TI Smartlamp Grow Test
TI Smartlamp Grow Test July 14, 2008
First - Many thanks goes out to Grow Revolution for providing the equipment for
testing. See the websites below for information and sales. You can call them at
their toll free number 1-877-309-5337
As you will see from the photos, I've removed my
older grow chambers and have constructed
the first larger grow area for this test. My smaller chambers were okay in the 'old
days' with the 5MM traffic lights and bulbs, etc, but now with the high power lights,
larger areas and vertical heights are needed to fully test the newer lights. So,
a minimum of 3' x 3' has become necessary. I will be adding new 3' x 3' areas as
we go along
In discussions with Theoreme Innovations, it was suggested by them high light plants
would be well
supported by the TI Smartlamp under a 3' x 3' area. They also said
10-14 inches up off the canopy is suggested height.
The TI Smartlamp is the Pro-Bloom model. The light output is claimed at 300 watts.
It measures about 12" w x 12" d x 5" h. There are 4 fans pulling the air in through
the top and exausting through the sides over a large heatsink. I was very surprised
how
cool this lamp runs. The warmest spot I can find with my IR thermometer is about
40C, and this is right at the LED arrays. The air being exhausted through the heatsinks
is about 30C.
Mounting was fairly easy as I just hooked up three chains to the hooks provided
on the light.
It was agreed that we would try some Tiny Tims. I know by looking at it that
three plants at first may seem small for this area. However, as seen from previous
grows, these plants will get very large in circumference and will eventually fill
the entire area. We should get a good idea on total area coverage when the plants
grow to adult stage.
Right now, I'm running some clean water with H2O2 to clean my system. I've started some seeds and will provide
next update when I get some germination happening.
Click on the button below to see the preliminary setup photos.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test July 20, 2008
Tiny Tim Sprouts are up, so the grow test is on. Two of them broke ground yesterday
and the third today.
Starting out, the nutrients are a weak solution of FloraNova grow with some Canna
Rhizotonic. Later after root establishment, I'll start raising the nutrient strength
slowly. I've had good luck just following the recommended feeding schedule, except
I substitute Nitrozime/Liquid Karma for the Floralicious Grow.
I have the light about 18" up from the top of the pots right now. Just as a benchmark,
I took some LUX Meter readings and I have about 8000-9000 LUX at each pot top. This
LUX reading doesn't tell much when comparing other lights. I'm just using it as
a relative benchmark to try and keep the light as even as possible on all three
plants. Also note I don't have a pot directly centered under the light which measures
about 12,000 LUX. The LEDs in this lamp that lok like IR and UV, will probably be
beyond the sensitivity of my meter, so the light readings don't really mean anything
except hopefully being relatiove to themselves for balancing.
The pump is plugged into the homemade light timer, so interval spraying is taking
place. The plants do have one small root string protuding out of the bottom of the
rapid rooter, so things are going well so far.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test July 26, 2008
Sprouts are doing well and developing true leaves.
I like the stalkiness of the plants. The stems look good and thick. They are keeping
a nice low profile with no signs of stretch. I didn't move the light from the last
update
I added another teaspoon of FloraNova Grow. EC is .7 (about 500 PPM). PH at 6.0.
Temp stays around 70-72F. Humidity is 45% right now, but has been higher last few
days as we've had lots of rain and really high humidity.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Aug 3, 2008
Plants are doing well for the two weeks since sprout on July 20th. They are about
three inches tall now and 4-5 inches in diameter. Nice compact and sturdy growth.
I'm pretty happy how they look at this point. The roots are developing well and
they are reaching the bottoms of the pots already. I'm starting to see some good
fish-bones in the roots.
No setting changes at this point. Temp is about 73F and humidty is 45.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Aug 9, 2008
The three plants are growing much larger in height, bushiness, and thickness. They
are 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 inches tall now and much wider in circumference at 8-10 inches.
Nice thick stalks and branches. Roots seem to be developing very well.
I do notice some yellowing and burning in the lower older leaves. I don't feel this
is light related. It looks to me possibly the nutrients may have been too strong
and I may have increased strength too fast. The newer and top-most growth doesn't
exhibit any of this.
