Another free gift

[jackb]

Last spring one of the seed vendors sent me a free package of a heirloom tomato called Virginia Sweets and I thought I would give them a try. One seed was planted on 11/28/12 and it is doing great, so far. Here is what they are supposed to be:

This heirloom variety is simply one of the best tasting, best producing gold-red bicolors we have ever grown. On top of that, the tomatoes are stunningly beautiful and enormous, weighing at least 1 pound each. Golden yellow beefsteaks are colored with red stripes that turn into a ruby blush on top of the golden fruit. Flavor is sweet and rich, and harvests are abundant. Indeterminate. 80 days.

You gotta love free!

 

[897tgigvib]

THAT is one nice looking November planted Tomato seedling!

You do real giving it light of the right color and intensity along with not too much humidity. Nice looking seedling mix too!

Can you tell us what a simple version of your setup would be if a person made a seed starting shelf say big enough for 4 flats of 2x4 wood?

Those LED strips they have now are super bright. Ones I've seen are for room light and seem to have a spectrum heavy on yellow and next heavy on far blue. Ya know, if they have strips of mainly blue with say one in 5 red equally bright, would that make a good system for a person off grid?

Also, what temperatures is this getting? How is the humidity for it?

You will, barring catastrophe, be getting some mighty fine and beautiful specimen tomatoes from this. Sure hope you save a good number of its seeds.

 

[jackb]

THAT is one nice looking November planted Tomato seedling!

You do real giving it light of the right color and intensity along with not too much humidity. Nice looking seedling mix too!

Can you tell us what a simple version of your setup would be if a person made a seed starting shelf say big enough for 4 flats of 2x4 wood?

Those LED strips they have now are super bright. Ones I've seen are for room light and seem to have a spectrum heavy on yellow and next heavy on far blue. Ya know, if they have strips of mainly blue with say one in 5 red equally bright, would that make a good system for a person off grid?

Also, what temperatures is this getting? How is the humidity for it?

You will, barring catastrophe, be getting some mighty fine and beautiful specimen tomatoes from this. Sure hope you save a good number of its seeds.

Marshall,

For propagating seeds I built 2 small enclosures that have a 24" T5 6500K tube suspended within. The seeds are planted in grow cubes and the cubes are in a domed enclosure with small holes for ventilation. The airline tube protruding from the enclosure allows me breath into the enclosure several times a day to give the seedlings CO2 and also move them around. The inside of the wooden enclosure is lined with reflective mylar, and the light keeps the temperature about 78 degrees. The humidity is high, as you can see the condensation in the photo. I have a timer on the lights set for 16 hours a day. I pretty much have seeds going at all times to keep my systems full. When I pick I also plant.

I use the LEDs mainly for growing, and you are correct, mine are super bright, with one being 450 watts and most of the others in the 90 to 150 watt range. If I have a lot of seedlings, I will use a larger domed tray and place them under a 90 watt re/blue/white LED grow light and really push them along.

The tomato in the photo is in a tent, indoors, using a 125 watt multi-spectrum LED, mainly red/blue/white with some yellow and orange. The humidity in the tent is 45% and the temperature is about 72 with a photoperiod of 16 hours. The media is 50% coir and agricultural perlite. The media is terrific to work with, as it does not compact and is sterile.

Here is a propagator:

As the plant is a heirloom, seed saving is an option, so I doubt that I will ever buy any from the guy who sent them.
jackb

 

[jackb]

The seeds are Little Caesar romaine and came out of the package on 12/26/12. Ava transplanted the seedlings to an ebb and flow system today, 1/13/13. We will use a 90 watt red/blue LED grow light and I expect that we will pick this lettuce in about three weeks.