Welcome to Indoor Vegetable Grower. We are all about growing vegetables indoors, urban gardening, and how to grow vegetables and herbs at home.
My focus is primarily on growing vegetables with hydroponics instead of soil.
With the Covid 19 virus running around many of us have chosen to stay home more. Many of us have chosen to work remotely too. What that means is we have more time on our hands.
Many of us now have time for a hobby and learning how to grow your own veggies and herbs is one of the most fulfilling hobbies there is.
About Me
My name is Steve and I love growing things. Always have. As a kid I was always playing in the dirt.
My mom always said I was either going to be an archeologist or a farmer. Of course, she wanted me to become an archeologist but I became a farmer instead.
I grew up in a house filled with plants. Of course, we did not know about lighting like we do today. So most plants we grew were low light ones.
My mom loved house plants and for better or worse she instilled this trait in me.
So naturally, I also grow houseplants and there are many benefits to growing houseplants.
I have a healthy case of climate zone denial and I want to grow plants that are tropical or subtropical. Growing indoors means you are no longer limited to your local climate.
If you live in Southern California this may not even be an issue but if you live in Washington or Michigan and want to grow citrus it certainly is.
When I was 9, I begged my Dad to buy me a pack of sweet corn seed. He told me it would never grow. But I planted it in our backyard and it did grow. Guess who ate most of the sweet corn LOL.
I actually ran a truck farm in Washington State for years and sweet corn was one of my main crops. But there really are not many vegetables I did not grow.
Some I just couldn’t grow because the Western Washington climate had a strong maritime influence.
Nights were cool and we just did not get enough heat for most melons or things like okra. Also, mother nature can be a bitch.
Growing Vegetables Indoors
If you grow a garden outdoors that is great. But if you want to grow indoors be prepared for a learning curve. Growing outdoors under the sun is relatively easy because you are using the best light source available. Plants have adapted over millions of years to light from the sun.
But once you move indoors lighting can become much more of a challenge. If you want to grow tomatoes or peppers indoors a window sill is not going to cut it. Some people try to use fluorescent lights to grow indoors but I really don’t recommend it.
Fortunately LED lights can provide a good spectrum of light. They don’t give off much heat and they don’t use much power. You also won’t be changing bulbs like in a shop light because they last over 10,000 hours and output does not decrease like fluorescent lights.
The best indoor hydroponic systems already come with a built-in LED so if you use an AeroGarden your problem is solved. Hydroponic growth is much faster than growing in soil. It is less messy indoors too.
Indoor Vegetable Grower Ideas For Growing Large Plants
If you want to grow larger plants you will need a more traditional method of growing.
Coco is an excellent grow medium or you can go with ProMix or any good potting soil mix. Just don’t use garden soil. It can bring in pests and it will compact heavily.
I really like GroBuckets They can be used indoors or outdoors and you really can grow anything in them.
If you are a more adventurous soul you can try growing tomatoes or peppers using hydroponic methods like deep water culture or DWC.
So when I first started learning to grow indoors I had success at it. There wasn’t much information because there wasn’t even an internet yet. So it was mostly by trial and error. Things are much easier now.
I used to build homemade hydroponic systems. I even made high-pressure aeroponic systems. But these systems were big, kind of ugly, and not something you would put in your kitchen or living room.
And now times have changed and technology has advanced. It has never been easier to become an indoor vegetable grower and grow your own veggies indoors. That is what we are all about now. I have a wealth of gardening experience and I want to share it.
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