Day 22 Update! Peppers and lettuce: The same peppers and lettuce from the previous shot. They're in the second-worst part of the UFO grow chamber -- far from the UFO in the center. Nonetheless, the peppers are doing beautifully. I've got a whole tray of them looking just like that. The lettuce, only so-so. They're putting out leaves at a good rate, but two of them never did stand up like I was hoping they would. Next up, the monsters: Okay, these pumpkins are getting a bit scary: The larger of the two now has three tendrils on it, and leaves the size of my outstretched hand. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to keep them in here before they decide to crush everything else in their path, but I'll keep them in as long as I can ;) I realized that last time I forgot to photograph my eggplants. They're doing just shiny: So, now for my crazy okra: If you'll recall, one germinated tall like a freak, but with a strong stem, and dark green leaves; one germinated short with dark green leaves; and two germinated short with pale, chlorotic yellow leaves. I credit this to using old seed. I'm pleased to report that all of them are doing great. The tall one is now working on its second true leaf, while the two chlorotic ones are starting to turn green. All three of the small ones have just started on their first true leaf; I expect they'll look like the tall one (minus the crazy height) next week. My Ronde de Nice squash that just germinated? I transplanted one, and surprisingly, the transplant is doing better than the non-transplant! Now for the one that was my biggest concern last time: my watermelon. If you'll recall, its first true leaves had turned crisp and stopped growing. Well, I'm glad to report that it has not one, but two sets of normal, healthy true leaves now! Here's a shot of some of my miscellaneous squash and melons. Not a complaint from me about a one of them; they're all growing very healthy. My cinnamon basil was looking healthy enough that I felt it time to thin it out into individual pots. The remaining plants in the original pot are below: So, what's my primary concern this time? I'm starting to suspect that I'm getting more growth in the UFO chamber (red, grow) than in the Christmas chamber (blue, veg). I'm not sure yet, though. Now, that is to be expected to some degree, since that chamber is higher wattage (~105W vs. ~85W), it may be more than that. It's really hard to tell, though, because I moved my most mature trays to the red chamber and kept the youngest trays in the veg chamber. However, I do have one good comparison point: basil. I have a basil pot in the veg chamber that's exactly the same as the basil pot in the grow chamber -- same soil, same size, same plants, and same planting time. So, next week I'm going to photograph and measure the two and see how they compare. But overall, another good week :) The plants pretty much take care of themselves (since the LEDs are pretty cool, the soil takes a long time to get dry, so I rarely even have to water). Hence, I've been busying myself readying my outdoors for the new plants, for once it gets warm enough. I'm going to be training my vining plants to strings suspended from guyed poles this year, via vine clips; should be neat to see how they do.

www.LedBuilder.org has links to some of the high quality and affordable LED grow light companies where you can find afforable pre-built LED grow lights that work really well. DIY kits and information to complete build your own from your own parts are also listed on that website. Some of the best complete LED grow lights are as follows. Put your lemon tree under these and they will produce lemons in the winter. Tasty LED Grow Lights, Johnson Grow Lights, Northern Grow Lights. Chilled Chilled Grow Lights If you want to build your own there are links to lots of resources, and some half-way DIY options you can purchase pre-selected kits of parts like: Growmau5 Grow Kits from Cutter Electronics Timber LED Grow Light Kits If you want to build your own from scratch, you have lots of options on what LEDs and power supplies to buy, you can grow watermelons in your living room if you wanted to. Some of the best parts around are Quantum Boards from Northern Grow Lights. Cree, Vero and Citizen COB LEDS from COBkits Chilled Grow Lights DIY kits These are all high quality options made with mostly the same high-end components that are better than regular shelf-bought grow lights. All this info is available on www.ledbuilder.org

I have about 10 varieties of hot peppers growing inside using the bubble method. I spent about a month experimenting with different ways of doing it, and have found out what works good for me. I have one 400 watt MH grow light that I started with. It costs me $200. I then purchased a PH / PPM meter / tester. I bought 2, 3 1/2, and 5 gallon buckets and lids. I also bought some grow baskets, and rock wool cubes. I started out killing pretty much everything except the hot pepper plants and Basil. I killed about 5 tomatoes plants before figuring it out. Basically I put only two 4" blue bubble stones per air pump Whisper 10-20-40 gal pumps. I check and keep the PH in the solution between 6.0 - 6.3 for most of my plants. I use about 200 ppm for new pepper plants, and 500 for new tomato plants. When the plants are about 1 foot tall, I increase the ppm on the peppers to 500, and 1000 for the Tomato. When the peppers start blooming, I increase the ppm to 1000 ppm. When the tomatoes start blooming I increase to 1500 ppm. When the pepper plants get over 2 foot tall and have lots of peppers on them, I increase the ppm of the solution to 1500 ppm, and tomatoes to 2500 - 3000 ppm. Having a lot of air bubbles makes the plant grow fast, the solution changes PH less, and the plant is much happier. One thing I noticed is that when both tomato and pepper plants are small they take a long time to form a good root system. Then once they get about 6" tall, they take off root wise. To make the small seedlings grow faster, when I place them in a 4x4x4 rock wool cube I cut a hole about 1 1/2" all the way through it. I then place the bubbler directly beneath the cube, instead of the bottom of the bucket. I now have about 10 pepper plants in various stages growing hydroponic. Several plants have dozens of peppers on them and the Jalape plant is growing the fastest of them all.

Okay, here are my thoughts so far: This Erlwhatsis LED panel is a 45-watt fixture that provides about 20k lux of plant-yummy light at a distance of about 4 inches. This drops rapidly to 8k to 10k lux at a distance of about 10 inches from the panel. Light intensity also declines the farther the plant is from the center of the array. I have two 12-watt TaoTronics bulbs on either side of the panel and they throw out 40k lux but they have a circular array of LEDs so that's actually only a light point of about 2 to 3 inches in diameter, declining rapidly outside the focal point. Basically you can put one plant in the middle and anything around that one plant will be poorly-lit. Just to put in context, direct sunlight is over 100k lux, increasing in intensity as you get closer to the, er, sun, measured in astronomical units of 150 million kilometers. To improve light distribution, I am planning to attach white panels on the sides of this shelf. Above this setup is my other plant shelf, under T5HOs. Now, if you want to keep your plants growing throughout winter, a 45-watt panel is not going to be enough light to keep your plant compact, especially if you are planning to heat the area up to summer temperatures and keep feeding them. This will work for me because I do not plan to keep them heated in the basement, nor to feed them. IME, this slows them down to the point of semi-dormancy. Basically, this is winter shutdown for some of my adeniums. That said, LED grow lights generate wavelengths very specific for plant growth. That part, I have to monitor this winter since it will be very different from plants just scavenging usable wavelength from daylight T5HOs. In my home office, though, that's a different story. That stays tropical all throughout winter. I hope this helps someone! Pagan