How to Grow Vegetables Indoors With Hydroponics

You can grow lettuce indoors hydroponically.

If you love the idea of gardening and hate the fact that you have to hang up your hoe for the winter, hydroponics may be for you. Hydroponics is the science of growing plants in a liquid nutrient solution. Indoor hydroponics works best for short-season, low-growing plants such as lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, kale or broccoli. You can also grow herbs such as basil or chives. These plants will grow well under an artificial grow light. You will be able to grow these plants in a spare room or right on your kitchen counter.

Things You'll Need

• Vegetable seeds
• Seedling tray
• Peat moss
• Mist bottle
• Plastic wrap
• Fish tank
• Tin foil
• Liquid hydroponic nutrients
• Air bubbler
• Air tubing
• Fish tank air pump
• Utility knife
• Styrofoam sheet
• Styrofoam cups
• Vermiculite
• Plant grow lights

Instructions

1. Fill a seedling tray with peat moss. Mist the tray until the peat moss is as damp as a wrung-out sponge.

2. Plant seeds at the depth recommended by the packaging. If the directions are unclear, you can plant the seeds three times as deep in the peat moss as the seed at its widest point and cover with soil.

3. Cover the tray with plastic and place it in a sunny windowsill out of direct sunlight. Remove the plastic once the seeds sprout. Continue to water the plants as the soil runs dry. When the plants have outgrown their trays, remove each plant from the seedling tray and rinse the soil away from the roots.

4. Wrap the exterior of a fish tank with tin foil to keep out the light. The roots of plants do not grow well in areas where light can penetrate.

5. Fill the fish tank with a solution of liquid hydroponic nutrients and water. Mix the nutrients and water in a ratio as directed on the nutrient packaging. Nutrient ratios will vary among brands.

6. Connect a fish tank bubbler or air stone to a fish tank air pump with plastic tubing. Place the bubbler in the bottom of the tank.

7. Cut a Styrofoam sheet into a rectangle that is slightly smaller than the length and width of the fish tank. Cut holes in the sheet that are slightly smaller than the mouth of the Styrofoam cups.

8. Cut a number of slits into the side of the Styrofoam cups. Fill each cup with vermiculite. Hollow out a planting hole and place the roots of your plants into the vermiculite. Place the cups into the holes in the Styrofoam rectangle.

9. Place the Styrofoam board into the fish tank and turn on the bubbler. Place the fish tank beneath the plant grow lights.

Tips & Warnings

• You can harvest your plants exactly the same as you would plants that grow in the ground. Pinch off herbs and young, tender leaves of plants as needed. Harvest entire plants by uprooting them from your hydroponic garden.

• Do not replace a plant when you harvest it. Instead, complete your harvest and then clean and sterilize your hydroponic system before starting a new batch of plants.

References

• Texas A&M University Extension: Hydroponics As a Hobby
• Simply Hydro: Water Culture Systems
• Alabama Cooperative Extension Service: Hydroponics for Home Gardeners

Resources

• University of Florida IFAS Extension: Building a Floating Hydroponic Garden