While it may appear to the people that know me that I'm always into gadgets/computers/electronic stuff, I'm also fascinated by many other things outside of computers. Last year I started getting more into cooking, watching the Food Network and trying things I watched on TV. I've made some pretty great stuff (details I'll save for another blog post).
One of the things I learned is the tomatoes in the grocery stores are un-ripe, and given a chemical to treat them and make them red. I feel cheated robbed like I'm missing out on the true taste of tomatoes. I've also always wanted to grow my own tomatoes (after growing a bunch of stuff in my window), so I went nuts at a local hydroponic supply store.
I have a 400W grow light, reflector, hydroponic grow buckets, rockwool seed starting cubes, and I have started with tomato seeds. I have 3 kinds of tomato seeds - beefsteak, roma, and a yellow one.
And this is the setup in my guest bedroom - I used a wire shelf unit to hang the light from (so I can easily adjust the height). This picture was taken at night, and let me say - its the sun in a bulb.
The rockwool sits in this plastic tray that allows the liquid to drain into the bottom tray:
And after 3 days, you can see the seeds beginning to sprout:
After I took that picture - the next day the seedlings broke free:
So I am pretty excited - this project should really pay off nicely, and while pictures really can't show the difference in taste (between store bought and home-grown), I would like to document the progress and the methods/techniques for others to try their hand at growing yummie yummie right here tomatoes.
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