Light gardening indoors over winter

10 years ago

Last year I successfully grew lettuce and chard throughout the winter in my basement under grow lights.

I was thinking of expanding this year to more vegetables. Root veggies like turnips and beets are on my list. Maybe a dwarf type tomato plant. I'd think that any self-pollinating fruiting plant would do okay if I could provide enough light for them?

Any suggestions?

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Comments (5)

digdirt2
10 years ago
You can find lots of info over on the Growing Under Lights forum here but fruiting vegetables (like tomato) will require very different lights than the spectrum needed by greens.

I'd add Nantes carrots to your list as well as herbs.

Dave
nancyjane_gardener
10 years ago
Where do you live? Some things are very winter hardy. Nancy
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CaraRose
Original Author
10 years ago
5b, Chicago. I don't get why half the time this auto fills for my zone and half the time it doesn't. I've got a small cold frame I'm going to see if I can keep something going all winter in.

I tried posting on the growing under lights forum, but it's been kind of dead over there. I did get a good response to a question I posted maybe a month ago about growing potatoes indoors.

I had tomatoes that I started indoors too early that were flowering before it was time to plant them out. So did my peppers that I started too early. Oh, and I had a sugar snap pea (which weren't happy when I transplanted them out... direct seeding from now on) that also was flowering. It's one of the reasons why I was thinking toms and fruiting veggies would be an option.

Carrots sound like a good idea too. Especially since something ate all but a few of my fall carrot sowing so I won't have any stockpiled for winter.
glib
10 years ago
Sprouts are far more productive indoors. After much selection, I grow sunflower shoots in compost trays in a sunny window sill, and broccoli and fenugreek in jars (no medium). Shoots take two weeks, sprouts one week. My biggest problem is keeping the bag of compost in the garage unfrozen, since I use fresh compost for every new batch of shoots.

I doubt that root crops can be grown successfully indoors. You need more than one foot of soil. Root crops can be eaten through the winter, but they need to be in the root cellar, which in my case is totes full of moist sand in the garage. Carrots and parsnips dug up during a thaw are the best tasting root crops, better than anything you can grow indoors.
digdirt2
10 years ago
I tried posting on the growing under lights forum, but it's been kind of dead over there.

Well I didn't necessarily mean posting, just reading all the huge amount of info that is already there about gardening under lights.

But yes it is slow right now on that forum as it is out of season. It will pick up there after outdoor harvest time in mid to late October.

Dave

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Light gardening indoors over winter

Comments (5)

digdirt2

nancyjane_gardener

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Light gardening indoors over winter

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digdirt2

nancyjane_gardener

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CaraRoseOriginal Author

glib

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