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30 responses total.

I have some fluorescent bulbs I'm not using any more, having
moved from a basement to, well, a basement with a window.  >8)
You may certainly have them, if you like.

Last year, I built a built a bench with 3 double-tube fluorescent tube
fixtures.  I bought "garage" white fixtures from Meijers (lighting section)
and I bought 4-ft Gro-lite tubes from Meijers plant section.  I got a 24 hr
timer and hooked it up such that the lights were on from 3:00 pm to midnight.

We have a lot of plants outdoors for the entire summer, and this was our
temporary greenhouse until there was no more frost.  Worked fine.

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I made a mistake - it was 3 am til midnight - only off for 3 hrs.  Why? I
don't really know.  I thought it was best to have them on most of the time,
but not all the time.  I also thought it was best to have them off for most
of the time while we were sleeping (11 pm to 5 am).  Just in case of an
electrical problem.  

The lights should be on a timer. There are all different kinds of 
spectrums given off by fluorescents. Some are way better than others.
You should get a book (perhaps from the library) and read about this.
That is what Steffi did. I have a black thumb, and I don't remember
any of the details that pertain to this.

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Steffi has been using them for years. She swears by them.

I have always found that my plants respond well to fluorescent lighted rooms,
such as offices.  In my old house, in the basement, I had a pair of
fluorescent light fixtures set up to paint by and I kept quite a few plants
in my lightless basement.  They all did really well and I did not have to
place the lights directly over the plants...just had them up normally and the
plants set where convenient.  So, how are they doing val?

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If you come to grexstock, remind me to show you this cool plant...it winters
over quite nicely outdoors...looks like a thin heart hanging on a
necklace...like a pendant.  It is usually blooming in mid to late june.  I
think it is called a bleeding heart.

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Bleeding hearts are poisonous?  We have several - some are white and some are
pink.

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Ok, I knew lillies of the valley were highly poisonous.  And also Poinsettia's
are poisonous.

hmmm, now that is news...I suppose I will run into many poisonous plants here
on the farm...wonder how to find out what kind of poisonous?  Thanks for any
help.

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I just dont eat the ornamental plants in my house.  That seems to remove any
risk of them being poisonous to me.  I think the main problem with 
poisonous plants is having small children or pets eat them and get sick.

True, not to mention that it ruins the plant to have bites taken from it! 
Hmmm, I'll have to find out where my extension office is...I am sure they will
know where I buy the laying mash...

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Since my husband is extremely allergic to most contact poison plants (where
as I am not), I generally don't keep them around.  But what a lovely idea for
a mystery...someone serves a salad with poisonous plant parts in it...hmmm!

Today we bought tomato seeds. Our two favorite varieties for Michigan's
growing season are Burpee's "Early Girl" and "Better Boy". Steffi planted them
in those little seed incubator thingies. (Now you know why she doesn't let
me touch anything that is growing or might grow).

They will germninate in those and then be placed under fluorescents (in the
basement)  until they are ready to be put out and hardened for planting in
the garden.

You could skip all this bother and buy tomato  plants from the store at
planting time, but (1) it will cost more (2) our plants will be more advanced,
effectively lengthening the growing season for us, and (3) you can't get those
varieties that way.

Early girl  takes 56 days to begin producing edible full-size tomatos.
The're yummy, but just a holding action until the 72 day better boys come 
along. Once that happens we stop eating the early girls altogether.
I bring them in to work, where they are grabbed up like hotcakes by people 
who don't know I'm giving them second best.

I will try to remember to post here updates on their progress under the lights
(when they get there).

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About a week ago (I forgot to mention it) the tomatoes came up, and were taken
out of the warmth of the upstairs window, where they had already begun craning
for the light of the window. They are now in the (cooler) basement under
fluorescent lights. They will stay there until they are ready to be taken
outside for hardening and then planting. If the timing is right, they will
get to be too large at just about the same time that the weather starts to
permit this transfer. I'll try to remember to keep you posted.

The peppers we planted at the same time as the tomatoes didn't come up  :-(
I suppose we can try planting some more. They might have gotten too dry.

(Note: whenever I said "we" did stuff, you know that it was Steffi. My job
 is merely to report on these doings. She doesn't let me near them until it's
 time to pick tomatoes.)

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According to Steffi this is a common problem with seeds. You can't put in too
much water or they won't be able to breathe. She recommends Jiffy 7 peat
pellets. You can get them at Hertlers, Franks, or HQ. They're about 10 cents
apiece. You start the seed in one of those, and you can lay it in water up
to 1/4 of the height of the pellets. Steffi likes to cut off the bottom of
a plastic milk jug and put the water in the bottom, then the pellets with the
seeds. This will lengthen the amount of time they can be unattended without
drying out. There is still a limit, of course..

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Everything is still growing in the basement under lights, while outside the
temperature drops to maybe as low as 25 tonight. 

Today was the day the plants graduated. Actually about 10 days ago they got
to the point where they were about to touch the lights. Fortunately, we had
the option of moving them down a shelf, where the lights are a few inches
higher than they are on the upper shelf.

We have been waiting for the weather to warm up , and it finally did.

Today the tomato plants came out and were put outside for just a few hours of
sun. You don't want to let them get too much sun at first. They have to get
used to it.

Over the next week they'll be allowed to get more and more sun each day. If
there is a frost in our future (which seems unlikely according to the current
weather patterns) they can come back in for the night. They're staying out
tonight, though.

probably toward the end of the week they'll be ready to be planted.

At this point they're 9 inches tall (or so) from the top of the dirt, and well
over a foot from the bottom of the pot.

The peppers came out too, but they're much smaller.

The tomatoes went into the ground a few days ago. The fluorescent lights
are now off, as they're dependent on the real thing from now on.

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