What if someone wanted to grow some tomatoes in a closet or something? Say, because of all the chemicals in store bought tomatoes…
Would it be difficult for them to aquire the right kind of lights?
These are metal halide or high pressure sodium lights (the kind used for street lighting) with a ballast. There are versions of these lights that are built for gardening purposes.
Can I get gardening light kits in Taiwan? 
hahahahahhahahahahahah. Tomatoes in a closet. Un huh.
Them lights you talk about are available. Friend had one in his “indoor garden”.
Depends on what you mean by “kit”. If you go into any store that sells lighting, they will have the enclosed street lights. I bet they’ll wire it all up for ya if you’re scared. The stuff is dirt cheap here, too.
Rock on.
Tomatoes … right … 
did you check the lighting section at Ikea?
if you don’t see them, you could ask the oh-so-helpful ikea folks.
also… go try the weekend fower mkt under jianguo. if it has to do with gardening in taipei, you should be able to find it there.
I must say that I hope you are really hurting for tomatoes. With the money being made here, although it’s not as good as in the past, gives you no reason to grow your own. I found that even though the quality and price of tomatoes kinda sucks, it’s sort of greedy to grow your own. The odds are that you’ll get away with it, but if you don’t it’s not Canada.
I had maybe 400+ plants in my basement back in Vansterdam. It’s taken some serious strength to turn my back on the potential doing that here.
There’s a few reasons I don’t:
-it’s dangerous
-greedy
-death (I hear too many tomatoes can kill)
Go to B&Q they’ve got what you need as well. If you want it cheap, you’d go to the mom and pop lighting stores though.
The poster neither condones nor encourages illegal behavior
If you can read Chinese, use the yellow pages. Otherwise call GE Taiwan and tell them you want a MH or HPS(best choice) light, They will probably understand HID light better though and direct you to a very cheap retailer in Shihlin. You’ll have to do all the electric work and make the hood, but it will save you a gob of cash. If you screw up, you could die.
Indoors is tricky because ventilation > light, most people screw that up. Also any soil you use will more than likely have pests. Spider mites like dry, non ventilated areas. Using hydro is tricky unless you know how to mix nutes which from my own experience is extremely tricky. All the stuff for hydro nutes can be bought at Chemical Alley(Tianshui Jie) very affordably.
Now some of you are asking why I, a person who wants a legitamite hydroponic farm, would help this person. In reality, I just want to be a ancillary cause of something that leads to a Darwin award candidate winning.
XXOO,
Okami
BTW, expect to spend a lot of money and fail multiple times. Tomatoes are a 2-stage crop, lettuce by comparison is for beginners. Jianguo flower market is useless too for anything you are doing.
I’m with the OP, do you still only get green toms in Wellcome in Taiwan? All Cheech and Chong aside, I can see why a person would feel the need for proper toms.
HG
Several different kinds these days HG. I even got plum toms at Wellcome on one memorable occasion. Vine toms are sometimes available too.
So you want to grow tomatoes. For sale or personal use? The Taiwan department of agriculture may be a smart choice. Are tomatoes legal now? I think not!
I’m happy to be involved in forums such as this for constructive information.
When you have harvsted, please give me a call.
Smoke, smoke, smoke them tomatoes.
Peace, Mark
There is a building in JingMei that says “Pot Plants Auction”… I’m sure they have information that can help.
Anyone know where this building is? I am not too helpful today.
Actually, green tomatoes are, as green potatoes … poisonous …
Here are the details on that, which I looked up out of curiosity: [quote]green tomatoes have tomatine (saponin-intestinal irritation), discourages herbivores while seeds immature, but once ripens, toxicity decreases and attractive flavors develop to attract animals to spread seed.[/quote] source
hi folks,
Anyone know of any shops selling hydroponic supplies in Taipei?
And NO, this is most definately not for growing illegal herbage. I enjoy doing some gardening and growing herbs and vegetables and sprouts. Food is pretty expensive, for example, small packet of Alfalfa sprouts is about 35NTD, seeing as you can buy the equivalent seeds for around 1 or 2 NTD and just need to add water it makes sense. And having to buy tomatos and lettuce every week for salads when you could be growing them year round is kinda annoying…
Here are some nice small growing systems.
Aerogarden
aerogrow.com
The Lettuce Raft System
growhydroponicgarden.com/art … Page1.html
Even a place selling pumps and plastic tubing and plastic buckets cheaply would be ok. But still need the nutrient and ideally grow cubes (see futuregarden.com/propagation … tarts.html). I went to jianGuo market and will visit the Neihu one this weekend but didnt see much except growing pots and growing medium (orchids are popular here).
Nice article here about the need to grow plants, something satisfying about growing plants.
Cheap energy, and community
pedestrianfriendly.com/?p=712
Really do wonder why taiwanese don’t pool some money and resources together and get some old folks in the neighbourhood to grow vege’s and stuff. haha, this post is kinda scary forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=44061
hmm so we’re moving also (having a baby soon!) and looking for a house with a nice bathroom and living area but also, some balcony or rooftop I can have a garden on. anyone else done this? tips? haha
Urban gardening, all good fun, gets me off the computer, haahah 
thnx,
TiM
pipes and tubes and connectors can be sourced at aquarium shops. tubs come from RT MArt or costco, for storage. drill holes in the lids with a holesaw for lettuce trays. etc etc.
improvise…
there are serious farmer supply stores for hydro lettuce farmers, etc., but obviously not in Taipei.
yep, I am from NZ so improvisation is in my blood 
might need to buy some tools tho
I’ll track down some aquarium shops/markets I guess but still, need to buy proper hydroponic nutrient liquid. cannot use regular gardening liquid fertilizers.
thnx,
TiM
You might try asking some of the people in this thread:
forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopi … 26&start=0
awesome. I did try and search the forums for hydroponics 
[quote=“hampsterx”]yep, I am from NZ so improvisation is in my blood might need to buy some tools tho
I’ll track down some aquarium shops/markets I guess but still, need to buy proper hydroponic nutrient liquid. cannot use regular gardening liquid fertilizers.
thnx,
TiM[/quote]
Why don’t you just use Brawndo? Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes.
(joke)
ok heaps more posts here from googling this…
hydroponic site:.forumosa.com
hydroponics site:.forumosa.com
will report back on my findings.
kindly,
TiM