I dont know either about led, but my fluorescent are on 16 hrs a day.

I don't use LED's and I recommend to those looking for lights to stick with fluorescent lights for two reasons. First is price - by the time you buy enough LEDs to do the job, you will be bankrupt. The second: plants don't live on red/blue alone. If they did, the sun would be purple.

Marijuana growers (something else to thank them for along with hydroponics) do well with LEDs because their crop needs to grow and flower fast so they can sell it and start over. Time is money. But, the amount of light they use is phenomenal, the power company can pin point marijuana houses just by the amount of electricity being used. They have to rewire houses to handle the load! To make your set up work, you will have to add more lights, a lot more lights.

Also, red/blue. If you don't add white light to the red/blue mix, your vegetables will have a life expectancy of about 6 months. Plants need all the colors in the spectrum, even green.

Thank you so much for your recommendations! I am using full spectrum light. You think I need more white than I already have based on bulb specifications below?

Plus I have some light coming from outside of my balcony approx 1-2 lux since i have trees but some plants getting full sun during the day for 1-2 hours

I will take a look at Fluorescent light and analyse possibilities to add it to my lightning structure;)

I've been watching this one with interest but now have a question: If you are intending to grow on a balcony, why are you not currently? Mountain View (South end of the Bay, right?) is warm enough right now for them to be fine....

Based on the picture of the bulb above, no, you do not have enough white light. How far are the bulbs from the plants? The bulb distance will also effect how much light the plants actually "see".

When growing stuff like tomatoes inside I usually use 6400K (or min 5000K) white light florescent bulbs that are the 100W equivalent. And then move them outside as fast as possible because it is VERY hard to provide enough light to keep tomatoes from going leggy.

My plants are already on the balcony and I have nowhere to move them. I live in condo.. space between lights and plants about 20 inches and during the day + growing light my plants getting 3k-5k lux for 11 hOurs Including 1-2 hours partial full sun

During the day the light coming from outside (shade) plus I keep my growing light on during the day as well

Will add 2 of these to my lights

Ah, I see: just really not enough space or light. (I used to have this problem when I lived in a condo.) Those light bulbs look good.

Actually, returned bulbs above and got two below 5000LM 5000k each

The more light the better.

Hi STG
Hard to see and my eyes aren't great, but # 2 is the only growing tip I see. If you want to grow as a single stem, then remove growth that emerges in the leaf axils - between main stem and leaf
g

When I was 5 yrs. old (I'm 72now), my dad took me into the garden to the tomato plants.
He said hold up your hand now bend down all your fingers except your pointer and your thumb.
He said on the tomato plant your pointer is the main stem, your thumb is the leaf. He told me to pinch any leaf growing between the thumb and pointer position that was not already in flower or very large and plant it in a pot of dirt and keep it out of the sun.
He gave me a penny for every plant I potted up that took root. He had marked the determinate plants with a red mark on their stake, because he said I shouldn't bother those.
So just look at the space between your thumb and your pointer and pinch away.
Don't forget that every pinch is another plant so get it potted, watered and put in the shade until it roots.

You're dad was a smart man.

Thank you all!

Hello glennzona charlenesplants,

I would like to grow indeterminate early girl tomato as a single stem. Can you please specify where is a main stem and what to remove.
Please see a picture with the numbers.

Thank you again!