Clara - Looks like you are certainly pumping out the lumens, and plants look happy. Two questions to ponder though: at $45 a pop, these 85W CFLs + fixture are well-beyond chump change, at least for me. At some point, it must make sense to switch over to a HID lighting system. A ceiling mounted 1000W HPS, for example, would probably irradiate a good portion of your grow space, and they can't be more than a couple of hundred bucks. Second, the size of those 85W CFLs in the HD brooder lamp seems to ensure a lot of wasted lumens, and they stick out so far, a strip of Al-foil won't do much. As someone previously said, those gigantic CFLs seem much better suited to horizontal mounting in a "wing" or "half-tube" style fixture. I think the same poster described making a simple one with a double-ended screw-in socket, 8' heating duct cut in two lengthwise, and a couple of sheet metal screws. That said, the brooder lamps _are_ very flexible in their placement. Personally, I don't exceed a 55W bulb (linked below) in this fixture because, as you pointed out, I don't like my retinas fried just walking around the room. Nice thing about this particular 55W is the squat design that just about fits inside the 10.5" hemisphere. And not too shabby at 3600 lumens and $16. Here is a link that might be useful: fat 55W CFL

After checking around a bit, I guess prices do vary. But both the Clean-Ace and Clean-Arc can be found for $70 or less if you know what to look for. The Clean-Ace is actually a conversion bulb meant to run on a mercury vapor ballast, but many people (myself included) run them on MH ballasts without any problem. The Clean-Arc is meant to be run on a MH ballast, and is the bulb I would have chosen if I hadn't found such a good deal on the Clean-Ace. I ordered (but haven't yet received) the Clean-Ace from Salty Supply. It's called an Iwasaki 6500K in the aquarium industry. (EYE is a subsidiary of Iwasaki.) Doing a search for 400w Iwasaki will turn up lots of $70 bulbs that are in fact Clean-Ace bulbs if you check the model#. The Clean-Arc can be found for $70 at Business Lights as well as other places. As for the specs, you're looking at the base up/down (BUD) version of the Clean-Ace. The horizontal (HOR) version has identical specs to the Hortilux Blue, which is also a horizontal bulb. T15/17 may refer to the shape or size of the glass portion of the bulb (not sure), but they all fit in a standard mogul socket. IMO, this is just another example of charging different prices to different markets for the same product. I've been very happy with the 250w Clean-Ace in the past, and I'm sure the 400w Clean-Ace/Arc are just as good.

Lyn, My best to you. Effort counts! Planting late isn't bad as long as the plants weren't stunted in small pots long. Warm weather can shock them, too. DO they look worse now that they're planted? Perhaps, they need a bit of shade in your hot weather climate. A bit of TLC & they'll recover from shock if that's what you're describing. Deep watering 1x a week is usually sufficient unless plants wilt. Mulch will help prevent wilting. Your plants may have been quite root bound before planting and just don't have sufficient roots just yet to support growth. Soaker hoses water well and work great for me when I set a timer to turn off after 3 hours. You'll need to figure how long it takes for yours to soak the soil. Another idea is to bury a gallon milk jug with a few holes in it partway in the soil about 5" away from your plant. Water plant, fill jug. Can fill jug, move on to other garden plants, let drain & fill again as you go back to that 1st jug filled. Feed plants: depends on what you have used. Plants in pots may have lighter green leaves for a few reasons one being nutrients & other being lighting. I usually apply organic fertilizer (+ lime, bonemeal, crushed egg shells) at planting time and no more, so I can't give you good suggestions for feeding other than mulch with compost and cover compost with straw or dried grass clippings. Neither are fast feeders & won't burn plant if you also have applied another fertilizer. Roses are heavy feeders, but tomatoes aren't. Be careful as too much feeding = big leafy plants with no fruit. Sometimes, when I've kept plants in starter pots too long they become root bound & do flower earlier than I desire on smaller plants. Maybe your plants haven't yet flowered because they are too immature to flower. What kind of damage is there to leaves? Remove any leaves that might touch soil. Meaning 4" of stem with no leaves present. Those lower leaves won't produce your flowering shoots anyway. Removal of any other leaves above that first flower truss will reduce total number of fruit and yield. However, if damaged or diseased better to remove the leaves and save the plant. Did you plant them deeply? wet leaves = higher chance of disease, but if they dry off during the day should be okay always better to water soil, not the leaves, so again soakers might be useful to you sprinkler set too high can wreck havek as can a forceful blast of the garden hose another option is to bury a bottomless large coffee can at least 6" away from stem to fill with water (directs the blast & helps you measure how much water you're applying For next year - attempt to dig through that glatial rock using a pickaxe or pry bar for a drainage hole. It's not necessary to till it all up -- just layer materials upward to build a deep bed. We have a lot that same rock and have built up with lots of organic matter. Some gardens here have wood sides, but we also have layered up along the driveway and mound the beds pulling material from now permanent paths. Many posts on GW about building good soil, lasagna gardening, sheet mulching, etc. Any organic matter applied after harvest (+ removal of all tomato foliage) will improve your chances of success next year. It may seem overwhelming to source enough material, but your family probably generates a lot of compost ingredients on a regular basis. When I set up additional paper trash baskets in our bathrooms & a step on trash can in kitchen for compost we increased our compost ingredients with minimal effort. Used facial tissue, toilet paper rolls, soiled paper napkins, cereal boxes, paper wrappings, junk mail, newspaper, etc. More info on the soil forum about what to gather & spread on garden space to improve soil. Remember one step at a time. Hope that helps, Corrine

My DH and I are both 67 and both our sons phoned us today to say that they want us to self-isolate. Huh? They're not the boss of me. :) But we are both staying pretty close to home, but we're healthy with no underlying health issues. In Britain they want everyone over the age of 70 to self-isolate and not just for 2 weeks but for the duration of the outbreak. ETA - effective tomorrow night all rec centers and libraries will be closed for the forseeable future.