Indoor Gardening

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Introduction to indoor gardening

Growing an indoor herb garden is a rewarding and efficient way to grow fresh herbs. You can manage herb plants all year 

long very well when they are right in your window. When growing herbs indoors, there are 7 very important areas to 

control for optimum results. Once you learn to control these areas, you can grow herbs indoors, even if your 

climate is otherwise not suitable for growing that particular herb.

Why Grow Herbs in Containers?

Growing herbs in containers is a neat hobby. Usually one might do this if one is short on space or wants to grow them year ‘round. There are many reasons for growing herbs in containers. Growing them in containers also makes them portable which is cool. Whatever your reasons, most herbs are well-suited for growing in containers and can exist anywhere provided they are given the proper amount of sunlight, water, and good soil.

Choosing Containers for Herbs

Depending on how much space you have available and whether you are planning to keep your herbs indoors or out will play a huge part in choosing your containers. Herbs will grow in almost any type of container as long as it has good drainage. Terra Cotta pots are best, but plastic, wood, or metal will do. If you are not using a traditional style container be sure to poke some holes into the bottom for drainage and provide a drip plate if you are keeping them indoors. Herbs can be grown separately, in individual pots, or you can plant several different varieties in one large container, such as a window box planter, being careful not to overcrowd the pot so that each plant has enough space to grow and reach its full potential.

Growing Herbs in Containers

Some herbs can become really large at maturity. Be sure you match your herbs to the size of your container choices. Before adding soil to your chosen container, you will need to provide a layer of drainage….adding rocks, gravel, broken chips from terra cotta pots or Styrofoam pellets to the bottom quarter of the container will achieve proper drainage. If you are planning on bringing an outdoor container of herbs indoors during the winter months, I would suggest the use of the Styrofoam pellets to keep the weight down and wheels on the bottom. Use a good quality potting soil mix to fill your container to within two inches from the top to allow plenty of space for watering. Few herbs require a large amount of fertilization, but nearly all will require some fertilizer during the growing season, especially if kept in pots.  Keep your container garden of herbs well-watered as they will dry out more rapidly than those that have been planted directly into the garden.

soil

Use a good quality potting soil mix to fill your container to within two inches from the top to allow plenty of space for watering. Few herbs require a large amount of fertilization, but nearly all will require some fertilizer during the growing season, especially if kept in pots. Keep your container garden of herbs well-watered as they will dry out more rapidly than those that have been planted directly into the garden. To keep initial growth rates in control when growing herbs indoors, use a soil mix with just enough nutrients. Mix 2 parts sphagnum peat to 1 part perlite. Adjust the Ph of any mix using sphagnum peat moss by adding 2 teaspoons of hydrated lime for every gallon of soil mix. Or you can substitute peat with vermiculite, which doesn’t need Ph adjusting. Finally, you may add 1 tablespoon of kelp meal for each gallon of soil to add plant hormones and to give beneficial micro-organisms something to feed on. Use this mix whenever you transplant into a larger container.

Fertilizing

When growing herbs indoors, you eventually need to begin feeding them. In a container, the roots are stuck in a small space and quickly mine it free of any nutrients, especially if you were going easy on the nutrients to begin with. After ten days in the same container, feed with half strength nutrient such as Maxsea 16-16-16. Repeat every two weeks.

