Growing tomatos indoors.

[plumboy]

I eat about a half dozen or more a week and the things are hard to get now.The quality is down bad.So I'm thinking of getting some pots and growing them indoors.I'll get a grow light on a timer.Is there anything else to it.Would a grow light be enough to make some good maters?

 

[Glenn9643]

Several are growing hydrophonic tomatoes in parts of MS where I used to live and their tomatoes were about as good as fresh. Wish I still had access to some!

 

[MarkLeininger]

My wife did this for a couple of years. It works but you have to control humidity, light and temperature. She did it in the basement so it was completely done with grow lights. Also bugs can be a problem indoors because you can't use chemicals. Plants are cheap, give it a try.

 

[MossRoad]

I tried it a few times, but had some problems. One was that the flourecent grow lights only put out enough light to be effective close to the plant. As the plant grows, you have to adjust the light to keep it as close to the plant as possible. There are two kinds of tomato plants. One is a vine type and one is a bush type. Go for the bush type to help eliminate long spindly vines. You could get large, commercial grow lights, but your electric bill will be HUGE and don't be ssurprised if the police show up looking for someone growing herbs, so to speak! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Also, we had lots of problems with little mites. Don't know where they come from, but they sure do come. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Hey, since this is the first of winter, the days will be getting longer now. Seed catalogs will be showing up soon. Get a start on next year's garden planning. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[plumboy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Hey, since this is the first of winter, the days will be getting longer now. Seed catalogs will be showing up soon. Get a start on next year's garden planning.
)</font>

Good ideal.This year my chamber feild is going on 2 years old and I'm planning on planting my tomatoes and veggies in the space between chamber rows.Someone told me of some amish that grow them in greenhouses so I might be getting some mature plants to play with.Not to fond of the mite thing so I might put them in my 'toy shed' and turn the heat up a bit.

 

[jinman]

I have found that tomatoes growing outside in the sun need at least 8 hours of direct sunlight each day to set the blooms and produce. Anything less and you'll have lots of plant and very little fruit. Disease is also a problem. Tomatoes seem to pass diseases (especially fungus) from one plant to the other even easier than people do. Try to keep the plants as far apart as possible. You can use natural products containing orange oil and garlic to repel bugs indoors. You have to be careful you don't get the orange oil too strong and burn your plants. A garden store that specializes in natural products should be able to help you. I've never grown greenhouse tomatoes, but I've heard it's a lot more of a challenge than it appears to be. Good luck. At nearly $3.00 a pound, I think they are going to be taking tomatoes out of the produce department and move them to the jewelry counter soon. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[fractal]

One word of caution. Many of the places that talk about how to grow "tomatoes" indoors are actually discussing how to grow a plant of similar size and shape with a completely different purpose. Similar techniques apply although it is not necessary to hide the fact that you are growing tomatoes indoors. Hence the need for a "closet" goes away but much of the other information you find will apply.

I wanted to see if I could grow lettuce indoors all year round and visited several hydroponic and indoor lighting stores. I have not seen so many pot heads in one place since I left college. Once you cut through all the hype, it turns out that you can quite sucessfully grow tomatoes indoors in a 5 gallon bucket and an artificial light source. Unfortunately, neither incandescent nor flourescent lights have enough intensity so even the smallest indoor garden usually require a metal vapor solution.

So, unless you have a source of surplus industrial metal vapor fixtures and balasts, you are looking at several hundred dollars for a basic lighting setup. You can either use plain old dirt or go soilless with hydroponic. You will need to make sure you provide adequate air circulation or you will have disease problems with your tomatoes ever worse than we have in our santa barbara wet and cool summers.

I came to the conclusion that it was cheaper to pay a buck a head for lettuce than try to set up a system to make it myself. You will probably find the same is true for tomatoes. A true tomatoe fan might find being able to have a scrumcious vine ripened tomatoe year round worth the expense. I myself would rather visit the upscale market and pay their price to have someone else grow them.

 

[TonyC]

I agree that trying to grow tomatoes with only artificial lights is a challenging and expensive process and probably not worth it, but if you have an area indoors with good sunlight it is do-able.

Most importantly you need to plant a greenhouse variety of tomato. They are specially bred to produce with less light than regular plants. There are about 25 or so popular varieties but I settled on one called Cobra from Stokes Seeds. The seeds are pricier at about 30 cent each but it shouldn't break you for a few plants.

The plants might still need some supplemental lighting but that can get tricky too. As someone said, they need to be close to the plants. Just remember that warm-white tubes promote blossoms and cool-white promote leaf growth. Full spectrum lights are best if you can find them. They are also pricier.

Another tip I learned is to start the plants very early. In my greenhouse (or in your home) I had tomatoes ripening on the plants before cold weather and shorts days arrived. If you do that, all you have to do is keep coaxing them to produce through the winter.

Hope this helps...good luck!

 

[Hakim]

I agree with the others than tomatoes are tricky. Even outside in ideal conditions, I have had serious problems, mainly "curly top" disease -- very disappointing.

I have recently gotten an "Earth Box" and plan to try it out this spring. It will work with a few plants, use outdoor or indoor lighting, and is quite inexpensive. Has great recommendations and a couple of friends said they worked great.

Earth Box

Also, for light artificial, they now have "compact" fluoroescent lights which go up to 250 watts.