TheFury
Oh, the humanity!!
Hi all! Having been inspired by many users here, I built myself a grow rack a few weeks ago:
It has reflective mylar on all four sides and a black mesh exterior to help keep passers by from having seizures
Inside, there are two Home Depot shop lights that each hold two 48" T8 bulbs - each fixture has one Zoo Med Flora Sun grow bulb and one GE cool white 4100K bulb. There's also a cooling fan that blows down the lengths of the light fixtures to keep the toasty electronic ballasts from contributing too much to ambient temperature.
Temperatures at this time of year vary between 80 degrees during the day and 60 at night. Mind you, it's autumn here in NYC and my landlord hasn't turned the heat on yet! I expect it to warm up a tad once that happens.
Humidity ranges from 55% during the day to around 80 or 90% overnight.
Please see the pictures below and tell me if I'm just CRAZY for organizing my plants this way, and critique anything about the way I'm growing these plants given my conditions.
THANKS!!
The exterior:
With the front flap raised:
My waterless tray - I top-water these plants rather than letting them stand in water:
Those ziploc bags in the back are full of dampened LFS that I'm trying to make sprout. One of the bags has some green in it - I hope that's not just algae!!!
Here's my tray where I keep a very high water level - you can see it in the pic:
Here's my pygmy sundew tray, elevated a bit closer to the lights. Pardon the reflection of my camera, I always hated seeing that!
And finally, my temperate/tropical sundew tray:
I have 7 more VFTs, Sarrs, and temperate dews on a cool windowsill that I'm trying to lull into dormancy, too. Once they're awake again they'll fill my trays out nicely!
It has reflective mylar on all four sides and a black mesh exterior to help keep passers by from having seizures
Inside, there are two Home Depot shop lights that each hold two 48" T8 bulbs - each fixture has one Zoo Med Flora Sun grow bulb and one GE cool white 4100K bulb. There's also a cooling fan that blows down the lengths of the light fixtures to keep the toasty electronic ballasts from contributing too much to ambient temperature.
Temperatures at this time of year vary between 80 degrees during the day and 60 at night. Mind you, it's autumn here in NYC and my landlord hasn't turned the heat on yet! I expect it to warm up a tad once that happens.
Humidity ranges from 55% during the day to around 80 or 90% overnight.
Please see the pictures below and tell me if I'm just CRAZY for organizing my plants this way, and critique anything about the way I'm growing these plants given my conditions.
THANKS!!
The exterior:
With the front flap raised:
My waterless tray - I top-water these plants rather than letting them stand in water:
Those ziploc bags in the back are full of dampened LFS that I'm trying to make sprout. One of the bags has some green in it - I hope that's not just algae!!!
Here's my tray where I keep a very high water level - you can see it in the pic:
Here's my pygmy sundew tray, elevated a bit closer to the lights. Pardon the reflection of my camera, I always hated seeing that!
And finally, my temperate/tropical sundew tray:
I have 7 more VFTs, Sarrs, and temperate dews on a cool windowsill that I'm trying to lull into dormancy, too. Once they're awake again they'll fill my trays out nicely!
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