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Post by daylilydude on Jan 18, 2018 7:22:08 GMT -5
Do you grow any plants indoors over the winter... like herbs?
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Post by spike on Jan 18, 2018 8:48:35 GMT -5
This is the first year that I haven't. Usually I have my window sill garden full of basil, parsley, sage and cilantro. Plus whatever else would strike my fancy. Spent my whole life never even seeing a stinkbug but now we are the stinkbug capital. So trying to battle the bugs out of my plants was to much. Totally grossed me out.
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Post by brownrexx on Jan 18, 2018 9:21:21 GMT -5
I take a break from having fresh herbs over the winter and buy them once in a while. They don't grow well indoors for me and in the early spring I buy seedlings at the local greenhouse.
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Post by september on Jan 18, 2018 10:48:25 GMT -5
Herbs don't do that well for me in the house during most of the winter. We have way too many cloudy days, so they get thin and stringy even in a south window. Sometimes I buy a pot of rosemary at the end of February when we start getting more sunny days.
I tried to grow micro tomatoes last winter when I brought in pots from outdoors, and they became very tall and stringy and eventually got white mildew on stems and leaves from lack of air movement, I suppose. I'm not willing to use artificial lights and fans in our living room, which is where my bay window is, so I gave up on winter micros. I dug up and potted a very small Serrano pepper plant this fall, amazingly it seems to have escaped the aphid plague that I normally bring in the house with outdoor peppers. It has sat in the bay window stalled with no new growth all winter. I left the red peppers on it for color, and they are now all dried up, I think I see one new blossom. I am expecting it to start growing when we get more sun and the days are longer.
I know some people have luck with indoor herbs. My neighbor lady has a big wicker plastic lined basket of a mix of herbs that she has on her back deck during the summer, and brings in during the winter. They do get a little leggy, but to my eye, it looks like she grows enough to use, in fact to me it looks like she doesn't use enough of what she has!
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Post by ladymarmalade on Jan 18, 2018 11:13:43 GMT -5
I always try. Seldom succeed, but it's something to do. One year I kept growing lettuce mix under lights. That was fun, but I probably spent more on the electricity than I would have spent on the greens at the grocery store. Then there was the year I had a big sunny south facing patio window on the second floor and I experimented with a Sungold in the house.. It certainly worked, but that spring we moved, so I only got a handful of tastes off of those plants before I had to toss them. There was no way to move them out of the bedroom and keep them intact. It didn't occur to me at the time to take a sucker either. If I had a window/patio door like that I would definitely be growing things indoors in the winter.
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Post by paulf on Jan 18, 2018 12:05:08 GMT -5
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 18, 2018 12:24:39 GMT -5
I bring in the pots with my kaffir lime trees, curry tree, and bay laurel for the off season. And I grow chives, curly parsley, sweet basil, Thai basil, and this year I put in a lemon basil, in my hydroponics. I keep trying cilantro, but still can't get it to work for me on an everyday basis. I grew the red epazote in hydro, but it grew so huge that I had to trim 90% of it several times - not really a bad thing, but I just saved a bunch of it from the summer by salt layering, and didn't grow it indoors again.
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Post by octave1 on Jan 18, 2018 14:12:50 GMT -5
Not really. I have a puny rosemary plant that I normally keep outside, and that's it. As much as I love vegetation, I do no like indoor plants.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 18, 2018 15:19:47 GMT -5
As I think I've mentioned before, I have amazing ability at killing houseplants of all types. Usually with too much "love."
I keep thinking about doing indoor lettuce in the summer or herbs over winter, but so far I haven't really. Most of the time, the only plants I grow in the house are seedlings for transplanting in the garden.
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Post by brownrexx on Jan 18, 2018 15:21:57 GMT -5
I just picked up some new leaf lettuce seeds when I was seed shopping. Maybe I will plant a few under the lights when I start my tomatoes but that will not be until March.
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Post by Gianna on Jan 18, 2018 16:35:42 GMT -5
I used to have houseplants, but I wasn't attentive enough. RIP. And basil, and all manner of starting seeds.
About the only things these days that live their lives entirely inside are microgreens (peas and sunflowers). But they have a life-span of less than 2 weeks.
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Post by tomike on Jan 18, 2018 17:07:29 GMT -5
We over-winter many plants that go outdoors come spring. One year (actually for a few years) we grew tomatoes indoors.
In our opinion, it is not cost-efficient to grow tomatoes indoors in Santa's backyard.... lighting and heating costs considered.....
Especially, in a colder/coldest winter such as the one that we are presently embarked on.....
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