A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum this evening I plan

on beginning my indoor veggie garden. The granddaughter comes home bout 3:30 and after her homework is done, I think we will start playin in some dirt. Never have I done this before so I am going to start small with leaf lettuce, radish and a couple of tomatoe's, along with some cucumbers. So after we flip get the dirt started, I am going to run over and hit the hardware store for a light, so here's the question, which is better, flouresent or a regular grow light? I have heard tell it doesn't really matter once they sprout and get true leaves as long as you mantain length of time with light and a good growing temp.
heck might even do some green beans to, now granted this is an experiment,lmao.... fingers are crossed it will work..... but lighting/temp is key. any thoughts?

I'm soooo excited for you! ... and for me, too! I'm trying my hand at indoor veggie gardening this year, too.

I have some things to contribute about lighting and so on, but unfortunately am in a bit of a rush right now. So I'll check back later and add if everyone else hasn't already answered your question.

FYI: I'm trying tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, herbs of course, lettuce, spinach, peas, radishes, mustard greens, and zucchini. I'm also thinking about an eggplant.

Later! Good luck!!

Hello Marcia and thank you for the welcome above. ;)
Please do come back with whatever help you can give me on the lighting. I am converting a non-used room into my plant growing, seed starting, sewing room. I should call it the "madd planting room",lol. I am beginning to clear it now, that way when the seeds sprout, I'll have that to learn on and when it is time to start my seeds in the early spring, I will have them ready for the green house to finish up til it's time to plant them. You see, so begins my little business,,,Even after I give things away for presents, (like complete sets of basic kitchen herbs) I still have ended up tossing some by the pounds others not so much. so this year well 09, I am headed to the farmers market for test ground, and learning whats what. I over bought all my seeds and so I shall begin. Any bit of anything will help with this adventure.....I will begin to collect seeds to form my little new flower bed. I gotta plan,lol. But first I must crawl before I can walk and walk before I can run. In any case, the best part is I get to play in dirt ALL winter long,lol.
;)

Winddancer, what is your location?

What type of containers are you guys using. You're planning to transplant to the outside when the plants are large enough???

Do you two have cameras so we can follow your projects?

winddancer, i would go flourescent. you don't have to have special bulbs for them, shop lights work great and are adjustable height. and, they are "greener" in the fact that they use less energy and last longer. just my thoughts.

I too am curious about that question.......

Hello Bestofour, I have a solo project going, just for me. dirt and planting keeps me from going nuts, always has. I love being outside in the dirt, I do all the yard work unless my husband thinks it is to much then and only then does he jump in. He planted the oaks, ( I didn't argue,lol) He decided one day to brick the whole front along the house so I could have a bed there, he did that without telling me... he likes me,lol. He bricked the raised bed in the back so I could have a place to sit along the edge, we have a walk way in the middle, you see no one is allowed to walk on my garden dirt,,,no one,lol. It is really pretty cool. Then I found my little starter green house. it is 6.5' tall,,,4.5' wide and 8' long, steel framed. I designed the shelves and he built them for me. They are removeable. I bought those wonderful little starter flats and had 5 going with veggies,,and kitchen herbs, newbee mistake and put them out before it was warm enough, so of course I had to start again... Live and learn is the way of it. I didn't mind. I will not use the starter cells anymore, it was just nuts tryin to keep them, so I will use the base and start the seeds in a full thing. I found it a bit difficult to thin them in the cells, and I do not like difficult,lol. I had helpers with the watering and such when we left,,, then they started thinking,,,, so yet again, I had to start things again, not all things, but alot. I have 3 sage, 4 french tarragon, 3 greek oregano, a 3'x3' section of dill, in my rose bed I have 5 thyme, I also run 7 sweet basil as I discovered basil and roses love to be around each other. I had 10 basil in the herb bed... 10 marjoram, I gave away a ton of starters, had catnip started but lost it due to people thinking,lol. I started my own fennel, curled dark and flat leaf parsely, my own rosemary (ooo those are difficult, I learned yep better to go buy em) of course I won't,lol. I started the salad garden, the cilantro. again gave away a ton of em.....chives are under the apple tree, and yep by experiment I learned that they help in the keeping the bugs out of my apples... I kept all the good plastic pots formt he flowers I bought. so they are clean and ready for me. for the groupings I bought pots at walmart..... my green house is not heated so it is good idea to start them indoors in like february and by the time they are ready to get hardened off I can put them outside nad int he green house... I am learning, it is a way cool thing for me.
I cna take the shelving unitsw and bring them into the spare room for the winter. Which is good as i have a pineapple plant that I just got going this season, and I have some petunias that are still alive....
With the shelving unit inside i can start all of my flower seed I have saved,,, the herbs I am going to need, the veggies I am going to plant for next year and also have a growing place for my indoor little veggie garden.....a tiny ceramic heater will maintain temps in the room...
Am I doing it right, have mercy I have no clue,lol. but I sure am gonna give it a go.... today I am bringin in the gerber daiseys,,, gonna see if I can keep them alive thru the winter,,,I know they like cooler so I will put them in the garden window....
I can use my cell phone to take pics,,, and then I just gotta figure out which way is best to get them posted,,,, shouldn't be that difficult I am thinking....
so, at the begining of this season, I have--had, chive, sage, basil, tarragon, camomile(sp) basil, marjoram, italian oregano, feverfew, dill,lemon balm, dotted with marigolds, and purple cone flower in one bed, the main bed had fennel, rosemary, green beans, mixed leaf lettuce, jalepenos, cooking onions, table onions, more basil ( learned a lesson there,lol), red peppers, roma-big boy-cherrokee red tomatoes, dotted with marigolds thru out. the green house is on one corner of my deck so in front of it I planted huge sunflowers to help shade it during the hot hot days, then I had a load of cilatro on the other end, the excess went to the back of the house where sunflowers started it and horseradish finished that bed off.
yep thats my back yard for the closing season....oh I have a golden delicious apple tree to.
not to bad for a backyard garden, but next year I will plan better layouts for it...