It is November, which means we are firmly seated in fall and many of us have seen the total demise of our gardens. In fact, some of us have had several weeks since we saw anything green out there and it’s kind of depressing! Have no fear, there is a way to get a fresh green pick-me-up in the kitchen even when the outside seems bleary – three ways, in fact!
Today on Just Grow Something we’re going to cover three ways to grow nutritious greens indoors. This can absolutely be done year-round, but it’s especially poignant in the late fall and through the winter. Especially if you live somewhere like I do where it’s a bit bleak and dreary outside and your body is just craving something fresh. Let’s dig in!
References and Resources: (some links are affiliates and I'll earn a small commission ... thank you!)
Get 20% off a Magic Mind subscription with code GROWSOMETHING20 Simple LED grow lights: https://amzn.to/3UMqN5k
Hydroponic net pots: https://amzn.to/3Cm8fSW
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Variety pack microgreens seed: https://amzn.to/3O4eddS
Elm Dirt: https://www.elmdirt.com/?rfsn=6809035.8aa23a5
Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group
00:00:00
It is November, which means we are firmly seated in fall and
00:00:04
many of us have seen the total demise of our gardens.
00:00:07
In fact, some of us have had several weeks since we saw
00:00:10
anything green out there and it's kind of depressing.
00:00:13
Have No Fear, there is a way to get a fresh green pick me up in
00:00:16
the kitchen, even when the outside seems blurry.
00:00:19
Three ways. In fact, today on Just Grow
00:00:21
Something, we're going to cover three ways to grow nutritious
00:00:24
greens indoors. This can absolutely be done year
00:00:28
round, but it's especially poignant in the late fall and
00:00:30
through the winter, especially if you live somewhere like I do,
00:00:35
where it's a bit bleak and dreary outside and your body is
00:00:38
just craving something fresh. Let's dig in.
00:00:42
Hey, I'm Karen, I started gardening in a small corner of
00:00:45
my suburban backyard and now 18 years later, I've got a degree
00:00:48
in horticulture and operate a 40 acre market farm.
00:00:51
I believe there is power in food and that everyone should know
00:00:54
how to grow at least a little bit of their own.
00:00:57
On this podcast, I share evidence based techniques to
00:00:59
help you plant, grow, harvest and store all your family's
00:01:03
favorites. Consider me your friend in the
00:01:05
garden. So grab your garden journal and
00:01:07
a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
00:01:20
Couple quick reminders, the merch shop is live and we've got
00:01:24
some new merchandise in there. So if you are getting ready to
00:01:27
start doing your holiday shopping, especially for anybody
00:01:30
on your list that is a gardener, you can go to
00:01:33
justgrowsomethingpodcast.com and click the shop button and find
00:01:37
all kinds of goodies there. And here in the next week or so
00:01:41
there very well may be some holiday themed stuff in there.
00:01:45
Think Ugly Christmas Sweater, just a little sneak peek there
00:01:50
for you or a little, little teaser there for you if that's
00:01:53
not your jam. And that's not one way that you,
00:01:55
you know, want to support the podcast, but you do want a way
00:01:58
to support what I'm doing here. You can go to patreon.com/just
00:02:02
Grow Something or buy me a coffee.com/just Grow Something.
00:02:06
And there are all kinds of ways there to do that as well.
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I truly, truly appreciate anything you throw my way for
00:02:13
the effort that I put out and then the information that I
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offered to you. A quick shout out also to
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Heather, whose answer to the October Question of the Month
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got left off the episode last week.
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I am so sorry about that, Heather.
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Heather had said my biggest fail this year was my tomatoes.
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I'm in zone 9B. I had several mature plants full
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of blooms, but even with hand pollinating and bees I still
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only got about 3 tomatoes. We had a short spring and it got
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very hot very fast. I've heard the pollen gets
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sticky in the heat. This is absolutely true and it's
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not just with tomatoes. Although it can be more of a
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problem with self pollinating fruits like tomatoes because
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they rely on just a little bit of motion from the wind to
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transfer their pollen rather than an insect moving it for
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them. Heat and to an even greater
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extent humidity can make pollen very sticky.
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This means it is much harder for the pollen to get moved where it
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needs to go. So if we're talking wind
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pollination, this stickiness means that the pollen just never
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really leaves the stamen or the anthers of the stamen
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technically. And if they are mechanically
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removed by either an insect or by a hand pollinating tool like
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a paintbrush or a cotton swab, the pollen doesn't tend to
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transfer very easily from that tool to the pistol or the stigma
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of the pistol where it needs to be.
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The other problem with excessive heat though, is that it can
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cause blossom drop even if the blossoms are pollinated.
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This is simply an energy preservation method on the part
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of the plant. In times of stress, which
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excessive heat causes stress on the plant, the plant needs to
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focus on maintaining its leaf cover and its stem strength.
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So flour and fruit production basically takes a backseat.
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So if there's not enough energy to do everything it needs to do
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and still fight against the heat stress, the flowers and the
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fruits are just simply going to drop off the plant.
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So the only solution to this is to provide some shade, cover in
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the hottest parts of the day, maintain regular moisture, and
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use good amounts of mulch to help keep the soil cool.
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So thank you for your response, Heather, and I am so sorry that
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I missed you last week. All right, if you are really
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craving something fresh in the kitchen right now and you didn't
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prep your gardens to be able to grow anything outdoors in the
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winter or like me, you had a complete and total failure of
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your fall crops, have No Fear. There are several ways that we
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can get that fresh flavor of greens right now with very
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little setup and very little effort.
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None of what I'm going to talk about requires a whole lot of
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special fancy equipment, although you could absolutely
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use purchased solutions for this and just make your life easier,
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and we'll talk about those sort of as a bonus at the end.
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We're talking greens because they are the easiest to do in
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lower light conditions and in confined spaces.
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So if you are lucky enough to have a very sunny room or even
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an orange area or green room in your home, then you can
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absolutely grow more than greens.
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Ditto if you have a fancy hydroponic setup.
