Brian Gallimore's Blog

Seed Swap

I participated in a seed swap meeting today. The miracle of the Interwebs brought together a group of about 30 people who were interested in meeting up to swap out seeds with each other. That alone was amazing to me. I picked up some pretty cool seeds, and got to hear from several other gardeners and learn how they make things grow.

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Like Chocolate Much?

Bryson adamantly told me not to take any licks or wash anything until he was ready and in place. I think I might have got one taste in before he pushed me away and started cleaning house.

Brownie batter is so good, I close my eyes

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Grow Lights Done

Home Depot sells a 4-bulb instant start ballast for $20. I was going to order a ‘high ballast factor’ ballast for $35, but I decided to buy this one and get it done tonight instead. The new ballast fit perfectly into the cheap shop light fixture, so I didn’t have to drill any new holes or use new hardware. Since the instant start doesn’t heat the end filaments, the wiring is cut in half. I tried to determine if the fixture with 2 2-bulb ballasts or the 1 4-bulb ballast was brighter. I couldn’t determine a difference with my eye. I screwed two more hooks to the ceiling and rigged up some paracord for the second fixture. I was thinking about building a rack, but this setup was quick and easy and will get me through this year. I can always change it up next year if I have excessive time on my hands! (doesn’t ever seem to happen)

New 4-bulb ballast installed

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Garden Update – January 16, 2011

The two varieties of pepper plants that had not sprouted yesterday sprouted today. (Ancho 101 and California Wonder) I was worried that I killed them by cooking them in the 105 degree F environment of my new seed starter box, but all 4 plants were poking through the soil tonight. Now my window sill is full, I have to get my grow lights functional and mounted this week. (need a ballast for the second fixture, and some way to mount everything)

I planted 8 more pots, 2 each of the following:

Fooled You Jalapeno Hybrid

Napoleon Sweet

Yummy Orange

Serrano Tampiqueno

These were put in my homemade newswpaper pots inside plastic bags, then overwatered (not on purpose), and placed in the new seed starter box. I’ll leave the plastic bags open a little to vent off moisture until the excess water is gone, then close them up until the seeds sprout.

Pots from Newspaper

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve been buying peat pots to plant my seeds in. Using newspaper to make a small pot is so quick and easy, this is the way to go. I made mine a little bigger than other people, but that is the way I do everything! Click through the pictures, descriptions are in the titles.

1: Full Sheet - folded in half

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Grow Light Modification

I’m giving my grow light more horsepower this year. I did a little research on fluorescent bulbs and learned that the bulbs will withstand higher current flow, which results in higher light output. This higher output comes at the cost of higher energy use and lower bulb life. A common way of achieving this is ‘overdriving’ the bulbs by rewiring the fixture. There is lots of information on the interwebs about this, and it is pretty confusing because most of the information seems to be written by people who have accomplished something without understanding what is really going on. Here is my explanation:

Fluorescent bulbs have the property that they conduct better as they heat up, so it is critical that the current be controlled through the bulb. This is the job of the ballast. Traditionally this was done by taking advantage of the fact that standard electricity changes direction 120 times per second and the properties of an inductor to limit fast current changes. These types of ballasts are known as magnetic, and are the cheapest ones you can buy today. Modern times brought electronic ballast that are more efficient because they increase the switching frequency to send more pulses to the bulbs per second.

Using an electronic ballast, it is possible to drive a single bulb with the output intended for 2 bulbs (or 3 or 4). The cheapest (initially) way to accomplish this is to buy 2 cheap shop light fixtures from Home Depot ($10 each), remove the ballast from one of the fixtures and install it in the other fixture. Rewire both ballast so that each ballast (designed to drive 2 bulbs) drives only one bulb. So for $20, you have one fixture with 2 ballast, and one fixture that is now a skeleton. For the fixture that is cannibalized, I’m going to use a single new electronic ballast designed for 4 bulbs, and wire it to power the 2 bulbs.

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Brian Gallimore's Blog

Seed Swap

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Like Chocolate Much?

Brownie batter is so good, I close my eyes

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Garden Update – January 18, 2011

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Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex

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Grow Lights Done

New 4-bulb ballast installed

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Garden Update – January 16, 2011

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Pots from Newspaper

1: Full Sheet - folded in half

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Sims and Glenda’s 40th

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Grow Light Modification

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