find a remote probe temperature sensor, they remodelled our walmart and nothing is in any kind of logical place.... so I never took a measurement. I just put the heater in to regulate it. Just by the feel of the water though it doesn't feel much warmer than it was before the heater.

https://scontent.fmci1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...77391218_o.jpg

Just change the 90 degree connector to a "T" connector. You can also just drill a small hole in the top of the elbow connector (90 degree connector) if you have to, but water can leak out the hole sometimes. That's why I switched to using "T" connectors. I still get the 90 degree elbow, but I also get a raised opening to allow air in withough't any chance of water leaking out.

I don't know if I somehow led you to believe you need a remote probe temperature sensor, but If I did I'm sorry. You don't need anything of the sort. You can if you want to spend the money, and want to get fancy. But all you need is a small basic glass aquarium thermometer from anywhere that sells pet supplies. I get them at Wal-Mart for $2.

Never rely on how the water feels (at least until you have enough experience). In your case buying a aquarium heater may have been a waste of money. Why? Because you didn't use a thermometer. When I asked you what the water temp was, I purposely didn't go into detail about water temperature because I didn't know if it was an issue for you. Or if it was out of range if it was to low or to high. I was waiting for you to tell me what the temperature was before I replayed about it. Again because you don't rely on guessing, you use a thermometer.

The human body is around 98.6 degrees. When you rely on touch to tell temp all your really able to tell is if the water temp is above or below 98.6 degrees. So even if the water seems cool to the touch, it can still be to high, and withough't a lot of experience you wont even be close guessing what the temp is by touch. You need a thermometer.

I just wrote this article on nutrient solution temperature Nutrient Solution Temperature is Important

I needed a new heater anyways, the one I'm using now was oversized for my fish tank. So I bought a smaller one for my tank.

I just wanted a remote probe sensor, so I don't have to open the reservoir, or remove a plant to get the temperature.

Plus I do IT for a living, I can't stand buying analog :)

In fact this time next year I'll probably have gone full nerd and built a remote monitoring suite either with usb sensors and a cheap computer or with something like raspberry pi.

Hello brandonbelew,

Analog is always far superior to no-log at all..

It's nice to have money burning a hole in your pocket, but do you really want to pay $10 to grow one strawberry when you can buy them at the store for $2-$3 a pound? Perhaps I'm missing the point, but for me it's about being economical as well as successful, not seeing how much money I can spend doing it.

I spend money on things I enjoy. Gardening I never really enjoyed, hydroponics I do. I also enjoy programming. If I can merge hobbies, it makes that hobby that much more enjoyable.

I understand combining an interest to make things more enjoyable. Alao maybe for you it's more about the experiment and learning than the actual product. With your skills and background, I can easily see why you would make that jump right away before you have even successfully grown a plant. Your mind just works that way. I even get wanting to design a automated system, I've contemplated it myself. But I still don't get intentionally paying $10 to grow one strawberry when you can buy them far cheaper. You even asked about "Affordable" strawberry nutrients, so I naturally figured you were interested in growing your plants economically. For me an automated system would have to have a much larger purpose to be economical and practical, like controlling multiple (half dozen or more) LARGE systems etc. Otherwise it just doesn't pay for itself and isn't practical. For me the money would be much more useful being allocated to buying more nutrients and building more systems to grow more plants. That gives me a return on my investment, I cant eat electronics.

But then again, I do enjoy gardening and watching my plants grow, so I take the time to observe my plants. That tells me as much as any automated system would. Observation is free, thus won't break the bank. Really the only time an automated system is practical is if you simply don't have the time to observe the plants yourself because you have too much to do, and don't have time to actually observe and tend to the plants regularity. Then an automated system can be set to monitor parameters, and notify you when something's wrong. That's why large hydroponic farms use automated systems, to monitor the routine functions and reduce labor costs (practical and economical). But I understand that you don't enjoy watching plants grow, so interrogating your interest of computers with the plants makes it more enjoyable for you, even when it's not necessary or economical.

I took up hydroponics because it's economical and practicable. Growing hydroponically makes much better use of space, allows you to grow where you normally wouldn't, uses far less water and resources. As for the belief "growing hydroponically is expensive," well that's a myth perpetuated by hydroponics manufactures and largely enabled by the pot growers through the fundamental laws of supply and demand. But when done right and economical sources for supply's are sourced out, growing hydroponically is cheaper than growing in soil. Those are the things I get from hydroponics. Do what makes you happy, as long as you enjoy what your doing it's worth it.

