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Post by daylilydude on Dec 21, 2018 5:06:54 GMT -5
Is this something you do or even thought of doing?
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Post by brownrexx on Dec 21, 2018 9:21:05 GMT -5
I wish that I could but the amount of natural light available at this time of year is just not enough and I don't want the clutter of lights in the house until seed starting time.
I do grow a potted parsley through the winter so that I can use it for cooking. It gets a little spindly but is still good enough.
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Post by spike on Dec 21, 2018 9:29:49 GMT -5
Normally I have basil, parsley, cilantro, sage and mint on my window sill. But they sadly had died from neglect. I will eventually start those over. I want to get one of those hydroponic tents and put it on the sun porch, which is enclosed but not really heated. Hubby won't let me until they legalize pot. Says we put that up and we will be raided lol I think that would be a perfect way to grow things fresh during the winter.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Dec 21, 2018 9:49:35 GMT -5
I have thought about indoor gardening quite a bit. I am eyeing one of the bedrooms for conversion to a plant room when more kids move out. That room is next to the wet wall of the hall bathroom, so it should not be very expensive to set up a utility sink in there for watering, washing up, etc. We can rip out the carpet and finish the concrete slab with some kind of coating for an easy-clean, practically indestructible floor. There is already a closet with plenty of room for tools & supplies. Then all I have to do is move my potting shelf in from the porch and put in some shelves and lights. I could start with a few shelves and lights and add more each Christmas, birthday, and anniversary to spread out the expense. I also might buy or make some mylar enclosures for the really high-light plants. And I can close the room off to keep the cats from eating my pepper seedlings. My concern would be humidity and condensation if I get the room really full of plants - there will be a lot of evaporation from moist soil and a lot of transpiration from the plants putting water into the air. I will have to monitor the humidity in there. I might have to do something about ventilation (while keeping the cats out) or add a dehumidifier. ______________________ In addition to starting seedlings for the garden, and growing herbs and lettuce indoors out-of-season, I would like to be able to overwinter some pineapple plants in my plant room. There is nothing like homegrown pineapple. It's barely the same fruit as the stuff that comes out of a can. Oh, and I could grow sugar snap peas inside! The season for peas is soooo short here.
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Post by paulf on Dec 21, 2018 10:26:55 GMT -5
Most all the outdoor flowers and greenery in pots come inside for the winter and a few cuttings of herbs are in the windowsill but that's it until March when the basement is full of seedlings getting ready for spring.
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Post by september on Dec 21, 2018 10:27:34 GMT -5
I thought about it, but I'm not willing to invest in better lights, my old fluorescents are probably nearing their end of efficiency, but are ok for starting seedlings for the short time before they get moved into the greenhouse. I have enough houseplants to keep me in visual greenery during the winter and kind of enjoy the break from gardening. But pepperhead's winter lettuce pictures have me really jealous! I have not had much luck with window sill tomatoes, too many dark and cloudy days in the winter here, and eventually they all get too tall and stringy and get white mildew.
Right now, I have a pot with two hybrid greenhouse type cuke plants in my bay window. The leaves are getting dried out and crumbly, it did set many little cukes, but I don't know if the three largest ones which are now about 2" long will get much bigger before the leaves give out. I have a small fan on it for 12-16 hours a day, to try to toughen up the vines, but not sure if it made any difference. I didn't really expect to be able to grow these indoors, but wanted to see how far they would get.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 21, 2018 15:33:23 GMT -5
Those two tubs of deep-water hydroponics that I have I keep under a pair of T8 5,000k bulbs in the center, and two T5 6,500k bulbs on the outside of the light system, and they are kept on 16 hrs. on a timer. Other indoor plants I have (kaffir lime, curry tree, and bay laurel) are in front of a south facing window, with no extra light, but not all plants will do well with this smaller amount of light. Especially smaller, faster growing plants, like some herbs and greens, will get tall and spindly, reaching for more light, instead of bushy, with more leaves.
I also have my rosemary on the back porch, in a 7 gal fabric pot, and the thyme and Syrian oregano in a Jr eartbox. I'm watching the temp - if it goes below 20°, I'll bring them in, and put them back out, when it goes up again.
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Post by horsea on Dec 23, 2018 11:25:00 GMT -5
conversion to a plant room when more kids move out. You want your kids to move out? Mine are welcome until they get married, so long as they behave of course and are useful. Different strokes for different folks, I guess!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2018 11:54:32 GMT -5
These are my Rooster Spur peppers that I've got under a grow light inside. Although, lately, with the warm weather, I've been moving them outside on the front porch for most of the day...
