indoor vegetable garden - anyone doing it?

There are a lot of threads here so forgive me if I take the lazy way and ask where I can find this subject matter. If there is a thread for this already could you give me a date or forum as to where I might begin looking. Thanks!!

Lettuce and Basil are about the only veggies that *easily* grow indoors.

The problem is, although a light source appears bright to your eyes from several feet away, in fact, the intensity (and effectiveness) of the light drops off substantially after 3-6 inches.

There are methods you can use with mylar reflectors, very bright illumination like High Pressure Sodium lights, etc. to grow plants indoors.

I do not know of anyone who has successfully grown a large tomato, pepper, cucumber, or other plant indoors and been particularly satisfied with the production or flavor, but I have not researched the subject much.

I have a set of (unused) French doors facing perfectly south and it gets full sun in the winter on my 3' shelves. I've got 2 dwarf tree tomatoes coming on but not blooming yet. They're growing straight but seem slow. Maybe they're slow because they're dwarfs and supposed to top out at 12 to 16".

There's just never going to be enough sunny space in the house though. I've just started planting a few pepper and tomato seeds for spring and before long I'll be overrun with more. I've always toyed with the idea of adding on a sun room but my frost period is only about 4.5 months and I can't justify it.

I would love if some Daver bought one of those crazy little modular hydroponic gardens at Sams club and tried it and reported to us. I am completely skeptical of that thing.

I too am skeptical about veggies doing well in doors.

I'm actually growing 25+ tomato plants 2 pepper and 1 eggplant as indoor/outdoor plants they are all blooming and setting fruit. My kids pick and eat the tomatoes while walking through the kitchen. When the weather is OK they set on my south facing deck which gets more sun now then it does when the angle of the sun is high. Obviously they are all in containers and doing better then I expected.

1lisac, that sounds super. Were these plants outside in containers until fall?

I'm growing green beans in my breakfast room with good results. I started these indoors, in October, with only 3 seeds in this pot. My only regret is that I did not plant more containers. I enjoy them in a fresh salad as these will be later on today. My neighbor is growing cherry tomatoes in his breakfast room and uses crushed eggshells to provide the calcium and a q-tip to fertilize the blossoms.

two years ago i gave my firnedsfrom michigan a basil plant in a fivegalln congtainer. they over winter it in a sun room and it's still going strong.

1lisac - We need some pictures uploaded to see.!!!!!!!!

BocaBob

ooohhhh, hope blooms!! I will try one of each!!

I do have a skylight over my round bathtub and I keep all my house plants there - surrounding the tub. I do not usually do well with house plants but these babies are trouble free! I was thinking about turning that into a green house for veggies to see if it would work - adding some lights, etc. I'd have to sacrifice my "bath" - hhhuuummm - and go for showers only - but...

I'd grow them in containers so I could put them out when weather is right...I have seeds ordered so will take photos as it progresses.

Does it hurt to start seeds indoors in December or is that just asking too much from the plant???

I have a plastic container of garlic in my cool, unheated greenhouse. I had a few small bulbs left from the outdoor planting, so I planted them in there for spring garlic greens. I have 2 heads of lettuce and some bright lights chard. In Jan. I usually plant radishes.

I was thinking about putting some things in my unheated greenhouse too. It needs alot of work - the green house - but the weather is good right now and if I'd get out there and get to it...is it too late to plant lettuce in containers and put out in my green house when they get big enough? My green house is all windows...a do it yourself thing...that's why it needs so much work:)

That reminds me...can anyone tell me how they keep their windows from rotting from the weather. I used old windows to build my green house but regular paint comes off so quickly. Any help?

Garden6-you may want to tell your neighbor that they just need to "flick" the blossoms on their tomato plant. They are self pollinating. If they were outside the wind would pollinate them. The q-tip wokks good for squash though.
BocaBob-here are some pictures

These are just some of them. When the weather is going to be above freezing for a few days I move them outside. In the next week or so I will be starting some more to sell.

Thanks 1lisac..that's good to know and I'll share the tidbit with them.

Looks good, fill those pots with coco coir.

