I'm quite new here & loving the forums! I have two questions:

1. Aside from the odd herb in a pot and starting seeds for spring planting, I've never grown veg indoors. I'm wondering if I could do it in a basement with grow lights. My house is very old (1855) & the basement is more a 'cellar', cold all year,humid in the summer. I'm in Ontario, Canada.

2. I've been growing my wheatgrass without soil,just in regular sprouting trays with holes in the bottom so the roots can get to the water. I really don't have the room, $$, or time to invest in Sproutman type soil growing system. If you're like me, have you found that adding things to the water makes your wheatgrass healthier? (I have a list from web research; can't find it right now.) What's the best in your experience? I finally got a manual wheatgrass juicer last week, so it's new to me; don't know if I can keep enough grass growing for constant use, but I'm going to try!

Thanks! Jane

the only thing limiting your indoor growing is your imagination i grew a huge zuchini squash from one corner of my living room that sprawled all over the place one winter

most everyday garden plants don't have huge extensive root systems (even potatoes, turnips, etc you could grow in pots indoors if you had the light source !)

all ya need is light, air, water and food and you can grow anything inside that you grow outside (with exception of very large trees unless you have vaulted ceilings !)

id start your basement operation with the simple cool loving stuff such as the lettuces and peas .. you could easily do these on shelves in trays under grow light tubes ..

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Jodi, is it possible to grow veggies in a regular living room and/or dining room with not a lot of Sun? And without grow lights, I mean?

yes and no? lol .. i have a large south facing living room window, its double paned so lots of light but no coldness, so lots of greens grow ok there during the winter but really an investment of a shelving unit and install some flouresent ballasts under each shelf you could grow alot of greens... you could also replace some of your overhead bulbs with these which throw the right spectrum of light to grow (again very cheap) [www.buylighting.com] you wont be able to grow a forest but , if you can grow houseplants normally ..than you should be able to grow just about anything

best thing to do is just save a few seeds from your plants and just try ! i never thought a zuchini would take over my living room

the bulbs are only $20 each [homeharvest.com] and last a good long time if you invest in a cheap $5 timer to turn things on and off... the ballasts i got free off of craigslist and freecycle, if you know someone handy with basic wiring or can do it yourself its easy to set a nice cheap system to keep yourself in lettuce, beet tops and spinach all winter especially for Janes winter basement restrictions

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2011 11:32PM by Jgunn.

good grief my spelling is attroc.. atroc.. bad lol

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Thanks, Jodi! I am actually interested in tomatoes though. I can just sprout clover although lettuce would be cool. I don't have much Sun in the living room...which direction does it face? East I believe...I wonder if a tomato plant would take. I am not surprised at the zucchini, though. They are so prolific in leaves and zukes!

yea zuchini and cockroaches will take over the world

try the tomato .. if you can grow a houseplant indoors ya just never know id try cherry tomatoes they require less heat and sunlight and are faster growing

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I am gonna try it this winter, Jodi! We'll see what comes up!

Use your imagination when growing Wheatgrass indoors. I'm considering growing only small amounts in small pots. The growing medium would be much easier to deal with.
Never underestimate the Power of just a few drops of Wheatgrass Juice......WY

Keep in mind yall, most wheatgrass grown indoors, protected from the extreme hot and cold of the outdoors, contains mold. Unfortunately, I learned this firsthand. Was told that the nausea from drinking wheatgrass juice was "normal detox" so continued to chug it down, only to feel worse and worse. I finally got to the point where I was really sick, fortunately someone introduced me to pine needle oil and I got all the mold out of my system. I grow my wheatgrass outdoors, where its exposure to more extreme temperatures does a number on the mold. Also doesnt hurt to make your own colloidal silver to water it with once a week, to kill off any spores that are starting to form in the soil.

Having said that, wheatgrass is awesome! If you do grow indoors, make sure there is plenty of air flow, even if you have to plant it more sparsely than you typically see with wheatgrass. And get to know your seed source. There is a fertilizer you can buy inexpensively that actually sweetens the wheatgrass juice!

As for vegetables and the like, I usually have a small salsa garden growing in my kitchen, cherry tomatoes and all the herbs and peppers. Plants need less light than you think, but it does need to be quality light. Its amazing what a few well placed mirrors bought cheaply at a thrift store will do to brighten a space if you have at least one good window.

Hope this helps!

Sproutman

I've been doing a lot of reading/youtubing on how to grow sprouts and the like, most experts seem to say that they need a breathable greenhouse environment with indirect light. So I think with wheatgrass this is achieved with an inverted tray (with holes in it) on top.... is this correct? This mold story is disconcerting. But I know from experience it's pretty easy to dry out alfalfa if it's not grown in a jar or a sprout bag...

You said that you're growing your wheatgrass hydroponically? I've heard that it tastes better and is way healthier if grown in soil.... but others say that the nutrient difference is not enough to matter. I would try growing it in really good organic soil (maybe mixed with peat moss? that sounds familiar...) You could mix in more nutrients into the soil and use organic liquid kelp fertiliser.

Feel free to correct me I'm wrong, I'm pretty much just regurgitating what I've read/heard, haven't actually done it myself, yet... but I'm going to start probably this weekend growing some sunflower sprouts after I buy some soil :-D

And I'm going to grow mine indoors. I'm going to buy a small greenhouse shelf system (for only like $70 for four tiers) from the hardware and put them by a south facing window.