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indoor How To: Indoor Set-Up

If your thinking of building an indoor setup for your winter pepper projects, or as a controlled breeding grounds to work on your newest interesting crosses. But dont really know where to start.Look no further as I plan to make this a sticky thread full of information, reviews, trials, errors, links to much-needed data, threads, and other test about growing peppers indoors. But first a basic walkthrough of the ground level information for success.

FIRST THING TO ADDRESS.

Your grow area what are your options. More area to cover more money to spend. Tent, homemade grow box, cabinet, closet, or room. As this will directly affect your whole setup so map it out first.

Tents: Can be very cheap to high-dollar, Depending on your personal budget and preference. Cheap brands include iPower and LA Garden range from $30-45 for small sized -- $110-130 for a large sized. Medium brands like, topogrow and Apollo will run $50-80 for small sized -- $170-230 for large sized. Higher brands like vivosun and gorrila grow range from $80-100 for a small sized -- $220-340 for larger sized. What I'm referring to as small is the 2x2x4 Large sized being 8x4x7. They come in all sizes and prices fluctuate according to more or less grow area.

Closet and Cabinet: Space is free of cost and usually a a cheaper route not given the size of your wife walk in closet it could get rather expensive. These setups capitalize on saving space, not consuming much energy, using small lights, and not cutting large chunks out of your pocket book.

Homemade grow cabinet or box: This is for the handyman or craftsman style approach to build your own you will need some materials tools and skills but I have personally seen some amazing results from people's hand-built setups also another thing about handmade setups is your building it so you can accommodate all of your own needs. Costs vary on availability of tools, materials, personal preference, and skill.

SECOND TOPIC I WILL DISCUSS

Now that we know the size of your grow area you're going to need adequate lighting to properly cover everything evenly. Optimal watts per spare foot for hps,mh,led 25-40 watts for low light plants such as herbs, lettuce, and leafy greens. 40-70 watts per square foot for high light plants peppers, tomatoes, flowering, and fruiting plants. Here are a few of your choices of grow lights.

LEDs: (varies, but usually heavy blurpurple or pink) *Low to med heat*
---
High pressure sodium: (low in blues usually paired with metal halide) * high heat* ---

Metal halide (low in reds) *high heat* ---

Dual Arc (Balanced) hps/mh combo bulbs
*high heat* ---


CFL and T5 (WILL require bloom and veg bulbs). *low heat* --

() is light spectrum info.
is heat output
cost to run

Hps,Mh,and dual arc also require a ballast. = more $$$$.

THIRD WILL BE

Ventilation: Grow area will need to be well ventilated. Here's why grow lights no matter what kind all produce heat. Light produces heat point blank. Even if your LED lights have cooling fans this will not be adequate ventilation. First, you need a fan above the lights pushing or pulling out hot air as it's rising. Second, a fan pulling in cooler air from outside the tent. Third, a oscillating fan to give the plants stems and branches rigidity and the nice Tropical Breeze they all desire. Plants naturally uptake CO2 to grow. If your grow room is not adequately ventilated CO2 levels will drop and your plants will not grow as well. Also circulating air helps control humidity too much humidity can cause large amounts of evaporating water to condensate on the roof of your grow area and rsin down on your lights and equipment. Also, leave everything to wet too long and you're inviting In pests molds mildews diseases and a soppy root system. Ideal humidity for pepper plants is 40-70% during veg and 40-50% in flowering.

SET UP THE SET-UP

Now that you have mapped out your area, calculated needed Watts,light coverage, and airation. Picked up appropriate lights, ventilation, thermometers, hydrometers, and timers it's time to set everything up fans, lights, hydroponic set-ups, timers, thermometers, hydrometers, reflective background, waterproofing bottom if needed. Then run overnight doors closed amd periodically check temps and humidity levels as you may need to adjust before you put in any plants. You wouldn't want to get an area setup for your prize plants to throw them into a LED conventional oven. If it is a homemade set up from things made in the old shed out back, or a setup in the old shed out back. Spray appropriately for pest before setting up then add extra preventive measures by spraying the outlying areas of the area. Make sure no electrical cords plugins or components are on the floor work supposed to run off water, high humidity, or heavy misting. Would hate to fry that new led or yourself none the less.

