Anybody else do indoor gardening?
(and no, not the “illegal” stuff, lets keep this thread above board here…)
I blame my Aerogardens, they got me into hydroponics, I love the speed and efficiency that hydroponically grown crops grow, I started back in November with a single Aerogarden 3 growing cherry tomatoes, and now I’m up to…
the AG3 in the kitchen has one very healthy cherry tomato plant in it, that plant started off in the AG3 hydroponic pod, was culled out because it was too short (you can only grow one tomato plant per pod, each pod had three or four growing) and was planted in a small dirt pot with the other culled seedlings, a few weeks later, I pulled it out of the dirt, and planted it back in an AG growsponge and put it back in my homebrew rig, eventually putting it back in the AG3
I have an AG6 silver growing gourmet herbs, dill, Genovese basil, garlic chives, mint, oregano, and thyme, the basil, mint, and oregano are practically taking over the garden, the basil needs to be cut down every other day or it will hit the lights and burn itself, the hood is as high as it can go, the Mint is reaching out for some of my dirt pots clustered around the AG6’s, it’s determined to take over the world…
I have a AG6 Elite+ (three bulb hood and an arm that will extend up to two feet high) which is now housing the original cherry tomatoes I had planted in the AG3, the yellow cherry tomato plant has run it’s course and is winding down, the left hand red cherry tomato plant is at the height of productivity, and the right hand cherry tomato plant is starting to ramp up production, I’m also growing some lemon basil in this one and trying to start an everbearing strawberry plant from rootstock
on the top shelf with the two AG6’s I have a few experiments using the extra spill light from the 6’s
an Aerogarden pod of Italian parsley in a 32 Oz VitaminWater bottle of water, no aeration, just still water
a deli cup of dirt with garlic chives
a tall deli cup of dirt with some dwarf carrots (only two sprouted 
)
a small pot of dirt with three Borage sprouts
a deli-cup of water with rooting hormone and liquid fertilizer with another everbearing strawberry rootstock in it
on the bottom shelf of my botanical rack, lit by a combo of my old 65 watt Compact Flourescent aquarium lightstrip and a 4-foot conventional flourescent lightstrip with one plant grow bulb and one full spectrum bulb, I have;
a homebrew hydroponic rig with a bunch of leaf lettuce, it’s been steadily producing since December and still going strong
a homebrew mini-hydro rig (VitaminWater bottle with an airstone and aquarium air pump) growing a Micro Tom cherry tomato plant (gets no taller than 8") that’s just put out it’s second set of true leaves
a ceramic pot growing a sweet banana pepper plant and some lemon basil (the pepper plant has put out it’s second set of true leaves)
a small window box style mini-planter of dirt with lemon basil (what can I say, I love the taste of lemon basil)
a small Rubbermaid tote of dirt growing French Breakfast radishes and some dwarf carrots
downstairs in the sunroom I have a large 14" dirt pot with the rest of the rescued AG3 cherry tomato plants, some bush cucumbers, some baby bell peppers and sweet banana peppers, the tomatoes and cukes are doing exceptionally well, to the point of choking out the peppers, these are the same tomato plants that were started back in November, and they have just got around to setting their first set of blooms, wheras the hydroponic tomatoes are on their third crop already…
I’ve just started a dirt pot of a lettuce mix (mesclun mix)
Up here in Maine, the growing season is rather short, and normally you have to start your seedlings indoors for your outdoor garden (which I plan to do as well), I started these indoor gardens mainly as an experiment, to see if I could have a home-grown food supply available year-round
It seems to be working, once my dirt pots are up and running, I’ll have a pretty decent supply of fresh veggies
I also plan to start a Square Foot garden outdoors this season, as well as try a couple different variations of the traditional Native American “Three Sisters” gardens
If you have a window that gets decent sun, why not try planting an indoor container garden, or if you’re feeling adventurous, try a simple hydroponic setup, all the Aerogarden basically is is a 1 gallon bowl with an aquarium air pump driving an airstone and a Compact Flourescent light hood with a built-in timer…
It’s just cool to be able to walk over to my indoor gardens and pick some fresh veggies (lettuce, herbs, vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, and, when they’re ready, carrots and radishes) in the depths of winter, all as fresh as they can possibly be, with no pesticides or chemicals, there’s nothing like fresh, really fresh produce, especially produce you’ve grown yourself
I always thought lettuce was bland, Iceberg’s crunchy but flavorless, Romaine/Cos is slightly bitter (indicative of lettuce that has started to bolt, or go to seed), but fresh Romaine or loose-leaf lettuce, seconds from the garden actually has a nice, subtle flavor, some of my leaf lettuce has a nice, faintly peppery bite to it, something you won’t find on lettuce that’s been put on ice and trucked clear across the country to languish in grocery stores…
Hmm, I think I’ll make myself a little salad tonight for dinner, fresh looseleaf lettuce, red Romaine, some cherry tomatoes, a little basil, oregano, dill and thyme…