The advances in LED lighting over the past 10 years is nothing short of amazing. Used to be you needed heavy, big and hot multi-killowat HPS lamp installations for the best indoor farming, but not anymore!
I set up a small experimental indoors farm myself, and I used cheap LED lamps you can get anywhere, three different temperatures, interspersed on a custom frame above the plants.
I realized I know nothing about soil, because it turns out there's more to it than just dumping it in a pot. Soil composition and density are really important, moreso than the pH (that a lot of people focus on) in my experience. I would've definitely fucked up with a hydroponic setup that I first considered. Soil is much better and we really don't appreciate it as much as we should. It's literally the source of life.
These plants needed more root aeration, the first batch was terribly small, but still pretty good. Second batch was much better thanks to a custom soil/pebbles setup (soil in the center, pebbles around the fabric pot), then I realized the lumen output needed to be much higher for perfect results. I wanted to try some COB LEDs, which output more lumen, but I could not find any (and importing would take too long and cost way too much), plus I really wanted to see what simple SMD LEDs could do.
So I trashed the whole thing in favor of custom Tipi style tents for individual plants with the LED lamps spread all around and above. Not the most efficient use of space, but it turned out to be the best for growth.
~2 months from seed to harvest, electricity cost was laughably low (~$20 total per plant) and heat generation was practically non-existent. I also had plants outdoors, tbh the sun-grown tomatoes tasted better, but the other greens were just as good grown indoors.
Still not sure if LED production is environmentally friendly or sustainable, but it sure is revolutionary.
Thanks for sharing your experiment. I’m curious about soil composition and density as you pointed out its importance. I definitely feel like my lack of success is mainly with my soil.
I've read some stuff online, but everyone's using soil from shops it seems. I picked it from a farm nearby, crushed it as fine as I could, mixed it with my own compost (various vegetables and leaves), after a while outdoors all of it just gets processed by bacteria, it quite literally disappears, all of it becomes soil.
When putting it in the fabric pots (really good stuff, forget anything else) I mixed it with a small amount of pebbles and twigs to prevent it from compacting (which severely impacts growth, as roots can't push through it); I had nothing else and that seemed to do the trick.
But the thing is I used a makeshift metal cylinder to fill the pot with soil in the center and a layer of pebbles all around and at the bottom. The idea was that the plant would grow and get nutrients from the soil, then as the roots grow out into the pebbles they'd get more oxygen and water.
It's actually sort of a soil/hydroponic hybrid setup if I think about it. Seems to have worked great.
I also used simple NPK fertilizer, the plants react if you use too much (leaves turn yellower, tips start burning), so you know when to stop.
There's a lot of information out there, but honestly I learned more with hands-on experience than from reading dozens of articles and forum threads. I thought it would be rather simple, but it's definitely not just "plant it and forget it". I appreciate plant life more now, it's quite fascinating when you get into it haha.
I set up a small experimental indoors farm myself, and I used cheap LED lamps you can get anywhere, three different temperatures, interspersed on a custom frame above the plants.
I realized I know nothing about soil, because it turns out there's more to it than just dumping it in a pot. Soil composition and density are really important, moreso than the pH (that a lot of people focus on) in my experience. I would've definitely fucked up with a hydroponic setup that I first considered. Soil is much better and we really don't appreciate it as much as we should. It's literally the source of life.
These plants needed more root aeration, the first batch was terribly small, but still pretty good. Second batch was much better thanks to a custom soil/pebbles setup (soil in the center, pebbles around the fabric pot), then I realized the lumen output needed to be much higher for perfect results. I wanted to try some COB LEDs, which output more lumen, but I could not find any (and importing would take too long and cost way too much), plus I really wanted to see what simple SMD LEDs could do.
So I trashed the whole thing in favor of custom Tipi style tents for individual plants with the LED lamps spread all around and above. Not the most efficient use of space, but it turned out to be the best for growth.
~2 months from seed to harvest, electricity cost was laughably low (~$20 total per plant) and heat generation was practically non-existent. I also had plants outdoors, tbh the sun-grown tomatoes tasted better, but the other greens were just as good grown indoors.
Still not sure if LED production is environmentally friendly or sustainable, but it sure is revolutionary.