Hi, all.
We've been in our new home for almost 5 months now and one of the upcoming projects is creating a seed-starting and winter-growing area in our finished basement (vinyl floor, white walls, low/normal ceiling for 1950s house, negligible natural light from tiny east and west basement windows). I'm looking for creative ideas to make this area as friendly to the plants as possible, given our limitations here (mainly need advice on lighting/temperature, cat proofing, and some kind of wall/barrier that looks good and lets
enough light and air through).
Also, we don't just need space for seed pots. We are in USDA hardiness zone 4a on a small urban lot so a few of our potted food
trees will come inside for the winter (bay, fig, lemon, and lime for certain). I've seen seed-starting setups with
lights on chains over tables but we need to design a space to accommodate those over-wintering potted dwarf trees (pruned no taller than 6') on the floor, and some kind of shelving to maximize space for seedlings and maybe some winter greens.
I was thinking maybe 2 sets of wooden utility shelves with only 2 shelves installed so there are 2 levels with lights above plants, and then lights above space next to those shelves for the potted trees to over-winter. Not sure how to section off this area from our hell cat while still letting the light and air through (in the past I had bonsai trees including a large ficus that died very undignified deaths after we adopted 2 kittens in 2002 so I know what a determined cat can do to a potted tree).
Are overhead florescent lights on adjustable chain the best choice for an indoor grow area? Do any
LED lights work? It's kind of chilly in the basement, even compared to the rest of the house (and we are heat-misers in the winter and central A/C fanatics in the summer so it feels like fall weather in here year-round).
Should we use a thermometer and
local heater to keep the grow area a bit warmer or is the overhead light enough?
On a related note, how important is air circulation. There's no natural ventilation down here (windows are on the highest part of the wall, flush with the ceiling tiles). I've seen people use PC case fans in their setup (on the timers with the lights). Is this useful indoors? I know in a
greenhouse the big deal is keeping plants from overheating or sweltering to death but I've no idea if the lights we use indoors could have the same effect.
A bit more info on our feline family member who does not play nice with others (but survives on sheer cuteness alone). She pretty much lives in our finished basement (for the health of the other cat, kids, and our living room couch which she considers her preferred litter box). She has full claws and can get into nearly everything (which she then shreds, pees in, or eats and barfs somewhere that people want to sit or walk with bare feet). Our non-bedroom "adult" space (home office, den, bookshelves, gaming/entertainment) is also down in this finished basement area so 2 of us are down here much of the evening every single day (and the cat has free reign to go from finished side to the unfinished laundry/storage/utility area). That said, this cat is understandably bored and the introduction of anything as exciting and new as indoor plants will no doubt be her favorite new target of attack. She clawed/ate through 2 layers of nested
cardboard boxes to find a sealed plastic tub of stale cat food from before our move so I'm pretty sure she's willing to tunnel through/under anything chintzy (she's got a lot of spare time).
Originally we discussed the seed-starting could just hide in the unfinished part of the basement but honestly I think that's a waste of beautiful plants and light (if I'm going to run lights most of the day down here, I'd like them to illuminate the home office area we spend most of our free time in). So now we're considering everything from outdoor fencing/gate to french doors to plexiglass panels or custom sliding screen doors to just section off one end of the room. But we'd hate to build a little area and all of that only to find the plants don't do well in there because we have no
experience growing anything in a basement (or because the cat proofing fails).
Any suggestions are appreciated. I like to learn more about eco-friendly ideas even though I'm not morally-motivated in my edible
gardening or
permaculture interests (just like good fresh produce, and want my garden to be self-sustaining without expensive store-bought inputs). So if there is a best practice for
energy efficiency with indoor
gardening, we'd love to learn about it (but with the obvious limitation that growing off-season, out-of-proper-climate food indoors is essentially an eco wasteful practice to begin with). If we can minimize negatives while still getting the food we like, that's kind of what we're after.
BTW, these are all sub-irrigated planters we're talking about (not sure if that makes any difference for light/ventilation recommendations).
Anyway, I would suggest you find out about any laws in your area for or against what you want to do. Probably keep great records and have an open house policy.
I already found some great info on seed starting without peat but couldn't find any info on setting up an energy-efficient lighting and ventilation area, so just thought I'd ask here. I figure even permies doing food forests must occassionally need to start some tomatoes under lights up north. Maybe not though (again, it is out-of-season and I realize artificial light is not very eco friendly overall).
