If you want to grow veggies indoors you are going to need serious lighting to take them beyond the seedling stage. By serious lighting I mean thousands of watts of HID lighting. Not fluorescents, but metal halide and high pressure sodium.

If you are looking for how to grow them outdoors with a short season and cold ground things become a bit easier.

We can rather neatly divide veggies into 2 groups. Cool season and warm season. Cool season veggies do best with soil and air temps 45F-75F and warm season veggies do best with soil/air temps 65F-85F. This is a generalization, but it works.

For the cool season stuff, just plant it outside when temps are in range. Due to your cold soil, plant warm season stuff in containers once air temps are in range. Containers warm in the sun quickly, unlike the ground. The internal temp of a container won't trail far behind air temps and with direct sunlight on them can get warmer than air temps.

The above poster gave you some good advice. Even in pretty harsh climates, you can grow some things pretty well outdoors. I guess it depends on where you are. In Barrow or Kotzebue or Nome, you might have trouble growing ANYTHING outdoors. If you're someplace like Fairbanks, I guess there are quite a few gardeners who grow a lot of different things. It all depends on your heat units, etc.

I do disagree with one thing said above, the comment about growing indoors with lights. While it is generally true, there are some exceptions. Quick growing crops where the only edible portion is the foliage, like some salad greens and herbs, can grow really well under basic florescent lights. To grow something like okra or tomatoes, yes, as a rule, you would need specialized lighting or a greenhouse.

In your climate, you are going to have to use all of the tricks available to you to trap and concentrate heat for warm-season crops. Is a small greenhouse of any type a possibility? If so, that would help a lot. I've heard of gardeners in places like Whitehorse, Yukon and Fairbanks growing all kinds of things in greenhouses during the summer. If not, containers and sheltered microclimates, like against the south wall of your home, are your best bet.

On the other hand, you can probably grow crops like cabbage, cauliflower, and spinach that those in place like Arizona or Florida can only dream of, except perhaps in the coolest few months of the year.

How about containers? You could start the plants indoor under lights and move the outside when the weather warms. If you grow plants in five gallon buckets with a tomato cage you can cover the whole thing with a black plastic trash bag late in the day to help protect them on cold nights.

A raised bed helps the soil warm faster. If you cover the raised bed with black plastic before planting it will warm faster.

There is a Far North Gardening forum here on Garden web. Even tho' Michigan seems unbearably cold and short-seasoned to me, the folks over at the Far North Gardening forum probably see me as a whimp. Heck, you might run into a neighbor there. Kay.

Michelle,
I had a friend who lived and gardened in Alaska for over 25 years. In the early 70Âs when he was young and foolish, he grew marijuana in Fairbanks by starting it indoors then moving it to raised beds and containers. I have some pictures of these and the plants are HUGE!

After that experiment, he switched to growing vegetables to supplement his food budget which included hinting and fishing for the bulk of his protein. He had great success with containers raised beds and later a greenhouse he built into a south facing hill. He even grew tomatoes and peppers. He had gardens everywhere he lived in Alaska from Fairbanks to Anchorage to Homer to Soldotna. He spent his last days down on the Kenai and grew some of the most amazing flowers and vegetables. He never used grow lights just plain fluorescents. He was too frugal to spend the money on such an extravagance. He credited his success to the long days of sunlight and good homemade compost.

To get any type of production indoors it would cost you a lot of cash in lighting and an electric bill you would not want to see every month. If you are willing to spend the money it can be done but you would be a lot better off with a greenhouse with a heat setup triggered by temp so it would only turn on when temps would otherwise dammage your plants. Since those temps are pretty low heating costs are minimal unless you have a huge greenhouse or to much air exchange.

Thanks for all the tips guys, I would love to have a greenhouse but we live on base and they won't let me. I dropped down a couple of light fixtures in my garage and tossed some day lights in total cost was about 35$. But my plants seem to like it so far. I planted green beans on the 30th and they are already 6 and 8" high, my corn is about 3 to 4". Like you all said they probably won' go past the baby stage but it is my only chance there is not enough sun in my backyard to move them out there but maybe when it gets warmer I can let them sit out front for a few hours a day. Thank you all for the helpful advice maybe at least I will get some fresh herbs out of this.

I think you can grow plants inside if you choose the right varieties. For instance I have this tomato called 'husky cherry red' and it is growing amazingly well in my room under grow lights. Every other type of tomato I have started under these particular lights are leggy and never look as good as the transplants that you can buy at nurseries. But these 'husky cherry red' tomatoes are short and have deep green leaves and look just as healthy as when I grew them outside last year. They are two months old now and have several flower trusses and are forming small green tomatoes. The grow lights I have are in a setup that is 24" long and holds two 20W fluorescent tubes. Yes only 20 watts, the plant leaves don't even burn when they touch the light bulbs. I was shocked to see how well they do inside and only in a 4 inch pot so far. If you are looking for small tomatoes to grow inside I would try 'husky cherry red.'

