Indoor Gardening...

[leydaleon]

I have a doubt... can anyone help?

I am planning on bringing my herbs indoors when winter comes. I was plannning on planting some more lettuce but in pots. It is said that lettuce does well in pots, indoor, but I am not sure if starting it now, or during winter I can plant them and they will grow...

Can anyone tell me about this?:confused:

[plantoneonme]

I bring a lot of herbs indoors in the winter to use fresh here and there, but more as a way to start off the garden the following year. I like to take my herbs when fresh and freeze them into herb cubes. The ones I bring indoors don't grow all that well and eventually get kinda leggy so I cut them down and plant out the next year.

In order to get them as healthy as possible I use a multi step (but simple) process...

1) I take my trowel out to the garden and cut into the soil around the herb the size of the pot I will use but leave the plant in place. This helps reduce shock to the plant once dug up.

2) After about a week, I move the plant to the pot and put back where I dug it from and water. Lets it recover in the same light conditions as before.

3) Sometime before the heat goes on in the house, I move the plant indoors. This keeps it healthy because if you move indoors after the heat is fired up it tends to get a little shocked.

I have grown lettuce indoors in the past. I found out that lettuce needed to be started outdoors to gain any size. They will then need some lights to keep them healthy...plain shop lights that are used in the garage work great without having to buy expensive bulbs. Simply keep the light about 2-3" above the plants.

I only grew leaf lettuce so if you plan on anything else I am not sure it will work. I never cut my lettuce completely off but only a few leaves from different plants.

Kim

[gardengirl72]

Killer advice Kim. I love that technique for transplanting. It makes so much logical sense. I have always shocked my plants and then nursed them back to health.

Leaf lettuce is the only way to go indoors, head lettuce will never make it for the long haul.

I have just started seeding my outdoor winter gardens. For lettuce it is all Corn Salad.

[AbbeyLehman]

This will be the first year that I am able to bring anything in after growing it outdoors first. I have had planty of success starting and growing 100% indoors and of course starting inside and moving out, so this should be an enjoyable experiment.

Kim, I used a similar process, although my plants were already in pots....I transplanted my 2 rosemary plants into a homemade "Earth Box" type planter about a week and a half ago and will bring them inside shortly. The set up is completely different from how I grew them all summer long, so i left them outside in the same spot to see how they would take to the new arrangements. So far, so good!

Patti, I've never had Corn Salad before--to what is it similar?