I’m buying seeds as we speak getting ready for the Spring. Being in Southern California I may be starting a little earlier than you, but with indoor growing you can be planting all year as well.
If you have a window, or glass wall that faces south, you can grow anything indoors.
The reason southern exposure is important is that it gets sun all day. Most of the edible plants you wish to grow will thrive with all day sunlight, and less so with limited amounts. Anything that fruits like tomatoes or peppers will need full sun.
Plants that don’t fruit like lettuce and parsley can get away with less light. Without southern exposure a simple indoor light system can be started with minimal expense.
Basic Indoor Light System
Fluorescent bulbs can be used effectively with non-fruiting plants. A simple 2-bulb shop light fixture can be bought for less than $20 on Amazon or at Home Depot. These fixtures use regular 48” cool-white bulbs. You can start with one fixture, but I recommend two. Fluorescent lights should be placed close to the top of the plants.
A step up would be to buy a fixture that utilizes T5 fluorescent bulbs rather than the T8 bulbs, which is the standard size above. T5 bulbs are little narrower, more expensive, and produce more lumens (light).
Then if you’re really serious you may want to look into LED bulbs and fixtures. LED’s provide even more lumens than T5s. LED fixtures can be had for less than $100.
My indoor setup is a T5 four bulb fixture and a 48” light stand that I can lower and raise as the plants grow. I use this set-up for seed-starting and growing low growing plants such as greens and sprouts.
For more information about seed starting, click on the link.
Let me know what you decide and let’s get growing.
