How to start Indoor Gardening

Modern scientific techniques make it possible for people to grow plants, vegetables and even fruit right in their drawing room in indoor gardens. With the some effort and knowledge you can now grow a variety of plants indoors, either with hydroponics, which is a soilless growing technique or by using suitable techniques for conventional geoponics (growing in soil). Irrespective of the method you choose, you can even make your indoor garden yield better results than a comparable conventional outdoor garden with less effort and in less time.

For successfully using indoor gardening techniques you need to understand five essential aspects of plant growth such as lighting, nutrition etc. These need to be considered and properly provided for during the planning stage, if you want to ensure adequate returns on the time and effort you put in. The five essentials are:
• Lighting
• Environmental Control
• Propagation
• Cultivation
• Nutrition

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Lighting
   In the majority of cases, while gardening outdoors, you don't have to consider lighting because the proper light balance and intensity for healthy growth is taken care of by the natural patterns of seasonal and diurnal changes. Your plants sense and respond to these changes and grow in accordance with the natural life cycle progression. When growing indoors you need to properly design the lighting system to provide this vital input for accomplishing the same task.

2. Environmental Control - Air Circulation
   If you want to grow healthy indoor plants you can't afford to neglect air circulation. An adequate supply of fresh air is vital for plant growth as important plant processes depend on exchange of gases between the leaves and the atmosphere. These processes will be impeded in the absence of fresh air. A continual supply of fresh air will help your plants grow strong and healthy.

3. Propagation - Starting Stages
   Provided you have got all support systems in place, you can start off with seed, a cutting from an existing plant or a pre-started plant. If you plan your garden keeping in mind the stage of the plant life cycle you want to start with, you will be in a better position to take care of all the inputs your plants will need at different times in its life cycle.

Tips & Warnings

• Cultivation - Hydroponics or Soil? In hydroponics or soil-less gardening, the plant is supplied nutrients mixed with water. With these nutrients the plant grows much faster resulting in larger yields than in conventional gardening. Plants grown in soil need to be provided a container that is large enough to sustain growth. The rule of thumb is to provide for the larger of the two -one gallon of soil per foot of plant growth or one gallon per month of growth. You may need to do a little research to decide which method will best suit your preferences considering your budget, the amount of time and effort you can devote etc.
• Nutrition Providing the right nutrients at different stages of the plant life-cycle is important. During the vegetative phase, plants that put out heavy vegetation need larger amounts of nitrogen. On the other hand, during fruiting time they need a high phosphorous mix. An abundant supply of trace elements is vital for plant growth in indoor gardening. Select trace elements rich nutrients to meet the unique demands of plants grown in containers.

[MyJB]

on 6/17/2009 Good article. I could get started with growing plants indoors just from the information that you provided. Thanks for sharing. 5*