Food as houseplants?

For 8 years, I was stuck (essentially, financially trapped, if I'm to be honest) in a crowded, tiny apartment - 950sf, for 5 of us, no balcony or patio, no window ledges, not allowed to add window boxes(or technically even just a plant stand, by the window!), and not even a South facing window. Our only 3 windows faced North and West - but the West facing one - in our 2 teenage daughters' tiny bedroom, had a huge tree, shading it. Talk about a growie's nightmare!! That was when I first started going stir crazy, desperate for growing things indoors!

Then, the kids grew up, and miraculously(lol) our finances improved, drastically. We moved to a bigger, loft place - with a patio!! All our windows still faced North, but at least I could grow (even planting into the ground was ok!) shade loving plants, and, there was a tiny (maybe 2ft X 3ft?) spot near our patio that actually got partial sun. I grew some sad little strawberries there, and added a few shade-loving plants that I'd hoped to transplant to our eventual land, but none survived the mid-winter interstate move. 🥺

Now, here we are, in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks, living in the woods, in a log home, with a deck that faces South, toward a pond, that we can see (though, not safely access - yet). We have 4 south facing windows(1 bedroom, 1 craft room, 2 living room ones that are both awkward - one is a French deck door, the other oddly nestled at the bottom of the stairs), too! And a lovely shade garden, that I'm slowly converting from the mainly ornamentals the previous owner/ builder put in, there, to both a food and medicinal tree & plant guild. The awkward window at the bottom of the steps is (soon) going to become access to an attached mini greenhouse. There are currently 3 sweet potatoes in 5gal buckets in a shoe tray, at the (stationary side of the) deck door. I'm also working on a couple bigger greenhouses, outside...

But, I still think back to my days of nada, and I still want MOOOORE! This log home is beautiful, and I'm fully aware of just how blessed we are. But, it tends to be kinda dark, especially if it's gloomy out, because we're in the woods, surrounded by beautiful, mature oaks, black walnuts, hickory, and Mimosa. On the upside, it also stays cooler, in the heat of summer.

So, now that all of that is out there, what food can be grown indoors, that is pretty, without vining through the whole house? What food &/or medicinals can be grown indoors, beautifully, for people who are still in the same boat we used to be in? Preferably without the need for umpty-gazillion grow lights?

I harvested over 20 lbs of garlic bulbs last year. For the biggest cloves, I planted them last fall and they have been growing strong. For the smaller ones, I grow them densely in acontainers filled with partly finished compost. I harvest the greens for a couple times until the cloves are now flat and disappeared. By that time the growing medium is filled with roots and further broken down into finer material for potting mix.

May Lotito wrote:I harvested over 20 lbs of garlic bulbs last year. For the biggest cloves, I planted them last fall and they have been growing strong. For the smaller ones, I grow them densely in acontainers filled with partly finished compost. I harvest the greens for a couple times until the cloves are now flat and disappeared. By that time the growing medium is filled with roots and further broken down into finer material for potting mix.

In the house? Do they make attractive 'house plants'?

Wow, that sounds tough. I only lived in an apartment for a couple years, and that's actually when the gardening bug first kicked in for me.  We had a generous balcony though, and nothing like the restrictions you described. I was able to start seeds on the windowsill and grow some herbs and small tomatoes on the balcony in spite of shade from trees and an upstairs neighbor.

In a situation like you described, my suggestion would be growing sprouts in the kitchen, or a tray of microgreens in a sunny windowsill. For the beauty of having a living plant around continuously, ornamental houseplants can get away with slow growth because nobody's "harvesting" from them :)

If you had a really sunny window though, I'd focus on leaves. Salad greens, basil, chives. Sweet potato leaves are edible, and as attractive as any vining houseplant. In a really really sunny window, I suspect tiny cherry tomatoes might yield something.

A proper growlight is expensive, but it could pay for itself in a year if high quality organic salad greens and fresh herbs are a regular purchase. When I finally got one for seed starting, the speed and volume of growth really surprised me, compared to plants under household lights or window light.

If I ever have a home layout where I could incorporate an indoor salad / herb garden, even if just for the winter, I'd definitely do it with a grow light. Ooh! I'd sneak in a few (edible) flowers, too! Nice.

Keeping my cat away from the warm light though, that's a whole different challenge :)

Garlic as a houseplant?!  I'm in.  Mine grow on me anyway on the shelf, so I trim off the 'chives' and use them as a topping.  I think a pot of bulbs might be a pretty houseplant.

I've been working on lemons, limes, and other citrus for houseplants lately.  It's going to take a few years but the fruit is so expensive in the shop.  It only ever goes up in price and we used to have a funny little tree when I was a kid that had a fruit somewhere between a lemon and an orange.  Very tasty.

I'm also growing some citrus from seed.  If I don't like the taste of the fruit, I can graph on some yuzu to it.

I've been thinking about using okanawa spinach as a house plant.  I think it is a pretty plant, very healthy perinatal green. Last year I propagated some to share with my family. I started them in the fall. I brought the potted cuttings into my family room for the winter. It doesn't get very cold here, but my family room is a covered garage with no heat and crummy light. The okanawa spinach not only survived, but it grew and was quite healthy.  I don't know if it's the heat in the summer, or what, but mine never gets very big.  If it did start to get to big, just trim it and have it for dinner.

