you would have to insulate and vapor barrier your entire garage. also would have to close off the roof but that might be against code (im not exactly sure). you would also have to run sufficient heating to keep the entire garage warm during the winter months. not worth the investment in my opinion especially when it is easier to just put the plants in your basement.

May have to thin out the herd a bit. Sometimes you get more out of a couple healthy plants as opposed to a lot of small, struggling ones. Also if you could isolate a smaller section of the garage, it would be easier to control the temp and moisture, if you can't or don't want to do that, then I would look into finding a cozy spot in the house for them.

thanks chinamon. i'm concerned about moisture and worse,
BUGS. don't think i can handle that. at
that point i may have to open the door
for them...

thanks also notrod
actually i have massive plants loaded with
a ton of peppers ripening at various
stages and are very much flowering.

so i'm thinking of purchasing a small heater to compensate for drafts. additional lights that provide heat as well, and some sort of heavy, clear plastic material that can be used as some sort of insulation. is such a thing possible/ realistic. what am i missing...

Why mess with heating etc. the whole garage?
Enclose your plants in a mini greenhouse that the lights will keep warm.
Just put up a frame of 2X2's and enclose a corner of the garage.
Use some space blankets stapled to the frame for walls.
Reflects light and keeps things warm.
Might put in a small space heater and fan depending on how cold it gets...use it when your lights are off-no ballast heat.

Here is a link that might be useful: E How greenhouse Ideas

Try "overwintering" in the search function.

smokemaster,
depending on his location i doubt his lights will keep anything warm within an enclosure. if he is in canada like i am, my garage can get as cold as -30C (-22F) and you would definitely need a full heating system to keep anything warm.

Do whatever it takes to heat it if needed.
A roll of insulation is cheep to put behind the mylar...

My point was why heat a whole garage unless you are keeping enough plants to need the whole garage.
Could get expensive in some places.

I don't have to worry about cold here.
Our winters get a chilly 50 degrees except for a couple weeks in Feb-March where it will be in the mid 30's.
I grow outside year round. : )

I'm spoiled.

you're lucky. if i was to heat my garage i would need a whole new furnace and enclose the entire garage as if it was a room inside the house.

smokemaster; thanks for the link. interesting your space
blanket idea. genius really. i found a small
oscillating heat fan i'm considering. must
be nice that extended growing season of
yours. definitely the way to go. nice

willard3; thank you.

chinamon; thanks again. technically i'm closer to zone
8, however i usually aim for zone 7 hardy
plants as a precaution. our winters are mild
and humid hence 30 degree temps has a lighter
impact unless windy. a light jacket works.

yea, i keep reading that flourescents aren't enough for fruiting. what would be a good supplemental heated light source. how energy efficient are these things. anyone notice a dramatic increase in their light bill.

best lights (in my opinion) if growing indoors would be some sort of HID.. for fruiting i would go with HPS

I use flourescent lights.
VI tech 93
6700 k color
3240 lumins
40 watts
4800 hrs.
t12(T 5 and 8 usually give out more lumins)
They fruit under them too.

You can change out the balast in a cheep shop lite for other bulbs as fixtures for them are more expensive.

http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/full-spectrum-light-bulb-comparison.htm

Cheep Ballasts

http://usalight.com/lighting/ballast-kits.html

Here is a link that might be useful: bulbs

chinamon; thanks again. i never did get the hid/hps
thing. when to use, safety factors...

smokemaster; it's encouraging to hear i maybe able to
accomplish the same thing with
flourescents. hopefully it won't involve
that entire list. :) thank you

I have t12 shop lites with the VI tech tubes right now.
Make sure you have electronic ballasts(most do these days)because they make the lites perform better and last longer.

If you don't want to buy $10.00 tubes get cool white bulbs (Blue)and put a couple regular bulbs in for red light.

In the good old days when there were only gro lux bulbs(expensive-short lived too) you had to use a combination of regular and fluorescent cool whites to grow plants indoors.
Heat was a problem though but you need heat it sounds like...a fan is a necessity for air cuirculation to even out the temp. in your enclosure.

Also putting lights both horizontaly and veticaly will bush out your plants which equals more pods.

