Why should you have a grow box?
15.9 years ago indoor growbox, indoor seed starting, LEDs, seeds
Other than the “Do you really just grow ‘strawberries’ in your grow box?” question. The most common question I have gotten is why exactly do I have a grow box. Hopefully I will be able to answer this question below, as for the first question the answer is yes (without the fingerquotes)
Necessity: I am cheap and don’t want to buy all my plants from local nursery or garden center, but do not have a good location inside my house to grow seedlings with a normal table/shelf light setup. I definitely do not have the space to setup a greenhouse in the backyard. This unfortunately forces me to do my growing in my cold windowless garage. Using a grow box allows me to maintain a safe temperature for my plants no matter what the conditions are outside.
Control: I have nearly complete control of the conditions inside the grow box. I can provide my plants with the perfect temperature, humidity, lights (intensity and wavelength as well as day/night simulation) and even can simulate a slight breeze using a small fan if desired. This gives me many advantages which I would not have even if I could grow indoors. One example of this is growing peppers, which can be fairly difficult in our climate but with some modifications settings in the grow box can create the perfect conditions for it.
Saving Money: Given my options such as the $20 PC Grow Box and my $6 Christmas Light LED Grow Box the cost of entry is pretty low. You do have the expense of lighting the thing but given the 48 watts required for the PC Grow Box and 10 watts of the Christmas Light LED Grow Box even those maintenance costs are reasonable.
Portability: All three of my grow boxes (PC Grow Box, LED Grow Box, Computerized Grow Box) all have a single plug that goes into the outlet and can literally be picked up and moved to another location if needed (try doing that with your greenhouse)
Scalability: Need more space in your grow box? As little as $6 can get you a new one, or $10 worth of lumber can double the size of your existing one (assuming your old lighting can support the space) You are limited to what your creativity can imagine.
Fun: Call me crazy, but I like the idea of tricking my strawberries that it is a nice spring day and get them to start blooming and producing fruit. If all goes well I can move the plants outside during the real spring and get even more harvest while freeing up some space for more plants.
Tags: cheap, garden seeds, grow lights, growbox, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants, strawberry plants, vegetables
Cheap Vegetable Seeds
15.9 years ago cheap, coupon codes, free, seed saving, seeds
Looking at my web logs I have seen the query for “cheap vegetable seeds” a few times so figured would be good to help people find what they are looking for. Being The Cheap Vegetable Gardener, I can do better than “Cheap vegetable seeds” how about some “free vegetable seeds” as well.
Cheap Vegetable Seeds
- Buy online — You can find a much greater selection and some great prices compared to your local home and garden center. For example right now:
- One of my favorites is Burpee Seeds, they have been around since 1876 and definitely know their stuff. The actually have a seed sale going on now where you get $15 off on order of $75 (just use code AFFB4A35) expires on 1/15
.
- The name is not too exciting but Generic Seeds
offers no thrills packaging with quality seeds and very reasonable prices and if you spend $20 or more shipping is on them.
- One of my favorites is Burpee Seeds, they have been around since 1876 and definitely know their stuff. The actually have a seed sale going on now where you get $15 off on order of $75 (just use code AFFB4A35) expires on 1/15
Free Vegetable Seeds (pretty much)
- Ask your neighbors — Notice your neighbor is a gardener, check if they want to go in on a seed order and share unless you really need 200 carrots this year.
- Harvest your own seeds — If your plants bolt to seed early this year, don’t pull them out let them create some seeds for next season. Notice your neighbor has some seeding plants, ask if you can get some (important part is to ask though)
- Get seeds from the grocery store — Before putting those vegetables in the compost bin, set the seeds aside to let them dry and you got some free seeds. Though a word of warning many vegetables are hybrids and may be infertile or not produce the same quality of product but hey its free.
- Check your spice rack — Many cases you can plant seeds from your spice rack. Some ideas, mustard seed, dill seed, coriander, poppy seed, celery seed. If your spice rack is lacking you can pay a few cents buy a teaspoon of organic spices in bulk, last time I bought dill seeds got about 100 seeds for $0.05.
- Seed swap web sites — Below I have listed a few links where you can share seeds with others. This is a great way to find some heirloom seeds you might not be able to find in stores/seed catalogs. In many cases people will offer seeds for free by just sending a SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope) Just remember to pay it forward when you come into a plethora of seeds yourself.
Tags: cheap, compost, garden seeds, organic vegetables, outdoor plants, vegetables
The most profitable plants in your vegetable garden
15.9 years ago cheap, cilantro, garlic bulbs, organic, seedling, seeds, vertical gardening, winter garden
Many vegetables can be expensive to purchase by growing the most expensive vegetables in your garden and buying the least inexpensive vegetables at your grocery store you can easily help drop your food budget. This especially important for people like me with very limited space to grow everything that I consume.
