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.

First of all, the snarky comment from Arunski about shoulda coulda was unnecessary --who says something like that? I love plants and I'm pretty good at growing them, but sometimes we plant lovers see a plant and buy it, not really knowing that much about it. I bought a white bird of paradise summer 2019 from Home Depot because I loved the look of it. It was about 2 feet tall. Planted on my covered porch in a beautiful pot and it grew unbelievably over the summer. I had to bring it inside for the winter and it has continued to grow in a corner that has a window, but it is extremely filtered light from plants outside. I purchased a cheap LED floor lamp from Amazon that I can bend to whatever position and the plant seems to love it, even though 2 feet of it are above the lamp. Watering has been limited due to spillage issues, and still it grows. It's about 6 feet tall now with new growth all the time. I had no idea it would get this big, but I have 4 more feet to go before I have to move it so we will see what happens. I could move it back on the porch, but it has grown too big to move I think and everyone who walks in the door has a fit over it. I think I will buy a nice self watering planter and see if that helps. I've only fertilized it twice. Who knows? Maybe it knows it's loved and likes the home it lives in. We have a good vibe.

Quoted/asked I also don't have the ballasts anymore Seeming as you already don't have them, discarded or for other reasons. Assuming you have 110 V- 117 V ( which every person I know does) somewhere in your home and want to use a 110 V electric source for power over 220 V you wont need a ballast to burn as many bulbs as you want It's an easy direct polar negative to polar positive wiring Ballast free wiring demo in pic If you don't already have ballast ( whihc you said you dont have)you may/will still need to check the fixtures for proper wiring Meaning if you want bulbs to work unfortunate you are going to have that party that you don't want to have Shows disconnecting VIA by passing the still usable ballast Note the bulb wording is directly wired to the positive and negative fixture The opposite side that use to be wired looks like this when finished re -wiring When ready to re-assemble the wired side will look like this re-place the shield and the removed screws loss lee (<< sp) first on both sides then tighten I have no possible way to show you the bulbs working (on) with an open cover ballast free becuse the cover has holes used to hang and hold the fixture(s) but if there where I would IMO all you need is close less is more ( sometimes) and usually works better your plants you don't need nothing fancy if you want fancy go for it grab a plasma lighting system ( a different party and that you don want to be at as well) isn't going to work very effectively at all for any winter dormant plant. IME @ 5000 K color I can over brightness ( burn) VIA use of the same bulbs you see in the demo wiring pics any attenuata haworthia in a few days, any epic type cacti and some of them arid guys as well. Go figure huh ? I'm only using a modest time of 12 hours with 4 LED 5000K bulbs being on per day from Mid October to early April My bulbs are only used underneath the sills which are two rather wide window sills @ 108 inches, three if you count the east side one that doesn't get any sun as of lately I often shift 3 tray filled succulents from under lights to one of the 2 short time winter sun filled sills moving the sill sitters to under lights. Simply don't forget to ventilate I use lights on fan as a rule during winter and cracking windows open on warmer winter days I can grow a potato on any of the S or SXSE sill over winter but will ( Ironically worded so pls excuse the pun) bake that same potato by late May early July if left there . Technically the potato I have is a relative of a yam and is currently breaking dormancy with ANY additional lighting

Comparing a Simplicity or Miele to a Shark is like comparing apples to oranges and not realistic. If a Simplicity was 425.00 in 1996, I can only imagine what one might cost today and at that price I would expect it to do a better job than a 149.00 Shark that is on sale for 119.00. I’d be pretty upset if it didn’t. My Mother swore by the Kenmore she had and it wasn’t cheap either. She loved her canister and just like Faron with his Simplicity, she had that vacuum for decades before she finally chose to replace it (and it was still running when she did). But just like everything else these days, vacuums, regardless of their brand aren’t made to last anymore. However, when you compare the Shark (which has actually seemed to improve it’s performance over the years) to other machines in the same class, it does do the best job and can be a good option for folks who don’t want to spend several hundred or more on a vacuum. Actually, in 2004 I spent several hundred on a Riccar. The Vacuum guy swore it was the cats meow and would last us a life time. I took that bait hook and sinker; I even bought it against my DH’s blessing. I was completely convinced that by spending more I was going to get a better result than anything else I had tried but that thing was nothing but trouble and frustration. I had to pay to have it repaired several times and the job it did never matched what I was promised it would do either. I was so happy when it finally died so I could kick it. to the curb. I learned a tough lesson with that one and will never spend that much on a vacuum again. For those who can afford to spend more and want to, I’m glad there are the Miele and Simplicity recommendations, because my experience shows not all of the more expensive brands are superior either but for those who need something that is in a lower price range, I still think the Shark is the best deal out there.