Basically get the highest lumin bulbs you can find.
I believe plants need light between 5000 and 6000 Kelvin.
Depending on the type of plant.5500 K is about right.

Once i saw a 4ft. X 4ft. X 4ft. frame made of 2X2in. wood.

It had a 1/4 in plywood box that dropped down over it lined with tinfoil.
It held 16 5 gal. buckets for plants.
Each side had 4 verticle fluorescent lites and the top had 4 horizontal bulbs.
Resting on the buckets were 4 more horizontal fluorescent lites.16 verticle total and 8 horizontal total.
No fixtures,ballasts were hard wired to the tubes and the wires were wrapped around the frame so they stayed put.

It had a couple vent holes with small bathroom fans (didn't have computer fans back then) for air to cuirculate in and out of the box.

When the guy pulled the box off the frame he had a solid hedge inside.
He ended up using hinges to hold the box corners together so he could just pull the hingpins and open any 1 side he wanted to for trimming the plants.
I've never seen any kind of plant with as many branches and buds as his had in his enclosed garden.
It did take a lot of pruning to keep on top of things.

I'd go check out some of the pot growing sites to get ideas on indoor gardening.
It might be hard to find a non Hydroponic growing system though.
But lighting is the same no matter how you grow your plants.
Those guys are probably responsible for a lot of the modern Hydroponics inprovements etc. that are out there today.

Here is a link that might be useful: info on bulbs

great stuff smokemaster. it all sounds as something to work up to. i may have to find a hydro store. no pot growing sites for me. i could just see someone carting me off to god know where based on an assumption...LOL. (however i know what you meant). so why t12's. do you have to change them or can they be used at any stage of plant growth. oh by the way, is there anything i can add to my plant soil to limit if not prevent bugs/insects before i bring them in. it's actually funny when i'm watering my plants as i can be seen ducking and weaving form the insect. :) thank you for your patience with my many questions, just trying not to miss anything.

T12's are cheeper than 5's,8's etc.
But the 5's and 8's put out more light in general.
They also take a different ballast.
I saw fixtures for t8 that were the exact same as a shop light but instead of $14.00 they were $40.00.

Thats why I posted links for cheep ballasts.
Swap the ballasts out if you use 8's or whatever.
In the local hardware store ballasts were $30.00 and up.Not $10.00.

I use bennificial insects for bug control.
Nematodes in the soil for grubs etc.(japanese beatle larva,gnats),wasps inside for aphids.

In a garage you could use ladybugs with no problem.
You might be able to spray off bugs with water and neam oil or bug soap before bringing them inside but there would be eggs that will hatch later so you still have to mess with them at first for a while.

How well insulated is your garage? I think getting it as airtight as possible would be my first step (caulk windows if applicable, put thermal film on the glass, and maybe cover the windows with 4 or 6 mil clear plastic from the hardware store. I'd even add more wall insulation, if possible. If you have high ceilings or your garage isn't tightly sealed, you're going to have a hard time keeping it warm without a huge electricity bill. I agree with others that it makes sense to enclose the smallest space that will fit your plants. My stepdad recently fashioned some old windows into a cold frame for me-- maybe that would work for you. You can usually find some at a salvage store or craigslist. Then you could put the heater in the cold frame and it would use a lot less electricity.

smokemaster; is it practical to change out the soil. i
realize i may have to forego the peppers
but if it will work. my basement has carpet
not sure bugs and carpet mix well. trying
to contain my anxiety. thank you as always,
espeicially for the breakdown on the lights.

jessicavanderhoff; thanks. i think i maybe leaning towards
towards my basement. i'm aware that it
would be the best possible solution. it
just takes some getting use to. plus it
will buy me time to work on my garage.

Here in Sunny California we don't have basements.

Though a few still have bomb shelters from the Cuban Missle thing when I was a kid.

