Beyond "basic": houseplant style?

[khyberkitsune]

If you drink large bottles of soda (2 liter or more) fill them with water, cut holes in your roof, drop a few of those directly in and seal around them. The larger the bottle, and the clearer, the better of a constant light capture/transfer device you have.

Keep the plants under the veranda, still get them constant light, even at noon.

[Egzoset]

Hello Khyberkitsune,

I'm afraid making holes into the roof is no option as i don't own the building but i've found a way to help with sun capture anyway:

Attachment 277282

This simple system improves positioning tolerance and a reflective 4' x 4' sheet only costs a few dollars!

[Purple Daddy]

I have a front bedroom that gets pretty direct sunlight through one window until about noon then 50%+ through another window until about 4 p/m. I've grown plants in this room with supplimental lighting with fair success, not as well as I thought they may grow.

[Egzoset]

Salutations Purple Daddy,

Right now it's fairly straightforward to grow practically about anything in front of my windows because the plants are tiny. I've chosen an equally small vase for each plant hoping that this contributes to help limiting their height, by restricting available space for the roots... Dimensions are as follows: 8 inches dia. at the top, 4+ inches at the base, 6 inches in between (not including an internal bottom plate) - there's a large hole at the bottom for ventilation and it's covered with a plate made permeable by the presence of multiple draining holes, this way the roots are expected to get plenty of oxygen... Each vase was filled with a mix of dark gardening top soil, peat potting soil and perlite; one soil is said to be enriched with compost while "plant food" has been included into the other. I started filling by putting a slim layer of fine aquarium rocks on the bottom plate to garantee proper ventilation then i covered this layer with a suitable textile to prevent clogging. Perlite mixed to the soils is supposed to contribute to water retention and prevent excessive compactness, to ease gaseous exchanges. A thin perlite layer separates the soil layers, it should work like a transitory water buffer: i don't want the roots to be completely drowned and risk becoming rotten. I used less perlite as the vase was getting filled, going from abundant to none, then i covered everything with coloured aquarium rocks to slow down evaporation from sun exposure; it sure improves the looks too and watering a plant doesn't cause soil splashes that way... My hope is that this creative layered piece of work will do fine at least until my dwarf plants have completed their life cycle. One problem i'm probably going to face would be weight as my AutoMarias are growing taller, perhaps in a few weeks i'll need to put them on wheels, for convenience and safety... When this experiment is over i plan to proceed to a post-mortem examination of the root system relatively to the layered soil structure: somehow i'm expecting to learn something there which i can use in my future gardening adventures!

[Purple Daddy]

I'm sure they'll do just fine.

[Egzoset]

Dexter007 wrote that he could grow cannabis in front of a window in Ireland, in winter, and harvest successfully...

This sort of tells me it's worth a try, or two! :detective1:

[Egzoset]

...or three!

Attachment 277711

:420thought:

[Egzoset]

Attachment 278641

Attachment 278640

[Egzoset]

My 2nd self-cultivator session so far:

Attachment 280978

...under four 45 Watts (3000 lm) CFL lamps so far, two more soon...

[bobjob4u]

If you can get them under hps they will yield out maybe double then what you will get with cfl. Either way enjoy.