Sunday 2 October 2011

Indoor Vegetable Gardening

Indoor vegetable gardening can be very challenging for us, but there are numerous things to think about before starting.

First : Preparing enough light.

Plants which are grown indoor require amount of light enough to grow strongly and to produce a crop. It does not matter so much for general house plants if we want the plant to survive only, but if we aim to grow a plant for its vegetable crop, it will need more light.

For smaller plants, a large sunny window ledge is good. A room or a conservatory where its windows reach the floor seems better because we can use the floor space for plants.

Second : Choosing the plants

For indoor vegetable gardening project, choosing the plants is the most important thing.

One of plants which can grow well indoors is tomatoes, because they grow upward to get a lot of sun and they do not need much space. It will be better put them right in the window. And for it we can prepare a trellis to stand in container to support them.

Besides tomatoes, herbs also make good indoor plants. They like well drained soil so too much water can cause fungal growth. Do not forget give them enough supply of fresh air because they like it too. Most herbs will grow well in pots on a sunny windowsill. Some of them, such as rosemary, mint and thyme parsley, can handle less sunlight.

In most cases, root vegetables do not grow well indoors because they need a bigger

depth of soil and it is not easy to provide them in a home. But, it does not matter for gardener who has a conservatory with large containers in it.

Third : Gardening caring

Another thing we must do for indoor gardening is treating pests. If we grow plants from seed maybe we do not have a major pest problem but it will be different if we buy grown plant. If so, we must be aware of the pests that target different plants, such as red spider mite for tomatoes, and check that they have not infested any plant in the store where you will buy plants. But, it is not enough to check the plant you plan to buy because there could be eggs on it.

We must check house plants for pests too before starting. It will be useless buying the perfect vegetable plants but putting it right next to something that has an aphid infestation in house plants. Use spray indoor plants to eliminate it. Besides, plant garlic with tomatoes to deter red spider mite.

If we want to have an intensive growing method that allows us to fully control the water, nutrients and light for our plant, hydroponics is an excellent solution for indoor vegetable gardening. Hydroponic equipment does not have to be very expensive. For lighting we can use grow lights or augment natural light and simple starter kits are also available for indoor vegetable gardening beginners.

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