Comments on: Does a Basement Greenhouse Really Save Money?

By: Georgia

Georgia — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:41:59 +0000

Okay, Trent was just using the tomatoes as an example. One could also use a fan to pollinate the plants which would also help keep the humidity down. The normal floresant (sp) lights are not going to grow a tomato plant to fruiting. It may grow some lettuce or other small plants like herbs or radishes. So one would have to have a much larger light with a different spectrum to grow tomatoes.

By: mary m

mary m — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:13:50 +0000

My dad has a greenhouse that he made from
Putting up big thick plastic sheets over the screens of a small screened in porch. He puts his outdoor potted plants and flowers in there in the winter and they have flowers in the middle of winter. $100 for pots? He repurposes any and everything from coffee cans to 2l drink plastic bottles into pots. Wire shelves are good bc you can hang hanging plants off of then as well.

By: Luke G.

Luke G. — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:17:45 +0000

I agree with the comments which warned of mold issues. It seems to me that you’d have to amp up the humidity to compensate for the drier winter climate, and doing that in a basement sounds like a recipe for disaster. My basement is dry, and has no mold…and I’d like to keep it that way. ;)

However, it sounds like the basement Trent described from his past may have been more of a cellar, which if it was anything like my last cellar, it could have already been a somewhat damp place. So, if that’s the case…sure, why not go ahead and make use of the humidity and grow something! :)

By: moom

moom — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:06:53 +0000

Wow, I’d never heard of this except for growing Marijuana…

By: Evita

Evita — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:40:28 +0000

Thank you Cheryl, this is good to know. My indoor gardening is for the moment limited to a pot of herbs on the windowsill which does not need pollinating.
I cannot understand why Trent would want to grow 800 pounds of tomatoes that would mature all at the same time since he actually is in control of the quantity and the timing, not being subject to Mother Nature’s schedule. But this is an interesting post anyway.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:11:18 +0000

Re pollinating, think paintbrush

By: jim

jim — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:35:35 +0000

Interesting. THis is the first time I’ve heard of anyone doing any gardening in their basement that was legal.

By: Evita

Evita — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:31:53 +0000

Clueless here……… how are the plants fertilized ? bees and wasps do no live in houses I believe….

By: AnnJo

AnnJo — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:17:22 +0000

I would be concerned about the damage that high humidity could do to the house and contents. And anyone who thinks that growing plants indoors prevents pest infestations has simply never done it. This is definitely a project to start small and learn from by trial and error.

By: Sara

Sara — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:33:40 +0000

Interesting calculation, but unless you normally buy 800 pounds of tomatoes every winter, you are not really saving as much money as this calculation suggests. What would you do with 800 pounds of tomatoes per season? If you’re going to be canning or freezing most of them anyway, why not just grow them outside in the summer and avoid the costs of setting up an indoor greenhouse? How would the calculation come out for a more reasonable amount of tomatoes?

By: Liz

Liz — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:18:44 +0000

And I know I forgot one of the most important details when growing a garden in the basement. The electric company may report a spike in electric use to the local authorities. It happened to a friend of mine when he began breeding tropical fish in his basement. Fortunately he was friends with many members of the local police force, one of whom showed up and apologetically inquired about the sudden rise in electricity use (we’re talking about $100 to $150/month). The immediate assumption was growing plants of a different kind.
(Of course, the funny part of this story is that after giving the officer a tour of his elaborate fish breeding center, he showed the officer out of the house and then told his kids “come on, we’re tearing out the aquariums and putting in pot!”)

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:42:04 +0000

Agree with others — an outdoor greenhouse would be the way to go here. Anything on a large scale is most likely going to cause a lot of mold problems in your home.

By: Availle

Availle — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:34:41 +0000

I’m with #9 lurker carl on this one – I can’t believe it can be done that easily.

What about heating? While lamps do heat up a space, I don’t think it will be sufficient – especially in the night, when you turn the lamps off (you need to do that, right?)

Moisture control – most greenhouses are rather damp. I can’t speak of the average American basement, but in Europe such conditions would be quite inviting to mould.

So, yes, it’s a nice idea if you’re into gardening, but I think there’s a bit more involved than putting a plant under a lamp.

By: lurker carl

lurker carl — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:15:47 +0000

It’s one thing to nurture some tropical houseplants and start seedlings for springtime planting, quite another to grow a garden for consumption indoors.

Winter gardeners use outdoor greenhouses for many excellent reasons, a grow-light in the basement is nothing more than a well lit basement unless far more is done to isolate the garden from the rest of your home. Conditions required for growing a successful indoor vegetable garden are detrimental to the contents of your home, the materials of which typical homes are constructed and eventually the health of the occupants.

By: TLS

TLS — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:15:13 +0000

Water for $1? Seeds for 80 square feet of vegetables for $3? These are not accurate calculations for where I live. These costs would be far higher.

Still, this is an interesting post. I wish I had space for something like this.

By: George

George — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:59:49 +0000

$8 for seeds is about a 3 year supply, even if you’re planting 80 at a time.

A single 1000w halide light system is overkill in the basement unless you have a high ceiling. Better to use several 65w flourescent to spread the lighting out over the growing area. 15 fixtures would cover the 80 sq ft and provide more even light.

By: Becky

Becky — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:50:13 +0000

Can people really get tomatoes to fruit under grow lights? You’d need some very serious lights. Starting seedlings is one thing, but if my plants get very big under a single shoplight they get spindly and miserable — the leaves don’t like to be more than a few inches from the lights. So how does that work on a 4′ tall plant?

Lettuce, herbs, and small greens would probably be a better choice.

Also, you certainly do get pests and disease problems in an indoor growing situation. Not necessarily the first year, but eventually they will show up.

My gut tells me that growing vegetables indoors in the winter would fall under the “enjoyable hobby” category rather than the “serious money saver” category.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:47:39 +0000

I’m with #1′s comment – why grow a lot more than your family could use fresh, if it’s problematic & time consuming to deal with the excess? And, yes, another advantage of starting small is to see whether you really want to be gardening year round.

If your soil source is not commercially prepared potting soil, you will have weed issues to deal with at least the first few years, and possibly some pest problems.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:59:14 +0000

I don’t have the space for growing on this type of scale, but I will say that a single growlight (I went with the 4′ jump start system because it’s easy, which I put on a timer–I didn’t notice any impact on my electric bill) made all the difference in being able to start plants from seed last year. I ended up with about 60 plants that all made it successfully into the garden. I’m thinking about starting a few herbs this winter just to have things like basil until the spring gets here.

By: LB

LB — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:50:18 +0000

Was the $300 estimate for grow lights an estimate for multiple lights? I started seeds under grow lights a couple of years ago and my startup cost for a single 3ft long grow light was about $22. A flourescent fixture which holds two bulbs at a home improvement store was $8 and the full spectrum bulbs were about $7 each for 2.