Hello to you all. I am new to this blog and to all of you. I live in a first-ring suburb of Pittsburgh called Mt. Lebanon in a little townhouse with enough dirt to keep me busy with flowers and herbs each year.
Lately, though, I've been gravitating more and more towards the "growing" movement of urban agriculture. I will be growing at least some of my own food this season at a community plot near where I work. Here's the website, if you're interested: http://www.homewoodgarden.net/
From what I understand, there is much sharing of crops, seeds, recipes, etc. among the gardeners here. I'm very excited!
I'd like to start my plants from seeds this year -- and I have plenty of them! This will be the first time I've tried to start lots of seeds indoors at this house, so I'm in the process of setting up a space in my basement with an industrial-style fluorescent light fixture I got from Construction Junction -- a VERY fun place to find recycled building materials and lots of other neat stuff with tons of creative potential. Here's their website, if you're interested: http://www.constructionjunction.org/
So -- my question is: Have any of you ever started seeds using grow lights or fluorescent bulbs?
I have only ever started seeds in a large sunny kitchen (NOT the one I have now) -- but never in a basement! Suggestions welcome!
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2 comments:
Joan how exciting, Homewood Garden looks like a wonderful place to have a garden and close enough to your work to eat the fruits of your labor for lunch while your pulling a few weeds. Are you planning on strictly growing veggies or adding a few cutting flowers as well? Have you given thought to who you will buy your seeds from? Having learned recently that the largest US pesticide company owns a lion share of the plant seed companies has caused me to consider heirloom seeds. One site for info and purchasing that I thought looked interesting is http://monticellostore.stores.yahoo.net/plants---seeds.html I haven’t started seeds in the basement under lights in a number of years but a few things that I recall being essential are;
1. Make sure your flats have excellent drainage you don’t want to over water – mist rather than drench
2. A fan blowing over your flats is essential to keep fungal spores from sitting on your seedling and quickly killing it.
3. If your basement is cool you would want to create a hot house effect around your plants with the heat source being your lights. You can do this by making a room (large enough for you to work in) around your table or shelve by hanging sheets of plastic (painters drop cloth ect) stapled into the ceiling beam and draped on the basement floor.
4. Timing is everything do not try and push the envelope by having your seedlings ready to go in the garden even a few weeks early. I say this for two reasons, first starting seeds under lights is much like having a litter of puppies, they are much needier than you thought possible and the last few weeks before they are ready to go into the ground are the most demanding as hardening them off requires a constant eye on their environment. It is not unusual to loose a couple of flats in an afternoon, so the shorter time period your tending these more mature seedlings the better. The second reason is seedlings have specific demands for soil and air temperature and if planted too early it has been determined that they stand still until their demands have been met.
Have you considered vermicomposting, in addition to my larger compost pile I am going to get some red wigglers as worm casting is considered to be great fertilizer. Here is a link to another urban gardener’s composting video that you may find interesting. http://www.monkeysee.com/play/408-garden-compost-worms
Construction Junction…. a great idea that I bet will quickly spread around the country. Good luck with your seedlings and I hope you will post your thoughts and photos from time to time about your community gardening experience.
Thanks, Katie! How great that Monticello sells seeds. I've also been roaming around at Seed Savers Exchange: http://www.seedsavers.org/default.asp
I think it's a fascinating organization!
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