Indoor Gardening

The cayennes are almost ready to start picking and stringing, and the jalepenos are just now making fruits. The Ring-o-Fire plant that we bought last year has produced quite a few fruits so far this year and is going strong. It has been removed from the south-facing window because it lives in a metal bucket, at present, and the sun was heating the bucket up too much. It now lives in a north window and is still fruiting merrily.



Since we have to refresh the water in the aquarium every few days, when I vacuum the tank I save the water. The plants just LOVE fishtank water.

With all this sun, I wonder if the American Oak trees will finally turn colors at the Botanic Garden this year? (We were told they are not coloring up as much as they do in the States because the weather hasn't been hot and bright enough. I'd say there might be a chance, this year?)

Those look AMAZING! I tried tomatoes and cukes indoors one year, they didn't do well at all.
Indoor gardening is harder than it looks! Good for you!   

Depending on the variety, some tomatoes need a LOT of sun. I've tried mini-cukes indoors and outdoors, and they always caught fungus and died horribly. We have some seeds for indoor tomatos, but I think  it's too late this year to start them.

These cayennes are several inches long (though ya can't tell from the photo) and have done well just under the grow light and then on the window sill. The jalepenos were not growing much at all - although they've got a great root system - until they went in the window. They just took off then, and are about 2.5 ft tall. They really like heat and light.

The neat thing with peppers is that as you harvest them, the plant will put on more flowers. So, my trusty little artists' paintbrush and I  pretend we are bees and polinate them regularly, with a pretty good success rate on the cayennes.  [Could harvest those now, but I'm going for maxium heat as I intend to dry them and then crush into a powder to use in chili, etc.]  Hopefully I can keep the production going well into the fall, harvest, hang them to dry, and then keep the plants alive over the winter to try to do it again next year. I did have a Ring-o-Fire in California that we kept going for three years before it just gave up.

Have had an interesting time with aphids, I have to say. The little Ring-o-Fire is small enough that every couple of days I take it to the kitchen sink, turn it sideways, and wash the little rotters off with cold water from the faucet. It's always amazing how many there are in the water.  The other plants I'm using a q-tip and bug spray - spray some in a little container, dip q-tip, judiciously apply to bugs and the area around buds, where they are going to want to go. So far I'm winning. (So far.)

Looking awesome.      Awesome work!!

I grew tomatoes indoors a few years ago in a flat with a ton of light and they did great.  But I struggle in my current house with light levels for any kind of veg/herbs (we have a lot of light, but like through velux windows and I'm not going to put plants on the carpets). But my houseplants do well enough at least. 

Wow that’s awesome Nan! I wish i had a green thumb too. Sadly i can’t even keep a cactus alive ☹️

I’ve heard of that system called aqua/hydroponics where they use fish water (with actual live fish swimming around) to nourish the plants. The plants give the oxyden the fish need and vice versa.


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Yeah, I've seen those, too. I don't think that's terribly healthy for the fish, though. Unless they are kept separately and the water from their tanks is just circulated out. Fish need a lot of oxygen and it's dissolved, in part, at the surface area of the water. Some fish - perhaps carp? Might do well. But I'm not sure it wouldn't be cruel.

I used to have a big, outdoor setup on my little patio in Calif where I had a five gallon bucket on a stand by the door, and every time I changed water out the aquariums (we had more than one there) the water went into the bucket, and then through tubes to various trays (made of roofing gutter) via a tubing and float valve system, so that there was always a little water in the troughs. I had plants in pots either directly in the troughs, or had a wick into the bottom of the larger pots (or 5 gallon buckets) that reached into the trough to draw up water.  Had really good luck with tomatoes and other plants that needed a lot of water, that way. And when it was very hot out, I could top up the  bucket in the morning before going out, knowing that the plants would have enough water until I got home (on most days!).