Sixty and a bit today

First Grow Station primed and loaded with the tray of tomatoes sown last night. The lights will be on for 16 hours a day. An empty tray has been turned up side down to lift the 77 Heavy Duty planting module up closer to the LED lights. On going to bed the wife said to me "What have you got plugged in the little Bedroom?" when I told her she gave me THAT look and said "I should have guessed" 

   
Garden related Birthday gift from Emma, a mug and spoon for the allotment 

A tin of Bourbon's not because of the biscuit, but she knows that I love a tin especially for the allotment, as it keeps things mouse proof. Me thinks some of the box of 71 chocolate biscuits Kelly bought me for the allotment encase my sugars drop will go in it as will the 2 in 1 nescafe coffee and spoons etc. 

Kelly's other allotment related gift was the Lidl Raised Planter. With all the other gifts, and offers of evaluation products from people I met at the Garden Press Event, that I received in emails today and a nice family home cooked Roast Dinner by my daughters, who could ask for more. It has been a nice relaxed and enjoyable day.

Traditional Stainless Planting Spade from Spear & Jackson which is nice and light, and has a traditional hardwood handle. It has the pointed mirror polished stainless steel blade for resisting rust an minimal soil adhesion and is one tool that will not be left on the plot.

A nine spray settings: Mist, Shower, Cone, Soaker, Jet, Centre, Flat, Angle and Fan Telescopic Water Wand. Not a cheap one like I've had in the past this one has a lightweight but strong aluminium handle, an ergonomic soft grip handle and no leaky plastic end on this bad boy it has a brass connector at the base. This is ideal for reaching high level hanging baskets, but for me will be a god send when watering the two rows of 11 flower buckets of tomato plants in the back garden. 

I'm such a spoiled boy with these Spear & Jackson Razorsharp Japanese Style General Purpose Scissors that come with a 10 year Guarantee 
. 

Tomatoes in Grow Station

The taller tomatoes in the top grow station really need potting on but I have been resisting because of the cold weather but as that's now changed they will be coming out and moved into vending machine cups and a new seed tray will be going in.

The 225 LED 14W Grow Panel Red Blue Hydroponic Light Board Grow Tent LED hanger that I have fixed to the lids of the plastic storage boxes with ventilation holes

I bought two from e-bay last year for £9.99 including delivery see Alans Allotment: LED Portable Grow Station the lowest price at the moment is £15.99 inc free delivery

Ready, Get Set ....

So I goofed off from work and the computer for an hour to get my external grow station set up and the two portable grow stations set back up and installed in my broom cupboard office. So whilst SWMBO is watching her soaps tonight I will be sorting out the seeds and labels and the sowing will commence.

Portable LED Grow Stations

A visit to my local hardware shop resulted in me finding clear plastic storage boxes that are wide enough to accept the 300x300mm square panel fixed to the lid and the lid shuts.

I used the trusty soldering iron to melt a hole for the kettle plug to go through in the end and three air/ ventilation holes along the long sided and one on the short sides

The original box that the lid would not shut on is being used  at the bottom of the stack to raise up the two grow stations so they are nearer the light from the window in my broom cupboard office.

Tomorrow I shall be sowing some Bettollo F1 Beetroots to go into the bottom grow house.

There is already a tray of beetroots in the space saver greenhouse, and It's going to be interesting to see if the ones in the grow station germinate faster than those that are in the space saver greenhouse.

Ummm I could possibly add one more box to the stack, but for the moment I think I will see how I get on with two.

More Modifications To Grow Station 2

Today before the builders arrived I made another modification to grow Station 2. I had a signboard that was left on the green in front of the house by a paving company trying to drum up work, not that they were actually doing any work around here. The council come and remove such advertising so I took the correx off the pallet before the council took it away. It's now offering a little insulation to the back wall but more importantly it's reflecting light.

A careful measure and cutting of the hole to go around the power socket and the correx board is supported off the wall and by the power socket.  

I have a couple of estate agent signs also made of correx that are currently on Mill Green allotment that I will have to bring home. I acquired them when vandals uprooted them further up the road on their way home from the local tavern one night, and then decided to deposited them once again on the green in front of my house.

I'm a sucker for recycling or re purposing materials, and the backs of the estate agent signs will be white and will line the wall in the left and I can rig something up to go on the right to reflect more light onto the plants.

Modification To Grow Station 2

Today the two E27 Light Bulb Lamp Holders that I ordered arrived and I have wire them up and screw directly under the shelf lifting the light up further away from the top of the little chest freezer.

This hopefully will give me some extra head height for when the tomato plants grow to the point where they can be potted onto the vending machine cups, by then the next step should hopefully be the greenhouse on Spencer Road if I have managed to erect it in time. 

