Grow Your Own Magazine

I started growing some tomato & pepper plants in my dining room behind the patio door. I thought they would do well but was a bit disappointed. When I put them outside in May, they came on in leaps and bounds.

I was hoping to use the dining room to get stuff growing early next year and maybe a few veggies later on this year. Is the K glass removing the light frequencies that plants need to grow?

Thanks for reading

There often isn't enough light indoors unless you use a south facing windowsill.
I had seedlings on a north facing windowsill, and they all died/ went mouldy


Houseplants do well because they tend to prefer warm, shady conditions (like in the jungle)

__________________
~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I promise not to mention the rather excellent Search function again. Feel free to slap me if I do

Thanks for the reply The patio door is 2M wide and SW facing. I thought it got a lot of light in there but I guess my best bet is to buy a cloche and stick it on a south facing wall

If you started them early in the year the light levels would'nt have been great no matter where you had them, thats why they picked up when you put them out in May.
The light levels were better and the ammount of daylight hours were longer than springtime.
Hope this helps.

__________________

And when your back stops aching,
And your hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

It certainly does and thanks for you help. Just to add I am complete newbie to growing fruit and veg - I only started this year. My tomatoes, strawbs and other stuff are doing well though. I just wish I had started sooner in the year. I have decided that next year will be an early start and thought it would be a good idea to do some trials using a grow light. Initially I tried using an energy saving bulb but it was the wrong colour temp – 2600K. I have since bought this 18W tube - 6500K and have enclosed it with a reflective cover.




It will be interesting to see what happens with these tests

How much did your lamp cost? (I'm wondering how much per kilo your tomatoes will work out at when you harvest them)

__________________
~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I promise not to mention the rather excellent Search function again. Feel free to slap me if I do

The lamp was £40. The plan is to start as early as possible next year using the 4’ lamp to bring on seedlings. I reckon I could get about 4 seed trays under it. The 18W lamp with the reflective cover increases the temp inside by about 3 – 4 degrees. This is in my garage / office which is very dark, but reasonably warm in winter – maybe 17C so inside would be around the 20C mark. I would have thought it would be enough to bring on the seedlings to transplant into pots.

These pots would then be moved into the dining room behind the patio door. Whilst they may not grow very quickly since my dining room is not heated in winter and has limited light levels, at least I can start really early. It probably only reaches 10C in the depths of winter but never freezes. It may be enough for stuff to grow, albeit slowly but at least it will be growing.

I don’t really have room for a greenhouse though at a pinch, I could fit one in my garden somewhere. I also assume (please correct me if I’m wrong) that greenhouses can fall below zero in the UK. I don’t however think a greenhouse is the answer to what I am trying to do – go green and save money. What I am attempting to do here is use indoor warmth to start growing stuff early.

I may be barking up the wrong tree and please tell me if I’m wasting my time, but so far, it’s been interesting

You won't gain very much by starting very early. It's not just about getting seeds to germinate, it's about keeping them growing strongly for the many weeks they are indoors until they can go outside in May.
Anything that grows without enough light will be weedy and weak. I have tried!

Tomatoes and chillies are the obvious things to start early (I do mine late Feb, because there just isn't enough light, even on a south facing windowsill, before that).

Yes, unheated greenhouses can fall below zero in hard winters. But they give you a useful couple of extra weeks in Feb/March when you can get a lot of crops started in the increasing daylight of early spring.

__________________
~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I promise not to mention the rather excellent Search function again. Feel free to slap me if I do

Thanks for the info you have kindly shared Two_Sheds All points taken on board

Looks like I will be busy late Feb, next year with the tomatoes and chillies

Once again, thanks

Mercury Vapour and Metal Halide are the nearest to "natural" light,they were developed for indoor plant growing(especially in Germany),I used them for a tropical reef/ fish/invertebrate tank where the algae in the corals had to be kept happy for the symbyosis.Actinic tubes were also used in tandem with the above to try and get as near to true colour as possible.