It may be impossible to put a price on the satisfaction of bringing in a basket of produce fresh from your garden. As well as the enhanced flavors from having truly fresh produce from your garden compared to that of your local supermarket. Though when I was harvesting my potatoes this summer with my daughter I did have the thought, Would it have been smarter for me to grow something else in this space? I estimate out of the 4-5 square feet I used for these plants I probably got about $4-5 worth of potatoes.
I did a little research first to determine yields of various plants per square foot and secondly what the value (organic supermarket prices USD) of the yielded produce at harvest. Given I am a city dweller with a fairly small footprint for my vegetable garden (about 30-35 square feet) making decisions on what to buy at the supermarket and what to grow in the garden may be a huge money saver with just a few dollars invested in some seeds for your vegetable garden
Now from the results below you can see the winners for the most produce value per square foot are many of the leafy green vegetables/herbs (cilantro, lettuce, chives, dill, Swiss chard) next comes many of the larger vine plants (tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, peas) with many of the root plants taking up the rear. Now much of this makes sense where many of the vine plants grow on trellises and are allowed to spread, which I guess is sort of cheating the square foot rule but I will let it slide. Compared to the root plants whose production is entirely dependent on the space allowed in square footage they have to grow as well as these are normally inexpensive produce items to begin with.
| Vegetable | USD Value/SF |
| Cilantro | $ 21.20 |
| Arugula-Roquette | $ 20.92 |
| Green Salad Mix | $ 17.55 |
| Chives | $ 16.40 |
| Dill | $ 16.40 |
| Lettuce | $ 16.20 |
| Tomato, Cherry, small & medium | $ 15.57 |
| Turnip | $ 9.90 |
| Tomato, large | $ 9.50 |
| Squash, Winter | $ 8.40 |
| Tomatillo | $ 8.00 |
| Cucumber | $ 7.74 |
| Basil | $ 6.63 |
| Radish, Red | $ 6.22 |
| Pumpkin | $ 6.20 |
| Chard, Swiss | $ 6.14 |
| Celery | $ 6.00 |
| Squash, Summer | $ 5.96 |
| Choi | $ 5.70 |
| Peas, Snow | $ 4.50 |
| Pepper, Jalapeno | $ 4.50 |
| Squash, Summer, Zucchini | $ 4.17 |
| Onion, Bunching | $ 4.14 |
| Pepper, Bell | $ 3.60 |
| Brussels Sprouts | $ 3.59 |
| Carrots | $ 3.56 |
| Rhubarb | $ 3.25 |
| Squash, Winter, Butternut | $ 3.20 |
| Kale | $ 3.07 |
| Grass, Lemon | $ 3.00 |
| Peas, English | $ 3.00 |
| Onion, Bulb | $ 2.63 |
| Radish, White | $ 2.60 |
| Bean, Bush | $ 2.51 |
| Peas, Edible Pod | $ 2.50 |
| Artichoke, Globe | $ 2.40 |
| Cabbage, Chinese Napa | $ 2.24 |
| Squash, Winter, Delicata | $ 2.10 |
| Spinach, Spring/Fall | $ 1.80 |
| Leeks | $ 1.75 |
| Potatoes | $ 1.50 |
| Parsnips | $ 1.50 |
| Garlic | $ 1.37 |
| Squash, Summer, Yellow | $ 1.34 |
| Parsley | $ 1.31 |
| Corn | $ 1.25 |
| Squash, Winter, Acorn | $ 1.20 |
| Squash, Winter, Hubbard | $ 1.20 |
| Eggplant | $ 1.10 |
| Greens, Mustard | $ 1.10 |
| Rutabaga | $ 1.00 |
| Beet | $ 0.89 |
| Cabbage, Savoy | $ 0.80 |
| Broccoli | $ 0.80 |
| Kohlrabi | $ 0.75 |
| Cauliflower | $ 0.60 |
| Broccoli, Chinese | $ 0.60 |
| Cabbage | $ 0.50 |
Sources: http://www.mcgoodwin.net/pages/ppatch.html for plant yield information, http://shop.safeway.com for current produce prices
Now even with this information I will still plan on growing some onions and garlic since I more than likely would be forced to use dehydrated alternatives due to being too lazy to drive to the supermarket to buy fresh varieties. Though I may be adding some more herbs/greens to my garden this year.
One important thing to remember is you still have to eat the vegetables, throwing $20 worth or arugula or cilantro into the compost bin is not exactly a sound investment. You can also get higher yields by growing vertically, but don’t forget those tall plants produce a larger shadow so you may still need some extra ground space to support these alternate growing methods.
So go out and get some cheap vegetable seeds (or in many cases free) and plant some profitable vegetables in your backyard/patio garden this spring.
Tags: cilantro, compost, garlic bulbs, herb garden, organic vegetables, outdoor plants, pepper plants, tomato plants, vegetables
