Re: Lighting

Greg is correct. For growing tomato fruit indoors use Metal Halide
lamps. I own several that I got for $20 each but never use. Purdue uses
them to grow corn during the winter for two crops of genetics per year. 
  For ordinary work, fuorescent is very useful. I have grown hundredes
of sweetpotato vine cuttings under fluorescent in a windowless boiler
room that offer me free 80 F when it was 10 below outdoors. I used cool
white tubes shop lights spaced 16 inches apart and 13 inches above floor
pots 4" tall. Those cuttings were good enough for the field. Mostly I
planted them in sand beds in the greenhouse. Comparing vines grown
during June in greenhouse with those under fluorescents hung 16" apart.
The GH vines were 50% longer and 3x the caliper. 
  Someone said tungsten is hotter than fluorescent. Fact: 100 watt
fluor, 100 watt tungeston, 100 watt motor, 100 watt human all warm a
room exactly the same. SP vine tips are killed whether they vine up into
a tungsten or fluor lamp, but the tung is a more concentrate heat and
kills faster. I spend time everyday bending vines down to avoid such
killing. My SP vines are slightly better under tungsten, but the light
covers 1/3 the area of a fluorescent.
  Sorry to be so wordy, but I could not find these answers before I
began such work. Now some of my greenhouse friends start plants in their
basement under fluorescent during Feb/March and take them to 110 x 100
foot GH and thereby save $1000 fuel per year.   

Chlorinated water. 
  I also do the chlorine analysis for the Palmyra drinking water. The
required level is only around 1 to 5 PPM.  That is so low it would be
quickly bound to organic matter in soil. The NaClO is essentially table
salt should have no measureable effect on plants. I use well water for
irrigation and can report a rain is much better than any kind of
irrigation--it is not a matter of sodium hypochlorite. 
-- 
Harold Eddleman Ph.D. Microbiologist.       i*@disknet.com 
Location: Palmyra IN USA; 36 kilometers west of Louisville, Kentucky
http://www.disknet.com/indiana_biolab = Agriculture, science projects
and info for amateurs, gardeners, farmers, teachers, kids
http://wwbbs.otherside.com/PUBLIC/HOMEPAGE/haroldeddleman_303/INDEX.HTM
  Home Science Projects: fun for parent and child, Computer programs 
http://ibl.webjump.com/ger.htm <== Simple german for beginners.



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