Friday, January 1, 2010

Getting technical with tomatoes


The patio tomato seedling growing under the wide spectrum UFO LED is progressing nicely. Although the light does not appear bright; this seedling is receiving 3,000 foot candles, and the plant is very compact.
The light is very disconcerting, as it appears that the parts of the plant in the shadows are turning brown, but that is not the case, the entire plant is a deep healthy green. The deep green tango lettuce plants growing under the red/blue LED appear to be pitch black. I am waiting for my granddaughter Ava's reaction when she sees them for the first time....

For the technically minded I have included the specific growing conditions, which are averages:
pH 6
Avg. temp. 73
Avg. root temp. 73
EC 3.33
RH 48%

That is about as close as I can come to ideal conditions for a tomato seedling indoors. According to the Ohio State Interactive Tomato model all of my conditions are ideal, except the RH, which should be above 70%. To achieve that level indoors I would be inviting mold and other nasty organisms into the growing area, not bloody likely. I figure four out of five is not bad, so the tomato will have to struggle along at 48% RH.

Below is a link to the interactive tomato model for those wishing to grow the perfect hydroponic tomato.

http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/hydroponics/drake/index.php?option=wrapper&Itemid=99

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