LAST AND MOST IMPORTANT

Put in the number of plants your area will accommodate. Begin regular feeding schedule and monitor closely for the first week. Make sure to keep adequate spacing to maintain light penetration and air flow.I strongly advise to train indoor plants to thier grow environment via multiple methods. Low stress training, Topping, FIMing, Scrog, and manifold or main lining. But do not Top or Fim during flowering.

EXTRA IN GENERAL TIPS

Finished plant size vs pot size
(Average roughestimates)

24" 2-3 gal
48" 5-7 gal
60+" 10gal+

Ideal soil ph for peppers 6.0 - 8.0
Hydro ph for peppers. 5.8-6.3
(Ppm of 400-700 for veg and 800-1400
for flowering/fruiting)
 
LED WALKTHROUGH

First why choose led?

Led is starting to take over the growing market. Not saying it's better or will get you better yields than hps/mh/hid because that's not what it's about. Overall leds become much cheaper in the long run. There's no changing out expensive bulbs or blown ballasts, and they run extremely cool. I can touch the back of my hand anywhere to my leds and not get burned. Initial cost may be a bit more but you will save in the long run. When compared with mh/hid/hps on average leds consume 33-50% less energy to maintain the same par output. Also classic lighting creates much more heat so you will have to factor in more electricity to run additional ventilation as well. With leds you will need far less ventilation to keep your lights cool. But, you also need to know what exactlty you need for your application. In order to be able to purchase something that will work efficient and properly for you. You wouldn't want to buy a 300w with reflectors and primary optics to throw in your 2x2x3 or so grow area. You would roast your plants no matter if you hung the light as high as possible. So heres my addition to led lighting. Get to know about the parts of an led how they work what each piece does for the finished product.

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT LEDS

Leds are still a rather new growing method. There are many new brands on the market for leds. How do i know what to choose? What does my set up need? I'll start with a basic walkthrough of what's going on in there.


PHOTOSYNTHETIC ACTIVITY

The process of a plant uptaking light and converting it into its fuel or energy.This is what triggers your plants to grow, I guess you could say. In the light spectrum. Plants, mainly respond to blue light wavelengths of 400nm-470nm and red light wavelengths of 620nm-680nm. So when your looking at the specs of the grow light make sure they have stats such as these posted. One that lacks red you may need to add additional reds. Buy one thats heavy in reds and you may want to add additional blues. You want a balanced spectrum of reds and blues for optimal growth.

FOOTPRINT- The area a light will cover.
All led lights should have a
basic guideline of area of
coverage.

LIGHT INTENSITY- How much par is available
at given heights. Should
also be provided by the
company.


BASIC PARTS OF AN LED? WHAT'S WHAT AND DOES WHAT?

LED- or light emitting diode. They come in
A few different makes that offer
different flexibility depending on
the combine parts.


PARTS LIST

LED board- usually emits light at a 180°
angle without use of primary or
secondary optics. Good for
small tents, closets,or cabinet
usually needs to be kept closer
to the canopy and doesn't
provide as much canopy
penetration.

LED with primary optics- a led with a
silicon or
another form of
lense directly
built on to the
led itself.
Focuses the light
in a more
concentrated
area. Usually not
as well suited
for smaller areas
without adequate
air flow and a
bit of roof space
to raise up the
light some.

LED with secondary optics- a led without
any lenses on
the led itself
but utilizes a
refractive cone
around the led
to focus the
light much like
a hood for a
classic style
light. There's
also a glass
lense style
that goes in
front of the
led and focuses
the light. Some
say light is
lost in this
design having
to be pushed
through a lense
where some
light may be
trapped,
refracted, and
lost back into
the fixture.

