Wow! I can’t believe another year has passed.
Right now seeding collards and chard is on my list, spraying the pluot and pruning the fig.
Anyone else?
I’m researching an indoor grow tent to set up in Feb so I can get my plants a proper start before putting them outside. My house is kept quite cold during the winter (my wife and I both prefer to be slightly chilly) and my garden is a fairly hostile environment with unpredictable weather and strong winds. Both of which have made starting my own somewhat challenging.
I have a big open space in my home office that I’ve used in the past to set up a super janky grow area, including an old coffee table and some clip-on grow lights that I bought on Amazon. Time for an upgrade. Most of these products seem geared to indoor weed growers, not vegetable gardening. I’m hoping to find some decent product that’s a bit more about width than height, with a built-in fan and heating, maybe in the $500 range. Can anyone help?
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I don’t know anything about indoor grow tents, but I have a closet set up for growing. FWIW, I also dabbled in weed growing, but used a “tent” outside after seeds were started.
I’m not sure what the tent provides for food gardening. How cold is your house? It might be fine for most spring veg after sprouting.
Why not just heating mats and grow lights? And maybe a fan?
Maybe you can share what plants you have in mind, and what climate you will be planting out in.
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My house is usually in probably the 55-60F range all winter. I have heating mats, and little plastic dome starter things, and the plants pop right out and look great. Everything I’ve read says that keeping them on the mats for too long is bad for the roots(?), so I diligently take them off of the mats, remove the domes when the plants get too big, and then … they just don’t do anything again. They stay green and alive for five or six weeks until it’s time to go outside, but all growth seems to halt. Happened twice now. Very disheartening! I don’t know for sure that it’s the temperature at fault but it’s my best guess.
I’d like something that I won’t have to keep up for the entire year in the other half of my office. Not that I’m using that space for anything better, it’s just empty, but still. The tent seems like an ideal solution to both that and the space problem and also I like new toys 
… but I’m open to alternate suggestions! My current setup, as mentioned, is really makeshift, so anything at all will be an upgrade. Appreciate any input!
Plants are mostly peppers, some eggplant, maybe some cucumbers and tomatoes. Climate, 6b. (Eastern Massachusetts.) Up on a big hill higher than everything else around me, which causes the wind issues. (A wind storm early last summer almost wiped out everything. I subsequently researched staking techniques and I think I have that problem mostly solved, but having nice big and hearty plants certainly won’t hurt.)
Wow! That’s pretty chilly! Maybe heaters to keep the room around 70? Grow stands and lights make cool toys, but may not be easy to store.
And you probably want to get the timing fine tuned so you are not growing indoors any longer than necessary.
I have something like this in my garage, they have lights that move up and down, I add grow mats, and occasionally wrap with frost blankets or that reflecting insulation stuff.
I can grow dozens of tomato and pepper seedlings on them.
I also use remote thermometers.
For example, I think starting cucumbers in the place they will stay usually works.
Do you know how long your growing season is?
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I direct sowed my cucumbers last year and was not happy with the results: I didn’t get any fruit until late July. The prior year I’d started them indoors and even with my stunted growth situation I had fruit sometime in June. The growing season here is mid-May through mid-September or so. Not a ton of time, and even in May it’s often still kind of chilly.
That setup with the racks looks really nice. Do you know a product name I can google?
I don’t need anything too big: My growing area is two large raised beds, approximately 3’ by 20’ each. Last year I grew maybe 12-15 pepper plants in one bed and a few tomatoes and a few cucumber plants in the other. (I think I can optimize the space more too but that’s a next challenge…)
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