Update on Indoor Hydroponics Cherry Tomatoes: More Fruits!
A few months ago, I posted about my first experience in growing cherry tomatoes and how I started growing them indoors again.
Materials
- Barrina T5 LED Plant Lamp, Yellow, 29 cm, Full Spectrum Sunlight, Chainable Grow Lamp, LED Grow Light Strip with Switch, Plug and Play
- MICCYE Plant Lamp LED with Stand UV-IR Full Spectrum 286 LEDs Grow Lamp with 4/8/12H Timer, Dimmable
- Masterblend 4-18-38 Complete Combination Hydroponic Fertiliser Set, Hydroponic Nutrient System
- A USB fan
A few months ago, I posted about my first experience in growing cherry tomatoes and how I started growing them indoors again. Here's the post:
grococo
I wasn't expecting much since I read a lot of posts from people online who have trouble making the tomatoes fruit or ripen indoors but about a month after that post, I harvested a few cherry tomatoes and threw them in my salad. I realised that I harvested them a bit too early. They weren't really ripe enough and the fruits weren't so sweet.
There were times when I got too busy or lazy to deal with any of the plants so they just grew wildly. Since I use a timer to turn the grow lights on and off, this wasn't really a problem. Growing them hydroponically also helped because the water + nutrient buckets they were in could last for several weeks. I was surprised to look up one day (the plants were upstairs) and see several fruits of different colours - green, orange, and red. I climbed up and took pictures.
Light
Engulfed by the leaves are three pieces of Barrina T5 LEDs. I tried drilling them to the ceiling but it was too messy. I tried taping them to the ceiling and unsurprisingly, it didn't work so I just clipped them on to the net over the fence. Of course, these three lights weren't enough to grow tomatoes. I added more light support with a standing LED lamp from MICCYE. I placed it facing the fence where the plants are. I bought everything from Amazon.
Pollination
Since there's no wind and pollinators indoors, I first tried to pollinate the flowers myself. Using a cotton swab, I rubbed the centre of the flowers. After some fruits formed and several flowers appeared, I got too overwhelmed and decided to use a USB fan instead. I just angled it so the air "wiggles" the branches where the flowers are. I switched up the angle every few days or until I see fruits forming.
Automation
Nothing fancy here. Just a good old timer set up to make sure the plants get at least 16 hours of light per day. You need less if you're growing outside but grow lights are less intense than the sun. For the timer, I just bought one of those 3 EUR socket timers.
While this wasn't the best condition and you can see signs of neglect when I basically forgot about the plants, they still managed to produce fruits. Tomatoes are just great like that. Some of the fruits were so red and ripe so I decided to harvest them. This time, they tasted very sweet.
This post is a bit late and I have cleared up the space upstairs and removed the tomato plants last autumn. It was sad cutting off the living plants and throwing them into the compost but I knew from the beginning that it would just be an experiment if I could do this in Austria, indoors, without heaters or expensive LED lights, etc. I'm just so tired of reading stuff online like "you need X watts, humidifiers, a heater, a mylar tent, and this and that to grow tomatoes indoors, otherwise don't even think about it". I want to try things out myself. If it fails, so what?
For this space upstairs, I placed several golden pothos with climbing poles next to the fence. I'm hoping that it would grow high and thick enough to make some kind of "wall of leaves". Then I will probably place a mat and turn it into some kind of nook for reading, drinking tea, or just a quiet place surrounded by plants in general.