The other difference is that there is now a timer on the socket so that I don't have to remember to turn the lights on and off each day. Below is a photo pre modification.

On the round trip to the post office to send some mail with proof of posting I dropped off some kitchen compost & flowers to Spencer Road into Dalek 2, a layer of shredded cardboard, spent hops and horse manure. 

I also laid out the Onion weed membrane on bed 6 ready to take the onions down when I get a chance. I will  find a more permanent way of holding down the membrane like I have on Mill Green Allotment, but this will do until the onions go in.   

Leeks & Second Grow Panel

Swiss Giant Zermatt Leeks in a deep foam packing box have gone in today between showers and the Drawing & Calculations for a Kitchen Dining Room knock through.

I've also bought a second 225 LED 14W Grow Panel Red Blue Hydroponic Light Board Grow Tent LED hanger at £9.99 including delivery as I'm going to get two slightly larger plastic boxes and stack them so I have a double decker portable grow light station as I'm really impressed with how strong straight and un-leggy the seedling are when they go into the current Portable Grow Station

I also have sown 12 modules of Lobjoits Green Lettuce and another 12 modules of Little Gem Lettuce.

Chitting Spuds in Grow Station 2

This morning I had an Eureka moment with regards to Grow Station 2 and have decided that the shed being just over a degree warmer than outside and with the lights during the day and the heat mat during the night when a frost warning it's the ideal place to chit my early spuds for the start of the SoilFixers SF60 trials early next month, by which time hopefully the night time temperature will have improved.

The sun is out there is little cloud cover and the outside temperatures are much better today at 1:30pm being 7.8C outside an average of 10.44 in the greenhouse (5 readings) and 14.45 in the Grow Station 2 Shed (4 readings)

Temperature difference between outside in the shade beside the greenhouse and in the shed with the sun on it is 6.65 degrees Celsius.

Researching Grow Station 2 Update

I decided that I would monitor the effectiveness of the heating mat over a longer period of time and without keep opening the door and letting what ever ambient heat there was out and the cold air in the shed. So I took readings at 11:00am and again at 5pm so that's a six hour period twice as long as previously, and here are the results

Tray           1      2      3     Mat
11 am    - 2.8 / 3.0 / 2.9 /   2.9 outside temperature 1.7 Celsius I then turned mat on

  6 pm    - 8.5 / 6.9 / 7.8 / 15.8 outside temperature 2.7 Celsius
Increase  5.7 / 3.9 / 4.9 / 12.9                                  1.0

Average Increase in trays = 14.5 / 3 = 4.83 - 1.0 increase outside = 3.83 Celsius which is comparable with the three hour results and I don't anticipate it getting better with the current set up.

Tweaking & Researching Grow Station 2

Placing a larger piece of wood across the top of the freezer I will be able to get three trays, the heat mat can cover two trays completely of one in the middle and half of the trays either side .

I need to find a new home for the tree pruners and the garden rake, but that's a job for better weather as I need to clear the other two sheds that a full to the doors with junk.

As I said in a previous post there was confusion re the units of measurement of the temperature of the heat mat and I'm only looking at getting an increase of about 5.5 - 11 degrees C to the ambient temperature, half of that I was expecting.

Using a couple of the Lidl digital thermometers (I added a second after taking the photo) I have taken readings from the left side Tray 1 / Tray 2 / Tray 3 / on top of the mat between the mat and the corner of the mushroom tray over a three hour period and here were the results

Tray     1      2      3     Mat

3pm - 2.6 / 2.8 / 2.6 /   2.6 outside temperature 1.5 Celsius I then turned mat on

4pm - 5.0 / 5.1 / 4.8 / 12.0 outside temperature 1.5 Celsius

5pm - 5.8 / 5.2 / 5.6 / 13.1 outside temperature 1.5 Celsius

6pm - 6.4 / 5.5 / 6.1 / 13.6 outside temperature 1.3 Celsius

So although I could not feel the benefit of the mat with my hand there is an average increase of 3.39 degrees C in the trays over a three hour period. The temperature slowly continued to increase with time even when the outside temperature was falling between 5pm - 6pm.

I will re run this monitoring during a day over a longer time and see what happens beyond three hours, and without the associated heat loss from opening the door every hour take readings.

The timber will get battens screwed to the bottom either side of the freezer so that hooks on top and can't move sideways. I shall be lining the back wall and left wall and the underside of the shelf the light hangs from with white correx ( the stuff Estate Agent for sale signs are made of) to reflect the light.

At the moment the temperature obtained in the shed isn't enough for germination but may be OK for continued growth after germination, I think I need to look into that. If you have any views or opinions let me know in the comments below.

I may still look at a greenhouse tube heater with thermostat something like this to boost the ambient temperature to see if I can get nearer the 15 - 20 degree mark, again if you have used one of these tube heaters and think it would get me there please let me know before I sink another £20 - 30 into this grow station.
  

