Stealth Grow LEDs Added

We have completed our previously planned configuration changes in the grow room.  We have finished the installation of our Stealth Grow Veg LED and Stealth Grow Bloom LED.  These lights operate with much lower electrical requirements and heat output.  As we recognize, they are still a little expensive to acquire but recommend that you do a "total cost of ownership" calculation.  They pay for themselves in a very short time.

WOW, what a difference.  After removing the 240 volt / 30 Amp service to the room and the HVAC system is running about half the time, the electric bill plummeted.  The HID lights were putting out an enormous amount of heat, even with a venting system.  When you have over eighty days of 105+ temps outside, the venting didn't help much.  The HVAC was running constantly and not able to keep up to well.



The plants love the new lights as well.  Although not as "intense" a light, there certainly seems to be more than enough lumen in the correct color spectrum to make the lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries happy.

We have also removed the PowerGrower and replaced it with one of the Monster Ebb n Grow systems from the Berry House (outdoor greenhouse).  Although the PowerGrower served us well, we had challenges keeping roots from growing so large that they plugged up the water loop.  The drip rings would also clog up from salt buildup from the nutrients.  Yes, we know that constant maintenance could prevent both of these situations but constant maintenance makes this hobby less enjoyable.

We have built some new plant support structures as the Ultimate Plant Cage didn't fare so well against our tomato plants.  The PVC DIY is has a very stable base and we can extend 4 support poles out of it for each plant (and install cross members if desired).  We will show more of this as this tomato grow continues.

Geeting Ready For A New Grow

As you can see we have cleaned up the grow room and have pruned all the plants that were crowding everything else in the room. We have a few remaining tomato plants in the AeroFlo36 that we are proving to a friend for his outdoor garden. The PowerGrower has been cleared for new plants as well

We have several varieties of bush tomatoes we are going to plant along with zucchini and more pepper plants. We may even add another cucumber plant.

We will be trying a new device in our grow room and will give you more details on it when it arrives. Hopefully it will help us with an irritating issue we have been having with potted plants.

Grow 4 Planning

Now that we have Grow 3 coming to an end, harvesting lettuces, basil, and parsley (wish I could say tomatoes) from Grow 2, it is now time to start planning Grow 4.

We have chosen Rockwool cubes (based on tests in Grow 3) for all future germinations.  We have decided to plant the following:

     2 Cucumbers (new plant for us)
     2 Red Shard (new plant for us)
     2 White Eggplant (new plant for us)
     1 Spinach (from a new seed packet)
     2 Leeks
     2 Romaine Lettuce
     2 Fennel
     2 Mint (new plant for us)

We trust our lettuce consumption will keep pace and that we will have a supply of basil from Grow 2 and Grow 3.  As we continue to understand germination, vegetative and generative stage durations for these plants in our various systems we will hopefully have "complete" salads, vegetables, and herbs for our family needs.

Ebb and Gro has arrived

The Ebb and Gro system arrived and we were excited to get it up and running.  It is an Ebb and Flow system made by C.A.P.  We have 12 modules that we plan on using for our larger plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, etc.  The Power Grower is doing great as a drip system but we wanted to expand, and try a new system at the same time - with an LED light.

Although we don't have the SuperNova LED yet, we went ahead and installed the Ebb and Gro yesterday since we had all the electrical work finished.  The instructions were easy to understand, the system was easy to install, and our water test was successful - aka - no leaks !

The instructions indicate that the system was designed for Hydroton.  We are going to do another experiment.  Sure To Grow (STG) designed a product with their medium to work specifically with this Ebb and Gro system so we are going to try it.  We really believe in the concept that STG has for their Hydroponic medium even though the seed germination product just isn't working as well as the traditional mediums of Rapid Rooters or Rockwool (at least it isn't for us).

Our strategy is to plant one STG and one Hydroton module of each plant type from the same Grow to see how each medium works in the Ebb and Gro system.   More to come on this...