Living Room Veggies, Anyone?

[prescottchels]

Please redirect me if there is already a thread on this topic. I didn't see one in my brief perusal...

A local food grower guy that I get newsletters from recently mentioned growing tomatoes indoors all winter in a sunny window, of which I have many. Well that got me to thinking about other things that I'd love to have all winter like zuchs, onions, peppers, peas...
Anyone grown any of these or anything else indoors thru winter, as in, in your living room, not a green house lol
Do they need anything special to grow only inside that they would get outside? I know about blowing a fan on the sprouts so they don't get leggy... I have a great green thumb, just want to make sure I cover my bases as indoor veggies is a new concept
Thanks!
Chelsie

background.... last yr our garden totally rocked. We had a professional gardener-long story lol and mostly all I had to do was harvest : :
This yr our garden was used by a community college class as a project and EVERYTHING they planted either didn't sprout or got eaten so I'm totally missing my fresh garden veggies Last years perennials did great though so there's lots of beautiful flower action just no foodies...

ETA: I failed to mention I'm in AZ, and while we are a mile high, it's still pretty sunny even in winter. I think I'm zone 7 or 8...?

[rainbowmoon]

some veggies will need grow lights. just check the sunlight requirements on each thing you want to grow.!

[GardenStream]

I tried it for a bit last year. My lettuce and herbs were great, but the tomatoes didn't do well. They grew, but didn't get much bigger than about 3 inches in 4 months. I even had them under grow lights. The lettuce was wonderful in the living room.

[prescottchels]

I was talking to my chef friend/boss and she said to stick w/cool weather plants, but I'm hoping that between the sunny windows and the radiant floor heat (and maybe some grow lights mixed in too) that what I want to grow will actually grow...

[rainbowmoon]

oh well if you are in AZ you should have no problem at all..you can even move your stuff out doors when it's nice. (I just moved to New England from AZ last winter) I have grown toms too in AZ even in the winter. (You should start them in dec/jan anyway)

[Kiltie Girl]

DH and I were discussing doing this this year. We would like to do some tomatos, lettuce, peas, herbs, beans and a few others under grow lights. But I have a few questions....what do we do about flowering plants? I assume we will need to hand pollinate them?

[prescottchels]

Yeah I was wondering about that too. but it seems like not everything needs to be pollinated in order to produce it's fruit, right? Thinking about plants that folks grow in greenhouses, and never heard of hand pollinating being part of the gig... I feel so silly. I've always been soooo into plants I feel like i should know this, but don't lol
Anyone?

[poppymum]

Tomatoes are mostly wind pollinated, so giving them a shake once or twice a day when they're in bloom should do the trick

[prescottchels]

what about peas, zuchs, peppers...?

[poppymum]

A lot of people who raise big crops in greenhouses lease bees, which isn't practical at home, obviously

I'm not sure about peas. Zucchinis will need to be hand-pollinated, which shouldn't be too hard. I use a dry paintbrush to lift pollen from male to female flowers.

Peppers are much like tomatoes. Each flower is 'mostly' self-pollinating. I think tapping/shaking the plants is fine. But, some people use something with a small motor, like an electric toothbrush, the safe end of an electric razor etc, to vibrate their plants. It mimics a visit from a bee. Even though the bees aren't necessary to carry pollen from one flower to another, it seems that the flowers release their pollen best when given a little buzz. I've never tried it myself, but it's pretty popular among tomato lovers-even those growing toms outside, since many places where tomatoes are grown lack the little Peruvian bee that really digs tomato pollen.