5 Tips for Gardening Indoors
11-minute read
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Whether you are starting your seedlings indoors in late winter or bringing your plants inside in late fall, having an indoor gardening space can help to prolong your garden season, making it year-round. Here are 5 tips for gardening indoors.
I have enjoyed gardening for years now and every year cannot wait for late spring to get my garden in the ground. This last year I bought 2 indoor grow tents to make my gardening life easier and to prolong it. This has been life changing. I love how I am now able to grow all the vegetables I love and enjoy them throughout the year.
Starting seedlings is less complicated now and I have a place to keep my gardening hobby growing in the dead of winter. So, if you love to garden and want to get started growing indoors you have come to the right place.
In this blog post, I will share with you 5 tips for gardening indoors:
Setting up your grow space and grow lights
Adding fans and ensuring proper ventilation
Stabilizing temperature and humidity levels
Using the correct pots and good soil
Knowing how and when to water and fertilize
So, if you are ready to get growing year-round and to enjoy all the benefits of eating fresh, homegrown foods even in the frigid winter months, let’s get started!
Setting up your grow space and grow lights
First, you will need to decide where you will put your indoor garden. I can easily heat our attached garage and have an extra bedroom. I have added a 4X4 grow tent to the spare bedroom and a 4x8 grow tent to our garage. Grow tents are an easy and awesome way to garden indoors. Here are the tents I use and love.
Here are some other ideas if you do not want to set up a grow tent or are limited in space. Set up shelves and install grow lights on each shelf. You may also just use the whole room as an indoor gardening space. Portable greenhouses are affordable and easy to set up, or a grow cabinet can work. Where you choose to grow your indoor garden depends on how much you are planning to grow indoors.
Once you have your indoor gardening space planned out it is time to get some grow lights. Grow lights are the number one most important thing for your garden to grow. I have invested in some decent grow lights. If you are gardening in a tent adding lights is easy. Here are the lights I have. These lights work well for installing to shelves or inside a cabinet.
Grow lights can be expensive or cheap depending on the level of intensity you are seeking. I am a middle of the road person, meaning I don’t want the cheapest, but cannot afford the most expensive. These lights fall into that category. I have added 2 to each grow tent and they work very well .I do plan on upgrading the 4x4 tent to a more expensive, higher intensity light eventually.
When placing your grow lights, you want to measure the distance between your plants and the light. For seedlings you want the light closer to your pots so that your seedlings are not leggy (when they grow and stretch out seeking more light). As your plants grow you can adjust and raise your lights accordingly.
leggy plants
A good rule of thumb for more mature plants is measuring your lights to hang 18 to 24 inches from the top of your plants. Now that your indoor gardening space is set up and your grow lights are installed let’s be sure your plants have fans to ensure proper ventilation and good air circulation.
Adding Fans and ensuring proper ventilation
Investing in oscillating fans is key for proper air circulation. If you are growing in tents, you will need at least 2 oscillating fans to place in opposite corners of the tent to circulate the air. Grow tents also have built in vent holes to help with proper ventilation.
If you have the extra money to invest, I suggest you get a grow tent ventilation system. They can be pricey but will help control so many things. It is worth the investment and will greatly improve your indoor garden production.
If you are using a grow space other than in a grow tent you will want to be sure to add at least one oscillating fan to the room and be sure the room has good ventilation. Opening a window on warmer days is good for ventilation. If it is too cold outdoors to do so, then opening the door to the room and placing the fan to bring in fresher air from other rooms is an effective way.
Just using fans can work in grow tents, you will need to spend a little more time and pay a little closer attention to the air in your tents. You will know if your ventilation is doing the job by the temperature and humidity of your indoor garden space.
Stabilizing temperature and humidity levels
Get a temperature and humidity gauge. Here are the ones I use, and they are efficient and inexpensive. You, of course, can invest in a lot higher tech devices like these to use, but these inexpensive ones work well too.
For most garden vegetables you want a comfortable temperature to range from 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit. I keep my garage at least 60 degrees year-round. During the day I like to get up to 75-80 range. Keeping these temperature ranges may require adding a space heater to your indoor garden in winter months and more fans or air conditioning in the summertime.
The tent in my spare bedroom tends to run on the warmer side, in the garage the opposite occurs. I check my temperatures 2-3 times throughout the day to see if adjustments need to be made.
Humidity is also important for your garden. Too dry they will die; too wet they will also die. A good range for humidity is 45 to 70%. Humidity range also relates directly to your temperature range. If the humidity is on the higher side, 70 or higher for example, you will need to be sure your temperature is higher than the humidity. If your space is at 70% humidity and it's only 60 degrees in the space this is not good for your plants. Plants need to have a relative humidity ratio that allows the plants to breathe.
Relative humidity is the amount of water in the air relative to the amount of water the air can hold at a certain temperature. If the temperatures are low and the humidity is high the plant will suffocate. Turn up your space heater in this space to raise the temperature until your humidity goes back down.
It is also not good for your plants to have extremely low humidity in high temperatures. They will dry out and wilt. To fix this problem, you can check to see if it is time to water. Check your soil, if it is dry give your plants a good drink of water and the humidity will rise getting that relative humidity range back in check.
You can also control the humidity in your indoor watering space by adding a humidifier to increase the humidity or a dehumidifier to reduce the humidity in your space. Here are the ones I use.
