The skeptic

Hello All!
I just had to pop in and tell everyone what a success my WS was. When another DGer told me about it. I thought that it was nuts. It will never work. I used indoor grow lights and stands for a variety of plants from veggies to herbs. Started some in the GH and WS about 100 or so jugs. The most success I had with seedling to garden was by far the WS jugs. Out of those 100 or so. Only 4 jugs have not produced seedlings for me. In those jugs are things like clematis and harder to germinate seeds, but still not giving up on them just yet.

I have lurked and learned so much from all of you. I just wanted to say thanks for giving your advice and expert experience so freely.
George

George: Nice to have you on the forum, and I'm glad to hear of your success. Don't be a stranger. Oh, by the way, we love pictures...

Karen

I have something to add here, which relates to daylilydaddy's remark about his success rate with seeds raised under lights and WS seeds. I also did both methods this year--trying many of the same seeds as a sort of insurance-policy. Thank heavens I did so; because through "pilot error" I managed to wind burn almost all of my under-lights sown tomato seedlings (put them out on a bad day to harden off. My fault entirely.) Many of the leaves just crisped up and fell off, and the survivors do not look good. While my stalwart WS tomato seedlings, though smaller at this point, are just FINE and those are the ones I'm about to plant out.
Moral of the story: WS seedlings are small but mighty!!! And they catch up fine, as I know from last year.
BTW, welcome, George.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I swear I had so many extras from the WS. That i supplied half the county with plants. Right now I am almost out of all WS. I am going to put the rest on freecycle. This year has been the most successful year I have ever had with germination. The money I have saved. I was able to make my own hanging baskets, window box plantings and large tub/planters also. This place looks like a jungle!

The only weird thing that happened with my WS jugs was the poppies. When we had that cold snap in April the very center of all my poppies died. The Ws jugs looked like donut planting. Nothing else was affected. Next year I plan to cover the jugs when a cold snap happens. Live and learn.

I was too scared to do tomatoes in the jugs. I was starting only heirloom varieties and people were generous, but not enough to gamble with. I experimented with the CFL lights instead of florescent tubes. I wanted to save money and get max candle foot light. it worked like a charm. I experimented with veggies, herbs and flowers all did fantastic. I thought you get 100 candle foot of light per CFL and it cost only 23 watts of electric to run. I am converting my spare room/craft room to a light room for all my tropicals this winter. I am even going to install a small garden pond(large plastic water container that holds 75 gal.) for hyacinths and tender water plants. I can save them over the winter and get the humidity I will need for the tropicals. I like to play a lot if you couldn't tell....
George

George,lots of us "play around".Here at DG we totally understand.Most of us are on the same page.Lots of areas to explore.Look how many forums there are and members are still wanting more.Ain't it great.Edge

I do love DG. I had always been a little cautious of these type of groups. I even was nervous about my addy being displayed for the group to see. Now after about 3 years. I have made some wonderful friends and the information is just great. I was a Hort student in High school and majored in it in college. I still am learning so much here. When I have a question. I just go to that forum either ask a question or post a pic and sometimes hardly have time to send the info and my question is answered.
Love my DG buddies! I just wish I wouldn't be called a lady most of the time!! LOL
George
My friend tease me and say I should change my handle to "morning glory momma" !!

George, did you see Larry's "Garden Room" article? http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/760/

Yes, Critter
Thats where I got the idea for converting my spare room to a grow room, but it still has to be a spare bedroom/craft room and the walk in closet has to be the over wintering bulb closet. I am ripping the carpet out and applying a oil base deck paint and then prob a cheap rug in middle. The CFL are cool burning so the room will not get too hot for bulb storage and I have a large tub to use as a small indoor water feature for tender pond plants and humidity.

I am taking the bed out and putting a futon in there and adding shelves and counter tops. Now to design it and put it all together by fall! LOL Neal left hooks in the ceiling every where in there for his tube lights so thats one thing out of the way. Any advice would be great from anyone.
George

I thought I remembered you posting in the discussion threads after that article, but I wasn't sure... the CFL fixtures are a good idea, I think! I use power compacts in my aquarium setups.

Congratulations George. I love ws'ing as it allows me to grow quite few more plants than the nurseries offer. It also saves me quite a bit of money every spring. I was always amazed at how quickly the veggies catch up. My tomato plants already have flowers as do my cucumbers and zuchinni.

I've wondered about the cfl lights. How do you use them? What kind of light fixture in order to adjust height above the seedlings? Do you use the same distance from seedlings that you use with otherslights like shop lights? What size bulb?

