Jerzybred
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Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:19 am
Location: Raleigh

New and getting started

Hello, I am just getting into indoor veggie gardening. I moved into a new apartment that has a spare room, kind of like a small bed room. I am trying to use the space as well as possible. I have to very large dog crates in the room but other wise there is nothing else in there. I am trying to think of the best way to grow the largest amount in one room. I have been researching a bit and trying to figure out if a container style garden with a bunch of pots and a few florescent lights would make it or if I should go with a 4'x8'x10" garden built on a table with a full sheet of wood and the proper irrigation and two fixed lights above. More or less like a small indoor garden with plants lined up in a row of dirt. I am just trying to figure out what to do as I do have a lot of time on my hands right now and have fun building things. right now I have 100 pods with seeds going. I also have an outdoor patio that I am going to use for some hanging baskets with basil in the basket and tomatoes growing upside down. Hoping the same technique will work with cucumbers, I have heard it will but only personally grown tomatoes one other time like this(my parents when I was younger). Thanks for any insight.
Ciao
Pete

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coloradogardening
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Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:32 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO

Hi, I applaud you for being so ambitious for trying vegetable gardening while living in an apartment. Growing vegetables indoors can be a challenge due to the amount of sunlight they require. The use of flurescent lighting will greatly be beneficial.

One thing you might want to check into are earth boxes. I tried one for the first time last seaon with bell pepers and it worked great. They are planter boxes but are very low maintenance. Here is the website where you can check them out. https://www.earthbox.com/index.php
They allow you to plant a number of crops within a small space.

Your patio is a big plus for growing vegetables. How much sun does the patio receive? Keep us all informed of your progress. :wink:

Jerzybred
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:19 am
Location: Raleigh

Thanks. I have a similar system I made with wood boxes and pea gravel with plastic sheeting. I just got my first seedlings transplanted into larger containers and have a nice lighting system working

Burnet
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Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:27 pm
Location: Pacific Northwest

One possible suggestion: If your patio gets real sun, I'd treat that as the most premium growing space, even if it's very small. You could perhaps use it for "finishing" things that you've started in your indoor garden but that stubbornly refuse to finish their growth cycle indoors, or are slow to finish it indoors.

For example, you could grow good-sized lettuce seedlings, then grow them on in the patio. When you harvest a head of lettuce from the patio, you would have another big husky seedling ready to transplant into that space immediately.

Lettuce may not be the best example, because maybe you can get lettuce all the way to maturity without natural light. But, similarly, you could grow a big husky tomato seedling, then move it outdoors when it seems big enough to start fruiting. And so on, so that the patio space isn't wasted for raising babies, but instead is only used when a big seedling really needs the sun.

Burnet

Jerzybred
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:19 am
Location: Raleigh

The major problem with th patio is the sun only fully hits it from about 7am till 2 then I lose all direct sunlight.



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