If you dream of fresh vegetables in the middle of winter, consider starting an indoor container garden. The convenience of grabbing salad greens right out of your kitchen window box, plus the lower risk of pests and disease, present great benefits to the indoor gardener. However, vegetables that are grown indoors have a few special needs.
Plant Selection
The biggest consideration when planning an indoor garden is which plants to grow. Container gardening has become more popular in recent years, and many dwarf varieties of vegetables are now available that will grow well in a sunny, south-facing window. Choose varieties that are compact and quick to mature. Small hot peppers and tomato varieties like Tiny Tim and Roma are good choices for indoor gardening.
Many varieties of lettuce thrive in indoor containers, as they grow in lower light and temperatures. Radishes, small-rooted varieties of carrots and herbs are also great choices.
Containers
Your choice of containers for indoor gardening is limited only by your imagination. As long as your container is large enough to hold a full-grown plant, and has good drainage, it will work. Try a container that's 8 inches wide and 8 inches deep for smaller plants like lettuce or radishes. Buckets, tubs and old teapots can all work--be creative. If your chosen container does not have drainage holes, carefully cut or drill a few.
To make watering easier, set your containers in large trays filled with stones. These trays will catch the drainage when you water, and will provide a bit more humidity for your plants during the dry winter months.
Care
Light is the biggest challenge for indoor gardens, especially if you plan on growing fruiting vegetables like tomatoes and peppers. These plants require at least five hours of full sunlight every day, and will do better with eight to ten hours. If your windows don't provide enough natural light, invest in grow lights; otherwise, your tomatoes and peppers will be spindly and produce little or no fruit. Remember that indoor-grown fruiting vegetables are not going to produce the same amount (or size) of fruit as their outdoor counterparts.
Fruiting plants that are grown indoors need help with pollination, or you won't get any fruit. For tomatoes and peppers, this can be as simple as gently shaking the flowers as they open. For other plants, like an indoor variety of cucumber, you may need to physically cross-pollinate, as they produce separate male and female flowers.
Use a soil mixture that has fertilizer added; with this kind of mix, you won't have to fertilize for eight to ten weeks. When you do fertilize, be sparing with it; it's easy to over-fertilize container plants because they have such a small soil volume.
Check daily for pests like white flies and aphids; while the risk of attracting these pests is much lower indoors, it can still happen. Use yellow, sticky traps or a soap mixture to eradicate these pests.
No comments:
Post a Comment