Spinach under shoplights?

21 years ago

I set up a basement seed-starting table under shop lights this year, and it worked great for my seedlings that went into the garden.

Now that the lights are sitting idle and my spinach has bolted, I'm getting greedy...

I know I wouldn't get decent yield from fruiting plants under plain old shop lights, but are they bright enough for spinach? The goal would be year-round spinach production at modest levels, with several generations per year, always in an otherwise dark basement.

I'd rather not waste the time if it is doomed to fail, but I'd love to finally get a home-grown spinach and tomato salad. (Now if I could only convince the town and my wife to let me keeps dairy goats to make the feta...)

So has anybody out there grown spinach (or other greens) to harvest under "normal" T8's?

Josh

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Comments (4)

lightmaster
21 years ago
Any leafy greens can be grown under lights... I have grown Romaine lettuce all the way to harvest under T8's

-j-
fred9x
21 years ago
I logged on here becasue I'm having a problem - Yes I have been growing spinach in the basement under T8's for about 8 months. I do use a small fan on a timer. It worked great until about 2 weeks ago. For 1 thing I had been using MG potting soil but for some reason (try to save $$ ?)I switched to a CONTAINER mix by Farad (sp?) The seedlings just didn't grow much. So I have now switched back to MG potting soil. Growth is better, I'm getting decent leaves but they are smaller than in the past. I'm wondering if basement is now too warm? or ?? I'll take any ideas. THANK YOU, Fred
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fred9x
21 years ago
I'm adding to my post above -
I have been using peat pellets to start the seeds all along.
I'm now finding the main stem of the plant easily breaks off at the the soil level when I harvest the (small)leaves. Any one know why??? Thanks
lilhydro
21 years ago
Your light output has probably dropped off. When plants don't get enough light they will get really spindly and have thin stems. Move your lights closer or get new bulbs. otherwise maybe you aren't giving the plants enough nute's.

-Curtis