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How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:53 pm
by lesliemorris85
I cant plant anything in my lawn. I have a basement, i think i might set up a large planter table and a light. I also want to know how to grow vegetables and fruits.

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:01 am
by SisterMaryElephant
Pretty much, it's just like outside except you have to provide the proper environment... ;)

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:10 am
by lesliemorris85
SisterMaryElephant wrote:Pretty much, it's just like outside except you have to provide the proper environment... ;)


Yeah, I was thinking on how to do that.

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:47 am
by SisterMaryElephant
There is no one single solution, you need enough light, not too hot, not too cold. Enough food but not too much. Not too humid and not too dry. Depending on where you live and how much space you want to use you buy the right equipment for your situation and plant whatever it is that you want to grow. Remember, LED is best suited for shorter plants so avoid corn. ;)

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:03 am
by lesliemorris85
SisterMaryElephant wrote:There is no one single solution, you need enough light, not too hot, not too cold. Enough food but not too much. Not too humid and not too dry. Depending on where you live and how much space you want to use you buy the right equipment for your situation and plant whatever it is that you want to grow. Remember, LED is best suited for shorter plants so avoid corn. ;)


But I heard there's LED lighting for growing plants not just shorter plants. how was that?

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:06 am
by SisterMaryElephant
LED lights lack the penetration power to grow tall plants. Fortunately, strawberries *are* short plants so you may have good luck with those at least. Corn, not so much... ;)

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:38 am
by sosl0w
I dunno sister, my pepper plants are getting pretty big. I may have to challenge you on that soon. ;)

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:55 am
by SisterMaryElephant
I think beefxer's journal does a pretty good job of demonstrating the penetration issue with LED lights. ;)

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 10:15 am
by sosl0w
SisterMaryElephant wrote:I think beefxer's journal does a pretty good job of demonstrating the penetration issue with LED lights. ;)



haha naw I agree that CLW lights do have pen issues. But I think it also has a lot to do with what your growing as well. Like, I've tried to grow tomatoes a couple times with my lights and they just don't seem to do well at all. However my pepper plants are huge. Some of my over winters are 5 foot tall now and still going. Another issue is the way the CLW lights are made themselves. They don't use any kind of lenses on there LEDs. They are all 120 degree angled. If the lights used 60 or 90 degree lenses the light would penetrate WAY more than it does. I think CLW decided to go with the 120 degree angle to get the best coverage area. So as the CLW light is great for starting and maybe growing plants to mid size high before possibly transferring them outdoors. Another light that uses lenses may be more beneficial to growing things full cycle? I believe the LumiGrow lights use 90 degree lenses.

Re: How to grow strawberries in your basement?

PostPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:11 pm
by SisterMaryElephant
While I agree that crop choices matter too, all LED lights have penetration issues. It's not that plants will not grow past XYZ feet tall under LED, they just don't grow as well past XYZ feet. As beefxer's test shows; the the flowers at the top are much better than those a little farther down. While your pepper plants might be 5 feet tall; that doesn't mean that they get as much light lower down as they do at the top.

CLW does use 120 degree diodes and that does help them cover more area but if they used 90 degree lenses they would cover less area so everything is a trade off. To compensate they use 5w diodes. Lumigrow doesn't even say on their website if they use 3w or what degree lenses the diodes use so it's hard to guess. A 1000w HPS has better coverage and better penetration but I still wouldn't try to grow 10 foot tall corn with that light either. As you said; what you're growing matters, especially inside with artificial lighting. :D