But I believe it's all up to how well it's made. Lenses come usually in 90°,120°,and 150° angles. The less of an angle the smaller more intense footprint. The higher of an angle the larger less intense footprint. Be sure to pay attention to this as some companies overrate thier products. I.e. if you see a 300w led board only no optics advertising coverage of a 3x3 area call bs the light will have less penetration and be less effective vs the same 300w led paired with the proper optics.

Heat sinks- a great addition to any led
especially when paired with
built in cooling fans. An
aluminium block with fins or
pegs used to pull heat from
the leds and disperse it via
vents or fans.

Veg/Bloom switch
or dimmability-Some led lights now offer
a little more control of
thier light output so you
can pack a big punch in a
small package. What these
options will let you do
is, safely start seedling
and younger plants without
risks of burning in
limited spaces, or throw
some vegging plants in a
small area and let them
grow under veg setting
until they begin to flower
and set fruit or have
become larger,stronger,
and fuller. Then they will
require more light and you
can turn on the bloom
setting as well.
Dimmability gives even
more control over lighting
aspects. These style leds
can be used for all
applications but are
usually a little more
costly.

Cooling fans- cooling fans are usually
always incorporated in an
led build. I wouldn't really
recommend buying one without
a built in fan or two.

Warranty- always look for a reputable
company with a decent warranty
to protect yourself from
mishaps. Some companies offer
1 up to 3 year warranties.

So now we know we want to save money growing, buy the appropriate spectrums of lighting the first time, also we learned a bit about the parts and make up, So we can better understand our own needs. When buying your led be sure to take into account all of these factors. Hope this helps as I've spent hours digging for a lot of this and let me know what you guys think and feel free to add on any helpful information.
 
Do you have any links to research as to the temps and humidity for veg/bloom data? I spent months researching and only concluded about the same ranges, just interpretations based on growing other plants 25 years ago.

I plan to do some not so scietiific studies on leaf surface temps and transpiration as indicators of plant stress, but that will he another topic. Hopefully I can get the help of other indoor growers with different types of grow lights.
 
Hafners said:
The link doesn't seem to work for me. Looks like it move have been truncated, and parts of the address got left out. Anyway, the PDF download fails. Guess I'll have to try searching for it.
Sorry I wasn't sure if the link would work that way or not. But there's a lot of good research done by nasa on growing under leds and the effects on plants of the different spectrums of light.
 
Sharing some of my homemade shenanigans. 6 sq ft -- 12 sq ft grow boxes. Cost to complete set up $200 -370 bucks. @240w per each 3 sq ft. 920 total watts. All things needed from home depo. Your cost also may be even less depending on what you already have.

1) HDX plastic shelf. 1000 lb rated. 36x24x72.

$55

2) 16-32 6500 or 5000 or a mix of 24w cfl bulbs.

$44-88

3) 4-8 2700k 24w cfl bulbs.

$9-18

4) 4-8 power strips

$12-24

5) 12-24 light bulb wall plug ins

$24-48

6) 8-16 2 way light bulb splitters

$24-48

7) fans. Small or larger. One or four.

$10-40

8) timer. One ore two. Cheap or nice.

8-20

9) thermometer. One or one per box

$3-15

10) reflective materials. Aluminum foil and mylar blankets. 1 roll and 2 blankets per 2 boxes.

$9-18

11) duct tape and zip ties. 40yrds, one sm one md pk.

5$

TOTAL COST $200-370

Cost to run is to be determined....
 
Dylan unknown said:
LED WALKTHROUGH

First why choose led?

Led is starting to take over the growing market. Not saying it's better or will get you better yields than hps/mh/hid because that's not what it's about. Overall leds become much cheaper in the long run. There's no changing out expensive bulbs or blown ballasts, and they run extremely cool. I can touch the back of my hand anywhere to my leds and not get burned. Initial cost may be a bit more but you will save in the long run. When compared with mh/hid/hps on average leds consume 33-50% less energy to maintain the same par output. Also classic lighting creates much more heat so you will have to factor in more electricity to run additional ventilation as well. With leds you will need far less ventilation to keep your lights cool. But, you also need to know what exactlty you need for your application. In order to be able to purchase something that will work efficient and properly for you. You wouldn't want to buy a 300w with reflectors and primary optics to throw in your 2x2x3 or so grow area. You would roast your plants no matter if you hung the light as high as possible. So heres my addition to led lighting. Get to know about the parts of an led how they work what each piece does for the finished product.

