Garage garden

I am thinking about grabbing myself a tiered stand and a couple of fluorescent lamps and putting some herbs in my garage this winter. Does anyone do this? I am looking for setup ideas or other cool stuff I could grow. I was also wondering about the time commitment if anyone has experience with this. Would I be better off just buying at the store for the winter?

Thanks
Jared

this sounds cool, I would like to do something of the sort

Why not put indoors near a window?

I'm just starting to do a little bit of gardening a la potted plants....contemplating an automated micro-sprinkler system to avoid the inevitable consequences of my ADD. Harder to imagine how that would work once I bring'em in for the winter though.

I don't really have a good window here, plus I wanted to play around . Ill look around though and see if I can manufacture some space. Also I dont have to worry about where the water goes if i spill it or whatever.

rahimlee54 said:

I don't really have a good window here, plus I wanted to play around . Ill look around though and see if I can manufacture some space. Also I dont have to worry about where the water goes if i spill it or whatever.

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Yeah, I'm worried about spills as well. I'm not sure if plants need UV, or how much, or if it varies between plants, etc. Also, keep an eye on electricity consumption and heat production...don't want to look like a growhouse to the local ATF!

Zwiefel said:

Yeah, I'm worried about spills as well. I'm not sure if plants need UV, or how much, or if it varies between plants, etc. Also, keep an eye on electricity consumption and heat production...don't want to look like a growhouse to the local ATF!

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Pretty much espically since my wife is in the healthcare field . I was really liking this guys setup but its more area than I wanted initally. Link

My friend grew a tomato plant in a cabinet in his bedroom.

I would look into the LED grow light panels.
Low energy consumption and very efficient from what I have read.

so let me get this straight. You want to get some special grow lights and pots and start "growing" stuff in you garage during the winter time. This sounds vaguely familiar. Ala Cheech and Chong

High pressure sodium and metal halide. Great combo for the right crop.

I knew somebody's brother in law's friend that knew a guy that grew herbs like that. Or maybe it was only one herb. Don't remember cooking with it.

daveb said:

I knew somebody's brother in law's friend that knew a guy that grew herbs like that. Or maybe it was only one herb. Don't remember cooking with it.

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Perhaps a good topic for in the sous vide subforum? ( 71 C, butter/ olive oil)

riba said:

Perhaps a good topic for in the sous vide subforum? ( 71 C, butter/ olive oil)

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Naw, brownies or cookies only.

Mrmnms said:

High pressure sodium and metal halide. Great combo for the right crop.

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Mrmnms, you are so right. The combo covers a wide spectrum of light waves. A wired up a orchid growing room ant that is what they had me install. Had them controlled by some mechanical Tork timers and those orchids loved it. They also added heat which the plants liked.

Fluorescents can work and generate less heat (which can be good or bad) and are less money to buy, just make sure you are getting bulbs with different Kelvin ratings. I would start at 2,700 and go up to 4,000.

99Limited said:

Naw, brownies or cookies only.

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the sous vide step is for extraction, you can bake with the results

Bill13 said:

Mrmnms, you are so right. The combo covers a wide spectrum of light waves. A wired up a orchid growing room ant that is what they had me install. Had them controlled by some mechanical Tork timers and those orchids loved it. They also added heat which the plants liked.

Fluorescents can work and generate less heat (which can be good or bad) and are less money to buy, just make sure you are getting bulbs with different Kelvin ratings. I would start at 2,700 and go up to 4,000.

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and add decent reflectors

Mrmnms said:

High pressure sodium and metal halide. Great combo for the right crop.

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Ceramic metal halides are pretty nice and run cooler than HPS bulbs.

I'm lucky to be in Colorado :whistling:

daveb said:

I knew somebody's brother in law's friend that knew a guy that grew herbs like that. Or maybe it was only one herb. Don't remember cooking with it.

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Hey, I think I knew that guy! He cooked with the shake.

I admit I know nothing about grow lights, but why the recommendations of the lower end of the K range? All the LED grow lights on that link appeared to be very blue to me, not red or orange....if 3000 is very warm white, and 5000 is daylight and blue kicks in about 7000, why are you less than 5000K?

Conventional wisdom is to use bluer light for the vegetative phase and redder for fruiting/flowering.

The combination of HPS/MH provides both as does a fixture with a mix of red, green, blue and violet LEDs.

Check into T5 florescent bulbs. You can get a nice setup with 4 or 8 bulbs in 1,2,4 foot lengths. Not as heavy duty as HPS or MH, but more energy efficient and put off a bit less heat--though w/ most hps or mh setups the ballast is separate from the light. Good luck, growing green things can be both fun and rewarding:>)

chinacats said:

Check into T5 florescent bulbs. You can get a nice setup with 4 or 8 bulbs in 1,2,4 foot lengths. Not as heavy duty as HPS or MH, but more energy efficient and put off a bit less heat--though w/ most hps or mh setups the ballast is separate from the light. Good luck, growing green things can be both fun and rewarding:>)

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I have T5 HO (high output) over my aquarium. Lot of light (lumen) per inch. Also easy to get reflectors for.

Very expensive endeavor

How much money are you looking to spend? The metal halides are pretty expensive per bulb and will last a couple seasons, then you have to worry about soil, nutrition, pestilence, timers, temperature, enclosure, cleanliness of your garage (ie chemicals and paint fumes). If your looking just to grow some herbs for you and your wife there are countertop grow pots with lights that do a decent job. People spend all that money on lighting/fans and fixtures to mimic the sun so why no have a green house in your backyard or porch when it can get full sun access all day? Than you can vary sunlight by simply blocking sections within the green house.
Maybe growing things like heirloom tomatoes and specialty items could offset the expenses...