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But if you don't have any of those, greens are still a cheap
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and easy way to get some freshness and some nutrition
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into your kitchen during the times when outside gardening
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maybe isn't an option. Same goes for you if you are an
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urban gardener that has very limited space to garden
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throughout the growing season. You can save your precious
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outdoor square footage on your patio or your balcony for the
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things that really need that full sunlight and utilize your
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indoor spaces for the greens that are happy to be in those
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maybe less than ideal conditions.
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And when I say greens, I mean pretty much anything leafy that
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you can throw into a salad, a smoothie, or on a sandwich.
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OK, we think about basic things like leaf lettuce, but kale,
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arugula, Chard, spinach, even baby pok choy, and some of the
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more leafy herbs like basil can all be grown indoors relatively
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quickly and relatively simply without anything special.
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Just a fairly sunny window. You can get all of these guys to
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baby leaf stage, and if you add a little something to your setup
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like a cheap grow lamp or even just a fluorescent bulb, you can
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get them to grow even longer and bigger.
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You're not likely going to be able to grow like full-sized
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heads of romaine lettuce or really large Chard or bok choy
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without a little bit more of an investment, but you can grow
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enough to get you plenty of nutritional bang for your
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gardening buck. So we will start with the basic
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setup of a window garden using actual just potting soil, right?
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So all you need is a sunny window and of course, a
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container of some sort. So small pots, trays, you can
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repurpose containers like yogurt cups or like cottage cheese
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containers. Any of those types of things
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work well. You just want to make sure that
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they are about four to six inches deep so that we have
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enough room for root growth and you want to pop some drain holes
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in the bottom because we don't want root rot, and then just
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grab a light well draining potting mix.
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This works best for things that are kind of formulated for
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container plants. So something that's got like
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some added perlite or vermiculite in it for aeration
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is going to be best. But whatever you normally use
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for potting up your plants outside is going to work here
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too. And then you just need your
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seeds. Leafy greens that do well in low
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light and small spaces, or things like lettuce and spinach,
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arugula, kale, mustard greens, dwarf or baby leaf varieties are
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a good choice here. They mature very quickly and
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they stay compact. But you can absolutely use the
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full size versions, just whatever you happen to have on
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hand and harvest it early. If you are using a potting mix
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or a potting soil that has some fertilizer or nutrients in it
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already, you may not necessarily need to add anything in terms of
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a fertilizer. A lot of what we're talking
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about here is only going to be growing for a matter of maybe 6
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to 8 weeks until you harvest it. You can also do sort of that cut
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and come again type of harvest where you're just harvesting the
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larger outer leaves and let the center continue to grow.
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In that instance, if they're going to be in the container for
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longer, I would recognize some sort of a liquid plant food of
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some sort that you can apply lightly every few weeks, one
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with a little bit of nitrogen because you want that, you know,
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the lush leaves. But something as simple, you
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know, Elm dirt's plant juice is what I use in the house and it's
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perfectly fine for this application.
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You don't want to over fertilize, right?
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You get too much nitrogen and you start to get leggy plants
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and you get these weird nutrient imbalances.
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So anything that's a balanced fertilizer is going to work just
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fine. And again, this is probably only
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necessary either a, if you're using a potting mix that doesn't
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already have nutrients in it, or B, you're going to be harvesting
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off of these for longer than about 6 to 8 weeks, in which
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case you're going to want to have to feed them somewhere
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along the way. In terms of lighting, a sunny
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window sill really is ideally going to have a minimum of four
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to six hours of indirect sunlight, OK?
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So a S facing window, if you're here in the Northern hemisphere,
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is going to provide the best light.
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Ideally. A lot of these plants, though,
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are going to prefer closer to 10 hours.
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So they will grow in that four to six hours.
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They're just going to grow more slowly.
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So if you want them to grow more quickly or if your natural
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sunlight is limited, then you may want to consider some sort
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of supplemental light. What I use for example, is my
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kitchen window, which is actually facing West and so it
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gets a little bit of sunlight in the morning and then I have a
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fluorescent light that is attached to the frame around the
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window and I just flick that on and that just kind of stays on
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all day just to provide some sulemental light.
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An that is all I need. I have more than just my greens
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in that window. I have house plants that stay
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there year round and this is plenty of light for them.
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So something that simple is perfectly fine.
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You can also find, you know, small LED grow lights that have
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their own little stand that can go over top or that can stick
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into the soil and and light those up.
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So, you know, you don't have to get super fancy with it.
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Just use whatever you have available.
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And if you don't have something available, it doesn't have to be
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fancy and it doesn't have to be expensive.
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OK, If your home is very dry, which happens to a lot of us in
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the winter time, we have the heat running constantly, or
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especially if you're using like a wood burning stove or
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something, the air is going to get dry in the house.
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If you can provide like a shallow tray filled with water
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or even pebbles in the bottom that you can fit on top, not
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only will you be watering from the bottom that way, but also it
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can add humidity if your house is really dry.
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And that's going to be especially beneficial to a leafy
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green. So when you're doing this,
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essentially, I mean, this is just the same as when you would
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be planting something directly outside, right?
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Just fill the container with potting mix, leave about 1/2 an
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inch from the rim so you have, you know, some place to water it
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and then just lightly press the soil to settle it down.
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Sow your seeds, cover them lightly with about, you know, a
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little bit of soil, mist the surface, you know, use a spray
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bottle if you can, but you know want it water logged and then
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stick them in the window sill and let them do their thing
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right. Once the ceilings reach about
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one or two inches, depending on how many seeds you sprinkled in
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there, you may want to thin them out.
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So just snip those off, toss them into your salads or
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whatever. We don't want these overcrowded,
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especially since we're in an indoor situation where the
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airflow isn't quite like it would be outside.
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So unless you have a fan going in your kitchen or wherever your
00:12:35
gardening space is all the time, if you have those plants too
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close together and there's not enough airflow, that's just a,
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you know, breeding ground for, you know, kind of mildewy,
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moldy, you know, stuff on the on the soil.
