I am not that great of a gardener. Honestly, I am a pretty lazy gardener. I want the least amount of maintenance and maximum produce. Over the years, I started experimenting with container gardens and then I moved the plants indoors. I would get frustrated growing outdoors. I would raise these plants from seeds, transplant them as seedlings, and then weed, water, and tend to them every few days.
I would get excited as they would grow, only to be disappointed as they would get eaten by slugs, caterpillars, rodents, and deer. I was lucky to have a handful of plants make it to harvest. After it was all done, it was simply too much work for the pay off. So I decided to start growing food indoors.
The hardest part about growing indoors is having enough room. Ideally I would love a greenhouse, but it is not in my budget so I have co-opted an area of my kitchen. I eat a good bit of kale, so I decided to try growing that first. When I did research on the net, I was surprised how hard it was to find information on how to grow it indoors. I guess many folks don’t try growing it inside, so I had to experiment on my own.
After some trial and error, I had success. I have had good growth using the curled blue kale. It is actually pretty easy to grow them once you get the factors right...
1. Use deep containers. You need a good bit of soil to get kale to grow well indoors. The container should be about 10-12 inches deep and about 8-12 inches wide. Some people do it on the cheap and just use 5-gallon food grade buckets with drainage holes. Whatever container you use, just make sure it has good drainage.
2. Since you are growing food you will be eating, you will want to use organic soil and avoid man-made fertilizers and chemicals. I actually have had good success using coconut husks, or what’s known as pro coir. It is way easier to store than soil, is organic, and it costs much less. In fact, I try to grow all my vegetables with it when I can.
Get the right grow light. It is tough to get enough sunlight for indoor vegetables. I use low energy LED grow lights 10 hours a day. Prices have really come down on these: you can buy a Taotonics LED grow light for just $20 on Amazon. My plants love these lights, and I am amazed how well they grow with them. I was so impressed that I got a bunch of these lights for the rest of my houseplants. I have never seen such rapid growth. I just love these lights. You can check out the lights here.
I have made an accompanying video that shows you my results and gives you a few more tips. Once you have it set up right, it is actually pretty easy to grow and very little hassle compared to growing outside.
You can watch it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6lmMO8_NX8
Dr. Tarrin P. Lupo is a modern day renaissance man. He is a documentarian, doctor, author, artist and activist. You can find all his projects in one convenient place at his website https://tarrinlupo.wordpress.com/
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