Northerners. When do you start your winter micros?

[wykvlvr]

Since I am sending in Micro seed for the MMMM I figured I better see how well they germinate before packing them up so I have 2 pellets each of Monteka, Bonsai, Baby, Aztek and Pygmy. . I also have Micro Tom and Yellow Canary on my list to send in but no room to start them...

Of course when they germinate I am going to be swamped with baby Micros... I have 36 new seedlings from the 175 X plus the 18 I need to cull and pot on, AND 5 seeds of a new to me micro Snegirjok from Curtis...

If you need to unload some seeds, let me know!

rofl notice I said I was sending them in for the swap... I have Monteka, Bonsai, Baby, Aztek, Pygmy, Micro Tom, and Yellow Canary in the micro dwarfs I will be sending in to the MMMM Swap here on Tomato Junction. If not signed up for it you may want to... IF all goes as planned there will be 10 packets of at least 5 seeds for each variety. I also know that Totem, Jochalos and Hardin's Miniature will be in the swap as they have been posted in the spoiler alerts...

[SeanInVa]

I will be interested to hear how that light from Amazon works out. I picked this one up from my local Home Depot last season and used it in the garage. I built a stand to hang it from. The only caveat is that you also have to buy a power cord for it, as it was intended to be wired directly into your electrical circuit as it is meant for warehouses It's not hard to do, and I've also linked a power cord.

Additionally, I grew out several dozen micros over the winter, and finished them outside. While you can certainly grow them through maturity in the 4" pots, I found that they did much better once up-potted to 1 gallon nursery pots (or thereabouts).

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial- ... /302456569

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Smart-Choic ... /206740199

@SeanInVa Hey Sean,

How did this light work out for you? What distance did you use between plants and light?

I'm looking to add some lighting this year and this looks promising.

TIA

[mention]rdback[/mention] it worked reasonably well, for what it is. Here are a few pictures from last fall/winter

20191126_074620_small.jpg

. I used it in my garage to start a bunch of micros. Since it has a "frosted" cover, it diffuses the light a bit, so canopy penetration isn't great - but that's a problem sometimes even with the more expensive LEDs.

I threw together a little stand to hang it from and I had the light maybe 3-4' above the plants. It covered a 2x4 workbench space well. Not sure if I would recommend using this light by itself for this same space to mature the plants - due to the diffusion, it may need to be closer. This year, I've hung another (260w actual draw) LED next to it and am maturing micros I started in the greenhouse. I included a picture of that as well. Don't judge the lights by the size of the plants, the ones on the left are F3s where the F2s were taller.

micros.jpg

two_leds.jpg

[rossomendblot]

My plants are under something similar to a Horticulture Lighting Group Quantum Board. These kind of lights are generally aimed at cannabis growers who need very intense light for the flowering stage, so they use the best LED chips out there. The initial cost is higher but because they're so efficient the energy costs are lower. It has a dimming function so can go from 7 to 100 Watts. It's currently at 40 W, covering a 2 x 3 ft area, and the plants are loving it. If you're comfortable with electronics it's not too hard, and much cheaper, to make a DIY version with Samsung strips, a Meanwell driver and aluminium heatsink.

[Labradors]

Update on my seedlings. I started them under a grow bulb because they didn't take up a lot of room, and it was adequate.

A few days ago, I decided to transition to the Root Farm LED lamp and it was a complicated set-up since I had started the seeds at different times and they were all different heights. The recommended height of the lamp is 2" from the top of the plants, which it was (by the time I had built up the little ones so that they were all at the same height), but when I looked at them after 16 hours, they were all yellowish! Obviously, the light was too close, so I am now experimenting to see how far away it needs to be. It's a 45W lamp. I'm trying 8" distance.

The tallest seedling had tiny flower buds, but I decided to top it so that it fits in. The top is being rooted in water - of course.......

Linda

[AKgardener]

I ate all mine haha before I could take a picture got greedy I did buy all new lights yesterday to see if there will be a difference I has the blue and red lights I got the white led.