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT LEDS

Leds are still a rather new growing method. There are many new brands on the market for leds. How do i know what to choose? What does my set up need? I'll start with a basic walkthrough of what's going on in there.


PHOTOSYNTHETIC ACTIVITY

The process of a plant uptaking light and converting it into its fuel or energy.This is what triggers your plants to grow, I guess you could say. In the light spectrum. Plants, mainly respond to blue light wavelengths of 400nm-470nm and red light wavelengths of 620nm-680nm. So when your looking at the specs of the grow light make sure they have stats such as these posted. One that lacks red you may need to add additional reds. Buy one thats heavy in reds and you may want to add additional blues. You want a balanced spectrum of reds and blues for optimal growth.

FOOTPRINT- The area a light will cover.
All led lights should have a
basic guideline of area of
coverage.

LIGHT INTENSITY- How much par is available
at given heights. Should
also be provided by the
company.


BASIC PARTS OF AN LED? WHAT'S WHAT AND DOES WHAT?

LED- or light emitting diode. They come in
A few different makes that offer
different flexibility depending on
the combine parts.


PARTS LIST

LED board- usually emits light at a 180°
angle without use of primary or
secondary optics. Good for
small tents, closets,or cabinet
usually needs to be kept closer
to the canopy and doesn't
provide as much canopy
penetration.

LED with primary optics- a led with a
silicon or
another form of
lense directly
built on to the
led itself.
Focuses the light
in a more
concentrated
area. Usually not
as well suited
for smaller areas
without adequate
air flow and a
bit of roof space
to raise up the
light some.

LED with secondary optics- a led without
any lenses on
the led itself
but utilizes a
refractive cone
around the led
to focus the
light much like
a hood for a
classic style
light. There's
also a glass
lense style
that goes in
front of the
led and focuses
the light. Some
say light is
lost in this
design having
to be pushed
through a lense
where some
light may be
trapped,
refracted, and
lost back into
the fixture.

But I believe it's all up to how well it's made. Lenses come usually in 90°,120°,and 150° angles. The less of an angle the smaller more intense footprint. The higher of an angle the larger less intense footprint. Be sure to pay attention to this as some companies overrate thier products. I.e. if you see a 300w led board only no optics advertising coverage of a 3x3 area call bs the light will have less penetration and be less effective vs the same 300w led paired with the proper optics.

Heat sinks- a great addition to any led
especially when paired with
built in cooling fans. An
aluminium block with fins or
pegs used to pull heat from
the leds and disperse it via
vents or fans.

Veg/Bloom switch
or dimmability-Some led lights now offer
a little more control of
thier light output so you
can pack a big punch in a
small package. What these
options will let you do
is, safely start seedling
and younger plants without
risks of burning in
limited spaces, or throw
some vegging plants in a
small area and let them
grow under veg setting
until they begin to flower
and set fruit or have
become larger,stronger,
and fuller. Then they will
require more light and you
can turn on the bloom
setting as well.
Dimmability gives even
more control over lighting
aspects. These style leds
can be used for all
applications but are
usually a little more
costly.

Cooling fans- cooling fans are usually
always incorporated in an
led build. I wouldn't really
recommend buying one without
a built in fan or two.

Warranty- always look for a reputable
company with a decent warranty
to protect yourself from
mishaps. Some companies offer
1 up to 3 year warranties.

So now we know we want to save money growing, buy the appropriate spectrums of lighting the first time, also we learned a bit about the parts and make up, So we can better understand our own needs. When buying your led be sure to take into account all of these factors. Hope this helps as I've spent hours digging for a lot of this and let me know what you guys think and feel free to add on any helpful information.
 
Thanks very helpful and informative. Some LEDs sold as "full spectrum" also include other colors (e.g., green, infrared). Do you think this is unnecessary? 
 
