indoor garden?

[happy acres]

My garden outside did poorly this year. I've been thinking about doing something indoors. I'd like to grow some foods, if possible. Does anyone know what would be good? Any help or advice is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Nyboy]

Are you going to use grow lights ?

 

[happy acres]

Probably not. Low on funds. I have lots of potting soil, and fertilizer. I could afford seeds, but grow lights and hydroponics are a bit out of my budget for now. I recently lost my job.

 

[Nyboy]

sorry about your job. No grow lights cuts the list real short.

 

[Smart Red]

Do you have good window spaces? A three-season room or porch? Since you live in a warmer winter area, could you cobble together a small cold frame or greenhouse? A tad bit of heat from the house or garage would be a real bonus.

As for what to grow: any of the cool weather crops -- lettuces, cabbage family, onions, leeks, beets, carrots, spinach, peas, radishes. You might even get a small crop of potatoes (see what @the1honeycomb did with spuds in bags). If you want to try tomatoes or peppers, you will need to add heat and light. That could be a warm sunny window in the kitchen or living room where your family will be likely to have the lights on later into the evening. Good luck!

 

[happy acres]

I could put them in a room next to the living room. One wall is mostly window, it faces east. Plus heat would be available. And there are lights there, florescent, will that work?

 

[Smart Red]

It would be worth a try, IMHO. But then I do like to push the growing envelope.Nothing beats real sunlight, but heat is a close second. Still, I'd try sticking more to the cool weather crops. Not only will they do better in less heat and light situations, but many are fast growers and can give you several plantings through the winter.

 

[happy acres]

Thanks! Will definitely try that!

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

I know this is from a while back, but I wanted to chime in on the subject anyways, and it all boils down to what you're trying to grow.

For instance, if you note how long it takes tomatoes to ripen in the spring, summer and fall you'll see that if the plants are not getting an adequate amount of sunlight each and every day they will take longer to complete their process to provide their yumminess. So, if you're just putting plants in a window over winter it's likely that you'll see the bush-like plants get leggy (stretching out to the sun) and the fruits will either not show or take a l-o-n-g time to ripen. Also, depending on the plant you'll need to care about fertilizing the flowers to get your fruit. On top of that you'll need to make sure there's enough air-flow to keep any mold and fungus gnats from taking control.

I hate fungus gnats

 

[digitS']

Fungus gnats come into the house e.v.e.r.y year with DW's house plants. I've tried sprays, no help. There is a specific Bt gnat/mosquito spray that I haven't used.

DW is good about setting up yellow sticky traps and they work fairly well altho, if house plants are supposed to be attractive, the sticky traps take away from that. I say nothing ...

Moving in tomato plants with green fruit sure taught me a lesson on how short days count for so little. The fruit, carefully noted from bloom date, took just about twice as long as it would have if, suddenly, fall had changed to summer and I could have left the plants outside.

Steve