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So we don't, we don't want to do that.
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So make sure that you're thinning them out properly.
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And then after about the first three to four weeks, they're
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going to be pretty close to harvesting.
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OK. So six weeks probably for like
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baby greens and stuff. If you want to cut the entire
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thing, you can just snip the whole thing off and there you're
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done. If you are going to do the cut
00:13:09
and come again type thing. So lettuces and spinach are
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really good for this baby bok choy.
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Also like I'll pull the outer leaves off and let the bok choy
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to continue to grow in the center.
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You are going to want to start fertilizing them or feeding them
00:13:23
at about that three to four week stage.
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If you're planning on just cutting it all and then
00:13:27
replanting, then you don't have to worry about that.
00:13:31
The one thing that you do want to do though, if you want to
00:13:34
rotate the containers every few days, you don't want your greens
00:13:38
to start leaning One Direction or the other.
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So and you'll, you'll see them start to do that, they'll all
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start leaning toward the light source.
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So especially if you don't have an overhead light source of some
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sort. So if it's in a window, you're
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going to want to kind of rotate them every few days, just
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whenever you remember it. It doesn't have to be on a
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specific schedule. Just happen to remember, oh, I
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should turn the plants and it's fine.
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The only other thing other would say would be watch out for
00:14:02
pests, right? We don't want aphids, we don't
00:14:04
want fungus gnats. And then also avoid over
00:14:08
watering because that over watering #1 is not great for the
00:14:11
plants, but #2 is also more attractive to those aphids and
00:14:15
those fungus gnats. So let's let's keep the over
00:14:18
watering to a minimum please. In terms of temperature, leafy
00:14:24
greens generally prefer temperatures between about 60
00:14:27
and 70 Fahrenheit. So if you're not doing this like
00:14:31
in a sunny window, like in your kitchen or something, if it's
00:14:34
someplace maybe in another room, try to avoid putting them in a
00:14:39
window that is too close to like a heater.
00:14:43
I have several. I don't know why you would put
00:14:45
heating vents directly underneath a window, but I have
00:14:49
several of those in my house. It doesn't make any sense, but
00:14:53
that's where it is. And so I have like hanging
00:14:56
plants in some of those windows that will tend to dry out in the
00:14:59
winter time because that vent is right there.
00:15:03
So if you can avoid that, that's going to help your leafy greens
00:15:06
be a little bit happier. And then just know we're in that
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time of year in most areas where the natural light is going to
00:15:14
decrease in the winter. So we're going to get down below
00:15:17
10 hours a day of sunlight here fairly quickly.
00:15:20
So supplementing with some sort of a grow light might actually
00:15:24
be a good idea. And then like I said, to keep
00:15:28
them just sort of growing steadily, you can do the cut and
00:15:32
come again, avoid taking more than 1/3 of the leaves at one
00:15:36
time and just make sure that you are harvesting that center part
00:15:39
of the plant or you're not harvesting, sorry, the center
00:15:41
part of that plant. Allow that to continue growing
00:15:44
and just harvest the leaves from the outside.
00:15:47
I am pretty persistent when it comes to making sure that I have
00:15:51
some sort of greens in the house at all times, whether it's using
00:15:56
them in salads or on sandwiches or tossing them in smoothies.
00:15:59
I feel like I need that fresh component, especially when most
00:16:04
of the other veggies in the winter are something that I have
00:16:06
canned or that are coming from the freezer.
00:16:10
That is another reason why my Magic Mind subscription is so
00:16:16
helpful. It's a fresh little green shot
00:16:19
first thing in the morning with my coffee, with all of the
00:16:21
helpful adaptogens and the nootropics that I need to just
00:16:24
kind of soar through my day. And the subscription makes it a
00:16:28
complete no brainer if I'm taking the time and effort to
00:16:32
can up or freeze my veggies from the garden to have on hand at
00:16:36
all times. I don't want to have to think
00:16:38
about reordering my mental performance shot so that I don't
00:16:41
run out. I just want it to come
00:16:43
automatically. The shipping is free with a
00:16:45
subscription in addition to the Super easy cancellation process.
00:16:49
There are no questions asked. It can just be done by a simple
00:16:53
click in their portal or you can even just text message them to
00:16:56
cancel it. You don't have to get on the
00:16:57
phone and call anybody and they have a money back guarantee,
00:17:01
100% money back guarantee for the first purchase, no questions
00:17:05
asked. They don't expect you to send
00:17:07
the bottles back. Nothing.
00:17:08
But that was never a problem for me.
00:17:10
I felt the effects right away and I have been using it ever
00:17:14
since. And of course, the subscription
00:17:16
is already discounted over the single purchase price and
00:17:19
they're giving you an additional 20% because you are a gardening
00:17:23
friend. Go to magicmind.com/grow
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Something 20 and use Code Grow Something 20 at checkout to get
00:17:30
your own Magic Mind subscription.
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You've got no risk, but absolutely all the rewards.
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The link will be in the show notes.
00:17:39
Now, if my Magic Mind is like my liquid greens, what about greens
00:17:44
in liquid? That is option #2 homemade
00:17:49
hydroponics. And don't freak out.
00:17:51
I'm not talking about some big old system where you have a tent
00:17:55
and a flood table and a reservoir and all that kinds of
00:17:57
stuff. This is hydroponics that you can
00:17:59
do in a window sill or on a corner of your kitchen table,
00:18:04
and you can scale it up or down depending on how many greens you
00:18:09
need. This creating this sort of
00:18:12
system as a homemade system can be very simple and it can be
00:18:17
very low cost, and it's still going to provide you with those
00:18:20
fresh greens in a very small space.
00:18:22
You just need a little bit more going into it in terms of
00:18:26
supplies than you would with the simple system that's sitting on
00:18:30
your counter in soil, right? So the first thing to consider
00:18:34
is the container that you're going to use.
