Changing direction

I decided to terminate my tomato grow and use the tri-band UFO LED for salad greens.

My original objective in using the light for tomatoes was to see if it would induce flowering, and I have satisfied my curiosity in that regard. Accidentally I knocked the growing tip off the patio tomato, and though I cloned the tip into a new plant, I decided it was really not worth the effort to continue. Although the totem plant was doing great and had started to flower, it would still be several weeks before I had any fruit, and small fruit at that.

One of the local hydroponic dealers said he doubted that 90 watts was enough light to produce flowering, so I wanted to test that opinion. It is enough, and it did.

Another consideration was that when growing salad greens you can eat the whole plant, except for the roots. Tomatoes, on the other hand, are large plants producing a limited amount of fruit, and take 70 or 90 days to do so. In that amount of time I can grow several crops of salad greens.

When growing salad greens I concentrate on loose leaf varieties avoiding head lettuce. Additionally, I mix colors and textures to add interest and eye appeal to the salads.