On the closeup shot, you'll be able to see tiny blossoms starting to form already.
I haven't moved the light yet. The light height measures about 13-14 inches from
the top of the canopy.
Tank water was changed today about 1/2 strength solution of the FloraNova schedule
for normal growth. Temp is about 70F and humidity 40%. I substitute Liquid Karma
for Florilicious Grow in the schedule. I didn't add Nitrozyme this time as I'll
be foliar spraying with it once a week starting tomorrow
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Aug 17, 2008
Lots of good growth this week. The plants are very mature for the time so far. They
are very strong and thick. No signs of bad leaves except the same ones identified
last week. The new growth is coming in well. Roots doing good too.
Quite a few blossoms appearing. Some are even starting to open. I'm debating
on when to switch to a bloom formula.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Aug 25, 2008
The tomato plants are progressing very well. Some of these photos are from Aug 23rd
and some from this morning.
Aug 23rd, I did a trimming job. Heavy trimming on the front right, medium trimming
on left, light trimming on rear (only leaves looking yellowish).The trimming consists
of removing branches that do not fork or produce blossoms. Over the last two days,
it's looking like the trimming has accelerated the blossoming on the heavily trimmed
plant. Time will tell which one produces better. At the time of trimming, the rear
plant had the most blossoms first and earliest.
I switched over to the FloraNova Blossom formula. The water measues about 1100 PPM
total. I added FloraNova Bloom, Nitrozime, CalMag+, and Liquid Karma. All below
recommended dosages (about 1/2). Nitrozime, CalMag, and Karma = 1 tsp gallon, FloraNova
= 8ml/gallon. I also added an oscillating fan last week that keeps a breeze and
the plants vibrating some and moving around to try and increase pollination rate.
There are two tomatoes already formed for sure on the rear plant now (see the photos).
I was gone from Friday until last night and that was when I first spotted them.
The blossoms are opening and closing very well. They could have formed Saturday,
but we'll call it Sunday for sure. From seed sprout day to tomato fruits = 36 days.
I think that's pretty darn fast. What do you think? I would expect many more in
the next few days hopefully....
The plants look great and look like Tiny Tim's should (from outside ones I've seen
and searching through the internet). Little mini bushes with hopefully good crops
of tomatoes topping out about 12 inches tall or so. The growth is pretty balanced
and I'm not seeing troubles with light penetration through the canopy, even on the
lightly-trimmed one which is really intensely dense foliage). The plant-sides facing
away from the light look good and blossoms pointing in those directions also, although
the blossoming is much better facing the light of course, just like south-east facing
plants out in the sun.
The photos start out as of Friday - you'll see the nice blossoming progression at
the end photos this morning.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Sep 1, 2008
The word for this update is blossoms and lots of them. Hundreds possibly thousands
in all various stages. Lots of tiny ones just forming to a few dozen tomatoes already
set. So far it looks like a lot of tomatoes will be had on these plants. There is
of course some blossom drop and I've never seen 100% fruit set indoors as we are
missing natural pollinators. The circulating fan does 'vibrate' the plants pretty
good and from what I've read and from my testing, this vibration is what to try
and achieve for fruit set.
As far as the trimming results, I'm not sure if the heavily trimmed plant has more
blossoms or you can just see them better. The plants I didn't trim so much are very
dense and thick, but the blossoming is really good on all three. However, by the
looks of it, the heavily trimmed plant definately has more blossoms set into tomatoes
so far, so maybe the trimmingn helps with this. I think it'll take some more time
to see what plant produces the most and larger tomatoes to determine if trimming
these determinates is worthwhile
Another observation is the bottom leaves (lower canopy) of the plants. I'm not seeing
light depraved leaves anywhere, so it seems the penetration into the canopies is
doing well. I haven't had to cut any bad leaves off these plants at all this week.
The plants are so thick, it's difficult to get the ruler straight up and down, but
the tallest plant is about 14-15 inches tall now.
As you'll see from the photos taken from above, the plants have really spread out
diameter-wise and the foliage has pretty much filled the entire 3x3 area. It's nice
to see the sides of the plants opposite the light staying thick and green also.
