Plants appreciate a good air flow.

I.E. ventilation.

Its also been kinda chilly in some parts of PA. If your basement is closed off to the world with no outside air exchange and is 70f or under, plants can have a hard time taking off or even surviving at all.

You definately don't want to keep going with the basment idea unless you look into good ventilation. A cool damp closed off basement is asking for problems, even if a plant does manage to take hold. Plants are pretty resillient, either way, it could be more of a problem to look into besides that, but, I've cured a lot of bad scenes by ventilating the area and making sure there's decent temperature.

Also keep in mind that the more space there is for the roots to grow into, the healthier the plant. A lot of scenes i see go wrong have to do with too little soil depth, as well. By the time your sprout is 5 inches, its roots can easily reach a foot in depth. When I use end pots (the last planter pots I transplant into) for plants, I use 15 gallon buckets.

Also check the grow lounge and make sure your lighting is adequete.

That's how you grow geraniums ; )