On May 19, 11:20 am, jJim McLaughlin
wrote:
bungadora wrote:
On May 18, 12:40 am, sherwindu wrote:

I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from
ComEd
in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can
be
very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and
about
six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost
doubled.
Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies

and flowers from seed.

Sherwin D.

The $63 tomato raises its ugly head again.

Personally I've come to the conclusion I don't raise plants from seed
to save money. I do it because I enjoy it, and that makes the process
of killing several painfully raised plants less traumatic.

What you are talking about though is the high cost of raising plants
from seeds under lights. Most of the equipment like heating pads is a
one time expenditure.

You might try winter sowing. People here are starting seeds in mini
milk carton greenhouses in January and putting them outside. The
theory is that although it can take some time for the plant to sprout,
the root development is taking place and the plant quickly overtakes
others once growing in friendlier conditions. There was one woman in
my local hort group who started about 40 last year. Mind you, she had
milk cartons piled against her fence for a couple of months.
Dora
Zone 3

I'm not familira with milk carton greenhouses.

I'm about to Google, but do you havny ready references to web sites
discussing milk carton green houses?

TIA.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The only reference I kept was this http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/wtrsow/

Just to clarify in case of misunderstanding, I'm not talking about
building greenhouse out of milk cartons. The milk carton acts as a
'greenhouse' - but a very small one.

However, one person on my local group mentioned she has a friend who
fills bottles with water, puts them in a square and puts a plastic
sheet over top and she says it works quite well. I'm collecting
vinegar bottles (they are rectangular in shape) to use in this way to
heat my little tomato house in the fall instead of using electrical
heating. It's worth a try anyway.

There was quite a bit of discussion last winter about winter sowing
amd use of milk cartons on canadiangardening.ca in the Plant Talk
forum. The posts are still there so if you put in winter sowing as a
search term you can find info on how to prepare the bottles, what
they've had the most luck with, etc. You don't have to sign in to read
the forum.
Dora