Thursday, 24/08/2023
Administrator
191
24/08/2023, Administrator
191
Growing vegetables in the house is a very interesting job. So do you know anything about this? Let's find out some information about the benefits and challenges of growing vegetables indoors.
Kiwi home gardeners with a veggie patch benefit from New Zealand’s many sunshine hours, and the onset of another wet and windy winter doesn’t mean you can’t grow the vegetables you love to eat. When you grow vegetables indoors, in a conservatory, greenhouse or polytunnel, you can extend the season by about 3 months each side, which gives you a year-round edible gardening opportunity.
When you plan it well and make the most of the growing space you have, you can grow fresh produce all year round. When gardening indoors, you ultimately control all aspects of your plants’ growth and their environment – the water, soil quality, and fertilisation. However, gardening indoors or in a greenhouse also has its challenges. Let’s look at the positives of growing vegetables indoors and also explore the most common issues of growing produce in a greenhouse environment.
Buying or building a greenhouse or polytunnel is a smart investment if you’re serious about growing your own food. You can create the perfect space for a huge range of edible plants and it’s also an ideal environment for raising seedlings or to overwinter tender plants. However, unless the space is heated and fully temperature controlled, you can’t just grow any vegetable in a greenhouse all 12 months of the year.
In summer, a well-designed greenhouse is the perfect spot to grow healthy crops of salad greens and veggies such as spring onions, eggplant, and cucumbers. You can grow peppers, chillies and tomatoes in an unheated greenhouse all year long. Mesculin salad mix also grows well without heating. It actually grows better in winter.
An unheated greenhouse is perfect in winter for growing potatoes, bok choy and other Asian greens, spinach, kale, cabbage, broccoli and, if you like them, Brussels sprouts. Perennial herbs are another option to grow in your greenhouse – oregano, fennel, chives, and parsley all do well indoors.
The first thing to consider if you’re new to greenhouse growing is deciding on the perfect spot. Where you place a new greenhouse or polytunnel can make the difference between growing success and failure, so it’s hugely important to get it right.
You’ll need a flat spot with maximum light and sunshine, away from frost pockets and cold winds. Easy access is important, too. You should allow enough room to get around your greenhouse. We recommend about 3 metres. Water access is also important and if you plan on using lighting or heating in your greenhouse, you should also make sure that power supply is easy to manage.
To give your plants and seedlings the best possible chance, you should set your greenhouse up somewhere that gets lots of sunshine and plenty of natural daylight. But there’s a bit more to it. Creating the perfect conditions for your plants can be tricky as it’s a combination of many factors that influence plant growth – the main four being heat, humidity, light levels, and ventilation.
Ventilation plays an important role in plant health, as it affects temperature regulation and humidity. Proper ventilation in your greenhouse is a must, especially during the summer months. If there are no vents, the heat will rise inside the greenhouse and your plants will suffer from heat stress and get cooked.
Without proper air circulation, your plants will perish. Too much humidity allows mould spores and diseases to potentially destroy the plants in your greenhouse but when it’s too dry in there, your plants run the risk of dying from thirst. That’s why regular airflow is so crucial to keep your indoor plants breathing easy. Openings (vents) naturally draw air through the greenhouse, and you can also use active air circulation systems such as fans to avoid hot air pockets.
Correct water management is key to the successful plant growth and yield. The purpose of a greenhouse irrigation system is to deliver optimum water and nutrient levels directly into the root zone and reduce wastage and evaporation. Choosing the best irrigation system for your greenhouse or polyhouse can be tricky, and the best advice we can give you is to involve a greenhouse irrigation expert to guide through the selection and set-up process.
It’s also important that your greenhouse floor has excellent drainage. The floor is the foundation of your greenhouse, and you can use concrete, stones, sand or even dirt. Gravel floors are reasonably inexpensive and provide excellent drainage, especially when used in conjunction with weed mats. Weed mats are a great choice for greenhouse flooring and are often used in commercial greenhouses. That’s because they drain well, keep out weeds and pests, and are easily stretched and stapled into place.
Light is another essential factor in growing plants in greenhouses. Without sufficient light, your indoor vegetable plants won’t thrive as light energy is used in photosynthesis, the plant’s most basic metabolic process. That sounds simple, but as the seasons change, natural light levels will get a lot less. Even the sunniest spot in your greenhouse will see less daylight in the shorter days of winter. Most vegetable plants need 14 hours of light to grow well, if not more.
The easiest way to get more sunlight into your greenhouse is to make sure that the roof is kept clean. Over time, the glass or poly film on top of the greenhouse will become increasingly dirty which will block a (large) part of the sunlight. By regularly cleaning your greenhouse, you could prevent this light loss. To improve the amount of light in your greenhouse, you can also choose to invest in LED grow lights for your greenhouse.
Preventing root disease starts at the beginning when you start planning your greenhouse planting, and it all starts with a clean and organised environment. Crop maintenance and pruning is important for the health of the plants in your greenhouse, and only use high quality soil that’s checked and watered regularly. Keep in mind that soil can go stale if it isn’t carefully monitored, and add revitalised soil at the start of spring.
To prevent root rot, avoid overwatering and make sure the airflow is sufficient. Humidity and condensation encourage root disease problems, so keep a close eye on the environment within the greenhouse. If needed, you could consider using a biological fungicide as a soil supplement and to protect the plant roots. If the winters are frosty where you live, products such as ALI shade and horticultural fleece can be beneficial as they are designed to insulate your greenhouse interior walls, block drafts, and protect plant roots from cold temperatures while still letting light in.
In your greenhouse, you control what comes in and goes out. However, as you can imagine, the warm and humid conditions in a greenhouse combined with the abundance of food make it an ideal environment for bugs and pests. Greenhouse pest control is often something not thought about until it happens.
There are many dos and don’ts when it comes to protecting your greenhouse from pests but first and foremost, do not bring your outdoor vegetables and herbs into the greenhouse when the summer ends. You’ll risk bringing pests and diseases with them. Also make sure you remove all plants and plant debris then clean your greenhouse thoroughly after each production cycle. Inspect your new plants thoroughly as it will prevent the introduction of insects or disease infested material.
Be diligent about checking your plants for damage and disease. If you do get an infestation of bugs, it’s good to know that most pests can be managed with insecticidal Indian neem oil, soaps and Epsom salt. If you have certain plants that are extra sensitive, it may be better to use yellow sticky cards and replace them once a week. It’s an inexpensive and organic way of flying pest control.
With a little planning and proper care, you can harvest fresh vegetables year-round from your indoor garden. What’s not to love about giving your crops an almost endless summer? If you are serious about setting up a covered home garden, and you need help from the experts for anything from a cover for a feed pad to a custom-built home garden polyhouse, talk to the knowledgeable team at JaCo Contracting. We are happy to give you the advice you need and can help you design and construct the indoor gardening solution that’s right for you.
