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Here are a few pictures of my indoor plants and setup:

(Click on the pictures to make them bigger)

My setup:
[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=Setup.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_Setup.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=Setup2.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_Setup2.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=Setup3.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_Setup3.jpg[/img][/url]

California Poppies Sprouting:
[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=CaliforniaPoppiesSprouting.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_CaliforniaPoppiesSprouting.jpg[/img][/url]

Morning Glories Sprouting:
[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=MorningGlorySprouting.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_MorningGlorySprouting.jpg[/img][/url]

I'll be moving most of these plants outside in the Spring.

P.S. I don't have anything in the tank as you can see

Very nice setup!

" I don't have anything in the tank-- YET -- as you can see" It's early! I trust you will find something to plant there and not waste the lovely set up you made.

One caveat -- are those peat pots? I'd watch out for them. You are much better off using plastic. Peat is a seedling killer. When wet it holds moisture too much, gets moldy, promotes soil fungus. When it starts to dry out, it sucks moisture out of the soil and dries the seedlings out too much.

Lovely setup! I wish I had enough space for my indoor plants...I have just kept them close to window. Have told my husband: next home we move to should have atleast some place for my plants.
BTW: Dollar Tree is selling plant starter pots(plastic) - 10 for just $1...little bigger ones 5 for $1 and so on....I think they have around 5 sizes. I picked up few.

rainbowgardener wrote:One caveat -- are those peat pots? I'd watch out for them. You are much better off using plastic. Peat is a seedling killer. When wet it holds moisture too much, gets moldy, promotes soil fungus. When it starts to dry out, it sucks moisture out of the soil and dries the seedlings out too much.

Are those the cardboard looking pots that are supposed to biodegrade? If so, that completely explains why all my seedlings died last year. I was left with nothing but little square pots.

rainbowgardener wrote:Very nice setup!
One caveat -- are those peat pots? I'd watch out for them. You are much better off using plastic. Peat is a seedling killer. When wet it holds moisture too much, gets moldy, promotes soil fungus. When it starts to dry out, it sucks moisture out of the soil and dries the seedlings out too much.

Yeah they are peat pots so I'll try and get some plastic pots this week.

earth wrote:BTW: Dollar Tree is selling plant starter pots(plastic) - 10 for just $1...little bigger ones 5 for $1 and so on....I think they have around 5 sizes. I picked up few.

I'll have to go to the Dollar Tree and pick up some plastic pots then

Update:

When I got home from school I saw that 3 more of the morning glories sprouted so currently 4 of the 8 morning glories have sprouted.

The California Poppies have also taken off and they're popping up like crazy.

Um. I think you need to lower the light or raise the pots. Especially if you don't have anything in the terrarium at the moment, there's no reason to keep the light tubes up that high and every reason to lower it to 2~4" above the sprouting seedlings BEFORE they get spindly from being too far away from the light.

Good luck! This set up looks a lot like mine and it can potentially support a lot of plants. Consider lining the shelf with aluminum foil and making side reflectors with aluminum foil or mylar on cardboard, etc. Even draping long pieces of foil on top of the reflector for the tube lights will maximize the light you already have.

I made some side reflectors and put them on the light hood and I moved the light closer to the plants after I took this picture:

[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=Shade.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_Shade.jpg[/img][/url]

Here are a couple of pictures of my plants that I took today (these pictures were taken before I put on the side reflectors:

California Poppies

[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=CaliforniaPoppies.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_CaliforniaPoppies.jpg[/img][/url]

Morning Glories

[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=MorningGlories.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_MorningGlories.jpg[/img][/url]

Here's my AeroGarden:

[url=https://s692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/?action=view&current=AeroGarden.jpg][img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/th_AeroGarden.jpg[/img][/url]

The plant on the right is taking up all the space and killing the other two plants so I'm going to take out the two smaller plants and put them in pots.

a0c8c wrote: Are those the cardboard looking pots that are supposed to biodegrade? If so, that completely explains why all my seedlings died last year. I was left with nothing but little square pots.

Yes and Yes. I wish they would just quit selling them. They hype those things like they are wonderful and they are terrible. They don't even biodegrade very well. I've tried planting things with them, that I bought in peat pots and at the end of the season the pot is still there smothering the plant roots. Now I just tear them off and compost them. They do eventually break down in the compost pile.

I do all my seedlings in plastic pots which don't biodegrade, but are not a major eco-problem because I reuse them year after year. (Even all the plants I sell or give away I always ask for the plastic pot back! ). Some of them eventually get broken or what not, but I have little plastic pots I've used for more than a decade (I know because they are the white ones, the ones I buy now are black.)

rainbowgardener wrote:

a0c8c wrote: They don't even biodegrade very well.

That's an understatement. I still have every one of the pots still in the ground. I was hoping they would just compost for me and help out the soil for this year, but that's not happening.

Looks nice, you should turn that foil around though. Foil isnt that good in the first place, I would just go to odd lots and buy some Mylar wrapping paper, should be cheap this time of year. This is going to sound crazy to you but I promise its the truth. The dull side actually reflects MORE light than the shiney side of foil, the shiney side is like a mirror (they're horrible for reflectors cause they absorb light.)

Best bet for maximum reflection is mylar, 2nd best is just flat white, either paint or poster boards.

And if you like to be good to the planet and not use plastic pots try using Cocotek liners as pots, they are made of Coconut fibers and wont get water logged and moldy and nasty like the peat/cardboard ones do. Plus when its time to repot there is no reason to unpot first, just set the entire liner down into the soil. The roots can grow threw the sides.

I went to the Dollar Tree and got 15 plastic starter pots for $3 and I went to see if Lowes had mylar and they didn't have it.

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I really appreciate it since I'm still kind of a noob to gardening.

Update:

4 of the 8 morning glories that I planted continue to grow quickly and the other 4 haven't even sprouted yet. I planted two different kinds of morning glories and the seed packs were pretty old so maybe the other seeds are dead. I also planted some Foxgloves last week and they're starting to sprout.

GardenerKid - Nice work.

Sage Hermit wrote:GardenerKid - Nice work.

Thanks!

If you guys ever want to see more pictures of my garden you can use the links in my sig to go to my PhotoBucket page.

One of my plants started to bloom yesterday:

[img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/P1010100.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/P1010114.jpg[/img]

Wow, that was fast! Are those the seeds you just started at the beginning of the year? Very nice. Is it a variety of pinks?

rainbowgardener wrote:Wow, that was fast! Are those the seeds you just started at the beginning of the year? Very nice. Is it a variety of pinks?

No, that was one of the plants growing in my Aerogarden. I had to take it out of the Aerogarden and plant it in a regular pot because one of the other plants in the Aerogarden was overtaking it and it was dieing.

I don't know what variety it is. I accidentally lost the label that said what it was lol

[img]https://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv281/Nick_Polach/Garden/Indoors/P10100252.jpg[/img]