00:18:37
If you want to grow more than, you know, one or two plants at a
00:18:41
time, you're going to want something that's more akin to
00:18:44
say a storage bin. You want something that's
00:18:46
shallow. We're looking at about four to
00:18:48
six inches deep because that's what we need to hold the water
00:18:50
in the nutrient solution, but something that has a lid because
00:18:56
that's what's going to support the plants.
00:18:58
So if you are thinking about doing maybe 2 plants at a time,
00:19:04
you could use a bin similar to one of those plastic shoe boxes,
00:19:08
right? That's going to hold a couple of
00:19:10
plants. If you're only going to do 1
00:19:12
plant, you could just do literally a Mason jar with the
00:19:16
lid and you can cut the hole for the net pot.
00:19:17
We'll talk about that here in a second.
00:19:19
The one thing that I would say is whatever you use as your
00:19:24
container, I would say a food safe plastic container that
00:19:30
doesn't allow exposure to the light is actually a better idea.
00:19:34
If you're going to use glass, clear glass then you're going to
00:19:36
want to be able to cover that U in some way.
00:19:38
O With the Mason jar example, you might wrap a Aer bag around
00:19:43
the outside of it. The reason we don't want it to
00:19:46
be see through is the nutrients that we're going to add to the
00:19:49
water combined with exposure to light can actually provide the
00:19:53
perfect conditions for algae to grow.
00:19:56
And so not only is that going to get kind of funky in the water,
00:19:59
but algae is also going to feed off of those nutrients, which is
00:20:02
also taking them away from your plant and it's going to cause
00:20:05
problems with the growth. We don't want that.
00:20:06
OK. So if we can keep that water
00:20:09
that is in the hydroponic system from being exposed to light, the
00:20:12
better off we are? The second thing that you're
00:20:15
going to get is net pots. So these are about, you know,
00:20:20
two to three inches in diameter and they're exactly what they
00:20:23
sound like. They're little pots that look
00:20:24
like a plastic net of some sort. You can find these at the
00:20:28
gardening center. You can order them online.
00:20:31
You can also just make your own by cutting holes in little
00:20:34
plastic cups depending on the size of your setup.
00:20:38
In fact, I've seen, you know, the little, I guess they would
00:20:42
be considered guest cups that you used to see in people's
00:20:45
homes, like in their bathrooms that you could pop out of the
00:20:48
little, the little dispenser. They're they're like a little
00:20:51
bit bigger than the size of like a shot glass.
00:20:54
Those are perfect if they're the plastic ones, but you can use,
00:20:58
you know, something a little bit bigger than that, no big deal.
00:21:00
You're just going to cut holes in the bottom of it to allow the
00:21:03
roots to come out and to allow the water to go in.
00:21:06
We'll talk about that here in a second.
00:21:07
We talk about the setup. The other thing that you're
00:21:09
going to need is some sort of a growing medium that is soil less
00:21:14
so when you're looking at like the really big professional sort
00:21:18
of hydroponic setups. Often times they're using rock
00:21:22
wool. I don't prefer rock wool.
00:21:24
I don't choose to use it. To me, it's kind of akin to like
00:21:28
fiberglass and I just don't want my food in that.
00:21:31
So cocoa quar or clay pebbles are also really good options.
00:21:37
Those are the two options that I have used in my own little
00:21:39
hydroponics setups. You just need something that's
00:21:42
going to sit down in the net pot that doesn't have any like
00:21:48
nutrients or anything to it, that has a neutral pH, and it's
00:21:50
going to be able to hold those seedlings in place without
00:21:53
breaking down. South coconut coir and clay
00:21:56
pebbles, these are perfect for that.
00:21:58
The one thing that sort of trips people up when it comes to
00:22:01
hydroponic setups is the nutrient solution.
00:22:04
There are a lot of nutrient mixes out there that are
00:22:07
specifically formulated for hydroponics and some of them
00:22:11
will say on there that they are specifically for leafy greens.
00:22:15
And those are going to contain sort of the ideal balance of
00:22:19
nutrients. If you are just growing a couple
00:22:22
of plants and you are just starting out with this and
00:22:24
testing the waters, no pun intended, testing the waters to
00:22:28
see if this is something that you're interested in doing,
00:22:32
don't run out and buy a bunch of bottles of hydroponic nutrient
00:22:35
solution or whatever. OK.
00:22:37
Your liquid plant foods, generally speaking, are going to
00:22:41
be OK. You just have to make sure that
00:22:43
they are diluted properly to be used in a hydroponic situation.
00:22:49
So I have used Elm Dirt's plant juice as my hydroponic solution
00:22:54
for indoor stuff, for leafy greens.
00:22:56
I have used all kinds of different solutions and stuff
00:23:00
that maybe weren't specifically for hydroponics, but you will
00:23:04
find that once you if you continue to do it more
00:23:07
frequently, then you might just want to go ahead and buy one
00:23:10
that is specific to hydroponics because then you know you're
00:23:12
getting exactly the ideal balance.
00:23:14
So when you're starting out something that has just got a
00:23:16
balanced level of nutrients 555101010, whatever it is, and
00:23:20
just make sure that you are looking at the dilution
00:23:22
instructions on there to make sure that you're not going to
00:23:25
cause either a nutrient burn or a deficiency when it gets mixed
00:23:29
into your water. OK.
00:23:31
If we're doing this very short term, it's likely not going to
00:23:35
be necessary for you to be testing the pH of the water.
00:23:38
If you're doing this for longer than six or eight weeks, though,
00:23:42
and you're not changing the water super frequently, then a
00:23:45
pH testing kit of some sort is probably going to be a good
00:23:47
idea. Hydroponic systems and then the
00:23:50
plants in them are sensitive to pH.
00:23:53
So you're going to want a testing kit or some sort of pH
00:23:56
strip to help ensure that the solution, the water solution is
00:24:00
in the optimal range for leafy greens.
00:24:03
And that is 5.5 to 6.5. So you can just get little test
00:24:08
strips. It doesn't have to be anything
00:24:10
fancy. But again, don't go rushing out
00:24:12
to buy this stuff until you really think that you're
00:24:14
actually going to be doing this more frequently.
