Growing indoors

Mike_mds · Sep 29, 2021

So my wife has been growing Thai basil in a planter outside this spring and summer and we would like to bring it in the house over the winter before the nights get any colder. Problem is once winter gets here we will only be able to give it a few hours per day of sunlight based on windows we have available to put plants next to in our house.

We have no experience with indoor grow lights…from my Googling they are apparently very useful with another type of “herb”. Can anyone give me some suggestions on if this will keep the plants going over the winter and what grow light(s) we could buy that work well without being too expensive? Thanks!

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shootin the breeze · Sep 29, 2021

We bought a 600W light from Roleadro on Amazon for $54 in 2017 to start (legal) plants for the garden. Worked great. I’d imagine it would keep your basil going

TOWcritter · Sep 29, 2021

I picked up this one on Amazon for my microgreens. Works great! $60.

Giixer 1000W LED Grow Light, Dual Switch & Dual Chips Full Spectrum LED Grow Light Hydroponic Indoor Plants Veg and Flower-1000 watt

geda · Sep 29, 2021

I did this with some thai basil and some thai birds eye peppers last year. Plants grew in the ground all summer, then I moved them to 3 gal pots the day before the first frost. I trimmed both types way back from 3 feet wide and high to 1 foot wide and high. For the first month I took them outside as much as possible. Then it got colder and I did a grow lamp, plants really didnt thrive. I suspected it was the low temp in our house, we keep it at 62 or so, so I put the lamp and plants in an appliance box along with a heat pad on a PID controller. This was box was complete fire hazard. They still were not really thriving, zero basil or pepper production, i ended them both in the spring. Not doing the grow light part of this again, but I will try to keep 1 or 2 plants alive in pots.

What did work great over the winter was frozen basil. I had 4 or 5 gallon freezer bags full of leaves that I harvested a few times over the summer. In stir frys you can just grab this out of the bag and crumble it up while still frozen, it works better than fresh. For something like pho it is so so, the leaves will be wilited as soon as the thaw, still taste good though. The thai peppers also freeze great.

So my opinion is save the grow light for starting seedlings in the spring, too much effort for any serious basil production. Especially when frozen basil works so good for me.

Mike_mds · Sep 29, 2021

Thanks for the replies

We have been harvesting and freezing the leaves as much as we could (with the plants starting fairly small this spring). My thinking was just trying to keep the plants alive thru the winter so we would have larger plants to start with in the spring. Even if we don’t get many / any leaves harvested I would love to have a head start next year.

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cantstop · Sep 29, 2021

Use a fan or two for ventilation and to keep mold at bay.

Then you can put together a whole garden of herbs and tomatoes. I did this with tomatoes and some oregano, thyme and basil in the '90s and the house smelled great. Friends would stop by and ask what's for dinner.

I don't remember what kind of oregano. My wife picked it out. Beefsteak tomatoes though.

geda · Sep 29, 2021

Mike_mds said:
Thanks for the replies

We have been harvesting and freezing the leaves as much as we could (with the plants starting fairly small this spring). My thinking was just trying to keep the plants alive thru the winter so we would have larger plants to start with in the spring. Even if we don’t get many / any leaves harvested I would love to have a head start next year.

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Basil really wants the HEAT in my experience, once it gets hot out it takes off. I put my basil outside mid may and didnt have large amounts of basil until mid july. July is when the growth really takes off. Getting a head start might only net you one or two weeks early production. It would be interesting to do a seedlings vs saved plants competition though.

cantstop · Sep 29, 2021

geda said:
Basil really wants the HEAT in my experience, once it gets hot out it takes off...

100% agree

My little garden almost died in the winter. Mid-April it exploded into bloom and the whole garden was huge by the end of May.

John from MD · Sep 29, 2021

Mike_mds said:
So my wife has been growing Thai basil in a planter outside this spring and summer and we would like to bring it in the house over the winter before the nights get any colder. Problem is once winter gets here we will only be able to give it a few hours per day of sunlight based on windows we have available to put plants next to in our house.

We have no experience with indoor grow lights…from my Googling they are apparently very useful with another type of “herb”. Can anyone give me some suggestions on if this will keep the plants going over the winter and what grow light(s) we could buy that work well without being too expensive? Thanks!

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Do you really want to smell Basil all day? :innocent0

Mike_mds · Sep 30, 2021

John from MD said:
Do you really want to smell Basil all day?

If it means I get to smell this occasionally, then yes…

https://thewoksoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/thai-basil-chicken-8.jpg

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wilcam47 · Sep 30, 2021

Home depot has small grow lights...

