Indoor Garden?

[I'm A Gardener :)]

I've always started my lettuce seeds inside!!! So, I guess it's worth a shot! Right now I'm growing some basil indoors in a little terra cotta pot.

 

[lwheelr]

If you hang a sheet of mylar behind the plants, to reflect the light from the window back on them, it helps.

We did buttercrunch and Romaine indoors. Both ended up looking about the same, just one with rough edges, one with smooth. Long leaves, not short though. They do elongate. But they are still edible.

I didn't wait for the heads to mature. I plucked leaves to eat and let the plants keep growing.

Try Dill too - it makes a good salad green.

I did this for a couple of years, and then just went back to alfalfa sprouts. Easier, faster, takes less space and less light, good nutrition if you let them green up well, and they make a good salad by themselves.

 

[CrimsonRose]

Radish greens seem to be a tad easier to grow indoors for me than the lettuce greens... you just have to like a tad of spice to your salad!

 

[eggrookie2010]

Someone mentioned a grow light. Any idea on the cost of running one of those? I was considering tryin tomatoes. I have some very bright south facing windows (well when the sun is out anyway.) Not really cold here. Its 65 today. Sometimes as low as 45 in the daytime.

 

[moolie]

Well, most grow lights are fluorescent, so pretty low-cost to run--sorry, no idea on real numbers though.

Tomatoes need the light pretty darn close or they get leggy--no more than 4-6 inches above the actual height of the plants.

I've grown tomato seedlings indoors with a grow light, but it's been a few years--will be starting this year's batch at the end of March so I'll post photos and results as they grow. I did it for about 4 years in a row, then lost a whole batch of seedlings to damping off (a kind of rot) and didn't bother for a few years. This forum has me wanting to try again, as seeds are so much less expensive than plants from the nursery

We had our grow light on a chain hanging from a hood in the ceiling over the kitchen counter-top (chain like for swing sets, we just bought a chunk of it off the roll at Canadian Tire, I'm sure most hardware stores have similar). I would raise the light up as the plants grew taller just by pulling up the chain and hooking into another link. We're in a different house now, so I'm still trying to decide where I'm going to do this, and how to keep the cats out

I should add that we had the light on a timer as well, so I didn't have to remember to turn it on every morning and off every night. Still have the timer, so it will be getting a workout again soon!

 

[Wifezilla]

Don't bother with a light specifically labeled as a grow light. They cost more and don't put out enough lumens. Just get the highest wattage CFL you can find.

 

[tortoise]

I had some lettuce in my unheated greenhouse. The potting soil was frozen and they werent growing. So I brought a couple in and put them in a cold, south window. They havent done well.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oops! Maybe they'll recover? If I had a cold frame I could 'probably' have some decent success. Hmmmm....

 

[Britesea]

This forum has me wanting to try again, as seeds are so much less expensive than plants from the nursery

Not only less expensive, but so much more varieties available. I'm excited that I may have finally found one that will grow in our short season without babying-- This summer a couple of volunteers popped up in places where I had planted Betalux Tomatoes the year before. They showed their heads after the starts I brought home from the nursery were put out, but still started producing ripe tomatoes before the nursery plants by a couple of weeks. They were the only ones that gave me vine-ripened tomatoes before our extra early first frost this year. I saved the seeds, and we'll see what happens next year.

 

[tortoise]

Not only less expensive, but so much more varieties available. I'm excited that I may have finally found one that will grow in our short season without babying-- This summer a couple of volunteers popped up in places where I had planted Betalux Tomatoes the year before. They showed their heads after the starts I brought home from the nursery were put out, but still started producing ripe tomatoes before the nursery plants by a couple of weeks. They were the only ones that gave me vine-ripened tomatoes before our extra early first frost this year. I saved the seeds, and we'll see what happens next year.

You make a really good point. I wonder which lettuce varieties are more tolerant of lower light?

I see a lot of variety of light requirements in my African Violet collection. A couple will bloom in my basement under weak artifical light that is enough the others are barely kept in "suspended animation" .... plant coma? others need direct light plus additional artificial light.

Any ideas where to look for lettuce varieties that perform in lower light? Could breed to improve upon it if we had a starting point of lettuce that stays alive.