Journal October 14, 2015 - End of growing season is almost here.

The weather service is forecasting frost this coming weekend, so it is time call a halt to this year's outdoor gardening.   To that end, I picked all of the fruit remaining on our one eggplant, removed the plant from its container and stored the planter for next year.

The plant was in a planter called: The City Picker Patio Garden.  All in all I found that the planter performed exceptionally well.

Several years ago a man sent me an email telling me to come to his house and pick up his hydroponic equipment, which he no longer wanted. The equipment was practically new, but he had given up on hydroponics. I offered to help him, but he insisted that I take all of the equipment.

One of the items was a 400 watt HPS grow light, that I have never used, until now. I have decided to try it to grow a Tropic tomato in one of tents to see how it compares with the big LED grow lights. First, I ordered a 400 watt MH conversion lamp on eBay for ten dollars, delivered. MH is for the vegetative stage, when the plant has at least two trusses in flower I will replace the conversion bulb with the original HPS bulb to get the fruiting process underway. 

My intent is to only let two or three trusses develop, then remove the growing tip, as I have limited height in the tent. That, and the bulb is very hot, as opposed to the LEDs, so the plant can not get too close to the bulb.

To dissipate the heat I have had to run the ventilator throughout the entire photoperiod. If worse comes to worse, I'll simply replace the light with an LED grow light.