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Best way to grow herbs indoors?

7 years ago

I have never been able to keep herbs alive indoors. I constantly forget to water and they dry out on my window sill. Has anyone tried any of those machines that you can grow them in? They look like they take a lot of room, but might work for people that can't keep a plant alive to save their own life.

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Comments (3)

andy99mich
7 years ago
Machines? Do you mean the light kits? And that's what I use- lights that go over trays. They work great and keep the plants alive and growing quickly. I got rid of it recently, as I just chose to grow plants in the summer, spring and fall with a greenhouse. As for watering, you can put a reminder on your phone to water. Or put the plants in the kitchen where you'll be reminded each morning or night.
theparsley
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
You might be talking about the Aerogarden "machine". I have one of these. It was gifted to me by someone years ago. The newer Aerogardens have LED lights instead of fluorescent lights like the old models. An Aerogarden works pretty well for growing certain kinds of herbs, not at all for others - faster growing, "weedy" types of herbs like basil do best in it, it doesn't work at all for rosemary, for instance. It also only works for herbs that grow readily from seed. It grows the plants in a tank of water, to which you add plant food, and the whole thing is one single unit that you plug in.

Aerogardens are pretty expensive and cost even more once you start buying the seed "kits", replacement lights, etc. And they don't really do all the work for you - they still need a fair amount of fussing and they are especially cumbersome to clean out when your "crop" is finished and it's time to plant another. You still have to add water and plant food periodically - although it has warning lights to remind you to do this, you still have to pay enough attention to it to notice the lights.

To a certain extent you can control the cost of the Aerogarden by making some DIY supplies instead of buying the replacement grow kits, but if you're paying enough attention to do that, you might as well just set up basic grow lights and plants in pots or trays in the first place.

Bottom line, you can't grow plants without remembering to take care of them. If you get that part sorted out, you still will have an obstacle in growing herbs indoors because they mostly need more light than the proverbial "sunny windowsill" can provide, unless your windows are really massive and you actually live in a greenhouse. Grow lights can easily provide enough light to grow herbs indoors, but windowsills generally can't.
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I agree, indoor potted herbs is all dependent on your windows for available sunlight. Extra growing lamps should work, I've never done that though. rosemary jane, for drying out problems, if you haven't done this try getting large 3 gal? (about 12"diameter 12" tall) terra cotta pots or bigger. Even for small plants, I found that these were big enough to kinda retain moisture. I guess the smaller pots just can dry out faster. The terra cotta seems to be better at keeping water in too probably cause they heat up on all sides more than the terracotta ones. Look for a sale cause it can get pricy. The long narrow terra cotta planters also work well. Also use sphagnum peat moss (the pretty looking stuff) as a mulch--though any mulch would probably work--to help keep the water in. I did this in atlanta and had a lot of success with potted patio gardening.
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Thanks, Flora -- I really appreciate your thoughts here. Yeah, I just don't know what's going on. The leaves of the outdoors basil plant that I took these cuttings from were all were perfectly formed, not puckered or gnarled. It's only the plants grown from the stem cuttings that have leaves that way. And many of the leaves on these indoor plants are fine, but a good number of them look eaten and gnarled. The puzzling thing is that there are NO insect eggs to be seen on the underside of these eaten-up-looking leaves, either the arugula or basil. Every time I see one of these leaves I check it, but there's nothing to be seen. Here's a photo of one of the eaten-up-looking basil leaves. It certainly does look like insect damage but I just don't see any evidence of insects on the leaf. I know nothing about this, but I imagine it is possible that slugs or snails could have somehow made it into my house and up the stairs to the second floor, but...? I'll check under the pots tonight. Thanks for the info that basil, thyme and oregano grow in the wild in alkaline soils. I hadn't been aware of that. So your guess is that pH 9.1 water should not pose a problem for growing the domesticated versions of these plants? I'm as puzzled as ever, and learning a lot through the adventure.
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andy99mich
7 years ago
Honestly, I've never heard of those. They sound interesting. To me, anyone living in Florida or California ARE living in a greenhouse ;)

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