CXA3070s for Growing Indoor Fruit and Vegetables

OneHitDone said:

Then at some point the question will eventually be raised - "What are the long term health effects of eating produce grown under artificial lighting?"

Click to expand...

nogod_ said:

I know you prefer the cellar........

But if light quality is your concern (not space), why not throw a few light bars in a greenhouse outside and let em rip only when its cloudy?

The low profile of CoBs lends itself to sun supplementation without the massive sun-obscuring hoods required by HID fixtures. You could basically hide your fixtures where the greenhouse frame exists anyway.

Click to expand...

Metacanna said:

Ideally I would like to have a set up where with the minimum light possibly I could get enough food for us (we are 2...) and be self-sufficient in zucchini, tomatoes and peppers, which are the most expensive and more often consumed around here.
So you already have an estimate regarding the production of zucchini, around 1 zucchini per plant per week. Now let's see how many tomatoes you get. If you get more than needed you could reduce the number of COBs or reduce the number of tomato plants and add a new crop like peppers.
I would be happy with a 400W set up that could produce half a kilo of tomatoes, peppers and zucchini per week. It would be economically feasible with the big plus of eating the freshest and healthiest possible. I'm a bit septic about the pesticides and herbicides applied in commercial scale grown crops, I wouldn't hesitate a second given the opportunity to grow my own. There's still no clear evidence concerning the long term effects of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and so on in our health, so I prefer to play safe.

When you say the zucchini you grew tastes different, I would say the main difference is the fact that it is fresher and that have an impact in the taste. Store bought veggies tend to travel big distances during some days in cool chambers and that reduces the general quality of the product (taste, texture, smell). Central and western European supermarkets are flooded with Spanish produce, that's 3000+km from farmer to consumer.

Click to expand...

OneHitDone said:

Great info here!
This is to me right in line with the Hydro vs organic flavor debate. If organic does taste better then what are the compounds that contribute to that and the process by which they are generated and at what levels in the soil to make a difference?

Click to expand...

CellarDweller said:

My caveat above stands (that I am willing to accept anything is possible until we know what is a fact), BUT......

....I just have this sneaking suspicion that there is more at play than nutes / minerals in terms of plant behaviour and flavour/compound formation.

As an example - mykorrizia spores are not present in hydro......do they have an impact on root formation? Yes. Do hydro roots get this benefit? No. Does this root change have an effect on the volume of certain compounds present in the living plant matter when we harvest? Perhaps.

If certain processes that build certain flavour compounds occur within the root complex, then it surely follows that if you increase the volume of root matter, you will increase the potential for these flavour compounds to be created. If the plant has no monitoring system to limit the amount of these flavour compounds being created, then perhaps this would account for a flavour differential?

My point here is that I am firmly of the opinion that we must look to the compounds that make up the flavour profiles of fruit and veg in order to trace their lineage back through the build process and ultimately to the source. From there we can justifiably claim to attempt to create a science based approached (i.e. repeatable and consistent results) that are not based on subjective taste, but on identifying the volume of particular flavour compounds present in any given plant food.

However, that is a long way (12 months?) into my experiments......and in the meantime I have a "real" life I will say one thing though, being interested in molecular gastronomy, flavour profiling, chemistry and now botany......I find they are all rather complimentary.

Which is nice.

Click to expand...

churchhaze said:

http://scienceinhydroponics.com/2010/05/fruit-quality-and-high-ec-values-in-tomatoes.html

"The relantionship between high conductivity and high fruit quality clearly depends on how you evaluate fruit quality. In general, the nutritional quality of a fruit is measured by the concentration of important nutrients within it. In the case of tomatoes, important nutrients such as lycopene, vitamin C, carotenoids and phenolics determine most of the tomato’s nutritional value. However, fruit quality – from a market perspective – relates to size, shape, uniformity and firmness and market duration."

"Another very important fact is that not only nutritional value was increased but total dissolved solids and organic acids – which contribute significantly to the fruit’s flavor – also increased significantly. Overall the study concludes that all quality related parameters increased with the increase in salinity pointing out clearly that raising tomatoes at high salinity levels is an excellent way to increase fruit quality. The reduction of yield can be compensated for by the higher inner quality of the fruit allowing it to compete more effectively with other higher-yielding yet lower quality productions within the market."

(this blog is from the guy that wrote hydrobuddy)

Fruits you buy at a store tend to use watered down nutrient formulas to get bigger, but waterier fruits with less nutritional value, and probably grow varieties for bigness and shape.

Click to expand...

OneHitDone said:

What are your thoughts on how salinity levels effect cannabis smoke characteristics and flavor?

Click to expand...

churchhaze said:

I've been wondering about this for a while. I would imagine that a higher concentration of K would prevent buds from drying out as much, but a higher level of P theoretically should reduce starch levels. Other than that, it might mean more ashes when burned. I like to smoke dry weed, so not drying out as much would be a negative to me.

Realistically, I'm not sure if there's much noticeable difference. This is the flushing argument put another way.

Click to expand...

ShyGuru said:

Another possibility for the taste difference that I didn't see mentioned is you could possibly be growing a different variety than what's commonly carried in stores. I've read that there are often more tasty varieties than what's found in supermarkets but they may not ship and store as well so they don't work for commercial farmers. And often store bought veggies are picked before their peak ripeness, again for shipping reason, which will definitely effect taste. I just harvested my first home grown cucumber ever and there was definitely a lot more flavor than a store bought cuke, tho mine was of a smaller size.

Click to expand...

OneHitDone said:

What is your take on how most soil grown plants are completely "faded out" or yellow/crispy at the end vs hydro usually still having a lot of green left in it?
The whole let the plant "eat itself" idea. I would think that would be a negative in reality. If nature is the gold standard there is no way soil in the ground is completely nutrient-less at the end of the season.

Click to expand...

qwerkus said:

Have you tried pee-ponics ? Using urine for fertilization works pretty well on cucurbitaceae. Takes a bit test to know how much when to add, but it would definitely increase the salinity for your plants.

Click to expand...