The good thing about indoor gardening is normally if you are comfortable in the space, your plants will be too. I like to keep my plants just slightly warmer than I like to be (75-85) and I strive for 50 to 60% humidity.
Using the correct pots and good soil
Another key factor for your garden plants is the soil and pots you grow them in. Key tip for pots: going smaller is better than larger. Here is how to obtain that:
If you are growing tomatoes, for example, knowing they are going to be small to start, but they grow very quickly and will become root bound so you will have to transplant them at least once. Remember transplanting is hard on your plants and you will want to do this as few times as possible. Here is the routine I have found that works well for me.
I buy these pots and like to use them for seedlings. Start all your plants from seed in one of these. They allow enough room for your plants to germinate and get a good start without staying too wet for too long. You want them to be moist, but not be constantly wet. Your pots should dry out some in between waterings.
The soil you are growing in will play a significant role in how often your plants dry out and how to keep them hydrated. For seedlings you want to use a light and airy soil with mycorrhizae to help promote root development. Here is the soil I use for seedlings. Once your plants are established you will want to transplant into a chunkier soil. This is the soil I like to use for my mature plants.
I also like that these starter pots are clear because this allows me to check root health. When your plants’ roots start to come out of the bottom of the pot it is time to move up to the next pot. For garden vegetables I normally move up to 1-gallon pots at this time. I like these 1- gallon pots.
Transplanting your garden vegetables to 1- gallon pots when they have outgrown their starter pots is ideal and now is the time to change to the chunkier soil. But you may choose to go to their final pot at this time, depending on your watering methods. I use these 5–10-gallon fabric pots for my plant's final pots.
Knowing how and when to water and fertilize
If you have chosen to move up to the final pot size for your garden vegetables, keep in mind that your plants’ roots are still a lot smaller than the pot. This can cause the roots to stay wet for too long if not watered properly.
After the first transplant, only water the soil directly around your plant and leave the rest of the pot’s soil mostly dry. As your plant grows its roots will establish and fill out the pot and you can gradually water a larger area around your plant until you are watering the entirety of the pot.
The best watering method I have found for these fabric pots is to use a portable water sprayer like this one. This method takes longer to water your plants, but it gets the soil and roots watered evenly and thoroughly throughout the pot. I call this method of watering the spa treatment. Watering by this method makes me feel like the plant is really enjoying the watering process, slow, nice, and easy, like a spa day. I also enjoy this time watering my plants, it can be very relaxing.
Watering like this also makes it easier to mix in your fertilizers. Speaking of, let us talk about fertilizers. I used to be afraid of them. Every time I fertilized a plant it would die. But that is because I did not know how to use fertilizers. Since I have researched, trialed, and errored, I now have fertilizing plants down to a method I am not afraid of.
Here is what I have learned. It’s all about the NPK ratio. You know those numbers on the fertlizers packaging that look like this 5-5-5 or 10-5-5 for example. The first number stands for Nitrogen, and you want higher levels of Nitrogen when your plants are in what we call vegetation stage. This stage is after germination and before blooming or production time. It is when your plant is doing most of its growth.
During vegetation stage you want to give a fertilizer with a higher N-Nitrogen ratio. Here is the fertilizer I use during the vegetative stage. You can start this fertilizer when your plant has its second set of true leaves. Here is an illustration to learn about true leaves.
seedling sprout to second set of true leaves
Once your plant has grown to its expected size it will start producing blooms. When blooms are present on your plant it is time to back off the Nitrogen rich fertilizer and start using a fertilizer higher in P- Potassium. The middle number of the ratio should be higher. Here is the fertilizer I like to use when my plants are starting to bloom. Bloom production means that the fruits of your labor are about to grow.
Always read the manufacturer's directions on the packaging for fertilizing your plants. I suggest starting out with a highly diluted ratio and watching how your plant responds. Remember it's better to under fertilize than over fertilize. If the plant responds well to the fertilizer, it is still growing with no issues, no yellowing leaves, spots on leaves, wilting of leaves, etc. Then go ahead and use the fertilizer to the manufacturer's full directions. If your plant is still growing along well, you can fertilize every other watering.
Note that some plants need fertilizers for every watering. The best way to know is to first recognize the nutrients in your soil. If you are using soil with a slow-release fertilizer, like Miracle Gro for example, then your plant will not need as much fertilizer. If you are using a soil with a low amount of fertilizer or none, then you may need to fertilize more often.
With the soil and fertilizers, I have suggested and use, I have found that adding fertilizer every other watering works well. The best way to know how much to fertilize your plant is to let your plant tell you. If you fertilize and the plant shows signs of fertilizer burn, see illustration below, then cut back the fertilizer for a few waterings to flush the soil. Then you can start back fertilizing again at a lower strength or fertilize in less waterings. Your plant will let you know.
fertilizer burn
In conclusion, I hope you have gained some knowledge on how to garden indoors. I always want to inspire my readers to try something new. Indoor gardening has been so beneficial for me. I really suffer in the wintertime not having as much sunshine and outdoor time to do the gardening activities I love. I also do not like buying nor enjoy eating produce from the grocery stores. Having your own garden, fresh vegetables, that you have grown yourself is so rewarding! I hope you will give it a try!!!
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