Let there be light!

[torquill]

I set up my light rack, with new lights. PVC frame, lights, blanket, fan, timer... the new lights actually turn on and off when the timer trips, which is a change from the POS ballasts I used to have -- they needed me to tap the lights to coax them to life. Since I don't need to do that now, though, I can just set the whole thing, fan and all, on a timer and not worry about whether I remembered to turn them on that morning. Woo automation!

Only one light has the chains attached, since it's a pain to convert the chains from my old setup to these. It's okay, though -- I usually want one shelf to be as high as possible for tall plants, and the second set of lights is resting on the supports I use for the chains, with the lights shining between the PVC supports. I'll just elevate any trays I have up there and take away the props as the plants grow, until they're tall enough to take up the whole space.

Can't wait to plant. I might set things up tomorrow, actually -- it sounds obscenely early, but my pepper plants are always tiny puny things when I plant them alongside my tomatoes, and five weeks more would let them get to a normal size. Sterilizing containers would give me something to do tomorrow. :)

I think I've got a decent setup for watering planned... the best the folks at the irrigation supply place could suggest was essentially a metered splitter, sending off eight feeds of a set GPH (1 per, 0.5 per, etc.). No tiny holes which would scale closed in a matter of weeks with our mineral-rich well water, just standard 1/4" tubing and a pretty straightforward elbow-connector. I can flex the tubing to get rid of deposits, and the splitter could be soaked in hydrochloric acid and scrubbed with a pipe cleaner between seasons. So I've been mapping out how many of which kind I would need, and then I get to buy a lot of 1/4" tubing.

I'm so funny. Nick keeps beaming when I run on about watering systems and seed varieties and light racks... He thinks it's great that I'm working on this stuff again, because (though he could care less about the content) he can see it gives me all sorts of enthusiasm and happiness. What can I say? It's what I live for.

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[knaveofhearts.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for another project, we could do my yard this year.