Indoor Gardening update

Indoor growing can be kind of tricky.

First, pests. We had some problems with gnats, but we solved those by getting some poison- and chemical-free sticky traps from Lowes. Mealy bugs were more of a pain in the butt. Blasted things didn't attack any of our vegetable plants, but they loved an indoor ivy plant. Showering them a couple of times with Orange Guard seemed to do the trick though. Still kinda grossed me out.

A second issue is making things grow. Luckily, the broccoli seems to be thriving just fine in our West window and especially in the South-facing ones. Lettuce didn't make it. And zucchini, while it lasted longer than the lettuce indoors, finally decided it wasn't getting enough light.

Our third major issue surrounded remembering to water. It's currently the rainy season here in Florida, so we rarely have to water our outdoor vegetables. However, that gets Ben, the family water-er, out of the habit of watering regularly.

Assuming you can remember to water your plants, how should you go about doing so?

The best way to water indoor plants is to begin by soaking the soil thoroughly. You want water to come back out of the hole in the bottom of the pot. Make sure you pour this water away instead of onto another plant, as it is laden with the excess salts your plant is trying to get rid of. Also, do not let this excess water just sit in the pot plate, as this could lead to wet roots and root rot.

Right after you soak your soil, pick up your pot and feel how heavy it is. You don't want to water again until the weight is down to about half of what it is fully saturated. This will probably be two or three days later. But check your pots daily because some indoor plants dry out quickly due to their small pots and need to be watered rather frequently. Each subsequent time you water, you want to repeat this saturation-then-wait process.

Image from http://www.orangeguard.com/webart/spraybottle.jpg