Firstly a couple of commonly asked questions

Why do I need grow lights?

If you have enough sunlight you don't need them, our Indoor Vegetable Garden growing systems can be used with or without grow lights, they are made of long-lasting Perspex which is UV stable and stainless steel fittings so they can even be used outside with care as they are light weight, so cannot be too tall in windy situations. But let's just talk about the inside applications at this stage. Different plants require different levels of light, for instance growing wheatgrass only requires a well lit room, meaning with reflected light, Pic.2o, but most plants require some hours of direct sunlight, if you do not have this available or you do not have enough then you can use these low-power LED grow lights, if you do not have any direct sunlight then you will probably have them on for 8 hours per day, if you have a couple of hours direct sunlight then obviously they don't need to be on as long.

Isn't it expensive to use electricity to grow plants?

Again this is relative, so let's assume you have no direct sunlight and you're going to use your lights for 8 hours per day. At 2012 Sydney electricity prices 2x10W bar lights will cost you $0.24 per week, now take a look at picture, 2f, this is a 200mm diameter tray of Snowpea sprouts, now look at picture, 3b, here you see 4 of these trays growing under 2x10W bar lights ie $0.24 per week. To grow 3 small salad green plant e.g. Rocket lettuce, small Basil plant, Parsley, Coriander using the 60cmL 11cmW light which uses 45W = $0.53/wk. (See LED Grow Lights section below for calculation breakdown). Also to note the rises in the cost of electricity, in my opinion, are just a phase we are going through, as we wean ourselves reluctantly away from fossil fuels, the universe has an abundant supply of energy, for a small look at some of the things that are going to be available in the near future check out these short talks. http://wimp.com/freeenergy/ or these ones (Abundant cheap energy, THORIUM Summary and Abundant cheap energy, THORIUM – NASA aerospace engineer explains )

The lights seem expensive?

In the past we looked at lights as being something that you changed regularly, earlier systems using compact fluorescent lights would require you to change the light bulb is approximately every 6 to 9 months, LED lights have a recommended life of between 50 and 100,000 hours, realistically they will maintain above 80% brightness for greater than 30,000 hours so if you're using these lights for 8 hours a day that means you have an expected minimum usage of 30,000/(365x8)=10 years.

The benefits of growing indoors under low-power LED lights.

ü  Many of the advantages of the backyard veggie patch plus

ü  No pests, meaning, no checking each leaf for a crawling life form.

ü  No need to wash your salad greens (huge time saver) just cut and put straight on your plate.

ü  If you are busy and come home in the dark, no need to go outside with a torch.

ü  It’s fun and easy, a great way to introduce children to the joys of gardening, even if you live in a high-rise apartment.

ü  It makes an attractive feature for your lounge room, lights only need to be on for 6 to 10 hours a day (I use 9hrs 8am-5pm).

ü  Plants grow faster, no weeds, for the IVG (S1 & S2) each shelf receives warmth from the lights on the shelf below, except for the bottom shelf, greatly accelerating growth rates.

ü  Except for growing under lights, instead of the Sun, it can be in totally organic, if you have a sunny window filling a room with reflected light, then your plants will be receiving the best of both worlds.

What sort of things can I grow?

Well you can grow just about anything, but this is what we recommend and think will be the most popular use for our Indoor Vegetable Garden - S1 & Indoor Vegetable Garden - S2 growing systems.

1.     The most economic and abundant crops are the Vertical Sprouts or Micro-greens (Pic. Group 2), taking 1-2 weeks e.g. Broccoli, Cress, Mustard, Field pea, Wheatgrass(2j,o) and my 2 favourites Radish(2i,m,n), and the true Snow pea (2a,b,c,d,f), which takes 2-3 weeks.

2.     The next group is your salad greens that grow quite short and start to have pick-able leaves in about 1 month or varieties that produce small leaves, Rocket, Parsley, and Coriander. Then there are other larger plants such as Sweet Basil, small leaf Spinach, which you just pick the leaves from.

3.     The next group is your Herbs which tend to be perennial ie grow for a few years you only pick a few leaves from and the plant grows for a longer period of time, I have 3 small Mint plants growing, normal traditional mint, Spearmint and Vietnamese mint, these can all be grown from a cutting so just get one from a friend or purchase a seedling, of course you can grow from seeds as well. These plants are good as you can trim them and train them to grow within a restricted area and they will just keep going (just don’t over fertilize them).

4.     The next group is the fruiting crops eg cherry Tomatoes, these can be grown in the base stand of IVG-S1 & S2 (Pic. Group 5), here you would train them around the edges. Or grow them in a larger pot where the lights are separate (Pic.Grp. 6). We will discuss this group further in another document.

Now we will talk about the different growing Containers, then the growing Systems that we offer and the different types of LED lights that go with them, then the growing Medium & Fertilisers we use.

