Well,
I didn't really intend on ending up with so many seedlings. I spread seeds into some community containers, and when they all came up at once and I started taking care of them, I just didn't have the heart to snip, snip, snip at perfectly good seedlings. So, Iet them live, and, in return, they gave me great joy!

After I counted how many there were and how healthy they were, I determined I could sell them at our local Farmer's Market. My problem was keeping them from growing past the 12" limit for selling there. At one point in the middle of winter, I turned ALL the heat off!. But, then, I inadvertently got overzealous with the fertilizer and set up some ugly-ness that a whole thread of gardeners couldn't figure out for awhile. By the time we figured out it had to be over-fertilization, and not some dread disease, the Farmer's Market sale day was just upon me, and, without knowing for absolute certain that I wasn't going to introduce some horrible disease into someone's garden, I decided to not go to sale.

So, I gave them all away, instead...to friends, co-workers, and neighbors, who clearly understood I was just about 90% sure it wasn't a disease, and that the plants would grow out of it. Which they did, and produced even more bountiful harvests for them than mine did! (They're all in-ground gardeners -- I'm still in containers -- eBuckets)...

So, this go round, I'll sow a bit sparingly, although these people are EXPECTING tomato seedlings from me next season. They've started researching and putting in orders already!

My ultimate goal is to complete my edible landscape yard design, grow flowers and veggies side x side, and have such a bountiful veggie harvest that I'll have enough surplus to give away to help feed some families. That's my dream goal.

Another gardener said I was exemplifying "sharecropping" at its best, because, even if I didn't grow a single thing, I'd STILL have veggies on my table. I enjoyed my own tomatoes that I never grew in my own yard!

Here's a tomato my co-worker grew from one of my seedlings.

BLACK KRIM

Nice, Linda.

Karen

sounds great

Beautiful set-up, Linda, and LOL at the DEA knocking at your door. We've often joked about the same thing, as I keep my grow lights on year-round. It seems I've no sooner finished my spring sowing than it's time to start summer/fall crops, then bringing in plants to overwinter.

Your success with your plants is amazing, and it's awesome to think of how many new gardeners you may have inspired by sharing your beautiful plants. Your goal of sharing your crop with needy families is a noble one. I have no doubt you will realize your dreams.

>> "sharecropping" at its best

Did I understand correctly: you gave them seedlings and they brought you back vegetables? Cool!

(I have heard of Medical M--- co-ops that work the same way: one person starts many cutttings. Others grow them out, and then share the produce with the propagator.)

Did you see the movie "Saving Grace"? I don't want to spoil it for you, but my favorite scene involved the townspeople setting up folding chairs and doing a countdown ...

Corey

I always worried about that problem myself.. since we went to HD and bought out every bulb they had when we set the racks up.. kept telling my honey we really have to start carrying cash.. using the debit card might get us in trouble.. red flag that one!!!

One curtained window in my house "blazes" with the lumens I already have, and my wish-list should really include a direct connection to the Hoover Dam for electricity.

Funny how much casual reflectors leak light!

The mess in the yard makes it clear that I'm a gardener, not a nughty-grower, but I do keep expecting some policeman to show up at my door someday and ask to see WHAT I'm growing. I always think that if I go to a "hydroponics store" someone will photograph my license plate and record my credit card number. When I shopped online to find inexpensive indoor lights for seed starting, I assumed that my IP address was being logged in LE databases.

On the other hand, my entire house is not big enough to make me a "big grower" even if it was wholly dedicated to, ummm, 'production'.

I don't know why I'm paranoid: I don't have anything to hide! I guess a guilty conscience needs no justification.

I always liked what the British Columbia equivalent to the DEA said about home growers: "Oh, we catch them when they burn their house down."

Corey

oh geeze yeah I guess that would do it.. I would laugh if someone came to check me.. feel free.. just don't bust up my babies

Rick!! Rick!!! Rick!!!!!

It took me a minute, but I finally realized what the Medical M_ _ _ crop is!!!!! Although, I did hear of one drug bust where the authorities actually believed all the tomato plants HAD to be mary janes, and, in fact, did not release the plants until they actually SMOKED some.