Provide Light Your indoor herbs need to get at least four hours of direct sunshine daily. Hence installing supplementary lighting is a necessity. The light coming through a window in the winter is about 1/10 the intensity of summer time light. Grow lights are full spectrum lights that are hot and give off the full spectrum of rays necessary to grow your plants.  Spot grow bulbs  Use spot grow bulbs to increase light levels for individual tropical plants or plant groupings, small herb gardens, and seed starting applications. These directional lights work in most standard, clamp-on type incandescent fixtures.  Wide Spectrum Fluorescent Tubes It is best used in situations where plants receive some sunlight, as in a greenhouse or near a window. The additional added energy in the far-red region of this lamp's color spectrum promotes the photosynthetic performance. The lamp radiates energy in the far-red (700-800nm), red (600-700nm) and blue (400-500nm) regions of the spectrum and produces results similar to the combined use of cool white fluorescent and incandescent lamps. With this single fluorescent source, the need for the color of incandescent lamps is eliminated, temperatures can be better controlled and operating costs are reduced. Color temperature measures 3400 degrees Kelvin, Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 89.   Acclimate Plants Gradually Plants produce two kinds of leaves in response to strong or weak light. High-light leaves are thick, strong, and narrow. Low-light leaves are thinner, more delicate, and broader than high-light leaves. Narrow high-light leaves are less efficient in converting light energy into food than low-light leaves. High-light leaves are accustomed to an abundance of light, so they don't have to be as efficient at food production. A plant that is adapted to abundant light often turns brown and drops leaves indoors. This is because it can't produce enough food to maintain itself. The plant tries to make food by shedding the inefficient leaves and producing efficient leaves higher up and closer to the light source. When you bring herbs indoors, this leaf drop and increased leggy growth can happen within weeks, or even days. Some herbs cannot make the transition fast enough to survive. The trick is to acclimate the plant slowly. Over time bring the plant inside and put it under the lights. You can start it in mid august.  Let it adapt slowly so that it will survive the winter.

Watering is hugely important with herbs. Indoors you may water less often and more thoroughly, and only when the soil is actually dry. When the soil is dry to the touch, add water until it comes out the bottom of the pot.   If you find that the water doesn't come out of the bottom, pots have a drainage problem. First, check that the holes aren't blocked; if not, you may have to repot with soil that has better drainage. Another thing about moisture and indoor gardening is to spray the leaves and keep them moist as well.

How Does Temperature Affect Indoor Plants?

Plants are adaptable, however they do best grown within a 70 - 75 degree range. A plant uses energy more when the temperature is warm than when it is cold. They can get used to a cooler room, one with an air conditioner for example, but it is stressful to plants for the temperature to warm up at night and be cooled during the day, when the sunlight is present. The herbs will start photosynthesis with the rise in temperature and there will be no sunlight to produce food. This will result in plants that will not thrive and will probably die. So that being said try and keep the plant outdoors in the summer. Keep it on a nice schedule of heat with sunlight and cool with darkness.

What Temperature Is Best?

A plant will grow best if there is at least a 10 degree fall in temperature at night. In the hottest part of the summer, temperatures tend to get high and stay high. At this point plants may become stressed and in turn more susceptible to disease. They grow less and drop leaves, fade and perhaps even die; even though you do everything else right.  Because heat rises, it is not possible to create a perfect temperature in a room for all herbs. It would be wiser to locate herbs around a room based on the available temperature zones. Don’t stress, work with what’s you in your home rather than making drastic changes in your home environment.

Herbs are susceptible to common pests, including whiteflies, spider mites, aphids, Mealy bugs, scale insects, and Thrips. Inspect herbs regularly especially under the leaves. If you find insects don’t wait, make a spray bottle full of soap and warm water mixture, use dawn dishwashing liquid, and spray the underside of the leaves especially.

Seed saving is a very simple thing to do.  

seed saving

1. You pick the best looking fruit or vegetable from your garden. You can also buy the fruit or vegetable from a road side stand and use this. Be sure that your fruit or vegetable is not a GMO or a hybrid use only Heirloom vegetables. The GMO and Hybrids  seeds will not produce the plant you desire.

2. You wash the piece and then cut into it carefully. I try and avoid cutting it down the middle where I may cut seeds. If a seed gets cut it is no good. Try cutting the edges and then dig into the fruit or vegetable.

3. Scrape all the plant material off the seeds. Be sure to get all of it. Otherwise the seed will rot and be useless.

4. Place a plate on the counter with a towel on. This will absorb all the moisture. Change the towel twice a day. This way the moisture will be absorbed faster and mold will not have a chance to grow. This process will take about 2 weeks.

5. Make sure you have a little brown envelope. Ones that have a flap on it that can be sealed. Take the seeds when they are fully dried and pour them in. Seal, Label and date the envelope for use next planting season.