00:24:17
The plant is going to tell you if something is wrong.
00:24:19
So if you have your plants in the hydroponic system and it's
00:24:22
been about 8 weeks and you're harvesting off of them but
00:24:24
they're starting to look a little weird or you know they're
00:24:27
they're wilting over or they don't have much in the way of
00:24:30
roots, then it might be time to start testing things.
00:24:32
OK. Something else that is optional
00:24:35
would be an air pump and air stone.
00:24:38
So this is going to help keep that nutrient solution
00:24:41
oxygenated, which helps to prevent root rot and it also
00:24:45
promotes healthy root growth. Aquarium air pumps are are
00:24:50
typically, you know, pretty affordable.
00:24:52
They're easy to find. You get the little air stones
00:24:54
that drop on the bottom of the of the container and and you
00:24:57
keep that air moving. But again, if you're only doing
00:25:00
a couple of plants and you're just trying this out, this is
00:25:02
not necessary. The alternative to this is doing
00:25:05
something which is called the Kratkey method, and this is a
00:25:08
passive hydroponic technique. It was developed by Doctor BA
00:25:12
Krakie at the University of Hawaii.
00:25:15
It doesn't involve any pumps or electricity.
00:25:17
It is super easy to do if you do it right.
00:25:20
So when you're just starting out, we can start with the
00:25:22
Krakie method and not worry about using an air pump or air
00:25:25
stone. But again, if you decide to kind
00:25:27
of upgrade your system and make it larger than that might be
00:25:30
something you consider at that time.
00:25:31
OK. And then if you need it again,
00:25:34
an LED grow light of some sort. You know, your leafy greens are
00:25:37
going to do OK in that four to six hours of light, but they're
00:25:40
going to do much better if they get at least 10.
00:25:43
So if your natural light is limited, a small LED grow light
00:25:47
is going to help to maintain that growth.
00:25:50
So how do we set up our little homemade hydroponic system?
00:25:55
Regardless of what it is that you are using, the size of the
00:25:58
container and the lid, you're going to cut holes in the lid of
00:26:03
the container to hold the net pots and then you want to space
00:26:07
them. If you're doing more than one
00:26:09
plant at a time, you want to space them at least four to six
00:26:11
inches apart because you want room for those leafy greens to
00:26:14
grow. The holes that you cut should be
00:26:16
just large enough to fit the net pots without them falling
00:26:20
through. So you are going to suspend
00:26:22
these pots in the lid of whatever container you are using
00:26:27
and then you are going to fill your container with water and
00:26:31
your hydroponic nutrient solution according to the
00:26:34
products instructions please. And then if you're using APH
00:26:37
tester, you want to test the pH to make sure that it is where it
00:26:40
needs to be. Again, if this is your first
00:26:43
time, don't really worry about it.
00:26:45
Get used to the setup 1st and then worry about all this nitty
00:26:47
gritty stuff later. OK, And this is also the time if
00:26:50
you were going to set up an air pump that you would set the air
00:26:53
pump up as well. With the Krat Key method, what
00:26:57
is going to happen is rather than oxygenating the water with
00:27:00
an air pump, as the water level drops in your container, the
00:27:07
roots of the plant are going to continue to grow down to follow
00:27:10
that water level. And then that air gap that
00:27:12
happens between the water and the lid is actually going to be
00:27:17
where that oxygenation occurs, which is the beauty of the
00:27:21
cracking method. You literally are just filling
00:27:23
up the water and then letting the water be utilized by the
00:27:27
plant and the nutrients at the same time.
00:27:30
And it's getting the oxygen as it uses the water.
00:27:33
So you just always have to make sure that it's topped up to, to
00:27:36
reach the roots. So again, super simple, no air
00:27:38
pump required, right? So when you're ready to start
00:27:43
your seeds, you're going to put your growing medium inside each
00:27:47
of the net pots and then put your seeds in there and then
00:27:49
just moisten them really well, pop them into the little hole in
00:27:52
the lid and that's it, you're done.
00:27:55
OK. Just make sure that they stay
00:27:57
moistened while you wait for them to sprout.
00:27:59
Alternatively to this, you can set up a separate system where
00:28:02
you actually like sprout the the seedlings in another container
00:28:08
and then pop them into the net. And that's just, you know, I
00:28:10
mean, again, a more advanced technique if you're doing a lot
00:28:13
more plants. So I would just start by
00:28:15
sprouting them in place in your little container.
00:28:19
This is when you want to go ahead and pop them under your
00:28:22
light or in your window or wherever it is that you're going
00:28:24
to do. The only thing that you need to
00:28:26
do to maintain this system is just to make sure that the
00:28:31
nutrient solution is topped off as needed, right?
00:28:35
So if you're, if you're using a bubbler or, or an air stone, you
00:28:41
will notice that the water level will start to drop just a little
00:28:44
bit. You want to go ahead and top
00:28:45
that off with water. You might need to add more
00:28:47
nutrients possibly, depending on how long you're doing this for.
00:28:51
Usually you're only going to need to replace that whole
00:28:55
solution about every two to three weeks.
00:28:59
That is if you are using a bubbler, if you are using the
00:29:01
crack key method, you just want to monitor that water level.
00:29:04
OK, So this method doesn't require the water to be refilled
00:29:09
very frequently. As that plant absorbs the water,
00:29:11
it's forming that gap, it's allowing the access to the
00:29:14
oxygen. You just have to make sure that
00:29:16
those roots can still reach the nutrient solution.
00:29:20
So if you notice like nutrient deficiency symptoms, so maybe
00:29:24
they're getting pale leaves, then you may need to add some
00:29:27
fresh nutrient solution. Otherwise lettuce is going to
00:29:29
grow to maturity without needing a whole bunch of nutrient
00:29:32
changes. So see how easy that is?