Brick Shed Grow Station 2

I finally made space elsewhere for the lawn mower that used to sit folded up on top of  the small freezer in the outside brick shed. The space release is not as large as I was visualising, actually putting it another way until they turned up I didn't realise that the two bulbs would be quite as large and take up quite as much room as they do.

The Lamp Socket Converter Bayonet / Screw & the Mercury Switched Clip on Lamp Holder (see post here) didn't really hold the lights as I wanted as the whole thing was a little bulky and wobbly at the converter. and the direction of the bulbs in relation to the Clip on Lamp Holder was all wrong, so I bought a E27 Pendant fitting with lead switch and 3 pin plug which arrived yesterday and a hook was screwed into the  underside of the shelf, an knot tied in the wire and hay presto we are in business.

I cut a timber to go on top of the fridge to protect it from the heat from the heat mat.

The heat mat was unrolled and a mushroom tray with soft bricks placed on it to flatten the mat as it has been rolled up in a box and would not initially lay flat. I left the heat mat on for a while, it had not warmed up that much, but it had flattened when I removed the mushroom tray & weights.  

There was that confusion about Centigrade and Fahrenheit, when I bought the heat mat the box states that "it warms the root area 10-20 degrees above ambient temperature" and I thought it was Centigrade as the dimensions were in mm on the box but on closer inspection printed on the mat, it states Fahrenheit, which real terms we are only looking at an increase of about 5.5 - 11 degrees C from the ambient temperature, half of that I was expecting..

I have purchased a E27 Light Bulb Lamp Holder that I will wire and screw directly under the shelf lifting the light up further away from the top of the little freezer.

Two full seed trays fit on top of the fridge under the lights comfortably so that's 30 vending machine cups in two 15 tray modules where I can start stuff off early.

I just need to get the greenhouse erected on Spencer Road so I have somewhere to farm it out to when they start getting a little larger.

LED Portable Grow Station

The urge to sow something is very strong, and I have not been able to clear the outside brick shed in order to set up a grow station, however in the process of clearing the office I have emptied a plastic storage box and have decided to use it to create a portable grow station.

I've fixed the LED panel that I bought on ebay a little while ago to the lid of the box using paperclips straightened with a hook at the end then using the hanging hole provided for the hanging wires. Then through holes I melted in the lid with my trusty soldering iron to line up, bent over on the outside and gaffer tapped down to prevent them slipping or moving.

As it happens the panel sits on the profiles that allows these kind of boxes to stack, but having the panel fixed to the lid will prevent the LED panel from slipping in and killing any seedlings 

A full tray fits comfortably in the storage box and I have an upturned tray and module liner as packing bringing the double tray with module liner and vending machine cups up close to the LED lights. So the plan will be to remove the middle module tray packer as the plants grow. 

At the moment I have the grow station sitting on another storage box at the end of my narrow office next to the radiator and the window, but I can relocate it in the outside store or in the spare bedroom if needs be.

So now all I need to do is fill the vending machine cups with a mixture MPC and seed and cutting compost and sow the Brussel Sprouts.

Cabbage Collers & Spuds

A visit to Lidl didn't result in the purchase of the thermometers as I had hoped as they may be in this week brochure but they don't put them out on the shop floor until Sunday. So home via Wyevale to look at the sale.

A number of packs of 30 number J Arthur Bower's Cabbage Collars reduced from £3.49 to 50p a pack. I believe I have enough for many a year to come. And a 2 kg pack of Estima Second Early potatoes for a £5

Clip on light arrived today and the two bulbs yesterday so only the converter from bayonet to screw and the screw T fittings to arrive and I'm ready to rock 'n' roll with Grow Station 2 

Grow Light Station 2

Brought my surfing and visiting shops looking for grow lights and ancillary items to a conclusion just before bed last night and have ordered the items I need for my second stage grow station 2.

From ebay

£  9.99  Philips Tornado 42W or 60W E27 Edison Cool White Spiral Energy Saving Light Bulb

£  9.95  Daylight 6500k Spiral SAD 42w Day Light E27 Low Energy Bulb Hydroponics Lamp

From Amazon

£  0.84   Lamp Socket Converter (E27 to 2x E27)

£  1.07   Skytronic 401.090 Lamp Socket Converter Bayonet Screw

£  3.80   Mercury Switched Clip on Lamp Holder
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£ 25.65

Post Christmas Parcels Arrive

Well these have arrived over the last couple of days

Apex Rotary Soil Sieve Compost Sieve Mesh Riddle from Germany

I have now received the main component parts for my first grow station, Just recalled I have a nice lump of timber in the back of the shed on one of the allotments that will do the base and timber batten for the framework, so I need to recover that next dry visit.