Tips To Grow Indoor Herbs Healthy And Productive

That is a good idea to have indoor herb garden inside your house so you can enjoying fresh herbs around the year. There are some herbs you can grow indoor such as basil, oregano, parsley, thyme, mint, rosemary, chives, sage and etc. But like other plants, you need to know how to grow herbs and how to take care the herbs so you can grow healthy and productive herbs indoors successfully.

Tips To Growing Herbs Indoor

1. If you are still beginner, you may to start with just 2-3 herbs and you can add more as you become more confident and have enough experience.

2. Choose a suitable container for your herb to grow in. The container should be deep enough so it is possible to add rocks at the bottom for better drainage control and the container should have drainage holes. Herb will die if they are grown in waterlogged soil.

3. The soil or other grow media used in your herb garden should be rich in organic material. You can use a good quality potting soil but avoid dirt from the garden since garden soil will strangle the herb plants and can get compacted easily.

4. Herbs prefer humid air but don't like soggy soil. You can mist your herbs garden once a week or set your indoor herb pots on a tray of pebbles to solve this paradoxical problem. Then fill the tray with water, but make sure that the bottoms of the pots don't come in contact with the water. Yes, the herbs will get instant humidity. Indoor herbs need also excellent air circulation. If you find your indoor herbs are affected by mildew then you can consider to add a fan to keep the air circulation consistent.

5. You should prevent your herbs roots from rotting. Repot your herbs with a well-draining soil mix. You make growing medium by yourself, mix sand into a soilless medium with 1:4 ratio or you can use specialty cactus-growing mediums since they are designed to drain well. Before watering, you need to make sure you allow the soil to dry down to about your second knuckle. To help your indoor herbs get nutrients they need, you may fertilize your plants once a month. One of the fertilizer good for your indoor gardens is diluted fish fertilizer.

6. Herbs growing indoors need at least 6 hours of sunlight to grow well and stay healthy. If they don’t get enough sunlight they will start to lose their flavor and become leggy. You need to place your tray of herbs in a south-facing window or in the sunniest spot in your house. If it is still not enough, you must add light supplement, place your herbs under fluorescent lights up to 14 hours a day and keep the lights 6 to 8 inches away from the tops of the plants. In order to all herbs get enough light, you may need to rotate the container regularly.

7. Most herbs cannot tolerate cold temperatures. The best temperature for growing herb is around 65 F to 75 F. Even small amounts of cold temperature can kill some herbs so make sure that your indoor herb garden is not affected by drafts from doors or windows.

Reference: organicgardening.com, gardeningknowhow.com; photo credit: carefreelawncenter.com