what temps?

I'm new to this forum. I started my garden last year using Growboxes which are wonderful for a single parent like me that also rents! This year, I decided to start indoors! Been doing alot of research....decided to build a shelf from wood at Lowe's! What a project! Wish I would have thought about the cinderblock method!!

In any case, I started with Peat Pots, everything germinated wonderfully. I then decided to break apart the peat pots and put into my Growboxes. One big reason, is because I hate watering...growbox has a reservoir that helps in that.

So now these are in my garage under shop lights. However, we are in Pittsburgh area and it's cold still!!! My garage can range between 50 and 70 degrees. What i started doing is using an osilating fan and oscilating heater.....any feedback on that?

Also, because the temp is so low in there I don't turn off my lights ...is that bad?

Will these temps keep the plants growing? I think my last frost date is late May.

Another question is growing the vegetable in my house upstairs....might be a dumb question but will bugs just come out of nowhere with these plants?

I'm growing squash, romaine lettuce, carrotts, basil, tomatoes, cilantro, beets, onions, watermelon, pumpkins

another pic

The first tho. ught that I had was is you are WAY too early. The romaine letuce will be fine with lower temperature, as will the beets and onions. The onions are daylight length sensitive and are going to try to form bulbs under continuous lighting and since your plants are still very small the bulbs will be very small.

Squash and pumpkin which is just a variety of squash like warm temperatures. The real problem you are going to have is that squash, pumpkin ant watermelon get huge even if you did choose bush varieties. If you didn't then they gt gigantic. THink two plants filing you garage.

Watermelon is definitly not going to like 50-70 temps.

If you're going to grow vegetables in a room you will need something much brighter than fluorescents to do so. Here's a link to indoor grow lights - I've never used them because they are so expensive.

http://wormsway.com/product_cat.aspx?cat=LITE

HoneybeeNC,
I just grew over 200 tomato plants and 65 bell pepper plants indoors under regular old, cheap fluorescent shop lights!

Expensive indoor grow lights are NOT necessary...

Luvstogardengirl,
Are you attempting to grow your fruit to maturity in your Earth/growboxes INSIDE of your garage? If so, that's a whole different can of worms!

Do you not have at least a patio or balcony you can set those boxes outside? Not sure you're gonna have success under other than a commercial light set up for indoor gardening!

Bee,
If I misunderstood her attempt, please accept my apology for the last post!

Hugs!

Linda

This message was edited Mar 22, 2011 10:51 AM

Linda, no apology necessary :)

When luv2gardengirl said:

I would agree that you have started most varieties way to early. You can put out the lettuce and carrots now; however all others should wait until your last frost date, which is around May 15th. Your squash, watermelon and pumpkins will grow too fast to save for planting. Your other varieties could be held over if they are getting enough light and room for the roots to expand. I have added a website that tells how long before transplanting you should start your vegetable seeds. Simply click on the variety in question.
http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/Organic-Vegetable-Seeds-c237.htm