Just to clarify I wouldn't be making an automated system, i'd be making a monitoring suite. So I could for example pull and display on a website the current and historical readings of pH, TDS, temperature, humidity, total dissolved oxygen, etc. Yes it could be done the manual way, but to me what's the fun in that? I enjoy building things, and am normally terribly inpatient. So sometimes I need something to occupy my time while waiting for others to develop so I don't lose interest.

As far as my request for economical nutrients. The reason I can afford to nerd out in some areas is because I save in others.

Lets face it, with the purchase of lights, wood, pipe, pump, reservoir, nutrients, etc. This crop of strawberries will be expensive. But going forward they shouldn't be. Unless I decide to change out lights or something along those lines, which ultimately wouldn't be wasteful either since my wife would just use my fluorescent lights for her seedlings each year.

And as far as spending my time/resources growing more plants instead of going full nerd, i'm limited on space. I built my setup with the full intention of being kicked out of that space once we have another kid. So I needed to build something small enough I could move elsewhere in the house. In my most recent re-design I did maximize my space though and can double my current number of plants fairly easily in the same footprint.

I took some temperature readings yesterday. It's been pretty warm in Kansas the last couple days, actually had to turn on my AC yesterday. Water temp in the reservoir and in the tubes hovers between 74 and 75.

Hello brandonbelew,
That temperature (74-75) is just fine. The optimum temp range is between 68 and 72-75, but your still fine if it's between 60 and 80. Below 60 will inhibit growth, and above 80 heat stress begins.

P.S.
Ya, I knew this round of strawberry plants was not going to pay for itself with just 10 plants growing. And unless that variety of strawberry plants bloom and fruit all at once rather than spread over it's life cycle, you will be hard pressed to even get enough fresh strawberry's to make a couple of strawberry shortcakes for dessert. You would need to be growing 30+ strawberry plants for that. But I know you said your wife was growing some in soil as well. Typically strawberry plants will produce between 1 to 2 lbs of strawberry plants over it's summer life cycle (4 months). For me it takes about 1/2 lb of strawberry's to make one strawberry shortcake.

Wont' your wife allow you to grow outside in natural sunlight, so you can eliminate the cost of lighting? Even if it's only in an area she doesn't use much (side of the house, patio, back of the garage etc..)?

I ordered some pineberries bare root plants today, so with them going i'll get 20 plants total. White strawberries with a mixed flavor of pineapple and strawberry seems like my type of fruit.

I also invested my birthday money and bought a 600W HPS/MH light setup. I'll pass the fluorescents down to my wife, she needs more space to get her seeds started for her outdoor garden.

As far as growing outside, she is growing strawberries outside as well. Or will be as soon as the temperature is right. I don't think we'll have an issue with the number of berries, between both of our gardens. I'd let the plants die if I grew them outside, I hate all forms of yard work, so weeding is out for me.

I expect a couple of my plants to die, as they die i'm going to swap them out for day neutrals to get more berries throughout the year. This is really my test crop being my first year, i'll add to them and swap things out as I go.

Plus I could probably squeeze in another couple rows if I moved my tubes closer together, and could add a dutch bucket system as well to the side if necessary. I have plenty of pumping capacity, and apparently plenty of lights now too.

When I mentioned growing outside, I didn't mean in soil. I meant growing plants in a hydro system outside.

P.S. With a 600 watt HID you can easily cover a 225 (15x15) square foot area. More if the sides had plants in a vertical system. However I would have went with 4, 150 watt bulbs. That would give a wider footprint (coverage area) like a 20x20 area, and better overall (even) coverage because the light is coming from 4 directions spread out, instead of just one point. It would also be more versatile, in case you decide to grow in different spaces, or smaller areas and don't need a 600 watt light.

Too many animals and pests around for my liking. My wife put up fencing around her garden plot, but I doubt it'll even be enough to keep the pesky neighborhood cats, dogs out, as well as the occasional deer.

I figured 600W would be enough on the light. It's dimmable, so I can turn it down if necessary. I doubt i'll need to expand out any further than my 4x4 area now. We don't have a ton of space and as soon as we have another kid my current space will go away. I'll have to find somewhere else in the house to put it, and hope the cat doesn't decide to eat it.

