Hello,
I'm new here and fairly new to plants. I just decided to start keeping plants indoors since I live in apartment. I don't have a balcony, but still wanted a garden of some sort. The solution was indoor growing with LED lights.
My journey all started in the spring of 2010 with trying to keep plants I bought from a grocery store near by. I wanted to try LED's and my first attempt was rather pahtetic
with a wimpy 12 watt LED light. It was a cree LED over 1 plant. It was obviously not enough light for my liking.
In about 3 weeks I realised I wanted more and these lights just weren't cutting it. After doing more research I ordered all the parts for my new power light. THe parts eventually arrived and I began to build.
I used the most powerful bridgelux LEDs out there, 50 Watts each for a total of 100 watts of power.
My first test subjects were an almost dead lemon thyme (from lack of light) and a polka dot plant. The light fixture is resting on 2x4's in this picture and not hung up.
I later purchased more plants and built a light stand to hold the fixture.
the lemon thyme began to perk up after being repotted and trimmed.
The polka dot turned BRIGHT dark pink!
I also purchased more plants:
My basil when I first got it:
In about a month the basil just exploded with growth and started to flower. And then I realised flowering was bad for the taste so I have been chopping the flowers off ever since.
The lemon thyme has just keeps getting bushy and requires constant cutting back.
An oxalis given to me as a gift 3 months ago.
I've been giving away plants and acquiring new ones as my confidence grows. Right now this is the current set up with plants and light. You can see how crazy the oxalis has gotten! For some reason it won't stop flowering. I heard you have to cut them back when they go dormant. I'm waiting for ti to stop flowering before i can do this
It's been getting quite over croweded and I'm going to start concentrating efforts on growing fruiting trees.
I have under the lights right now, a european dwarf olive, a truly tiny banan plant, a strawberry guava, a turkey fig tree, and a strawberry guava plant.
Also under there are some various cacti, mexican cilantro, bay tree, basil, oxalis, a ficus, and an orchid that was given to me to try to revive because it wasn't doing too good. It's so far put out a new leaf... progress has been slow with it but it looks promising
Here is the truly tiny banana plant. It puts out a new leaf every 2 weeks
The turkey fig can be seen in front of it
The plants are over growing each other, and I've order parts for a second set of lights. It will be done soon and the dwarf olive and turkey fig will be moved under them.
I will keep this post updated as much as possible
A video tour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU6D_mHv1Mk
I'm new here and fairly new to plants. I just decided to start keeping plants indoors since I live in apartment. I don't have a balcony, but still wanted a garden of some sort. The solution was indoor growing with LED lights.
My journey all started in the spring of 2010 with trying to keep plants I bought from a grocery store near by. I wanted to try LED's and my first attempt was rather pahtetic
with a wimpy 12 watt LED light. It was a cree LED over 1 plant. It was obviously not enough light for my liking.In about 3 weeks I realised I wanted more and these lights just weren't cutting it. After doing more research I ordered all the parts for my new power light. THe parts eventually arrived and I began to build.
I used the most powerful bridgelux LEDs out there, 50 Watts each for a total of 100 watts of power.
My first test subjects were an almost dead lemon thyme (from lack of light) and a polka dot plant. The light fixture is resting on 2x4's in this picture and not hung up.
I later purchased more plants and built a light stand to hold the fixture.
the lemon thyme began to perk up after being repotted and trimmed.
The polka dot turned BRIGHT dark pink!
I also purchased more plants:
My basil when I first got it:
In about a month the basil just exploded with growth and started to flower. And then I realised flowering was bad for the taste so I have been chopping the flowers off ever since.
The lemon thyme has just keeps getting bushy and requires constant cutting back.
An oxalis given to me as a gift 3 months ago.
I've been giving away plants and acquiring new ones as my confidence grows. Right now this is the current set up with plants and light. You can see how crazy the oxalis has gotten! For some reason it won't stop flowering. I heard you have to cut them back when they go dormant. I'm waiting for ti to stop flowering before i can do this
It's been getting quite over croweded and I'm going to start concentrating efforts on growing fruiting trees.
I have under the lights right now, a european dwarf olive, a truly tiny banan plant, a strawberry guava, a turkey fig tree, and a strawberry guava plant.
Also under there are some various cacti, mexican cilantro, bay tree, basil, oxalis, a ficus, and an orchid that was given to me to try to revive because it wasn't doing too good. It's so far put out a new leaf... progress has been slow with it but it looks promising
Here is the truly tiny banana plant. It puts out a new leaf every 2 weeks
The turkey fig can be seen in front of it
The plants are over growing each other, and I've order parts for a second set of lights. It will be done soon and the dwarf olive and turkey fig will be moved under them.
I will keep this post updated as much as possible
A video tour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU6D_mHv1Mk
