Growing Salad Greens Indoors

Lettuce and other leafy greens are the easiest cool-weather vegetables to grow.  Check the previous posts for more tips on growing these crops indoors.  Here are a few other considerations:

Consideration #1 - Harvest in Your Jammies
Imagine - when it's snowing, freezing and rainy outside you'll be harvesting a fresh organic salad in the comfort of your own home. I'm lovin' that idea! I'll be growing salad fixings and staggering the harvest to produce through the winter.  Let me give you my selections:

I chose a mesclun mix (leafy lettuce) that takes only 30 days, some Tendergreen mustard (30 days), and an early hybrid spinach (37 - 40 days). These grow relatively fast and they're ready to eat before  maturity.  You can find the seeds online if they aren't at your favorite garden center this time of year.  Or use leftover seeds from this past year.

Any kind of leaf lettuce, spinach and greens like chard, collards, kale, and mustard are excellent low-light indoor growers.  Good choices for the beginning indoor gardener.  Radishes are too, especially the smaller cool weather varieties like Scarlet Globe, Jolly Speedy, Pink Beauty. Include their leaves in your salad for a little variety and extra nutrition.  

Consideration #2:  Pick-As-You-Go
Leaf lettuce (including mesclun) will keep producing leaves after you harvest them. Snip the leaves just above the soil line and leave the rest of the plant.  It'll grow back for another harvest.

Chard, Collards and Kale will also keep producing after snipping off leaves. If your plant has a solid center part be sure to leave that in the soil.

While spinach doesn't grow back like mesclun, alot of gardeners like to pick the larger outer leaves of young plants while leaving the inner leaves to grow a little more. Nothing like tender baby spinach.

Harvest mustard greens by picking leaves as the plants grow.  They won't grow back, but mustard is so tasty even when the leaves are small, you'll be harvesting while the rest of the plant grows.

In general, if you pick the greens before they mature they'll be more tender to eat raw.  If picked late, they'll probably be better cooked.

#3 - Don't Worry About the Cost of These Health Benefits
Mustard greens, my favorite, are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and natural cancer-fighters. This little green powerhouse is a member of the brassica family and contains more goodness than broccoli. Grows fast, too.

Health benefits of lettuce vary with the variety. The good news - leaf lettuce is more nutritious.  In general, the darker the green or red, the more beta carotene. I like a mesclun mix for its variety, healthy variations and fast-growing nature. Endive is a nutritious lettuce too.

Spinach is still a good source of vitamins and minerals/elements even though its Popeye-healthy benefits have been downgraded a little with some recent research. 

A wonderful website about the nutritious value of these and other veggies, foods and even fast foods is:  http://nutritiondata.self.com/

#4 - Don't Spend Alot on Lighting For These Greens
Full sun in a south-facing window is adequate for this crop. It requires relatively little light, but will do even better if you supplement with some inexpensive cool fluorescent lights.  Full-spectrum fluorescent grow lights cost just a little more, but are worth it.  All greens will be healthier and tastier the more sunlight they absorb.  Keep lights 4-6 inches above the plants.

Let the seeds germinate and sprout before you turn the lights on.  No need for extra warmth if they are indoors.  Then use the lights about 16 hours on, 8 hours off each day.  (Radishes only need 11 hours on).  We're emulating the natural 24-hour day and plants need a period of rest in darkness too.

Consideration #5 - Keep It Cool
This crop likes cool temperatures.  Ideal air temps for sowing and growing are between 55-65 degrees.  (Collards 60-65 degrees).  Try not to let temperatures get over 65.

You should be able to get a great start on your indoor salad garden with just this information.  It's important to remember that we are creating the natural outdoors in an indoor environment.  With your lightweight soil in containers with good drainage, plus plant food/compost and careful watering you'll be eating fresh organic salad in no time.  Until then, think green and dream...

                                  Happy Indoor Gardening!