Thank you tjiken for your response!! Im looking for info on growing these in containers. Dave's garden is a wonderful site if I am to be growing them in the ground. Seeing as pots will become the same temperature as the ambient air temp, that info doesnt do me much good. Keeping them in the fridge is a wonderful idea! I have a mini fridge that i think will do the trick. Will they need some light? What about watering? I know the wont need much of either but any pointers on how to give it to them would be awesome. Should I open the fridge to let light in periodically? Maybe after watering? My plan is to water using a spray bottle that way I dont give them too much. Also, Will I have to worry about etiolation? Im not too worried about that but if I can minimize it, thats what I want to do. I bring my plants in when the forecast calls for rain. I like to be able to control how much water they get. So protecting them from the rain wont be a hassle. When I bring them in though, I no longer have a kitchen! :) I like to say that I have the most dangerous kitchen on the block! The reason why I am some what freaking out about winter and the blooms(other than the health and beauty) is I want to try my hand a creating hybrids. My understanding of hybrid making is this: Cross pollinate by hand, using a small paint brush, between plants of the same genus. Harvest and sow the seeds. The seedlings should all have varying traits either from the mother or the father. Im sure Im missing a lot from the big picture. My hope is to(years down the road) be able to hybridize two hybrids that I "made". I think that would be such a cool life experience and will bring a whole new level of cultivation under my belt. Thank you for your advice!! plant_junkie

grizzman I guess it came out wrong, it was late and I needed to get to bed. I meant that growing in soil generally takes about ten times more water than growing hydroponically. With soil you pour water on them and it all drains down through the earth (pots etc.), that takes continual watering (often daily). Where hydroponics makes use of all the water in the system (unless it's a run to waist type system). So really the only water used is what the plants drink, and some evaporation (depending on location and setup design). jfd986 I simply cant tell you how much it will cost to build and run the system that you decide to build. That's why I wanted to explain all the variables to consider when making a decision. If you decide to use a water culture system that only uses one or two air pumps, you wont notice anything on your electric bill. Unless you decide to grow inside, then you would need to factor in the cost to run the lights as well for the same plants. Bottom line * Water pumps, timers, and air pumps cost almost nothing to run, unless you are using a lot of them. * Lights I would go with what grizzman said with respect to cost to run, I don't use lights myself, I grow in sunlight (its cheaper that way). But you would need to factor in the cost of equipment. It isn't just the cost of the bulb. As bbrush said there's the cost of the ballast, and metal halide, and High pressure sodium ballasts are not interchangeable to the best of my knowledge. So if you are needing both type, for different phases of plant growth, well that adds up. Also you will need a light reflector to direct the light down to your plants. * The cost to build the system depends on how you build it, how elaborate you want it, as well as what the cost of the materials you need are. What type of system you decide on etc.. I can tell you that I built a system using 4, 5 gallon buckets for the plants, a 18 gallon reservoir, all the tubing and parts needed to build it, including the water pump and timer, even both black and white spray paint to light proof the system (as well as the growing medium), for under $100. But again I use natural light so I get great growth, without needing to buy expensive lighting (much less the cost to run them). This system cost just about nothing in electricity to run, and I had 4 large broccoli plants growing for about 6 months in it. do I really have to keep the light on for 24 hours? No, the lights don't need to be on 24/7. Everybody has a different lighting cycle for their plants, and they often change the on/off times (cycle) as the plants grow. Some plants like more light than others do, so lighting cycles should depend on the plants you grow. 1) Change the water Here everybody has their own preferences. Some change it once a week, some ever other week, some once a month, and others change it once or twice a year. The size of the reservoir, as well as the size of the plants is a big factor in those decisions as well. I personally chance it between one week and one month. There are a lot of variables in my decision, and I always pay attention to how the plants look. 2) Add nutrients (Are there instructions on the bag for that? Should I just comb through previous posts?) Again here everybody has their own preferences, and each situation is unique to that situation. I'm not sure what nutrients you plan to use, but any manufacture of hydroponic nutrients should have mixing directions with the product (and online as well). But generally you can mix them a little weaker than the manufacture directions. There is also a difference in how strong they should be depending on size of the plants, but manufactures list that as well, they refer to it as the growth phase. 3) Water them (Do they even need watering?) Every plant needs water, so I'm not sure what you mean. Are you asking if you need to hand water them? That would depend on how you designed and built your system. But that's why people use pumps in the first place, so the watering cycle is automated. In the case of a water culture system, the roots are always in the water, and the air pump provides much needed oxygen, and air bubbles to the roots so they don't suffocate. 4) Expect them to yield edibles I must of mist it, I'm not sure what plants you decided to grow after all. But generally speaking about the same as growing in soil. They will probably (and likely) grow a little faster than in soil. It all depends on how well you control the growing environment, that makes a big difference in both plant health, as well as yield. The better the conditions, the faster the plants grow. Any pet supply store will carry air pumps (and air stones) in the fish tank department. You can get an air pump designed for a 30 to 60 gallon fish tank at Wal-Mart for about $12 (air stones $2-$3). If you are planing to build a big water culture system and more air output, they do make high output air pumps, starting for about $80 and up that you can find online. P.S. I have some good links to strawberry information, but you say you decided not to grow them after all, so I guess I wont post them after all. If you want to keep track of the electricity costs get a Kill-A-Watt, you can get them at almost any home improvement store inexpensively. They will tell you exactly how much each electrical device is costing to run. You just need to know how much you pay per kilowatt hr (that's on your electric bill), and is programmable into the device.