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Dec 23, 2018 13:14:25 GMT -5
conversion to a plant room when more kids move out. You want your kids to move out? Mine are welcome until they get married, so long as they behave of course and are useful. Different strokes for different folks, I guess! Yes, I do want them to move out. Not the instant they turn 18, of course. But I expect them to be on what I refer to as a "path to independence" after high school. As long as they are progressing on that path, we're good. My views are colored by my brothers who kept making bad life choices and moved back in repeatedly - always dead broke and usually unemployed - until many years into adulthood. There was one time that one of my brothers honestly couldn't help - it was a bad situation he didn't cause. Yes I believe parents need to help their kids through situations like that, no matter how old they are. But typically my brothers just made bad decisions and my parents kept taking them in and supporting them. Basically they knew they could get away with stupidity because Mom and Dad kept bailing them out rather than letting them suffer the consequences of their choices. Eventually they both did learn to behave like responsible adults, but they caused Mom and Dad a lot of stress (and a fair amount of money they really couldn't afford to spend) in the process. Also, one of my brothers is now experiencing this from the parent's point of view now. Back to my sons - the "path to independence" can happen many ways. They can move out to go to college, they can stay here and live with us while going to the local state college or going to a vocational or technical school. We would also let them live with us while they are hunting for a job and for a while after they get a job so they can save up some money. Or they can get a job right after high school and live with us for a while with the understanding that they are expected to help around the house and save up money to move out when they are financially able. They could also join the military, but none of them have expressed any interest in that so far. If they want to buy a place, we'd let them live with us longer to save up for a down payment, too. The point is, barring a serious permanent disability, we expect our kids to make progress towards self-sufficiency from the moment they graduate high school. We're not going to support our kids in adulthood because they just don't want to (or don't know how to) behave like responsible adults. horsea, I don't think we are too far apart in our views, though I may plan to push my kids a little harder. Besides, the way marriage rates are dropping among young people, if I said, "You can stay until you get married," they might never move out! EDIT: Sorry for the thread jack. Back to the subject now, I promise!
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Post by september on Dec 23, 2018 19:53:13 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL , I totally agree with what you said! Our son is finally out of here and living in his own house with a long term girlfriend but no talk of marriage or kids. He also made some stupid decisions along the way which caused several set backs which we ended up paying for just to let him move on faster with a clean slate. We thank god for his girlfriend, because she seems to have helped him finally become a mature adult. I like your phrase of "progressing on the path to independence". These days, rent and vehicle ownership is so expensive that it's really hard for young people to save any money on low starting salaries. No shame in living at home, as long as they are truly putting in the effort to support themselves and also helping parents with household expenses instead of getting free food and services.
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Post by brownrexx on Dec 24, 2018 9:05:11 GMT -5
I have 2 different friends with 35 year old unmarried sons living at home.
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Post by octave1 on Dec 24, 2018 10:42:13 GMT -5
It's always sons, isn't ? I've got one too who so far managed to move back once (but he's only 22). It's OK since he's going back to school, but there will not be a "next time".
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Post by bestofour on Dec 24, 2018 18:15:35 GMT -5
Maybe we should start another thread about this because I know some adult women taking advantage of their parents because they're too lazy to work I could tell you about.
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reubent
Pro Member
Posts: 389
Joined: May 2011
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Post by reubent on Dec 31, 2018 7:15:36 GMT -5
So I'm a 53 year old unmarried son living at home. LOL! But I own a good share of the place, 80 acres to play with, why leave? And it has so much potential to be a mountain farm. I'm aiming to develop it into a wonderful place to live. Although I'm fraid my parents won't live to see the best of it, they are getting along in years and deteriorating too much to last much longer. They'd be in nursing care if my brother and I weren't here to care for them.
So! indoor gardening. Inside the house or in greenhouse? We used to start all our transplants inside under grow lights, I stopped doing that when I built a greenhouse to do it in. But still have quite a selection of house plants, including a couple avocado trees in large pots that bend over under the ceiling. Those will be moved to the larger greenhouse when I get it reliably heated, when I'm assured it will stay above freezing all winter. Right now I'm working hard and steady to build a good storage shed, with our own trees and sawmill. Got maybe $350 in it plus my time. A solid 16 x 16 with second level loft. Very much like a small house but without insulation or windows. Need to clear the new house of stored stuff and finish it in the next coupe months. Maybe in time make a large add on greenhouse to it, otherwise do lots of garden come spring and aim at having a commercial greenhouse ready by next fall. I tried truck driving. As owner operator and trucking company owner as well. Forget it. I'm tied to the land, a farmer at heart. The stress of city to city driving and load delivery was too much, and the separation from nature was hard to handle, I got starved for the natural contact till I had to disappear every chance I got into some wild place behind a rest stop or anything, just to get back in with the trees and bushes.
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