00:29:34
I always love the easy solution. So again here if you're talking
00:29:39
leafy greens, you want to make sure that you're maintaining the
00:29:41
temperature, keeping in the system away from any, you know,
00:29:45
real hot areas or real drafty areas. 6060 five 70°F is perfect
00:29:51
for these leafy greens. And this is a great system also
00:29:56
for the cut and come again method.
00:29:58
So trimming those outer leaves when they're about four to six
00:30:01
inches tall and then just leaving that central growth
00:30:04
point to allow a continuous harvest.
00:30:06
So that is a basic hydroponic system for leafy greens.
00:30:11
It's super easy to maintain. It is very space efficient
00:30:14
because you can make it as small or as big as you want to.
00:30:18
And the setup is adaptable for all different types of leafy
00:30:24
greens. And so it can be expanded with
00:30:26
more containers or more lighting if you want to.
00:30:28
Or you can just keep it really simple and just have one or two
00:30:32
bunches of leafy greens that you are picking off of for several
00:30:35
weeks and then you kind of reset the whole system and start all
00:30:38
over again. Very, very simple and completely
00:30:41
flexible for what you need. Option #3 for growing greens
00:30:47
indoors is microgreens. OK, Super easy, super
00:30:52
affordable, doesn't require a lot of space or equipment.
00:30:56
Microgreens grow really quickly. They are very nutrient dense,
00:30:59
and they can be harvested in just like a week depending on
00:31:04
what you're growing, maybe as long as three weeks if you're
00:31:06
growing something that's a little bit bigger.
00:31:07
But they are a great choice for really fresh homemade greens
00:31:12
with very minimal effort. If you have not eaten
00:31:16
microgreens before and you are kind of just thinking about like
00:31:20
alfalfa sprouts, it's it's not quite like that.
00:31:24
The flavor profiles are really, really diverse.
00:31:27
So you can do radishes if you want something that's got a
00:31:30
little kick to it. You can do broccoli microgreens
00:31:33
and they taste like broccoli, but they don't have that
00:31:36
broccoli texture. If you're averse to that or if
00:31:39
anybody in your family is averse to that, one of my favorites is
00:31:43
pea shoots fabulous. They taste like peas, but they
00:31:46
are slightly succulent and sunflower sprout.
00:31:49
I'm a sunflower. Microgreens are Absolutely
00:31:52
Fabulous. They taste like a sunflower
00:31:53
seed. They're they're they're lovely.
00:31:55
I did a full episode on microgreens.
00:31:57
I will link to that in the show notes, but let's do a quick
00:32:00
rundown of what you might need to grow some microgreens and how
00:32:03
to set it up. So the first thing that we need
00:32:05
to grow microgreens is some sort of a shallow tray.
00:32:08
So seedling trays are fantastic for this.
00:32:10
You can use take out containers, you can use a baking tray, you
00:32:13
can use almost anything. They don't necessarily need to
00:32:17
have drainage holes in them. We can sort of adjust the amount
00:32:22
of water that we're using based on whether or not they have
00:32:25
drainage holes or not. But if they do have drainage
00:32:27
holes then you're going to want to have some sort of a second
00:32:29
tray underneath them just to catch the water.
00:32:31
OK the next thing is your growing medium.
00:32:35
So a seed starting soil mix is perfectly fine.
00:32:38
You could do coconut coir if you want to.
00:32:41
You can actually do this without any kind of soil and just do it
00:32:45
in a glass jar if necessary. I have seen people just do them
00:32:49
in moistened paper towels. So I prefer the seed starting
00:32:54
mix. It has some basic nutrients but
00:32:57
soil less options like coconut car also work depending on you
00:33:01
know how big you want the sprouts to grow and how much you
00:33:03
want to mess with the soil. So play around with it and
00:33:05
decide what's best for you. I will say that you can, you can
00:33:08
do almost anything as a microgreen, but I would be
00:33:12
careful in using just whatever you happen to have on hand,
00:33:18
especially when you're first starting to do this.
00:33:20
You might want to choose seeds that are specifically labeled
00:33:22
for microgreens because you're going to be sure that they are
00:33:26
untreated and that they are safe for this sort of quick
00:33:30
sprouting. We don't want to be eating
00:33:32
anything in this little baby plant stage that has been
00:33:35
treated with a pesticide or herbicide or anything.
00:33:38
So if you are absolutely sure that your, you know, your radish
00:33:41
seeds don't contain anything that is, you know that you
00:33:45
wouldn't want to eat, then fine, that's, that's that's up to you.
00:33:48
But just know that there are mixes out there or seeds out
00:33:51
there that are specifically used for microgreens if that worries
00:33:55
you. And like I said, you can grow
00:33:57
just about anything. So radishes, arugula, sunflower,
00:34:00
broccoli, mustard, kale, pea, one of my favorites.
00:34:05
You can also look for organic versions of these if possible to
00:34:08
avoid any kind of pesticide residues too.
00:34:11
So after you figure out what seeds you're going to grow, you
00:34:15
are going to want to have a spray bottle that makes it much
00:34:17
easier to kind of keep the soil moist pretty evenly and it's
00:34:23
also going to help prevent over watering.
00:34:25
It's also going to prevent us shifting those seeds around by
00:34:30
running them underwater or trying to pour water over top of
00:34:33
them. So remember, I mean, we're
00:34:35
literally going to be eating the seedlings of these plants.
00:34:38
And we know what seedlings are like when they first pop up.
00:34:40
They can be kind of delicate. So a spray bottle is usually the
00:34:44
best way to mist the soil and just kind of keep the the seeds
00:34:48
evenly moist. And then again, your light
00:34:51
source, a bright sunny window sill is usually plenty, like
00:34:55
four to six hours of indirect sunlight is perfectly fine.
00:34:59
But again, if your natural light is limited, then a simple LED
00:35:03
grow light or a fluorescent light of some sort is going to
00:35:06
be just fine. For this.
00:35:08
Essentially to grow your microgreens, all you're going to
00:35:10
do is just fill your tray with about an inch of whatever you
00:35:14
have chosen to grow them in. And if you're using soil, make
00:35:17
sure you kind of moisten it lightly before planting.