I do know that I've heard of indoor gardeners trying to protect their carpet by putting plastic sheet down wall to wall.
It wasn't a good idea.Moisture collected under the sheet and they got moldy carpet.
I guess you have to only use the plastic under your plants so if the moisture collects it can excape.
I think it's a cement slab thing.
Someone said cement lets water wick through it or whatever.
Plus the temp. change between the slab and room temp. can
make the moisture from the plants condense in places you don't want it to.
I don't know if indoor out carpet is different than indoor carpet.
When I raised fish to sell I put thin plywood under where the tanks were,out about 18 inches, and it kept the carpet from getting wet and didn't mold anything.

One of our Earthquakes ended that hobby though.
I was finding dead Crawfish all over the house for months.
Electric was out long enough for most of my fish to die also.

I did end up with a spot like where your couch sits though.
Looks like new carpet under there when you move things around eventually.

Tons of people grow their starter plants in their basement.I see pics posted all the time.
Probably just depends on how sloppy you get with playing with your plants.

smokemaster, are you familiar with the led grow lights. have you heard anything good about them. from what i've read that they can be comparible to flourescent grow lights. our night weather has been low 50's, now mid to high 40's however daytime temp has been mid higher 70's with lots of sun. so it's crunch time as my plants are now inside. earthquakes...that's scary, although floods and hurricanes are no picnic either.

by the way, crawfish.

Raised Crawdads,Ciclids,Jack Dempsey,Arrowana,Oscars,Snails,swordtails,fancy guppies,cuban ciclids,red devils,Pacu,tiretred eels,snowflake eels and a several more assorted freshwater fish for Aquarium shops.
Biggest tank was 2ft.X3ft.X 8ft,smallest were 25gal.
Had 40 something tanks.Most over 130gal.

You have to have the right LED's to grow plants.
Even though you have bulbs colored red and blue they have to put out true red and blue lite-right wavelength...
I read somewhere that some sellers are selling bulbs with colored glass that don't put out the right lite.
I think the different colors have different stuff inside to make the color you really want.
Some really bright LED's are comming out but they are still too expensive right now and not mass produced yet like the ones sold now are.

I'm thinking of playing with some Led's soon.
I think the cheepest I found were something like 1000 for about $200.
Gotta figure out the ratio of blue to red lights.
They really get big bucks for the pre made ones at the stores etc.
I'll probably use sheets of something and punch a bunch of holes in it to mount the lights.
Probably make a bunch of 12 or 18 inch square tiles that I can put together as a lite any size i want.
Maybe try making a frame that the tiles would slide into so as I planted my sprouts outside I could make the grow area any size I wanted.
Have the tiles plug into something like a track lite thing so I could make the tiles into anything I wanted-big or small.

I know people who move their potted plants in and out as long as the days stay warm.Some put the plants on plywood with coasters on them so they just roll them in and out of the garage.
Peppers can usualy handle down to 55 degrees and colder for short periods.
A lot of mine have survived up to a week of mid 30 degree nights in the spring.

smokemaster and sandpebbles, they sell specific trays for growing indoors that prevent water from getting on your floor. The trays that I saw were about 6ft by 4ft, with about a 6 inch lip all the way around, and a drain hole at one end.

i was goign to try to grow some peppers indoors this winter as well. I already ordered a t5 fixture and will experiment with LEDs as well.

this guy in finland is reporting very good results from using LEDs for peppers.

Here is a link that might be useful: growing peppers with LEDs

thanks. although i brought most of my plants in, i left one or two as a just to see thing/observation. they did seem to have gotton through. last night 45/today 70's/tonight 50. left two plants in garage and brought the rest out. kept two by the window inside. my generational plants;
1st my height, tall
2nd waist height
3rd just below knee
and ofcourse my very first plant with previous bug problem which i accidently broke in half, makes up in width what it may lack in height...above waist height, so. two points;
they'll ofcourse have the opportunity to again enjoy sunlight. :)
i may have to look at supplementing with a hps/hid. i'm reading about switchable ballasts and conversion bulbs. does that mean both hid and hps can operate at the same time for my trees/plants of many stages. there seems to be lots of mixed reviews on the l.e.d.'s, now i understand why. however, a great solution should they make it work. unlike yourself, i may have to look for soemthing turnkey at this point.

thanks florida; i found a couple of decorative planters
in some box i had stored away, so i
lined before placing pots. had forgotton
about that. so now they look like some
interesting houseplants. :)