COMMENTS ON INDOOR GARDENING


The following is a response to the question, "what kinds of foods can one
grow indoors during the winter?". This is from the veg-raw e-mail list,
September 1995.

Generally speaking, indoor gardening is limited by space and light (and
sometimes temperature, if your place is not heated sufficiently). If you have
the space and enough light you can readily grow the "staples" of living foods
diets:  sunflower greens, buckwheat greens, wheatgrass.

Ann Wigmore suggests growing the above greens, using hard plastic cafeteria
trays with a little bit of soil in them - say 1/2 inch or 1.25 cm. Many of the
local members of the San Francisco Living Foods Support Group (now SF-LiFE)
report serious mold problems using this approach. An alternate method that may
avoid or reduce the mold problem is to use the thin seed flat trays designed
for seedlings - as used by plant nurseries and available from them or via mail
order garden suppliers.

Besides the "staples", you can use the seed flat trays to grow a variety of
other indoor greens:  baby lettuce, baby mustard, baby bok choy, baby herbs
(fennel, dill, etc.), turnip greens. Most fast growing plants can be easily
grown in trays. All it takes is time, effort, and the right equipment.

If you have larger containers, such as medium to large pots, you can even grow
things like peppers or tomatoes indoor. Getting enough light will probably be
a major limiting factor for such sun-loving plants; you may need to use full
spectrum grow lights for your indoor garden.

Tom Billings