Indoor tomato plant

[carlfaba10t]

Has anyone ever kept a tomato plant inside all winter until spring,i want to see if there is an advantage over starting from scratch.I brought mine in before cold weather started and was plucking ripe tomatoes up till about two weeks ago.The plant is in a large planter about 7 gal. capacity its about 2ft tall and has only florescent light during the daytime,the plant has quit blooming but is still plenty green. 

[AllenF]

Keep it pruned, just remember that the temp causes the plant to set blooms so if you set it out early in the spring, you may not have very early fruit. 

[BlueBee]

You may have seen this link already. http://www.ehow.com/info_12072440_annual-vs-perennial-tomatoes.html   Evidently they grew some tomatoes as perennials at Epcot center and a single plant allegedly produced 32,000 tomatoes.   I find that a little hard to believe myself, I would check the sources of that article!

I used to grow orchids indoors but even they were too much of a pain in a cold climate so now I don’t try to overwinter ANYTHING (except for bees ).  The problem in the winter at Northern latitudes is obviously a good source of light.  I never tried any florescent lights, but it seems since their light spectrum is so spiky, they would not be the best light source for a plant.  But who knows, if the emissions spikes happen to correspond with absorption spikes in the plants chloroplasts, then you’re golden!

[carlfaba10t]

BLUEBEE: Thanks for the info, As for the light spectrum " if i had only learned to speak GREEK" Ha. anyway at least i know it has ben done according to your article,that was my main point. I do have the plant close to two thermal pane windows and also the lights are on about 8 to 10 hrs per day.Had some darn nice slicers after they vine ripened in mid December Temp in room stays around 65 to 70 degrees night and day.I heat with wood.You cant buy vine ripened tomatoes here after the farmers markets close around September.
  So if this plant survives until spring i will post and let you know.It has put on some new leaves since i pruned it about two weeks ago.

[edward]

There are special fluorescent lights that they use in green houses, the spectrum of light is close to the ones that are in low energy light bulbs and ordinary fluorescent lights.
To succeed remember that the summer days are long so to produce the plant will need 14-18hrs of light a day.
This weekend I will bee planting chili seeds that will hopefully produce fruit this fall and will bee using ordinary fluorescent lights again as the sun is only over the horizon 6hrs so far 


mvh edward  

[BlueBee]

I know there are now formulations of phosphorous that fluoresce different than the old office standard “cool white” tubes.  However they’re still driven by the UV emission lines from Mercury which are digital in nature. The fluorescing just smears the digital nature a little.

I’m curious to know if they’re as good at growing plants as the continuous spectrum bulbs like Halogens.  I just never see a bunch of fluorescent lights on TV when the cops bust an illegal pot grow house.

Maybe I’ll do a little web research before bed......

[edward]

It works for me and the rest of the gardening club 

On of the more knowledgeable gardeners bought the more expensive kind and also used the ordinary house hold kind and couldn't see any difference in growth beetween them.

The illegal guys probably use the best of the best. Also to consider is warmth from the lights, the garden club grower had his nursery in his boiler room in the winter and early spring and then out in a greenhouse.

If you use the house hold kind it is better to go with the strongest watt you can find.

mvh edward 

[BlueBee]

I was out garage sale shopping last summer and saw a couple of MASSIVE stadium like outdoor lights for sale at an estate sale.  They were 1000 watts each.  Just out of curiosity, I asked the guy what on Earth do you do with such big lights.   He said they had mounted them on top of their barn and used them to illuminate a soccer field behind the barn.  He said he could give me a great deal on them if I wanted some lights.  I said NO, I had no use for such giant lights.....but how much would something like that sell for?  He said he would sell me both lights (2000 watts) for $10.  LOL…so now I have 2 massive stadium lights in my barn collecting dust. 

[edward]

Ive also got two of those, they can turn night into day 

but they are to hot for greenhouses 

I have used mine when I had a garden party, they make the electric meter spin really fast 


mvh edward 

[carlfaba10t]

My thought is you do not need that much light to overwinter a plant.Just a little water now and then just to keep plant alive.Not trying to make it produce during winter.When spring arrives then we will see what if any advantage there may be.
  I am hoping if i do everything right it grows 4 ft tall with lots of large tomatoes.

[BGhoney]

I have tried a few times wintering tomatoes and fushias, the biggest problem i had was pests, white flies and aphids love over wintered plants

[ch.cool]

Hi, a friend of mine is a tomato grower and he is using state of the art LED($1000 a unit) lights in a grand sponsored field test. He is already growing plants here in Ohio. My wife used one of those LED's last winter in a school project(not really successful but it was run by kids).
If you need more information send me a PM.
Try the fluorescent aquarium lights bulbs (T5  6700°K) for planted aquariums, that's what I have for my aquarium and the light spectrum should match all plants.

ch.cool