Tips On Growing Vegetables Indoors
Indoors, But Where? - Is growing vegetables indoors possible? The answer is a definite yes. Is growing them indoors easy? The answer to that one is, maybe yes and maybe no, or it depends. It depends on whether you are talking about your living room, kitchen, a well lighted utility room, or a heated walk-in tunnel, or greenhouse.
If your kitchen or living room is where the available space is, limit your indoor garden to a few herbs, or a cherry tomato plant or two. Growing a pot of chives, or an herb or two in a kitchen window sill is rather common place, and a good way to start if you haven't done something like this before. With a little more space, some cut and grow back greens, beans, and peppers may work just fine. Corn and pumpkins are best suited for a green house, or perhaps a walk through tunnel, if the vines don't get in the way, but are in general a poor choice for indoor gardening anywhere.
With a large greenhouse you can almost grow vegetables commercially, or at least enough to take to a farmer's market when it opens in the spring, but most likely you're growing the veggies for your and you family's consumption. If you have a large amount of vegetables growing in a green house in the dead of winter, and you live in Minnesota or North Dakota, a back-up generator might be a good idea in case someone (from out of state) slides into a power pole, so you don't lose your whole crop. If you only have a few plants growing in the house, this is seldom of any concern.
Advantages And Disadvantages - The main disadvantage of growing vegetables indoors is probably space, though adequate lighting can also be a problem area at times. The advantage is one of control. You can control temperature and watering. High winds or sudden frosts are no longer a potential source of worry, and as far as bugs and other pests are concerned, they usually aren't much of a worry either. You might have an infestation of aphids, or whatever your house plants are affected by from time to time, but at least there should be no snails, slugs, or other creatures. Speaking of pests and diseases, when you plant indoors, use commercial potting soil, not garden soil. Potting soil is lighter, and won't contain any diseases or pests which are often found in garden soils.
Temperature And Lighting Problems - One problem you may face in growing vegetables indoors, is in attempting to grow cool season crops, such as lettuce, and certain other greens, in the same area as warm weather vegetables, such as tomatoes or peppers. One or the other may suffer, or if you try a compromise of sorts as far as temperature is concerned, neither may do well. If in the house, and not a green house, a location by a window, a south-facing window is almost mandatory. Most vegetables need 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day. Sunlight through a glass window is fine, but sunlight they need. If you have many gloomy days during the winter, south-facing windows might not be enough, in which case you'll need to invest in plant grow lamps or hydroponic lighting. This is usually affordable for a few tomato plants or some herbs, but can become quite expensive if you're trying to grow quite a bit.
Start Small, And Enjoy - The best advice may be to start out slow. Growing vegetables indoors can be somewhat of a challenge, but can also be fun, and can even be done as a hobby of sorts. At least you have the option of trying different vegetables and different growing schemes to see what works and what doesn't, and even when what you try isn't working well, you'll almost always learn something from it.