I know nothing about growing under lights, so not sure exactly what questions to even ask. I'd like to try a few seeds under lights next year even though I don't have a good spot for it in the house. If I could come up with inexpensive lights and a small area I'd like to try. If you could share how/what you use, I'd like to hear.

Karen

a little late but here we go I to was skeptical on ws but thought what the heck I had seeds I bought on Ebay that I forgot about from 3-4 yrs ago so thought give it a try.My sucess rate was about 75% wich I am considering exellent because some of the seeds I wasnt even sure what they where.Compared to uder lights I did much better with ws. lot of work to do underlights but watch out next year I will already be set up before hand to try more .lol

Hey Karen!
I used the 100 watt candle size that only used 23 watts of electricity. I used a lamp kits you can buy at lowes for the fixture to hold CFL's. I have a big glass bakers rack and its 3 shelves high. I used metal rods(found in my stuff/craft things) I attached the lamp kit to the metal rod that stretched the length of bakers rack. I then used heavy duty paper clips and attached to rod and lamp kit cord. It was a nice fit and I could adjust light length from seedlings very easy and not worry about them slipping and hitting seedlings.

I then lined the glass bottom shelf with aluminum foil and made a "hood" over seedlings also with the aluminum foil to get max light. My maters germinated in 3 days and the others within a week. The one advantage besides the electric savings was the CFL's give off no heat. I had no damping off or gnats. My seedlings did not get leggy and again with the no heat they needed watering less.

I experimented with veggies, herbs, and perennials and annuals. All were a success. The only plant that did not respond to my system was the peppers. I think I should have used a heat mat from what I researched.

I am converting my spare bedroom/craft room into a light room to over winter tropicals. I am going to use the CFL's. I hope I have as much success as the seed germination.
Clear as mud??
I can try to be better at description if anyone wants to ask questions.
George

Thanks, daylilydaddy. Next time I'm at Home Cheapo I'll have to look and see what they carry. I don't even need multiple shelves as I just want to try a few trays of things inside. Really a portable tube grow light would be adequate but I've never really looked locally. I have looked online and shipping is pretty expensive.

Karen

You don't need to pay the extra for a "grow light".

Cathy's right, especially when it comes to raising seedlings (I've heard some tropical plants need the full spectrum "grow lights").

Karen, you might want to take a look at my "seed starting 101" article about setting up lights. Sorry, I'm on a borrowed computer and having a hard time opening another window so I can copy/paste a link, but if you click on my member name (to the left of this post) you'll find a list of my DG articles... just scroll down until you come to the seed starting articles and look for the one about setting up light shelves.

Holler if you can't find it, and maybe somebody can post a link for you. :-)

aha, I think I've managed to get the link... here's the article about lights... http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/464/

Karen. . .this is how it starts. "I only need a small set-up. I don't need multiple shelves. Just a few trays. . ." and next thing you know, you have Seymour and his 500 cousins in your basement! LOL

Maybe some of you have better self-control than I do, but every time I "just try" something like WS, or setting up lights for indoors, or heirloom tomatoes, the next thing you know, I'm swimming in more plants than I know what to do with! I always find room (or foster homes) for them all, though. ;o)

Angie

No, I don't think so. I'm a wintersower at heart. This was my 3rd year and, honestly, my beds are so full I have no place left to plant.

I'd just like to try a few things indoors- like tomatoes. Wintersowing works for them but it would be nice to have one or 2 started indoors to get a jump start. That's why I've thought about something like this, portable, that could easily disappear most of the year.
http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/shopping_cart.php

And since I'm not only a lazy gardener but cheap too... wintersowing is more my thing. But I do find the idea of indoor starting for a few things, of interest. Thanks for all the info.

Karen

I use regular storage shelves, so they could be "re-purposed" during the rest of the year... the lights could just be tucked into a corner. You could also use the top shelf of a bookshelf (just put the books under the bed for a couple of months) and hang the light fixture from ceiling hooks during seed starting time.

We'll see. Generally, I want gardening to be fun, not work. I always like the lazy way in the garden, which is why wintersowing and I "click"!

And I'm not necessarily frugal, either, in obtaining things I want. In other words, I'm more the type to go buy a portable light to use a few weeks of the year than to put forward the effort to go buy parts, build something that will work, move things to make room.

I never claimed to be Einstein.

Karen

OK, but read the article I wrote before investing in a $200 "grow light" setup for your seedlings... they won't appreciate it properly, and I've even seen some reports that suggest they grow better under "ordinary" cool fluorescents. ;-)

I'm talking about buying a shop light and hanging or propping it up over a shelf, not some major DIY project.