I'm sure they did not make that error again.....LOL!!!!

I inadvertently Googled "How to build a fluorescent light box" once. You'll never believe how many different ways there are to build "grow" boxes and hide MJ in plain sight! The insides are lined with materials that prevent ANY light from seeping out. I've seen shoe boxes on closet shelves (the teenagers' favorite), TV cases (for the soccor mom), and, my all-time-favorite -- the computer CPU box sitting on the office floor (for the recreational executive).

Yep, open any of these boxes, and you'll find a nice little mary jane operation going on -- quite healthy seedlings!

We live right across the river from the Cincinnati airport. My husband says some night a plane will mistake our back yard for a runway and land here

My neighbors always say they expect the police to show up at my door. Boy would they be sorry- I love to show off my plants. I wouldn't let them escape, I'd have them here forever teaching them about starting seeds and plants from cuttings.

Karen

Yeah, that's the other thing that might give me away. I keep ordering supplies (lights, coco coir) from "hydroponics shops". Some of the places seem very legit, others, well....not so much. I keep waiting for the FedEx guy to turn me in LOL. (We tip him well at Christmas, so maybe I'm safe....)

If the police did come check it out, I could offer them some fresh basil or rosemary or bay leaves.

OK.....back on topic. What were we discussing?

growing setups...

Joanna, is your system set up with grow light or just plain florescent lights?

Ahh, indoor lights. I wish I had the science fiction invention "slow glass" where light took 10 years to pass all the way from one edge to another. Set up the panes in a desert facing south for 10 years, and then cover your ceiling with them and let the sunlight in!

>> the authorities actually believed all the tomato plants HAD to be mary janes, and, in fact, did not release the plants until they actually SMOKED some.

ROTFLMAO and then chortling for quite a while. Rememeber the MASH episode where Colonel Henry was searching for something, and asked what was up the stovepipe?

"SOOT, SIR!"
"I'll be the judge of that."
(soot soot soot soot and more soot)

A co-worker once had just such a light-tight grow box in his apartment - truely inoffensive since he never successfully flowered them and hence had little or no active ingredient. But he did something else naughty that brought police into his apartment, and they were smart enough to look inside the big box.

A decade or so before that (I thinjk it was before "Just say No", I was goriwng something in my bedroom using a sheet as a partial reflector. Some one was thinking of buying the house (I rented one floor) and wlaked throguh every room. She was a gardener and was delighted with my setup, wnated to know what i was starting. "Tomatoes?" "Umm, not really ..."

>> My neighbors always say they expect the police to show up at my door. Boy would they be sorry- I love to show off my plants. I wouldn't let them escape

I know that feeling exactly. A cop once pulled my car over and asked what that bayonette on the floor was. He was kind enough to wait until I ran down telling him about it's age and what war and country it was from and how neat it was, before he kindly waved me to get in the back of his car ... the blade being longer than 2 3/4" made it a _felony_. i was younger and even dumber then.

Corey

nice!

We have GOT to start a thread called, "Amazing Plant Stories!!!!"

ROTFLMBOPMP!!!!!

I don't seem able to stay away from thread drift, even when I try.

Corey

happens to us all

Ok, ok. What progress is being made toward our Thanksgiving bounty in zones 8-9a?

Here's my progress report toward my fall/winter garden.

My 3-shelf grow station is all set up and ready to receive seed trays! Eight concrete blocks, 3 shelves, 12 fluorescent lights.

So funny reading these messages -- When Michigan passed the medical M law (a year or so ago?) a bunch of people that I know, who know i always have a garden, etc., tried to convince me that I should "get into" that... Like i need that kind of trouble??? What would I have to have, a 12 foot security fence around my property with razor wire on top?? As it is, starting my seedlings under fluorescent lights in a converted closet in what used to be my home office (well, it still is, I just don't work there anymore), I have always expected some drug-detecting helicopter to be dropping in because of the heat coming through the roof! (Honest, these are tomato and pepper seedlings...) My motto is "keep a low profile," for really no good reason other than paranoia (but then, I am a child of the 60's...)