The plant growth is balanced well and the plants look like Tiny Tims should.
Root-wise is looking good. It's a little difficult and risky to pop the tops now
as the roots are really filling the pots up. As you see in the root shot, the roots
are good, dense and very long. The brownish color happens because the FloraNova,
Nitrozime,, and Liquid Karma tend to stain brown. There's no sign of dead roots
and no odor or whatever indicating any problems.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Sep 7, 2008
The plants are getting very large and it's hard to tell where one ends and the others
begin.
More and more tomatoes are beginning to form, there's around 30 or so right now,
but hundreds of blossoms are still flowering and forming, so I expect many more.
It's interesting to note now - the tomato plant I'm really trimming heavily does
have the most tomatoes. The plant doesn't look as good as it's all hacked up, but
tomato-wise there's more. I have no choice as the other two are so thick it's hard
to even see the tomatoes in there. A little trimming on these is becoming very necessary.
The plants are huge, thick and healthy. I'm not seeing very much if any die-off
in the bottom leaves either, which tells me enough light is getting to the bottom
of the plants even through the very thick foliage.
So far so good. I also think if I improve my pollination methods, I'd probably have
more tomatoes. Indoor pollination is a challenge and always something to work on
for the future....
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Sep 14, 2008
Outstanding blossoming and tomato fruiting this week. There are hundreds of little
tomatoes now and too many to count. So many hidden in the foliage. Every time I
lift leaves up I find more. Counting has become impossible. There's still thousands
of blossoms appearing.
The plants are staying very healthy and green. Trimming on all three plants has
become an almost daily thing. Trying to keep a decent air flow and the amount of
suckers down to a manageable level is a challenge as the growth rate is very very
fast. The larger tomatoes that fruited first are so deep in the foliage, they're
hard to get pictures of, but they are there. They'll show up better when they start
to redden.
It's hard to tell now if the early heavy trinmming actually affects the tomato count.
Last week it seemed like it, but now, there's tomatoes everywhere. I don't think
any trimming 'style' is needed on these bush tomatoes, but it's definitely necessary
to keep major tangles and snarls under control.
The canopy has filled the entire grow area and branches are starting to sneak out.
One branch has snuck under my partition and is now in the pepper area. You can see
by the photos I'm not getting any die-off at all, even at the bottom-most levels.
The light is penetrating through the canopy well.
Unless something unexpected happens, this should be a very heavy crop of tomatoes
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Sep 21, 2008
The tomatoes keep on fruiting and the blossoms keep on coming. Definitely going
to have a good tomato harvest on these plants.
Seems every time I look there are more tomatoes forming. There's a few of the first
ones ripening now and should be red in just a couple of days. There going to be
really good in size anywhere from 1 - 1.5 inches which is right for these Tiny Tims.
I'm continually trimming and trying to keep this jungle somewhat managed. It's quite
impressive how fast the foilage fills in after each trimming. The bottoms of the
plants are in really good shape. I'm still not seeing die-off in the bottom-most
leaves. Everything staying helthy and green.
Looking forward to having cherry tomato snacks each day soon...
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Sep 28, 2008
Tomatoes are starting to ripen and I've picked and eaten 22 so far. I'll continue
to count and take photos of the tomatoes picked so we can keep a count. It's impossible
to count them on the vines as there seems to be so many. They seem to be ripening
at about 7-8 per day.
Even though there are some ripening, blossoms continue and many more are forming.
I expect the count of tomatoes to be pretty high as they just seem to continue popping
out.
The plants themselves are in good shape. Probably need a little trimming as I haven't
done any pruning in a few days.
I'm sort of changing my mind on the trimming and pruning at least for these bushy
determinates. I think the best thing is to prune only when necessary or dead stuff.
Even though heaviliy pruning seemed to take a short lead on tomatoes, the basic
unpruned plant seems to have certainly surpassed the one I originally pruned heavily.
Looks like the internet research may be right on just basically leaving determinates
alone....
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Oct 5, 2008
Tomatoes still fruiting great. The number of tomatoes on these vines is outstanding.
