#NationalAllotmentsWeek: Indoor Allotment
21.08.2023 - 11:48
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
As it is National Allotments Week, I thought I would share the progress we’re making with our hydroponic indoor ‘allotment’.
Three weeks ago, Ryan and I went on a road trip to Ikea Exeter, the closest store with the Växer cultivation inserts we needed for the Hydroponicum. (If you’re waiting for them to be in stock in your local store, the website suggests the new stock will arrive in late September/early October).
We’d been gleefully watching the seedlings burst into life in the seedling trays, which we had under the lights. It was an excellent germination test. I got zero germination from Hong’s watercress, cinnamon basil, lemon basil and stevia, and have thrown away those seeds. It was also illuminating to watch the different seeds grow at different rates. Contrary to its name, the rocket wasn’t the fastest. It was well and truly beaten by the lettuce, mizuna, pak choi and kale.
Every morning, the first thing we did was check on the seedlings, and see what progress they had made. We were, usually, astonished.
If there’s one thing I struggle to grow in the garden, it’s salad. It’s not that the plants are particularly challenging to grow. They generally germinate and grow quickly, under the right conditions. They are a magnet for slugs, snails, aphids and any other pest that wanders into the garden, though. It’s also difficult to arrange a succession so that there’s a steady supply of salad leaves ready to harvest, and they take up considerable space in the garden.
So it seems like a reasonable idea to use the garden for the larger plants that need soil and space, and transfer the salad leaves and leafy herbs to the Hydroponicum. It is also the perfect place to try growing some of the more unusual crops that might be tricky