Keep sending pics.

BocaBob

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/925712/
not sure if this is the same product

Not the same at all

BocaBob

I get my indoor winter veggie fix with my AeroGarden. Kind of expenssive but they work really well:). I also grow lettuces in my widows and sometimes will do sprouts or micro greens.

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 2:53 PM

Ok, I have my seedlings coming up already and I'm looking forward to the day that I can transplant them into larger containers and see REAL results. I planted them in little cups on Jan. 9, 2009. I have planted dill, parsley and Goliath tomatoes (because they are supposed to be one of the easiest to grow indoors). I first put plastic over them and that worked well. I changed them into plastic bags but they quickly grew out of that. I have them in the east window and the sun is almost constant so I think that will be the magic spot for them all through their life span. Now I just have to rearrange the room so the plants can have that spot all to themselves.

Good Luck:). I just don't have room for much growing inside. Just the pot of lettuce and the Areogarden. My new tomatoe-lings are just starting to come up in the areo garden. I should have tomatoes in the next month or so.

Just wanted to let everybody know that my indoor/outdoor vegie plants survived 22 degrees last night. If I had known it was going to get that cold I would have brought them in. Since I knew it may get below freezing I but 1 gal jugs of water by them and covered them with sheets and sleeping bags, I had no idea they would survive 22 degrees though. I just rigged up grow lights for my starters. Flourescent lights set on mason jars. OK, I may be a red neck. How lomg does it take for peppers to germinate?
Thanks,
Lisa

Mine took 5 days but were on a heat pad.

BocaBob

That's good to know I was getting a little worried. I have never had problems with germination but these seeds are OP so you never know.
Lisa

This is all great news! Tomato-lings for duchess dreams. I'm sooo greeeen with envy. (I dare not start tomatos this early as my indoor growop is in my cold room and waking up the tender bulbs in January will create chaos) AND WOWSER 1lisac GREAT job. I have heard other storys about the wonder ambient head from water jugs. I'm doing peppers again this year for the first time in 5 years. I'm all ears.

1Lisa~ I have heard of people using metal drums painted black for heat during the night freezes, but have not used milk jugs...well for that matter, haven't used painted metal drums either. Sounds like an exciting science experiment in the garden.

Good for you Duchess! You must describe for us the flavor comparisons of your indoor tomatoes. I don't doubt they'll taste much better than any gourmet supermarket tomato!

Garden6- I used the milk/water jugs because I had read about it on another thread. I didn't think it up myself. I guess it con be done with plants that are in ground too. I read you put the water jug filled with water under the cover with the plant ands the water helps retain the heat, I have never tried that. As I said above I never rrealized it would get so cold, I'm glad it worked though because it is a lot less work for me.
lisa

Alot are using drums filled with water in their greenhouses to keep the heat up at night too to avoid using a heater. I think its a wonderful energy efficient and environmental solution. I think it would increase humidity too which is helpful in my dry climate.

Thanks1Lisa! I'll have to keep that in mind..we're so iffy in May and that would be well worth the effort. Dahlia...good point...I want a greenhouse someday soon!

Thanks everyone:). Growing something keeps me from getting too nuts during the winter and the tomatoes at the store are terrible. I don't even bother buying them.

1Lisa- I've read that peppers can a month or more to germinate. My cayenne peppers this last year took about 4 weeks to germinate and then grew slowly for a while. I still got some good peppers off of them but the cold took them out before much of a harvest. :)

O wow. Maybe I should shart my peppers now?

I want to transplant around the end of may here so I'll probably start late Feb early March. I don't know what your frost dates are there. But the peppers I did get were so good that I want plenty of them this year, they still had blooms when it got too cold. I don't use a heat mat tho and that temp differance could be part of the reason they take awhile.

Hope that helps:)

That does help duchess. Thanks

I dug my pepper plants up last fall when it got cold and put them in pots, they are now some of my indoor/outdoor plants. They are doing pretty good I had heard that pepper plants do well in pot. The plants looked perfect I just didn't want the cold to kill them. I'm really wondering if they will resume full production when it warms up.
Lisa