Food Indoor garden

[lanningro]

My wife has an idea. We have an above ground storm shelter. Its a 8x10 concrete box that can withstand a F5 tornado. She said "can we put a 1000 watt or so grow light in the 'fraidy box and grow tomatoes and such this winter"? Hmm, so I have run 60 amp service to the box, there are 4 vents I will cover. The concrete walls and roof are 4-5 inches thick and steel reinforced door. I picked up a 1000 watt grow light I will mount to the ceiling.
Has anybody else done this?

 

[frazbo]

Nah, it won't work...don't waste your time. Just to save you the aggravation, I will come get that 8 X 10 and you won't have to run a 60 amp to it. See? Saved you a boatload of work and trouble...oh look...you're not too far from me either! How convenient!

Ok, gotta be honest, never done it, but it should work. See no problems since you all don't have long, bad winter's but you will have to deal with some condensation...need air flow of some sort so don't close all the vents, just vent the vents in some way. Just common sense observation.

 

[aviax2]

We haven’t done anything like that but you and your wife are giving me ideas!

 

[hiwall]

If you leave the grow light on 24/7 at will cost you about $80 per month for the electric.

 

[lanningro]

I have talked to a number of people who practice, uh, hmmm, indoor horticulture and 8 on and 16 off for the light is a good starting point.

 

[hiwall]

Will you need heat in there?

 

[dylanM]

We grow indoors in 55 gallon old fish tanks .2 inch layer of sand & gravel in bottom of tank then fill a quarter of the way full of compost, plant your starts. The fish tank light is on in the daytime . When plants grow to the top of the tank we raise the lid light higher. I grow onions, 5 kinds of lettuces, radishes , cherry tomatoes ,rosemary thyme & basil. Pick up old tanks & stands at garage sales.

 

[lanningro]

I'm thinking if we run the lights at night it will keep it warm, we will have to see of course as we are learning as we go.

 

[summerthyme]

I'm thinking if we run the lights at night it will keep it warm, we will have to see of course as we are learning as we go.

Put a digital thermometer in there and check readings (with and without lights) for a bit. We have one on the kitchen wall with a remote outdoor sensor... it records the highest and lowest temp and hokds them for reference until you reset it. I used to have a second sensor in my greenhouse... handy way to monitor it from indoors.

Summerthyme

 

[lanningro]

Put a digital thermometer in there and check readings (with and without lights) for a bit. We have one on the kitchen wall with a remote outdoor sensor... it records the highest and lowest temp and hokds them for reference until you reset it. I used to have a second sensor in my greenhouse... handy way to monitor it from indoors.

Summerthyme

Not a bad idea at all, I may have to overcome the signal degradation do to the thickness of the walls but where there is a will....

 

[Telescope Steve]

Concrete wall without insulation can be pretty cold if you have freezing temperature. Some insulation inside on the ceiling would give a lot of bang for the buck. The top part of the walls would also help here. I would keep the vents closed when it is cold outside until the warmer part of the day, say lunch time until early afternoon. A small fan blowing air out the north or eastern wall would draw in fresh air from the warmer side of your building. We have grown in small Tupperware type of plastic tubs, and started seeds in small flats. We use the heating pads under the starting flats. We use LED grow lights that look like 4' fluorescent lights that we bought from Amazon. We hang them on small chains with S hooks that allow the lights to be easily adjusted up or down to keep the lights about 6" above the tops of the plants. You should consider growing things besides the tomatoes for several reasons. But mainly because tomatoes are sensitive to cold temperatures and diseases in an enclosed building without enough air flow. And you might also consider setting up a table or two in your basement or spare room in your house where it is already a bit warmer.

 

[Freeholder]

Check your temperatures, but very likely during the winter you'll be best off sticking to greens that like cool temps. Maybe some snap peas, baby carrots, green onions, anything that doesn't need heat. Most of your fruiting plants like tomatoes, cukes, and so on, want a lot of heat.

LED grow lights cost more up front but use a lot less electricity, which may be a consideration. If you are going to need a lot of light, definitely a consideration, because if you suddenly start using a lot more power than usual, someone may start wondering if you are growing pot.

Kathleen

 

[hummer]

Great thread folks!

 

[Telescope Steve]

Led or fluorescent lights let you spread the light out over a wider area because you can use a lot of different lights. One big spotlight in the center of the room will not give as much light away from the center. Plants that have larger leaves and don't grow so tall will be better able to grow well in low light conditions. Crops like lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, Chinese greens are good choices for an unheated greenhouse in the cooler areas. You might want to keep a small heater in the greenhouse set to 55 degrees to keep it from getting too cold at night. And it is really handy to have one of those thermometers that lets you put one unit in the greenhouse, and the other one inside next to your computer to tell you what the temperature is in the greenhouse. That way you will see what is happening there more easily. I have seen them on Amazon and at Walmart.

 

[naturallysweet]

Tomatoes need lots of heat and light. Lettuce, sprouts/ microgreens, kale, And others greens don't need the heat or light.

 

[straightstreet]

We grow indoors in 55 gallon old fish tanks .2 inch layer of sand & gravel in bottom of tank then fill a quarter of the way full of compost, plant your starts. The fish tank light is on in the daytime . When plants grow to the top of the tank we raise the lid light higher. I grow onions, 5 kinds of lettuces, radishes , cherry tomatoes ,rosemary thyme & basil. Pick up old tanks & stands at garage sales.

I love this! I'm going to ask DH if we can give it a try.

 

[straightstreet]

Led or fluorescent lights let you spread the light out over a wider area because you can use a lot of different lights. One big spotlight in the center of the room will not give as much light away from the center. Plants that have larger leaves and don't grow so tall will be better able to grow well in low light conditions. Crops like lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, Chinese greens are good choices for an unheated greenhouse in the cooler areas. You might want to keep a small heater in the greenhouse set to 55 degrees to keep it from getting too cold at night. And it is really handy to have one of those thermometers that lets you put one unit in the greenhouse, and the other one inside next to your computer to tell you what the temperature is in the greenhouse. That way you will see what is happening there more easily. I have seen them on Amazon and at Walmart.

We have a greenhouse with raised beds that have heat strips in the soil. It worked well until it got in the 20's then not so much. We do have a plug in heater in it also but that heater costs alot to run. The heat strips we didn't see a difference in the electric bill.