Every spectrum of light from uv a and b to infared can be used by plants. They all have different effects on how they grow. Green light often helps with canopy penetration, promoting side shoots, and thicker stems. Infared helps a lot with flowering plants, where some plants will not bloom and fruit properly if not exposed to enough far red light. Uv a and b help stimulate photomorphogenisis. But it can go both ways. Too much will damage your plants. Most generally 6 band is most effective. Where as 8-12 bands have a lot of light that's not as usable for your plants. Hope this helps
 
Could we perhaps get an image of some of your grow boxes you're setting up?
 
I see you plan on using CFL bulbs, just curious if another step you could do is link to maybe the Home Depot website to show what you're using specifically. Interested as well in hearing why you're going with CFLs instead of perhaps one or two high powered lights.
 
Keep it up
 
https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-72-in-H-x-36-in-W-x-24-in-D-5-Shelf-Plastic-Ventilated-Storage-Shelving-Unit-128974/100006678?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|google|D59+Storage+%26+Organization&mid=spdt8RSQO|dm_mtid_8903rn225192_pcrid_171990442072_pkw__pmt__product_100006678_slid_&gclid=CjwKCAiApJnRBRBlEiwAPTgmxETva0b6JMT-TleOxT6Zl4rTLccofzruvpOv7iQWskpAzMw6xk5S3xoC4ZkQAvD_BwE. 1 shelf $50

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-100W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-T2-Spiral-CFL-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-434738/202827179. X2 packs $20

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-100W-Equivalent-Daylight-Deluxe-T2-Twister-CFL-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-433557/204855102. X2 packs $18

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-660-Watt-Keyless-Twin-Socket-Lamp-Holder-Adapter-R52-00128-00W/100356967. X6 $15

https://www.homedepot.com/p/6-Outlet-Power-Strip-with-3-ft-Cord-YLPT-90A/203353675. X2 $8

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coghlan-s-Emergency-Blanket-52-x-82-5/23543585?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222228017117751&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=51753751871&wl4=aud-310687322322:pla-83156716151&wl5=9026550&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=23543585&wl13=&veh=sem. X2 $8

Most of the other stuff you may have laying around aluminium foil, duct tape, zip ties.

I prefer the cfl's for my grow boxes because there low temp, readily available everywhere, and my state has no hydro grow stores or anything like that. Usually most other lights would be too high powered in my set up. Although I do have one set up with a 225w ufo led and it's doing great even flowering. The cfls also have set multiple fruits on my Chinese 5 color. But I mostly use it for seedlings, vegging, and herbs. I'm currently attempting to get a par meter to compare the par readings at cost per cfls vs good leds and wall watt rating. So stay TUNED and thanks for the interest.
 
Dylan unknown said:
 
 
One of the links was a bit messed up so maybe this comment is without purpose, but I noticed the bulbs that you linked (that I could see) were 2700k lumens and 1700k lumens (I believe). The first [broken] link might've been to another bulb but I was under the impression that 6500k was the range required for vegging? If so, do you veg with 6500k then swap out for 2700k to promote flowering/fruit?
 
The pictures were awesome, I'm trying to cross all my t's and dot my i's for an indoor grow but there always seems to be questions for me. This set up definitely inspires me. You noted you mainly use for seedlings/vegging/herbs. Does this mean you place plants outside once you want to start getting fruit?
 
Sorry for all the questions I dont mean to distract from your discussion about lights. A lot of interest here I'll definitely be following this topic
 
Yes I wanted to originally make a space to get a good jump start on spring. But after the 6500k bulbs working so well I added in the other 2700k bulbs to try and set fruit under the set up just to see if it was possible. Success. No problem setting fruit under my set up so far. Awaiting the other varieties to mature for more testing. I use 8 24w 6500k and 4 2700k per box. Plants under my cfl set up: Chinese five color, bonda ma Jacques yellow, and a purple bell or Bahamian goat seed mixup. All doing great so far. I'll add you guys a few more pictures when I get home. I'll add one of the box with the ufo light as well.
 
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