Growing Containers. For More Info. Click On > Plant-Containers

Pic.Grp. 1, we use a combination of circular and rectangular trays that perform a dual function, one is as a reservoir for the pots, and the other is to grow Micro-green sprouts in e.g. Broccoli, Radish, Cress, Snow pea, Wheatgrass, Mustard etc please see our sprouting kits section for more information on this. For More Info. Click On > Wheat-Grass-and-Sprout-Kits

To grow larger plants we use either the round pots, 1f, which there are 2 sizes of in most situations the smaller one is better as you can fit 3 of these into the larger rectangular tray it also fits nicely into the round tray giving lots of area to add water. The larger one will not fit in the rectangular tray but will fit in the round tray I use this one from growing a larger plane like a tomato in one of the IVG- S1 or S2 systems. The other option is a square pot, the advantage of this pot is that it fits nicely inside the rectangular tray, you can even get 3 of them in the small tray, 1h. The other alternative is to just buy a pot of herbs from your local market and bring them home and put in one of the systems next to a sunny window or under lights most pots that you buy this way will fit into either the rectangular trays of around trays.

The other option is to use larger s/w planter pots which are stand-alone, meaning that the lights stand or support is separate from the growing container, (Pics. 6).  The 2 that we offer for this purpose is a 60cm long planter box, for indoor use this is best used in conjunction with the 575 mm tray which provides an extra level of safety in case you accidentally overfill the internal reservoir. The other option is the tomato tower which is a square shaped planter box with a support frame to support a climbing plant or tallish plant. Indoor Vegetable Garden – S3 Vertical  ,  Indoor Vegetable Garden – S4 Hanging

Vertical Sprouts or Micro-greens (Pic. Group 2). For More Info. Click On > Wheat-Grass-and-Sprout-Kits

Wheat Grass, Barley Grass, Snow Pea, Field Pea, Sunflower, Cress, Mustard, Broccoli, Radish), this is where the seeds are grown like a seedling & you just eat the green tips, this is where you get your mega doses of Chlorophyll from. The most well-known example of this method is Wheatgrass, as we said earlier if you have a well lit room with lots of reflected light then you don't really need extra lighting, 2o, however I have noticed when I do use extra lighting the green colour i.e. chlorophyll pigment, extends all the way to the base of the shoot, this is normally just limited to the top two thirds. We use shallow trays, both rectangular or round, 30mm deep and come with germination covers,. 

There is a specially designed tray or grill that sits inside the 475mm rectangular trays and the 200 mill diameter round tray to allow you to grow the larger seeds such as FieldPea and Snowpea without the use of potting mix, such as coconut fibre, but still have the advantages of using the nutrients, such as the liquid Seaweed, Dolomite, Azomite and Magnesium Chloride. 

We have not included them in the base kit so as to keep the base price as low as possible, you may choose to add one to the kit to see whether you prefer this method. The grill can also be used with smaller seeds, but you have 2 cover at with a fine layer of soil or CocoFibre. So the main advantage of using this cruel insert is that it greatly reduces the amount of growing material that you use and it also makes watering easier as you are pouring directly into the base of the tray and not on to the top of growing medium.

Personally I eat a lot of greens, and the 2 sprouts that I grow all the time this way are Radish and Snowpea, the advantage of using lights with these micro-greens is that they develop bigger leaves and less stork i.e. they're not chasing the light. Snowpea 2a-f, Radish 2i,m,n.

For the vertical sprouting we use 2 growing mediums:-

·       nutrient rich organic coconut fibre as the growing medium, this comes inconvenient size blocks which you just mixed with the organic nutrients and water and it is ready for use, it is easy to spread & has no soil born contaminants, great for using indoors.

·       nutrient rich water, using a specially designed tray or grill that sits inside the trays, this grill insert has large holes & is designed to grow Large Seeds eg Snow Pea & Field Pea, without the need for coco fibre. It can also be used to grow smaller seeds eg Wheat, Radish etc but needs a small layer of coco fibre to suport the seeds. Creates a miniture self watering pot, making watering easier.

Growing Sytems IVG-S1 (Pic. Group 3).  For More Info. Click On > Indoor Vegetable Garden - S1

IVG-S1 is designed to support 1 or 2 x 200mm diameter round trays per shelf, these can contain 1 or 2 plants,(3c,5a) or can be used for sprouting Micro-Greens,(3b).
It also has the option of mounting the lights vertically on the sides this can be useful when you have a tallish plant, where lighting only from above can mean that the growth at the lower levels is retarded,(5b).

This is a great solution for growing several of your favourite herbs that you always seem to need, for me that would be mint, basil, parsley and marjoram. Or just go to your local market bring home a pot of ready to eat coriander just place them in the tray and trim as needed adding water once a week. Or as you can see in (3d) you can mix and match, it uses the 30cm bar lights of which you require one for each shelf of micro-greens and 2 per shelf for Herbs.