Brushworks, thank you for the heads up for QuickBooks. It's essential to our small business - I'll be holding off on the update for now. DH may retire first of the year but until then I'm running invoicing, payroll liabilities, income for two households through QuickBooks. *I might add, you said you are 'tweaking' it. My training in QuickBooks has come from my accountant showing me where she wants figures/entries for her year end work, I'm not formally trained nor am I an accountant. I suspect 'tweaking' beyond my knowledge ;)

Davie, I'm in 10a on the Gulf coast and I love cottage gardens too. Especially the pinks/purples with oranges and yellows. I won't be able to achieve the exact look that I had and loved in Ohio but there are still options. My first couple of years in Florida, I tried my darndest to grow big Dutch iris, lilies of the valley, bleeding hearts, lamb's ear, bee balm, etc. that thrived in Ohio but couldn't handle to overbearing heat and humidity here. So, I finally decided that I needed to work with what would grow here and provide a similar look. I put in a new butterfly/hummingbird garden about a year ago that has been through Irma, our only hard freeze in 8 years and less than 2" of rain this year and is still thriving. It's mostly pink/purple/orange and and yellow with some red thrown in. I don't grow roses out of habit (we had nosey little dogs for years who liked to smell the roses when outside to do their business and always came in scratched up). I planned the plant placement perfectly (or so I thought) before planting. But, I wasn't prepared for how big everything gets here in SW Florida LOL Before you start, the most important thing to do in my mind is to work in tons of good compost and soil. Before I put the plants in this garden in, I rented a roto-tiller and worked up the grass (if you can call anything in Florida grass LOL), raked out the grass, stones and shells, and tilled in 40 bags of compost and as much soil TWICE. Believe me, it paid off. There's a few cottage style plants that I have tried over and over in Florida with little to no success: butterfly bushes and hydrangeas. The BFB looks great for a few months then overnight the nematodes kill them. I am trying one last time to grow one in a huge pot but if it dies, it will be my last. If you're in 9a or cooler and have some shade, oakleaf and lacecap hydrangeas can be grown. I was in 9a for the first 9 years in Florida and had some success with them there under the pine and oak canopy. But, here in 10a they wouldn't survive in my all sun garden. Here's some plants that do great for me and provide a cottage feel and are good nectar plants for hummers and butterflies: Salvias: Amistad (purple), Phyllis' Fancy (pale lilac), Faye Chapel (red) and coccenia (red) Porterweed: purple, red and coral Penta: Lanceolata (tall pink, red and violet) Firespike: red and magenta Misc: Red shrimp plant, lantana (pinks, yellows), Mexican sunflower (orange), Lion's Ear (orange), African Iris (white with pale lilac center), walking iris (purple, whites and yellows) Daisy like flowers: Gerbera daisies (they stop blooming when it gets really hot here but start back up when temps drop a little), osteopurmum (whites, pinks, yellows), cosmos (annual), cape daisy (yellow) Vines: tropical morning glory (on a trellis or arch with big blue blooms all year for me), passion vine (Gulf fritillary and zebra longwing) and Dutchman's pipevine (pipevine and goldrim host plant) What is the exact hardiness zone for your Florida garden? There's a huge difference between what is hardy and reliable in 9a versus 10a. Here's a link to the USDA Interactive Plant Hardiness Zone Map Good luck! We look forward to seeing some of your pics. Rhonda