Growing Vegetables Indoors
Do you already miss those fresh garden vegetables that you grew in your outdoor garden over the summer? Would you like to grow those same vegetables indoors? Of course the rules for indoor gardening are a bit different from growing outdoors, but it can be done and with a lot of success.
Gardening inside requires you to consider the temperature, light sources and pollination and the type of vegetables you plan to grow. There are some vegetables that can be easily grown indoors even on windowsills. A room that gets southern exposure sunlight, slightly used will make a good place for an indoor garden.
An enclosed heated porch is also a good alternative since some plants require daytime temperatures in the mid to upper 60’s and 70’s and nighttime lows of upper30’s to lower 60’s. An ideal room is one that you can provide with supplemental lighting which will provide the needed heat and warm up well from the daytime sunlight. Your plants will need at least 6 to 8 hours of lighting so using cool white or warm florescent lighting will help keep the plants warm during the cold windy days in winter if you keep them near the light source.
Grow lights can be used and help provide extra growing light because the days of the winter months are shorter. Soil used in indoor gardening is different also, indoor gardening soil should be lightweight so does not use soil that is for outdoor use, it will sometimes harbor diseases and insects and they are harder to control in a confined area. Instead use regular indoor potting soil mixed with 1 part vermiculite, 1part peat, 1 part perlit and you will have an ideal soil mix.
Your indoor garden will need to be watered daily or every other day, due to the lack of humidity and fertilized at least every two weeks for the best results. You choice of what to grow is up to you but there are vegetables that do quite well indoors, but don’t expect the same size or yield that you got when growing outside.
Plants that do well in an indoor garden if you have enough space are: determinate vine cherry tomatoes, bush beans bunching onions, leaf lettuce, and basil. Hungarian sweet and hot peppers and small vine cucumbers. So go ahead and give indoor gardening a try, and enjoy the benefits of fresh vegetables again.
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