Although Alaska temps are much lower, the daylight hours are much longer (in the summer). Crops like beets, carrots, cabbase, potatoes, celery, all grow great. You may get a tomato to ripen if you chose an early varity, start it inside, then put it outside with some protection. I think you are dreaming on the okra (sorry). Go to the fair in the fall and look at the monster cabbage and the other things they grow. It is possible to grow many things. I didn't have a lot of luck with tomatoes when I lived there (Wasilla), but my daughter grew them in Anchorage without a greenhouse after the early varities started appearing on the market. Good luck. Carol

I am sure your right that i am dreaming on the okra but i was born and raised in georgia and miss it so much. I realize we have long days here but i don't get much sun in my back yard so it does me little to know good, last year i tried for a garden (in raised beds) out of all i planted and all the work I got some green onions, green beans, both enough for 2 dinners, and 1 pepper. lol I still can't get over having 1 pepper out of an entire row. should have been a few or none but just one?? how silly is that. I went down and checked on my plants a few minutes ago, my herbs, which I planted on the 22nd of march are beginning to flower and my veggies are growing like weeds. I am sure they will not produce after all I have read on the forum but we are moving down south next june and I know now at least i can get them started inside and transplant them. It is all an experiment until we eat it. For me, new to gardening, it may always be an experiment. lol you all have a great evening.

I'm just below Alaska in northwestern BC (slightly south of Hyder). I've grown all sorts of veggies indoors in the winter. I have one 1000watt HPS light in a 12x14 room. I keep the light on for 16 hours/day. Right now, my zuccinis are in 4 gallon pots and the fruits are about 2" long. Last year I had cukes like crazy! Also Cabbages in 2 gallon pots do really well. Some quick crops like radishes and dill are always fun. you just have to remember to WATER everyday. Most of the things I grow stay in the pots and get put outside once it is warm enough (june) things that climb like cucumbers can't be moved. I mix compost and potting soil so I can avoid a lot of chemical fertalizers. Email me if you want more info, I'd be happy to share my trials and errors. I also have plenty of northern hardy seeds I could share if you are interested. Also remember that there are no bees in your house and you will not get fruits from some things without pollination. (twist up some pipecleaner antenea and get out a feather duster!)

Forget gardening. Go fishing. You send me salmon, I'll send you vegetables.

Tom

mxbarbie - Do you have pictures? I would love to see that operation of yours.

I don't have pictures, but I do have a digital camera... I just don't know how to post them on here.
Do I need a photobucket account?

I've had fairly good luck with growing indoors under fluorescent lamps, I use 4 4' 32watt t8 bulbs, half cool white and the other half warm white. I've been able to grow to fruit bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, habanero peppers, banana peppers, just about every type of herb, patio tomatoes, cherry red or super sweet 100 (trained to grow around a cage). I've also got a pretty good onion batch/strawberries growing (however slow). Also some lettuce and spinich has done really well. I would say that i've tried my luck at cucumbers but so far they've had some troubles, but i'm not giving up yet.

If you want to be serious, get a 250 watt HPS system (~160 bucks) and a couple of 4' 32+ watt cool white fluorescent lamps (~30 bucks) This will give you more than enough light for a 3x3 to 5x5 indoor garden for just about anything you can put in a container (including the cukes).

The cost of running this (at least in utah) is around 8 cents per kilowatt/hr, nationally i think its more around 13 centers per kilowatt/hr. My costs usually around 5 dollars a month, with the HPS + 4' 32watt flouro you may end up with a cost of around 11 dollars a month in electricity running the lights for 16 hours a day.

OH BTW - if you do decide to container garden, WATCH YOUR WATER, check twice a day as some of these plants can plow through a gallon of water in 16 hours. Also, make sure to provide a air circulation or you'll get mold/fungus growing which is never good. AND last but not least, use a fertilizer that provides more than just nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. For some reason these minor nutrients can be easily obtained in the ground outdoors but can quickly become scarce in a container pot, as most fertilizers just replenish these three you may need to get one that has a wider set of both major/minor nutrients.

An occillating (sp?) fan is great for air movement, especially if you are planning to put them outside eventually. If there is no air movement the stems are very weak and the slightest breeze outside will crush them.
I paid about $200 for my 1000 w light and it costs me .96 cents/day for electricity. (.06/kwh x 16h/day) That is cheap produce if you ask me.
Still trying to figure out the photo posting thing.

mxbarbie, how did you rig up your HPS system? i've been considering buying a 400 watt or possibly 250, 1000 seems excessive for a small garden for 2 people, but what were your impressions, how much heat does the HPS produce? what problems have you found?

mxbarbie - Photobucket would be fine and you can just link to the picture. I use Flickr for mine. If you are only posting one pic in the message, just past the URL in the block marked "Optional Link URL" and give it a title in the name block. You can check it out in the "preview" stage before you submit. One pic is easy. It is a little trickier to do several, or maybe I just do it the hard way.
Good luck.

I have an "XTRASUN" ballast by growtek with a sqare wavy silver shade. It gives off enough heat to keep the room between 21-32C (70-90 F) depending on the outside temp. (room has no other heat source) because I want to put my plants outside in late may/early june I vent in air from outside to keep the temp in the middle teens C (60's F) and drops down to 7-10 C (high 40's - low 50's F) overnight when the light is off. This also slows down the growth so they don't get out of control.
I had spider mites once, they are a pain to get rid of, but other than that no problems at all. DH is building me a greenhouse so I will start seeds in there next year but I'll probably still grow Veg in the house over the winter.
It's nice to just sit under the light and look at green things when it is ugly outside.

I put some photos on Photobucket you can see them here.

Here is a link that might be useful: my photos