8 Gadgets You Need To Grow Weed Tomatoes Indoors

Out here tomatoes* are cheap and abundant. But that’s unfortunately not the case in other parts of the world. These seven tools will let you grow tomatoes* in the privacy of your own home.

General Hydronics Water Farm

So the first thing you’re going to need is somewhere to plant your tomato* clones, and since you’re going to be raising them indoors a hydroponic system is the way to go. The Water Farm system controls a single reservoir and air pump to care for up to eight individual plants. Each plant sits in a bedding of Hydroton Grow Rock — made from expanded clay that’s pH neutral, sterile, and highly aerated — with its roots hanging below in a nutrient film and the open air. $US470 for the equipment – $US50/50-litre bag of Grow Rock.

Growlab Portable Grow Rooms

Dude, no reason to waste perfectly good closet space when growin’ ‘matos*. Just get one of these portable grow rooms instead. It’s thermally insulated which means the cops can’t see it on infrared during flyovers, highly reflective on the inside, and has multiple intake and exhaust air ports which are crucial for regulating the temperature in there. $US94-$US900.

Glow Panel 45 Grow Lights

Plants need different kinds of light to grow than they to do flower. They use blue spectrum light for vegetative leaf growth, which prevents stretching and elongating and use red light in order to bloom effectively. Traditionally, you’d need to spend hundred on a MF and HPS lighting setup and then fork over hundreds more to run the 1000w beasts day and night. The Glow Panel 45 uses just 28W of power and beats the output of a 250W HPS. Even more impressive is that it shines the full spectrum — both red and blue — so you wont have to swap out lighting systems midway through. You can even daisy-chain as many as 28 of them together to fill the room. $150

8-inch MAX Can Fan — 600CFM

If your apartment is filled with the scent of growing tomato* each time you open the door to the Grow Box, you need to get yourself some ventilation so the neighbours don’t start asking about the smell. To the cops. The 8-inch MAX Can Fan pushes 600 CFM and can be hooked to an inline carbon filter that neutralises that wonderfully sticky-icky aroma. $US200.

pH Control and Growth/Blooming Feeds

Proper nutrition is just as important for your plants as it is for your body, and maintaining the proper pH balance is key. If the pH is too far one way or the other — either basic or acidic — the plants can develop deficiencies or build up toxicity of certain nutrients. The pH Control Kit not only allows you to test the water supply but adjust it accordingly.

During the growing cycle, plants need more nitrogen and phosphorous than they do when the plant is in bloom. The General Hydroponics Flora Nova series provides specialised mixes for each of these cycles. pH Control Kit — $US16, Nova Series Nutrients — $US12/pint

Fiskars 9124 Professional Pruning Shears

Once your tomatoes* are hanging heavy on the vine, don’t just go ripping them off with your bare hands — use a pair of shears to snip off a full branch at a time. The Fiskars 9124′s have an adjustable blade tension and can be used equally well by southpaws as by righties. $US18.

Royal Sovereign BDH-550 55 Pint Bucketless Dehumidifier

So when you’ve hung your tomatoes* to dry, you’ve got to — got to — keep the humidity down at 40 per cent to start, otherwise they’ll mould from the inside out and you’ll be smoking mouldy-tasting tomatoes*. The BDH-550 not only sucks a solid 55 pints of water out of the air, it can also pump out the collected water rather than requiring you to empty buckets throughout the day. $US248.

Volcano Digit

If you’ve gone through all the trouble to create this setup and grow your own supply of tomato*, you ought to smoke it out of arguably the best vaporiser on the market. The Volcano is hand-crafted and rated as a medical-grade device — it’s what they use in the Medical Tomato* Usage Trials. $US670.

Top image: Joe Hamilton Photography/Shutterstock

Discuss

(16 Comments)
  • [–]

    villainsoft

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 9:41 AM

    I read somewhere that illegal hydroponics in the US accounts for about 1% of the total power expenditure for the entire country. that is huge.

    so there is definately are market for growing tomatoes*….

  • [–]

    SmileySmoke

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 10:25 AM

    good stuff.. now incorporate some remote monitoring of ph/temps/lighting and we have a nerds medicinal *tomato dream

  • [–]

    omg

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 11:17 AM

    Andrew Tarantola you are a legend!

  • [–]

    Mick

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 12:25 PM

    That LED grow panels are useless, you would get small light and fluffy tomatoes*, the line “The Glow Panel 45 uses just 28W of power and beats the output of a 250W HPS” is complete BS.

    Your better off using compact florescent lights in the right spectrum. They are cheap to buy and to operate.

    I do agree the the Volcano is the best why to smoke your tomatoes* though :)

    • [–]

      SmileySmoke

      Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 1:44 PM

      right on Mick ;) 28w of led that hasnt been proven in a lab test. general consensus is HPS or MH lamps may generate more heat and use more elec but its all about the lumen output

      *tomatoes really help me to unwind ;)

    • [–]

      Terry

      Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 2:18 PM

      Those new fangled flouro light bulbs you can get to replace a standard light bulb are perfect.
      Use the “warm white” ones alongside a couple of flouro tubes and you’ve got some very good, low cost, low HEAT lighting of the right spectrum to suit your .. err.. tomatoes.
      Or strawberries for that matter

      • [–]

        Mick

        Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 2:51 PM

        Yes, they are the CFLs I was talking about. You still don’t get the same super dense “Fruit” that you get from a HID light, but still miles better than those stupid LED panels and a lot cheaper to run.

        My “friend” uses CFLs during the growth stage and a 1000W HPS to flower.

    • [–]

      Mike

      Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:09 PM

      A couple per tomato plant work ok, but you’re right just one and you’ll end up with tiny plant, tiny tomatoes :p

  • [–]

    Matt

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 1:52 PM

    Ohhh I love you Gizmodo, now you’re making me really crave a tomato*

  • [–]

    Jack

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:44 PM

    Fuck, Gizmodo posts the best news ever.
    I really do love this website, always the news I like to read.

    :)

  • [–]

    feral

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 4:54 PM

    Thats great but without tomato* seeds I’m a bit stuck..

    • [–]

      Mick

      Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 6:38 PM

      Find someone to give you some clones, better off that way anyway.

  • [–]

    adrian

    Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 10:59 PM

    Can’t even believe how humorous this is.

    • [–]

      WTF

      Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:46 AM

      Depends on your humour. Pot heads can’t grow pot successfully after years of scientific research, or the fact they’re trying to grow pot under the same conditions as tomatoes.

      Different plants, different needs.

  • [–]

    con

    Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 2:00 AM

    Tomacco anyone ?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Products_produced_from_The_Simpsons#Tomacco

  • [–]

    Harry Hilders

    Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:34 PM

    Thanks for the selection!

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