This is a true story of trial and error.
When I was in college I learned from a friend that you can grow stuff inside of a closet, without any natural light at all. I was amazed at the…er… bumper crop he produced from such a tiny space. Years later, I realized that rather creative indoor farmer had taught me something really valuable; the indoor growing set up could be used for ANY plant.
For the first attempt, I used a small area wrapped in tin foil and depended on the heat from the one tiny grow lamp I acquired, just like the little dorm room closet “garden” I had seen. This produced slow to start, week seedlings. At the time, I thought it was my lack of fancy hydroponic supplies and fertilizers… and maybe the fact that I was trying to grow things less sturdy than a plant that grows just about anywhere with no assistance. I was determined to grow my food organically, so I went back to the unsatisfactory but lower budget, cat tempting window sill method.
When I started getting more serious about gardening, I did some research and discovered to my delight that plain old shop lights would work just as well, if not better, than the teeny tiny grow lamp I had. I set up the lights, lined the small seed starting area with silver Mylar sheets (you can buy them at your local party supply store. They are sold as table cloths.), planted my seeds and waited for a miracle. Imagine my disappointment when the seeds were very sluggish to grow.
The next year, I had read enough to know that my seeds needed heat to germinate. All that time in college admiring my friend’s closet must have made me a little slow. The year after that, I learned that the seedlings needed to be petted daily to help them produce nice, strong stems (or you can use an oscillating fan like I do. I am lazy.) and that the amount of “light” they got needed to be bumped up an hour or two longer than the natural day, and that the shop lights needed to be as close as possible to the seedlings. Someone told me I should get one warm and one cool light, and so I did… although later I found out this was not really necessary either.
When we moved to this house 7 years ago, one of the first things I did was to stake out part of the basement as mine. I chose the part that used to be a woodworking shop, with plenty of outlets, light and counter space, all close to the boiler. We are very lucky to have cold water and a big laundry sink downstairs too. With Aldo’s help, I moved one of the cabinets out and set up my seed starting operation. I have never looked back, and, aside from the few times a crop completely failed to germinate, I have not bought any vegetable plants. Last year I started flowers too, and am hoping to grow my own annuals from here on out.
Since a few people asked for photos…
This is pretty much what it looks like… only I need to find the rest of my milk crates. There are now three shop lights in a row overhead. When there was only one, we had it on a pulley system to keep the light the right distance from the seeds. I don’t bother with that now. The lights are set on a timer (upper left) so I do not have to go downstairs twice a day.
You can also see some old, frame-less mirrors that we found left from the prior home owners. There is a big one against the back wall and a smaller one along the side to help reflect the heat & light back into the “closet”.
Just a plain old shop light…
This one is waiting along with another one to be made into another seed starting set up. These will be back on the old pulley system. You can also see the bit of plywood covered in a reflective table cloth that we use as a “door”. The cats sometimes get into the basement, and this door serves the dual purpose of reflecting light & heat and keeping pesky, plant eating felines out of trouble.
One of my seedling trays came with a heating mat, the other one did not. I bought them both at the end of the season sale at a big box store for about $3 or $4 each set. The one that is mat-less gets to use my heating pad placed between two trays, cloth cover removed and set on low. Once the seeds set true leaves, I take the heat away.
There is enough room for three seedling trays, but I only use two because I do not have enough room for three trays worth of larger plants.
This year I have 24 tomatoes, 16 assorted peppers of varying mildness, some pineapple tomatillos and eggplant. The cool weather crops get started on my sun porch, since they do not need as much attention.
Hope that helped someone!