00:35:20
We don't want it waterlogged. Same thing if you're using like
00:35:23
paper towels or something, just layer a few sheets together and
00:35:25
then spray them with the water until they're they're damp.
00:35:27
We don't want them sogg. Make sure that your medium is
00:35:31
spread evenly across the tray and just kind of press it down
00:35:33
gently to create a nice flat even surface.
00:35:36
And then just take your seeds and scatter them evenly across
00:35:39
the surface of your growing medium.
00:35:42
This is probably the most important step because we want
00:35:47
good coverage of the soil, but we don't want them overcrowded.
00:35:52
So I kind of base the spacing eyes of the seed.
00:35:57
So I feel like the smaller the seed, the closer together they
00:36:02
can be. The larger the seed, the more
00:36:04
space they need in between them because obviously that means a
00:36:07
larger seedling, right? So just kind of spread it out
00:36:11
evenly, leaving a little bit of space between them and then just
00:36:15
press the seeds kind of down into the soil.
00:36:17
But we don't want to bury them. We we just want to press them
00:36:20
into the top. And then you can just miss them
00:36:21
again with the spray bottle, just to make sure that the the
00:36:24
soil surface is kind of thoroughly wet.
00:36:27
It should be evenly moist, but not water logged.
00:36:30
This is the important step is to cover the tray with like a lid
00:36:36
or some plastic wrap or something, even another tray
00:36:40
flipped over on it to create a human environment.
00:36:44
And we want to block the light for like the first two to three
00:36:49
days. This is going to help the seeds
00:36:52
germinate more evenly. And a lot of seeds actually need
00:36:56
the darkness in order to be able to sprout.
00:36:58
That's kind of why they get covered with the soil.
00:37:00
But since we're not covering them in the soil we are leaving
00:37:02
on top, we want, you know, to to block that light out.
00:37:06
So about two or three days and then we're going to uncover it
00:37:09
and we're going to provide that light.
00:37:11
You can just kind of peek underneath there to see whether
00:37:14
or not they have started to germinate.
00:37:15
Once they have germinated, you can go ahead and remove them.
00:37:18
I kind of wait until I see that the majority of them have
00:37:22
started to come up and then I pull the cover off and that's
00:37:25
when I put them like in the window sill or, you know, under
00:37:29
a grow light or something. You will notice that they will
00:37:32
be very, very pale when you first take that cover off
00:37:36
because they've been in the complete dark.
00:37:38
But almost immediately, like you'll come back later and all
00:37:41
of a sudden they will have greened up because now they're
00:37:43
photosynthesizing. It's actually really cool to
00:37:45
watch. It's great for kids too, by the
00:37:47
way. Just continue to miss those
00:37:50
microgreens once or twice a day just to keep the soil surface
00:37:53
moist, especially again, if it's dry in your house because it's
00:37:56
winter time or if it's underneath a light that might
00:37:59
grow. Make them dry out a little bit
00:38:01
more quickly. Depending on what it is that
00:38:03
you're growing. They should be ready to harvest
00:38:06
within about a week or so, sometimes up to two weeks
00:38:09
depending on the variety. Usually when they develop their
00:38:13
first true leaves, that's when it's time to go ahead and
00:38:16
harvest them and they're ready to eat OK.
00:38:20
Usually they're about one to three inches tall at this point.
00:38:23
They've got their first set of true leaves.
00:38:25
The easiest thing to do is just to take a pair of scissors and
00:38:28
cut them just above the soil or whatever growing medium you're
00:38:33
using, right? So that you're not getting
00:38:35
whatever the soil or the growing medium is onto the part that
00:38:40
you're you're eating. So if it's a really thick mat
00:38:43
and they've grown nice roots, I actually have been able to just
00:38:45
kind of grab a handful and it lifts up to where I can just cut
00:38:49
them above the soil line, which is really cool.
00:38:51
But if that's not working for you, just just go, you know,
00:38:54
along just above the soil and grab them as you go and put them
00:38:59
into a container. And then once you've got them
00:39:01
harvested you, I use them right away.
00:39:04
Like I will just let them grow in their container and then I
00:39:06
use them as they come ready. I'm clipping them and I'm
00:39:09
tossing them into my salads or I'm putting them on my pizza or
00:39:12
on my sandwiches or in my smoothies or whatever.
00:39:15
But if they're getting too big and they need to be harvested,
00:39:18
you can go ahead and cut them all and you can store them in
00:39:20
the refrigerator. Usually you want to put them in
00:39:23
some sort of a container or a bag with a paper towel to absorb
00:39:27
any of that excess moisture. But you really want to eat them
00:39:30
within a couple of days because that's when they're like at
00:39:33
their best and they're going to have their sort of maximum
00:39:36
freshness and maximum nutrition value or nutrient value.
00:39:39
At that point. Like I said, almost anything can
00:39:43
be grown as a microgreen. Obviously, other than the
00:39:46
nightshades. We're not going to grow tomatoes
00:39:47
and and eat those as microgreens, but certain of them
00:39:51
are super easy. If it's your first time, I would
00:39:55
absolutely recommend radish. It's so they're so fast and
00:39:58
they're so easy. Sunflowers and peas take a
00:40:02
little bit longer, but again, they're super easy to do and
00:40:07
they are really, really good. But also baby brassicas.
00:40:10
You know, kale, broccoli, those are also very good.
00:40:14
They just take a little bit longer to to germinate
00:40:16
sometimes. The the only thing that I would
00:40:18
say would be to watch out for over watering, OK, too much
00:40:22
water is going to lead to mold growth, especially when the
00:40:26
microgreens are kind of tightly packed together.
00:40:28
So if you notice mold the next time you plant, then you want to
00:40:34
space them out a little bit further because again, air
00:40:36
circulation is an issue here. And then you may want to reduce
00:40:40
watering just ever so slightly. But, you know, grow a bunch of
00:40:44
different varieties, try different ones.
