dinker
Senior Member
Posts: 178
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:36 am
Location: ks

can you grow veggies in the house

I live in zone 5 the garden time is short. nothing grows out side in the winter here unless you have a green house.Does any one know if it is possible to dig up my peppers and tomatoes at the end season and put them in large pot can I get them to produce in the house :?:

pd
Senior Member
Posts: 184
Joined: Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:17 pm

I would say that you would be unlikely to succeed in growing vege in a dwelling house. Your only route would be to install grow lights, probably prohibitively expensive.
Very small scale on a light windowsill possibly - cut and come again lettuce for example, peppers and determinate tomato variety. But would the returns from a couple of plants be worth the attention needed over many weeks.
Carefully digging up your plants to extend their season indoors would be worth a try but you would need to give them maximum light as well as a little warmth. Also, potting up mature plants would be quite a set back for them.

koonaone
Full Member
Posts: 41
Joined: Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:32 pm
Location: Lillooet - HighBar - Cariboo, BC - Bioregions of Corrdilera

I have 4, 4 ft., flourescent bulbs smack in the middle of my kitchen ceiling.

When we first moved in here 4 years ago they were quickly going to cause an internecine feud, among us occupants, because everytime I went by I shut them off, others did the opposite. Tensions were building. ':evil:' Even the cats were on edge, something had to give.....

In a virtuostic stroke of genius, I unilateraly built a light 2"x2" frame reaching right up to the ceiling, with a place for 4 flats of plants. Over time this evolved to 3 flats spaced out up top so some light could get down to a second layer below. Plus many hangers on sides and ends. The top layer in particular grew chard, sorrel, thyme, lettuce quite well. You have to keep the leaves about 1" from the lights if you want them to really grow. You can't forget to water, and that can be a chore. Judicious use of chickenpooptea, and I mean judicious, worked fine.
Chard, leaf lettuce, and komatsuma dug up from the garden and trimmed flush with the top of the apical meristem did best, fresh starts and transplanted spinach not so well, chives sulked. A hanging jalapeno pepper finished it's season, then did well on the porch the next summer. Experiment.
The plan this winter is to have up to 4 banks of lights above each other in the same spot, being plugged in progressively as spring comes on for starts.

1 bank of 4, 4 ft., flourescent bulbs uses 1/5th more electricity than a standard 100w light bulb so it's pretty cheap fun, and you get a feed of fresh greens every couple of weeks.

Thus: was the looming feud everted and tension sublimated to (a forgoten french word) and a happy winter was had by all.

....................':wink:'...............':wink:'...............':wink:'.................':wink:'...............':wink:'...............':wink:'.................':wink:'

yours douglas

Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy



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