Have you ever thought about planting some catnip in the neighbors yard to keep the cats away???

Since I already went to the trouble of creating the drawings, may as well post them. I attached a couple of drawings of to help visualize what I mean by better coverage using multiple light fixtures with lower wattage, compared to a single fixture with a higher wattage.

I've been thinking about making some reflective panels to go around the outside of my grow box, to keep the light in. Heat would become an issue then I fear. The HPS might put off too much heat as is. I'm going to have to get creative on the cooling in that room if it does. There is only one floor vent in there.

My new light came in today :)

It came with a MH and HPS, I figured starting with the MH would be the best course of action to promote the plants vegetative growth, then switch over to the HPS when they get bigger.

I also put a fan in the room, as I assume this thing will increase the temperature a bit.

Also started monitoring humidify, it's been sitting at 50-60% in the room.

Do you think I should have my light higher or lower? It's a 600W light, 67,000 lumens on the MH.

Thanks!

3-4 feet from the plants should be fine as long as it's not to hot for the plants. A 600 watt bulb puts out more heat than a standard 400 watt bulb. You want the air temp at the plants foliage to be between 80 and 90 (preferably 80-85). Well at least for most varieties of strawberry's. There are cool weather (northern) varieties that don't tolerate heat well and would prefer temps closer to 75-80, and varieties that do tolerate heat that will do fine up to 100 degrees. It depends on what varieties you have.

Thanks! I moved the lights down as close as possible. It's an air cooled hood, so I was able to move it a bit closer ( it's about 3' give or take a few inches ). The issue i'm running into now is the light is heating up my nutrient tank, it was sitting at 80 yesterday when I checked.

I picked up a sheet of insulation and put it between the tank and light to see if that would make a difference.

I'm also going to have to change the angle of my light I think. I have the lamp facing the same direction as the plants now but the reflector doesn't seem to be putting out the same amount of light on the edges as the middle and i'm overshooting the tubes in the opposite direction. So i'm thinking about rotating the light.

The plants seem to be loving the new light though. They are starting to bush up a bit more than they were previously with the T5's. The plants on the ends are leaning towards the light which is why I want to rotate it.

Now you see why I would have opted for using multiple lights points for a more even coverage, rather than a single light source. But still a 600 watt light should be plenty for the small 4x4 foot space your trying to cover. If raising the light up to cover the area better works, you shouldn't have any problem with light intensity (lumen drop) with that 600 watt bulb as long as you don't go beyond 4 feet. But if you can rotate it for better coverage and get it at 3 feet, that would be even better.

Direct heat from the lamp to the reservoir can be a problem in itself like you mentioned, but the reservoir temps will usually be close to the ambient air temperature even if you block heat from the lamp. In other words if the light is raising the ambient air temperature in the room, it can indirectly raise the reservoir temperature through the air temperature as well.

I don't think the ambient temperature will be too much of an issue come summer when the AC runs for 12+ hours a day. Right now it will only run for maybe an hour a day, if that. My backup plan is to run 6" flex duct to the nearest window and exhaust the heat from it.

For now I bought a couple one liter bottles i'm going to freeze and put in during the hot part of the day to see if I can maintain 70 ish on the temperature without cooling it too much.

I know the plants aren't really big enough to be drinking much water right now, so you don't want to dilute your nutrient solution as the ice melts. But when they get bigger and start drinking up more water, you can just replace the water their drinking daily with ice blocks. That at way you can do both (add ice and water) at the same time, thus help keep the nutrient solution cool, while topping off the water volume.

P.S.
Depending on how much ice you add daily (frozen water volume), you may want to pH adjust the water before you freeze it. If not, it can change your nutrient solution pH. Depending on the pH of the water source and volume of water your adding in ice daily, it can change the pH fairly quickly. If you pH adjust the water before you freeze it, you won't have that problem. To make it easier, I'll pH adjust about 5 gallons of water at a time, then freeze it a few blocks at a time (using cleaned out butter or whip cream tubs) until I'm out of room. Then just use the ice blocks as I need them, and their already pH adjusted. There's been a few times I have even frozen nutrient solution, so when I added the ice it also added some more nutrients to the reservoir. I did so because I wanted all the water I added back to be ice because I needed the cooling effect, but I also wanted to add some nutrient solution back as well. So I just froze it first.