00:40:45
You can do some spicy, you know, mustard greens and then add
00:40:48
those to your sweet pea shoots or whatever.
00:40:50
And you get these different textures and different flavors.
00:40:52
They are super fun to play around with.
00:40:55
It's a very simple setup, but you can continue that setup like
00:41:00
every few days and have all of these different containers of
00:41:03
microgreens growing if you really want to.
00:41:04
They are all flavorful, they are all really nutritious, and they
00:41:07
take very little space and very little effort.
00:41:09
So once you get the hang of it, you can expand into multiple
00:41:13
trays or try all kinds of different new varieties just to
00:41:16
keep things interesting. So I said, you know that we were
00:41:23
going to talk about all of our DIY sort of situations, and we
00:41:26
did. But the bonus option to the this
00:41:29
would be the sort of indoor garden systems, usually the
00:41:33
indoor hydroponic systems. There's tabletop models, there's
00:41:37
floor models, there's wall systems, there's all kinds of
00:41:39
stuff. These are a little bit of an
00:41:41
investment, but I will say that in a lot of circumstances the
00:41:47
investment is worth it. I use a small tabletop
00:41:51
Aerogarden in the winter in addition to the microgreens that
00:41:56
are in my window cell. Last year was my first year
00:41:59
doing this and I absolutely loved it.
00:42:02
I, I, I kind of did it as an experiment because I wanted to
00:42:06
see if it would be good for me to use through the summertime
00:42:10
when maybe I don't have as much access to the greens in the heat
00:42:14
of the summer. It's like perfect time for the
00:42:15
tomatoes to be ready. But then the lettuce is too, you
00:42:18
know, wilty or it's too hot because it's gone over.
00:42:21
So it'd be nice to have some, some lettuces in in the
00:42:25
summertime. So I experimented with it in the
00:42:27
winter just to see what I could grow and what I couldn't grow.
00:42:30
And what I will say is in the small setup that I have, the, I
00:42:36
think it's got six holes in it. And if I wanted something to
00:42:41
grow continuously for a while, I definitely had to space it
00:42:45
further away and not utilize all of those spaces.
00:42:49
So I had some basil in there, I had some romaine lettuce, I had
00:42:53
thyme and parsley, and then I had Pak choy.
00:42:57
The lettuce did great, the basil did fantastic.
00:43:02
The thyme didn't do anything. The parsley didn't do anything,
00:43:05
whatever. The other thing was that I had
00:43:07
in there didn't do anything. The Pak Choy.
00:43:09
However, I actually managed to get a full-sized Pak Choy to
00:43:16
grow and I was just harvesting the outer leaves.
00:43:19
In fact, it was growing so well that I couldn't keep up with
00:43:23
using it. I could have just harvested the
00:43:24
entire thing probably and just thrown it in the refrigerator
00:43:28
and that would have given me more space because this thing
00:43:30
basically took over a whole half of of my little setup.
00:43:33
So I experimented with it a little bit last year.
00:43:36
I was very impressed actually, and it was such a no brainer.
00:43:41
I mean, the light comes on to tell you when you need to add
00:43:43
water. The light comes on to remind you
00:43:45
when it's time to add nutrients. It the little pump automatically
00:43:49
kicks on. The light is on a timer like
00:43:51
they it they couldn't have made it any easier.
00:43:54
So I will leave a link to the one that I got in the show
00:43:58
notes. I will say I think I got it on a
00:44:01
Black Friday deal maybe, but it's usually I think about $85
00:44:07
or so. Sometimes you can get it on, on
00:44:09
super sale. But even if I, if I, I probably
00:44:12
wouldn't have bought it, I will say this, I probably wouldn't
00:44:14
have bought it if it hadn't been on sale because I really wasn't
00:44:17
sure whether or not it was something that I would really
00:44:19
utilize. But knowing now what I know, I
00:44:26
actually would pay full price for it.
00:44:28
So if that tells you anything, I'm actually in the process of
00:44:30
getting it set up for this year and, and planning out what I'm
00:44:34
going to grow through the winter time.
00:44:36
Because just the convenience of being able to have something
00:44:40
right there in the kitchen that I can just harvest and toss
00:44:44
immediately into my salads that I don't have to worry about
00:44:47
going outside or going into the greenhouse or uncovering, you
00:44:51
know, something. It was just, it was just super
00:44:53
easy. So I, I will give a thumbs up to
00:44:56
those types of systems. There are obviously much larger
00:44:59
options for like serious indoor gardens.
00:45:01
They've got these huge tower systems and floor systems and
00:45:03
with trellises and all kinds of stuff.
00:45:06
But if you're just looking for something that's simple for the
00:45:08
leafy greens, a simple tabletop unit will work just fine.
00:45:12
Whatever method you choose, whether it's any of the DIY
00:45:17
options we talked about today or you know, something like the
00:45:19
Arrow garden, just start small and get good at like one or two
00:45:23
plants. Practice the method that you're
00:45:26
using, kind of tweak your system, you know, practice the
00:45:28
harvesting a couple of times just to kind of get the hang of
00:45:30
it. And then add to the system as
00:45:33
needed. Like I said, don't buy a bunch
00:45:35
of stuff right away. Try, you know, the minimalist
00:45:38
approach at first. And then once you get the hang
00:45:40
of it and you're going to see, you know, there's that ease of
00:45:43
harvesting salad greens right there in your kitchen while
00:45:46
you're making your meals. You might actually decide that
00:45:50
it's the easiest way to grow greens and decide to reserve
00:45:52
that space outside for something else.
00:45:55
Until next time, my gardening friends, keep on cultivating
00:45:57
that dream garden, and we'll talk again soon.
00:46:00
Thanks for listening to another episode of the Just Grow
00:46:02
Something podcast. For more information about
00:46:04
today's topic and to find all the ways you can get in touch
00:46:07
with me or support the show, go to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com.
00:46:11
Until next time, my gardening friends, keep learning and keep
00:46:14
growing.