John from MD · Sep 30, 2021

Mike_mds said:
If it means I get to smell this occasionally, then yes…

https://thewoksoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/thai-basil-chicken-8.jpg

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Gatcha!

geda · Sep 30, 2021

Mike_mds said:
If it means I get to smell this occasionally, then yes…

https://thewoksoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/thai-basil-chicken-8.jpg

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Pad kra pow is what got me started, but my kids couldnt tolerate the spice. What I do now is follow this mall style chicken teriyaki recipe, split the portion in half and remove the kid's half. Then I mix in an insane amount of thai basil thai peppers and jalapenos for myself. I still do vension and pork kra pow from time to time when i really crave the fish and oyster sauce flavor in my stir fry.

https://cheftalk.com/threads/sarku-japan-chicken-teriyaki.15974/#post-151424

Mike_mds · Sep 30, 2021

geda said:
Pad kra pow is what got me started, but my kids couldnt tolerate the spice. What I do now is follow this mall style chicken teriyaki recipe, split the portion in half and remove the kid's half. Then I mix in an insane amount of thai basil thai peppers and jalapenos for myself. I still do vension and pork kra pow from time to time when i really crave the fish and oyster sauce flavor in my stir fry.

https://cheftalk.com/threads/sarku-japan-chicken-teriyaki.15974/#post-151424

My wife makes a separate batch for herself sans the large amount of peppers going into mine. I have to admit it really tears my gastrointestinal tract up the next day….

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Mike_mds · Oct 1, 2021

Any of y’all know if there are any stores between Baltimore and Cecil county that sell fresh Thai Basil leaves? Used to order them on Amazon from a place in California but since the plague started they can’t ship them fast enough cross country to prevent the damn stuff from spoiling. Going to run out of homegrown basil way before spring.

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lazarus · Oct 2, 2021

geda said:
I did this with some thai basil and some thai birds eye peppers last year. Plants grew in the ground all summer, then I moved them to 3 gal pots the day before the first frost. I trimmed both types way back from 3 feet wide and high to 1 foot wide and high. For the first month I took them outside as much as possible. Then it got colder and I did a grow lamp, plants really didnt thrive. I suspected it was the low temp in our house, we keep it at 62 or so, so I put the lamp and plants in an appliance box along with a heat pad on a PID controller. This was box was complete fire hazard. They still were not really thriving, zero basil or pepper production, i ended them both in the spring. Not doing the grow light part of this again, but I will try to keep 1 or 2 plants alive in pots.

What did work great over the winter was frozen basil. I had 4 or 5 gallon freezer bags full of leaves that I harvested a few times over the summer. In stir frys you can just grab this out of the bag and crumble it up while still frozen, it works better than fresh. For something like pho it is so so, the leaves will be wilited as soon as the thaw, still taste good though. The thai peppers also freeze great.

So my opinion is save the grow light for starting seedlings in the spring, too much effort for any serious basil production. Especially when frozen basil works so good for me.

Yeah most pepper varieties really want temperatures more like 80F

I’ve done hydroponic spinach and lettuce with mixed results. More issues with the hydroponics water and nutrient mixture than anything this year I am just going to do it in small soil pots.

But I use 17w LED grow lights. generally 1 per 2 plants. Keep them fairly close to the plant. They grow great in my basement at about 65-67F. Maybe 2-3 hours of natural light through my basement window a day.

But lights like 600-1000w LES grow lights are overkill unless you get zero naturally light and/or are using them for area lights. Also expensive. A 1000w LED light is going to pull down about $3.00 of electricity per day. Unless of course that is “1000w equivalent”

Farmerjohn · Oct 2, 2021

I would keep them outside during the day and bring them in and out daily. You can't beat the sun

CharlieFoxtrot · Oct 2, 2021

Mike_mds said:
Any of y’all know if there are any stores between Baltimore and Cecil county that sell fresh Thai Basil leaves? Used to order them on Amazon from a place in California but since the plague started they can’t ship them fast enough cross country to prevent the damn stuff from spoiling. Going to run out of homegrown basil way before spring.

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H Mart (the big Asian supermarkets) have them by the bunch. There’s ones in Catonsville, Ellicott City and Frederick. Now I’m hungry for Thai basil chicken.

Mike_mds · Oct 2, 2021

CharlieFoxtrot said:
H Mart (the big Asian supermarkets) have them by the bunch. There’s ones in Catonsville, Ellicott City and Frederick. Now I’m hungry for Thai basil chicken.

Great…thanks! Willing to drive out of my way for a big score of them I can pick and freeze.

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earlybirdnj · Oct 17, 2021

Spider farmer lights are what u seek

Growing indoors

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