Growing Vegetables Indoors
by Pamela Kock

Spring is just around the corner! It’s almost time to start sprouting vegetable seeds for planting in the garden. Not all of us are lucky enough to have space in the backyard to grow these treats, though. Is it possible to have an indoor vegetable garden?

The best alternative to a backyard vegetable garden is a sunny balcony or patio. You can grow many delicious vegetables in a small space, using carefully maintained containers and trellises. But if you don’t have an outdoor area, if you prefer to use it for a different purpose, or if you want to grow vegetables beyond the normal growing season, an indoor garden may be for you.

The main obstacle to indoor vegetable gardening is adequate light. If you’ve ever tried to sprout seeds for planting outdoors later in the spring, you’ll have noticed that inadequate light makes seedlings leggy – long stems, poor leaf growth. Most vegetables require at least eight hours per day of direct sunlight, which is hard to provide in the average home environment. Unless you have a solarium, enclosed glass patio, or extra-large bay window with a southern exposure, you’ll probably have to supplement the light source. This can be accomplished with grow-lights or ordinary fluorescent lights. Keep the light source two to four inches above the top of the plants, adjusting it as the plants grow.

Another problem with indoor vegetable cultivation is fertilization. In the garden, bees flit about scattering pollen between flowers. In your home, you’ll have to do the job for them. Some varieties need no help with pollination. Some (such as tomatoes) need only a tap on the stem to scatter pollen among the flowers, and others (especially members of the squash family, such as cucumbers) require hand pollination with a cotton swab or soft paintbrush.

Pests, such as whitefly or fungus gnats, can be a problem with indoor gardens. To control whitefly, hang a fly-catching tape strip nearby. Fungus gnats grow when the soil is kept too moist. Let it dry out slightly between waterings. You may wish to grow your garden in a room that is isolated from the main living area, such as a basement, attic, or enclosed patio to prevent these annoying insects from invading your home.

Some edibles are better suited than others for indoor gardening. If you’re a beginner, or don’t want to invest a lot of money into lighting and growing space, you may want to try growing herbs such as chives or mint. If you want to try your hand at larger vegetables, choose dwarf varieties such as cherry or grape tomatoes, small bushy cucumbers, or miniature eggplants. Root crops such as carrots, radishes, or turnips are possible with adequate light and large containers. Lettuce and other leafy vegetables can be grown on a sunny windowsill, but will probably be more valuable for interest rather than food crops. Mushrooms can be great fun to grow, and you can purchase a kit to which all you have to add is adequate moisture.

If you do grow vegetables indoors, keep in mind that even with supplemental light they’ll probably grow more slowly than if they were planted in a sunny outdoor location. Your indoor garden will need more frequent watering and control, but on the other hand, will require no weeding and will be much more accessible than an outdoor garden. It can also be a fascinating challenge to grow food crops inside your home, and if you’re so inclined, you can enjoy fresh-picked tomatoes during the dead of winter. Try indoor edible gardening with the easier plants, and you just may get hooked.