The plants continue to blossom and fruit more still. There is a lot of tomatoes
on these plants.
I did screwup a little. I should have tied some of the vines up sooner. I had a
major sag of a lot of the branches due to tomato weight pulling the vines down.
I waited too long. I managed to string a lot of them up, but quite a few are
just tangled up too much, I'm afraid to bend them back up due to breakage and shaking
off green tomatoes (I already did that to ten tomatoes so far). It's not a
dire prolem and shouldn't affect the test results. They just look ugly hanging down,
but the tomatoes should ripen fine where they are. I would imagine I may lose some
leaves way down at the bottom where the branches are hanging way down below the
pots on the shelf. I think for future tomato grows, I will string up some horizontal
netting at different levels and let plants grow up through it. This way, instead
of dealing with individual branches, the nets should hold everything up nicely.
But, right now it doesn't matter too much - the tomato count in my opinion is already
fantastic. The future end count should well be in the hundreds.
Tomato count ripened, picked, eaten so far is 40. Including the ten wasted little
green ones = 50
In my opinion - This is great performance for veg, blossom, and fruiting for 300
Watts! Let me know in the forum if you agree or not.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Oct 13, 2008
Tomatoes continue to grow and ripen. I'm still getting blossoms and new tomatoes
forming also, but a little slower than when they were going full blast. There's
still a lot of tomatoes left to ripen on the vines.
I picked and ate 18 more since last update, so picked tomato count now is 68.
I have noticed a slight yellowing and wilting on some branches here-and-there. I've
upped the solution strength slightly by using FloraNova grow. Other Tiny Tims have
done the same when the tomatoes really start to ripen. This is the difference between
a determinate and indeterminate. Determinates have grow/blossom cycles and indeterminates
just keep growing and blossoming like a vine. On tiny tims, you can wait until all
tomatoes are harvested, trim heavy, change nutrients to grow formula, and regenerate
them for another blossom cycle. Tests I've personally done with these to a second
cycle have come out with more tomatoes on the first then on the second. It would
be interesting to see if a cloning would produce equal or better than a recycle.
Timewise, the recycle seems faster to fruiting than cloning or restarting from seed.
It would take some more testing to see what the best method would be for highest
total annual yield.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Oct 26, 2008
This test is coming to the end of the blossoming fruiting stage soon. Just a matter
of time waiting for the green tomatoes to turn into red ones. There's occasional
blossoms here and there and a few more fruiting, but this has slowed way down. There's
still a lot of green ones to go though!
I had two harvest days of 69 and 133 tomatoes each over the past two weeks, which
you'll see in the photos. So total tomato count is a whopping 270 now. I'm hoping
to hit over 400 by the looks of the green ones left.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Nov 8, 2008
Tomatoes still coming and plenty of green ones left. Adding 39 + 33 to our previous
total of 270 = 342 total tomatoes so far.
The plants have taken off on a growth spurt over the past few days. Actually it's
looking like another bloom stage is exploding. Lots of blossoms coming out again
and small tomatoes forming.
As I said on the pepper update, if I were to be keeping these plants for a regeneration,
a lot of trimming would be needed around this time and nutrients changed out to
grow formula, etc.
I've just been letting them go on their own for now. It's turned into a jungle of
really not knowing where one plant ends and the others begin. The foliage has really
thickened up.
TI Smartlamp Grow Test Nov 8, 2008
Another 259 tomatoes picked before the rip down. This makes a total of 601 tomatoes
for the three plants for about 200/plant. Really good numbers for these as far as
I've seen before. I know there's a lot of green ones, but I didn't think there was
so many until I really got tearing things down and making the pile of tomatoes.
The plants grew really bushy as you could tell from the photos. Serious jungle.
The roots did okay as you'll see in the photos. I may have to make some larger pots
if I want to keep plants like these growing for a long time. The roots do start
piling up in my chambers eventually filling the chamber up. I would expect better
results with larger chambers and more air and spraying space.
I think these are great results using 300 Watts. Let me know in the forum, your
opinions of this grow test good and/or bad...
The end...