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What - if anything - can I grow in the basement with shoplights?
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Posted by t-bird Chicago 5/6 (My Page) on Sun, Jan 22, 12 at 15:31
| Can I get any food stuffs to the table using only shop lights with 1 cool/1 warm bulb?
In the basement temps likely about 65ish...
seems like lettuces, spinach, etc.... what about cabbage? potatoes?
Is it worth the electric cost?
What are your successes and failure? I have my shop lights now on my seedlings for spring/summer...upstairs for greater warmth...
wondering if it's worth it to play with them in the basement once the garden is planted.... |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What - if anything - can I grow in the basement with shopligh
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| Lettuce/Arugula/Spinach is the only thing I would try to grow to harvest with shop lights. And even then only if you are harvesting it all baby lettuces. Anything that actually needs to "fruit" isn't likely to do so without real sun or high powered full spectrum light. Cabbage needs a lot of room and potatoes need to be planted deep, so unless you have a lot of space and lights I cant imagine either of those working well. After writing that I do remember that my peppers were starting to flower under the shop lights last year. And my Alyssum and Petunias were flowering, so maybe I am wrong. |
RE: What - if anything - can I grow in the basement with shopligh
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- Posted by t-bird Chicago 5/6 (My Page) on
Tue, Jan 24, 12 at 15:43
| Thanks mandolls - I do have 3 shoplights across per shelf now - if that makes a difference, and although the summer seedlings are getting some s exposure sunlight through the window - the basil is almost ready for a first harvest - and looks and smells delicious.... I guess experimenting is the only way to know for sure - so I'll give it a try - for spinach and lettuce when it's too hot in the yard... If anyone could regale me with their tales of harvests - and what equipment worked - I'd be very interested... |
RE: What - if anything - can I grow in the basement with shopligh
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- Posted by cbars z5b6a MO-Kansas City (My Page) on
Mon, Jan 30, 12 at 11:39
| There is a minature tomato called Red Robin that I have successfully grown under shop lights. Quite tasty in the middle of winter. |
RE: What - if anything - can I grow in the basement with shopligh
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| I am in my third year of indoor gardening under shop and cfl's. Worth it from a dollar standpoint? That is for another time. So here is what I grow Buttercrunch Lettuce I harvest this while still small, a lot of time just trimming the larger lower leaves. Poc Choi and Swiss Chard same thing, of note some plants like Poc Choi and Swiss chard will grow all winter and stay in the vegetative form untill planted out in the spring. German Giant Radish is another favorite of mine It will obtain golf ball size in around 35 days. I eat top and bottom. Cooked tops of course. A new one I just went with this year and really inpresed me is Beets, one of my faster growers I use top and bottoms. I have found my best vegetative yields from 16-18 hours of light per day right now I am on 18 on 6 off I planted some mixed Japanese greens this year and some of the mustarded is doing well. sorry I do not know witch? Hope you can get through this, (strange computer spell check????) Curt |
RE: What - if anything - can I grow in the basement with shopligh
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| If you moved the grow lights to a heated area of your residence, the heat produced by the lights would reduce your heating bill. For example, I pay 10 cents per KW for electric and $2.40 per gallon for propane (for heat). For me, the cost for 100,000 BTUs of heat is about the same for electric as for propane. Thus, for every $1.00 I spend on electric lighting, I save about $1.00 on propane. The cost for the electric for my grow lights is completely offset by my savings in propane heat - my lighting is essentialy "Free". Turning off lights in the winter would not reduce my total energy costs! (Please note that the total amount of heat ultimately produced by a light is dependent solely on the watts of electricity consumed, not the efficiency of the light source - All the light energy from the light source is converted back into thermal energy when absorbed by the suroundings - 3,400 BTUs of heat is produced per KW of electric. |
RE: What - if anything - can I grow in the basement with shopligh
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- Posted by t-bird Chicago 5/6 (My Page) on
Sun, Feb 26, 12 at 14:08
| things to think about! will do some experimenting and report back! thanks for info! |
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