Artificial light for outdoor tomatoes?

 

Our neighbors' giant maple trees continue to encroach on our view of the
sky and the sunniest parts of our garden now get only about 2 or 3 hours
of direct sun during the summer. With the economy the way it is, they're
not interested in any serious pruning for a while. Other than a
fortuitous windstorm or maple blight, we're probably stuck this way for
years.

The growing season in Minnesota is short enough without this additional
handicap.

Can artificial light speed up the ripening of outdoor tomatoes? Can it
be done without us ending up with tomatoes at $10/each?

We only have 3 plants, which used to be enough; two "early" varieties
and one conventional. One of the early plants will have some fruit ready
this coming week, but September is coming fast.

I see Web sites selling all sorts of lighting systems, but I'd like to
hear from people who aren't trying to sell me anything.

--
Bert Hyman    St. Paul, MN    bert@iphouse.com

 



Is there any place where a pot would get more light than your garden?
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2010/07/201072816515308172.html

 


If their tree is comming over your property line you can always prune
it yourself.  You better come up with a solutions quick in time to can
them.

 

Bert Hyman wrote:

With the cost of the lights and the power to run them it hardly seems worth
it to me.

How about this (I am making this up as I go along, never tried it)  Could
the light intensity be enhanced cheaply with mirrors?  I am thinking of an
arrangement on the three sides not facing the sun that would reflect on to
the plants.  Maybe even a curved panel behind the plants.  Not glass which
is always expensive but aluminium foil laid over (say) cardboard or whatever
is laying about.  Or maybe thick plastic sheet like used for real estate
signs (called coreflute here) painted with silver paint.  It would cost very
little and last long enough to find out if something more permanent is
worthwhile.

David

 




A bit late for this but it may trigger a thought or two for the OP.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p 532&cat=2,2300,33272

I would bet a diffused light would be better than concentrated, esp.
with a curved surface (shades of tomato sauce on the vine).

The best thing that could be done is to open a slot by cutting off the
limbs at, or beyond the property line.

I'm doing that right now to limit certain certain trees' drip line and
root system and keep as much shade as possible off a couple of gardens
and two apple trees (and to forestall an early snowfall like we had two
years ago taking down trees and power lines).