Growing Sytems IVG-S2 (Pic. Group 4).  For More Info. Click On > Indoor Vegetable Garden - S2

IVG-S2 is designed to support 1x 475mm or 575mm long rectangular trays per shelf, generally the shorter tray is useful micro-greens and the longer tray is used to support pots for growing herbs. Like IVG-S1 you can add up to 3 stands vertically but you can also expand the system horizontally. It is mainly designed for the use of the 60 cm bar lights see below for a description of which one to choose. In (4c) you can see 2 versions of this system the one in the background is (4b), in the foreground you have 3 levels of 3 pot plants per shelf being grown at the back and for Shelfs of micro-greens being grown at the front.

It also has the option of mounting the lights vertically on the sides this can be useful when you have a tallish plant, where lighting only from above can mean that the growth at the lower levels is retarded,(5c).

Growing Sytems IVG-S3 Vertival & S4 Hanging (Pic. Group 3).  For More Info. Click On > Indoor Vegetable Garden - S3 Vertical & Indoor Vegetable Garden - S4 Hanging

IVG-S3 Vertical (6a,b) is a system using the same bar lights but the growing container is not supported by the system, this allows you to use larger pots the most common being the tomato tower pot which comes with its own travel system.

IVG-S4 Hanging (6c) is is a system that allows you to hang multiple bar lights from a ceiling or an overhead structure supplied by you, it allows you to angle the lights at the site giving a very directed coverage of the plants you are growing again can be used with the 3 types of bar lights that we supply.

LED grow lights

These lighting systems are designed to be economical (1x 30cm 3cmW uses 10 W; 1x 60cmL 3cmW light uses 19W; 1x 60cmL 11cmW light uses 45W). 10W of light energy used for 8 hours per day will cost you at 2012 Sydney prices 10x8x7= 0.56 kW x $0.21 = $0.12 per week, & give the urban dweller the ability to grow all their own salad needs.

Wattage	x	hours used per day	÷	1000	x	price per kWh Sydney 2012	cost of electricity per day	cost of electricity per week	cost of electricity per year
10	x	8	/	1000	x	$0.21	$0.017/day	$0.12/week	$6.2/year

To grow a small salad green plant e.g. Rocket lettuce, a small Basil plant e.g. Lemon Basil (4) using the 60cmL 11cmW light uses 45W = $0.53/wk.

Pic.Grp.7- shows the different types of lights that can be used with these stands. Note these lights do not use a fan, therefore no noise. There are 3 types of lights which all have the option of being Blue dominant White, tailored for growing leafy greens and micro-green sprouts, and a Red dominant tailored for growing flower and fruit e.g. Tomato, Strawberries etc. The top picture shows 2x (30cm Long 3cm Wide bar lights) each light is 9x 1W LEDs. The middle picture shows 2x (60cm Long 3cm Wide bar lights) each light is 18x 1W LEDs.  The bottom picture shows 1x (60cm Long 11cm Wide bar lights) each light is 27x 3W LEDs (equivalent of 3 groups of 15x 1W LEDs).

The advantage of the thinner 3cm wide bar lights is that they can be used singularly to grow micro-greens or in a group of 2 or 4 to grow herbs, they can also be attached vertically which is very useful when you're growing tall plants that require extra light at the lower levels.

The advantage of the wider 11cm wide bar lights is that the LEDs are grouped into 3 circles which are spaced so they focus over the 3 pots of herbs below. They also come with extra lenses which creates greater intensity. You can also add lenses to the 3 cmW bar lights, but it adds to the expense, but the option is there if you choose.

For More Info. Click On-> LED Grow Lights Over view

Growing Medium & Fertiliser.

We use CocoFibre as a principal growing medium this comes as a compressed brick which you just add water to it is organic and clean and lightweight for shipment. As we mentioned above we combine this with Azomite and dolomite and liquid seaweed for the micro-greens sprouting. This mix can also be used to grow your pot plants but you will need to add fertiliser

We use an organic fertiliser that is made from composted and fermented vegetable material i.e. no animal products are used in this product, this means that it does not have that strong smell of other types of fertiliser that use animal waste, this is particularly valuable when you are considering growing indoors near your living area.

The other advantage is that it comes in two types, one type is for the vegative stage of growth which is all you need for growing salad greens, however if you wish to grow plants to flower and fruit e.g. tomatoes then you switch to a different fertiliser when the plants are ready to flower, which is designed to support this stage of growth.

The other magic ingredient is liquid seaweed fertiliser mixed with humic acid.

I also keep a bag of organic slow release fertiliser which is in the pellet form and I put this towards the bottom of the pot but making sure it is totally covered above and below, this way your pot plant is not totally dependent on you supplying the fertiliser. Or of course you can just use a potting mix from your local nursery.

For More Info. Click On->  Organic-Fertiliser-and-Growing-Medium