Veggies vary in whether they are sensitive to photo period. The veggies you listed above are not, but many of the bulbing veggies like onions and garlic are. They don't get triggered to bulb up until the amount of darkness is in the right range. If you wish to grow these crops you will have to choose the variety you want. Onions, for example are long day and short day (require different dark period to bulb). There are also a few day neutral types which would probably work better if growing with other veggies. With your hot climate (summer anyway) you will probably find your best luck in the other 3 seasons for outdoor growing. Look into the crops you wish to grow to determine if they are warm season or cool season. Tomatos, cukes and peppers are all warm season while radish and lettuce are cool season. You just have to figure the amount of time the plants take to mature and pick the months where the average temps are closest to ideal. Warm season stuff ideal temps are 75-90F and cool season stuff ideal temps are 60-75F. Radish are quick (30 days or so), lettuce is also fairly quick (60 days or so, less if you harvest it young). Cukes are fairly quick (60 or so days until they start producing), but you want to allow at least a month of solid production before cold or extreme heat/drought do them in. Tomatos and peppers both require a long time from seed (at least 90 days). These are both crops you would do well to start indoors in soil and then 6 weeks after seed for tomatos and 8 weeks for peppers, put them outside in the ground. Consider growing the peppers in containers buried in the ground. They are perennials so you can take them inside when the weather gets cold and grow them on under lights and then put them back outside when it warms again. Hope this is of some help. Also, please post back how well the veggies (particularly the large crops like tomatos and cukes) do indoors for you under the floros. I have only attempted tomatos to fruiting under 400 watts of HPS lighting and wasn't terribly impressed. If I did it again I would probably go to 400 watts of MH and 400 watts of HPS combined. Oh, one other thought is to consider the pollination needs of the veggie. There are cukes that do not require pollination, but many do. This requires insects or your diligence to do it manually. The rest of what you listed doesn't require insect pollination, but fruit set may be enhanced on the peppers and tomatos with some insect pollination. Have fun!

Wow, I had no idea that I had all these wonderful responses to this problem. I usually track my posts by e-mail, but something must be amiss on this site: the only one I received was from Corinne and I came on the site to reply to her. Thanks for all the valuable information, which I believe I have read at some time on the copius threads about this subject. Last fall I did the mulch thing: my son bought a leaf vacuum with a chipper attachment. We chipped leaves for hours and spread it on all the beds, including this one. Nothing seemed to happen to it over winter as I expected, and I was advised (on this site) to remove it once the spring was here and I was going to plant the bed, so that's why I am at square one again. I am following a procedure I found in a book and the first step is to know what kind of soil I have. Most of their 'tests' included the soil's reaction to water, hence my question. I will follow some of the advice given above, maybe I'll start with the soil in the jar with water first. Joepyeweed: I don't know if we have soil maps, but it would not be accurate for me because I live in a suburban development, about 50 years old. The builder is well known for bringing clay in to 'landscape' all his developments, and there is evidence of this here and there. I even fashioned a little pot out of it once!! This bed in particular has been re-built several times, most recently by me about 10 years ago because it was full of cat faeces. I had topsoil delivered and used it all around. The front bed was amended with composted cow manure and we continued planting petunias. The cats continue to be a problem (not mine) and I have recently added lots of coffee grounds to deter them. Perhaps that's why it has this strange consitency. Of course I am looking for the fast way out, and don't know what I will do eventually. I have surgery coming up in a couple of weeks, so I won't be able to do much until late in the fall. I have a composter which does not work, and I have followed the directions for filling it several times. I have come to the conclusion that it does not get enough oxygen, but that is the design selected by our city for our use. Thank you all and I'll be back when I have someting to report. Northerner.

Oh wow, I am overwhelmed by all the responses. I want to Thank each of you for posting. When I logged on and saw all the replies it brought tears to my eyes. Thank You again. I have been lurking around in the background reading some of the post and everything seems so easy until I try to do it. (grin)I think I probably have the early signs of Alzhemiers. Sometimes I can't remember how to get back to things I've found on here. Thanks Jan for offering to help with the daylilies and the computer. Trust me I'll need lots of help. I think I need to ask you a question right now. Exactly how deep do I plant my daylilies? I think I have 3 that may not be deep enough. I know you don't want to plant them too deep. But how deep is deep enough. One is kind of laying over some on it's side, and the others the outer leaves keep dying on them. They still have green leaves and new growth what do you think? Oh Laurel the photograph of the daylily is beautiful. Thanks for sharing it with me. I'm drooling over all of ya'lls beautiful babies already. Betsy, thanks for telling me to put my zone in the box. I really don't know for sure if I'm in 8 A or B. I live in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Fairysoapgirl I think I gave you a hard time earlier today on a post about no dirt under your finger nails. Like I said I have a difficult time remember somethings so I may have you mixed up with someone else. Anyway I do thank you for all the links in your post. Thanks Rick, Chris, Jake, Janet, and Kathy. Each of you have made me feel much more comfortable. I look forward to our friendships blossoming just like the dayliles and other flowers. Sincerely, Marian P.S. I wondered how people remembered everything everyone had said. Then I noticed I could scroll back and then say something after I had re-read one post at a time. Hey, there maybe hope for me yet.

Yea, I realize that. I wasn't concerned about the debate of HID vs Flouro (including CFL) vs LED. I have seen with my own eyes what can be grown under straight flouro, T8's... not even T5's. That is why I decided to use them. I tried to induce more viable information by wording my question about seed to harvest by phrasing it that way, hoping someone would give a honest assesment on yield under flouro. Yep, I don't care about lumens per watt... as I do know it is irrelevant... CD for each NM in the source, that would be worth talking about. Same goes for if my analog is running at 60 vs the digital 20k. Sure... 1 watt is 1 watt, but there is no correlation between 1 watt of X produces the same amount of heat as 1 watt of Y. It all boils down to efficiency. I can make you a 2000w "light" has the faintest glow and great heat producer *oven, cough*, but not so good for plants. It is no myth that LED does not work either, as my girlfriend uses them for her orchids in a room with no sunlight. I just never grown vegetables, indoors, under lights... so that is where my question is going. I guess I should have left it at... Assuming I'm using your favorite light source of choice and everyone else's sucks, is growing veggies under light a just "let it run it course" until it pops veggies? All I wanted to know was about the photo period, if any, or if there was nute triggers, if any, and just some shooting the breeze about flouro experiences. I can already tell the people who bag flouro so hard have never tried it. "Man... your setup sucks because you aren't using my setup!"