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Indoor Container Garden Advice?

I'm about to start my container garden. I'm going to keep the garden indoors until its large enough to be transferred outdoors. Also, I have one of those greenhouse plastic coverings that I'm going to keep on until germination. I'm going to be planting cilantro, basil, beans, little finger carrots, bok choy, red cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers! What I need is some last-minute advice or gardening information. I have Jiffy's soilless seed starting mixture. What else do i need to add? Is it harmful to keep the fertilized soil indoors? I don't know just any information or techniques that can help me :) OHOH! and among the veggies I'm going to plant, which ones need special requirements or which ones require extra sunlight, water, or nutrients. If its cloudy... can I use any light as an "artificial sun" or do i need a special fluorescent one? While waiting for germination, should i keep the garden near a sunny window or in a warm spot with no sunlight.. Any advice will help

Public Comments

1. give them absolutely as much sun as possible you need to use a fluorescent light fixture because it has a brighter available light without the heat build up that is common in incandescent lights. here is a good site http://www.garden.org/home plant the carrots directly in the size of container they will be growing in. as soon as the temperatures allow i suggest putting your plants outdoors, veggies and herbs are notorious for not liking it inside.
2. Sushi, you're starting quite a project. I'll try to make it easier for you. Keep in mind that growing things usually meets with varying dregrees of success until you learn to control some of the many variables involved. If this is your first journey into gardening, you might increase your success rate by narrowing the scope of the project, i.e., reduce the number of plants and size of the garden area, limit the number of kinds of plants and use a variety of containers that could give you more options as to where any given plant or plants might grow best. For example, the plants that are going to be the bigger ones might be started in styrofoam cups filled with your potting medium, four or five seeds per cup. Be sure to punch holes in the bottom of the cup to allow excess water to drain out. These containers would allow you to experiment as to which place in your house would work out the best... by a window, in the sun, next to a heater, covered with a plastic tent, etc. This also allow you to write on the cups what kind of plants are in the cup. The smaller plants could be planted in greater numbers in styro bowls for the same reasons. Punch holes in the bowls too. You could even try different growing mediums in the containers to see if one might work better than another. And you can give them different amounts of nourishment and water. Now for some do's and don't's. Just suggestions, Sushi. You might have better luck with your plants than I have had with mine by doing it your way. Okay, here we go. Do not let the growing medium dry completely, especially before the seeds germinate. You can usually tell when the new little plants need water.. they will droop. Be careful not to over water. Usually a good satruation and then a few days to let the medium dry a bit works best. Do not use regular outside dirt for your planting medium. Young plants are very succeptible to fungus and virus infections which usually kill the plants. Damp-off is a sign of such an infection. If the healthy-looking young plants fall over and look as though they have been snipped off at the bottom, they have damp-off. Wilt and mold also are signs of disease problems. Use sterile potting or starting materials from the garden section of your supply stores to start them in. After the seeds germinate, you can start feeding the plants a little bit of fertilizer. Just a weeeee bit disolved in room-temperature water and adminstered every third or fourth watering works for me. The bigger plants will require it a little more often. After germination, most little plants like a lot of sun. If they are not getting enough sun, they will be "leggy," .. tall and skinny. Putting them in a sunny window usually works well, even if the sun doesn't shine very much. Just make sure that the containers are NOT covered with a clear plastic wrap so they can get plenty of air and not get too hot. Lights, if you use them, must be those designed for that purpose and should be closer to the plants than are the ceiling lights or tall lamps. Regular florescent bulbs won't work very well if at all. If it's still cold where you live, putting your planted seeds and seedlings next to a cold window will slow the growing process quite a bit. Keep them warm, room temperature, if you can. It's probably not a good idea to use a whole packet of seeds at once. First, if they all sprout, you'll have way too many plants. Second, if none of them sprout, you can try something different with some of the seeds you have left. Third, if the little plants die for some reason, you'll have some seeds left so you can start again. Plan to live with the inside garden for a while. The new plants have to be sturdy enough to survive the transplant process, a new environment, and critter invasion. Many common birds, for example, just love tender new plants. So do worms, slugs, rabbits and insects. It's not a good idea to put the new plants in the ground outside until they have the strength to survive. You can help them get ready by taking the pots outside for a few hours a day when you think the new plants are big enough. If they seem to do well, try planting a few at first to see what happens. It can be quite deflating to have spent a whole day putting your carefully-tendered plants into your big garden outside only to find them all massacred, eaten, frozen, or sunburned the next day. Yes, new plants that have been raised sheltered from direct sunlight will sunburn rather easily. Get them used to it gradually. You did not say what part of the country you live in. The farther north you live, the later you can transplant them outside. A good rule of thumb is to wait until the temperature of the soil outside reaches about 60 degrees F, and freezes are pretty much over with. If your new plants are sturdy and vigorous, they shoud do well with proper watering and feeding. If you are anxious to check out how things will grow outside, get some radish seeds and plant a few of them in your garden plot every five or so days. They germinate very quickly, are hardy, will grow quickly and are cheap. You don't have to eat them; just use them as a kind of garden barometer to guage when to start planting the good stuff. And unless you really, really like zuchinni and cukes, plant only a few plants. They are prolific producers. Finally, there are a lot of good books on gardening. If you plan to do much of it in the future, you would be wise to start reading some of them. Check the library, book stores, garden shops and the internet. After you have been at it for a while and want to take on more, there are even classes available in most communities. Check with you county extension office to find out more about such classes. Good luck and may your thumb be as green as a glorious mug of St. Patrick's Day beer.