We grow several chili plants that overwinter indoors  and they fruit well. One of them is at least six years old, I prune it hard every year and even if all the leaves drop it manages to bounce back.

The leaves all drop if I forget to bring it back inside and it gets frosted.

Basil and cherry tomatoes do well indoors for me too.

We don't get any direct sun for about six weeks in wi ter but fortunately,  our house is very light.

I have a couple of Okinawa spinach plants growing at the community garden but hadn't thought of potting them up to grow indoors, will definitely try that too.

Here are some threads to give folks an idea of what can be food as houseplants:

https://permies.com/t/94155/growing-microgreens

https://permies.com/t/205287/Budget-Saver-grow-lettuce-home

https://permies.com/t/189656/Plants-indoor-garden

The garlics I harvested average 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter. I didn't feel like peeling small cloves so I grow them as greens and planted the smallest bulbs as whole. I kept planting a pot every other week for continuous harvest.

Healthy edible, pretty greens: I potted up my Gynura procumbens to overwinter it and have it on my sink by a window that gets indirect light. It doesn't like direct sunlight, anyway.
Website says: "Gynura procumbens, also called longevity spinach or the leaves of gods, is the cousin of Okinawa spinach..."

I tried growing salad. In jars. It worked.  I found the Kratky Method a couple of years ago and thought it was worth a try. I now have salad all winter, and winter is pretty harsh here. I do use grow lights, but I don't have a proper greenhouse yet. They're technically houseplants, right? They're in the house! Between that and sprouts, I don't lack for veggies in my winter diet.

Hi. Lauri, welcome to the forum!

Can you tell me how you make the Kratky Method work for you?

I have six Spider Plants I am growing in water though I need to find some better containers.

What kind of containers are you using?

Lauri Johnson wrote:I tried growing salad. In jars. It worked.  I found the Kratky Method ... I now have salad all winter...

I just ❤️ Permies because I learn so much.
I googled it and want to try it, too. Did you buy the inserts? Are they necessary or can you just use mason jars?

Carla Burke wrote:For 8 years, I was stuck (essentially, financially trapped...
Then, the kids grew up, and miraculously(lol) our finances improved, drastically...

Now, here we are, in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks, living in the woods, in a log home, with a deck that faces South, toward a pond, that we can see (though, not safely access - yet).

I just wanted to give you a virtual hug and handshake and say CONGRATULATIONS 🎉 and may God grant you many years of joy and bounteous gardening! I love reading about how people's lives have changed! Thanks for a great post.

Arthur Lee Jacobsen in Seattle is compiling a book about edible house plants.
Sandy Bradley

Anne Miller wrote:Hi. Lauri, welcome to the forum!

Can you tell me how you make the Kratky Method work for you?

I have six Spider Plants I am growing in water though I need to find some better containers.

What kind of containers are you using?

Hi Anne, thank you!

The Kratky Method is fairly simple, although it was designed for Hawaii's climate. I just figured (and hoped and prayed) my house temperature would be sufficient to keep plants happy.  We keep it a bit cooler than most, I can't handle being overheated.
I use regular mouth Mason/Ball jars and a 2" net pot. Net pots are available on that really big shopping site that starts with "A", or on the other big site with auction type activity that starts with "E" (I wouldn't want to swear here)
Wide mouth jars are a bit easier to refill, and you'd want a 3" net pot. I haven't found a more permies way to do this yet.
Please measure your jar's mouth, I might be off with the sizes.
There is a particular fertilizer used, MaxiGro. If you googled Kratky method, it's the one used there. I imagine that a good compost tea, diluted, could be used in place of the chemical fertilizer, but I haven't tried anything else yet.

Your spider plants will probably love the net pots,as they're accustomed to water. It might be a bit difficult to get the roots into/through the pots, and I'd skip the fertilizer for them.  I have tons of spider plants because I keep potting up the babies. They're all in soil.  I'm experimenting with the dummies version of landracing the seeds.

Constancia Wiweru wrote:

Lauri Johnson wrote:I tried growing salad. In jars. It worked.  I found the Kratky Method ... I now have salad all winter...

I just ❤️ Permies because I learn so much.
I googled it and want to try it, too. Did you buy the inserts? Are they necessary or can you just use mason jars?

Hi Constancia,

Yes, I bought the inserts.  Net pots. They're needed to support the plant from seed through to plant. I use sphagnum moss to fill the net pot and wick water to the seedling until the roots grow down. I haven't figured out how to do it without them. Look up the Kratky Method, I know I'm leaving stuff out.

Thank you, Lauri, for the information.

After you posted I put Kratky into eBay and found I could buy 80 net pots though I only need six.

I am still thinking of a solution though I happened to be putting something in the trash and saw 7 pudding cups which will might be a substitute for the net pots once I add some holes.

If I make cardboard rings for the mason jars I might have found a solution without spending any money.

Anne Miller wrote:Thank you, Lauri, for the information.

After you posted I put Kratky into eBay and found I could buy 80 net pots though I only need six.

I am still thinking of a solution though I happened to be putting something in the trash and saw 7 pudding cups which will might be a substitute for the net pots once I add some holes.

If I make cardboard rings for the mason jars I might have found a solution without spending any money.

Anne, that's brilliant. Good thinking!  I hadn't thought of it and recycling is way better than purchasing more plastic. Thank you.

This is a great thread!  

I bring tropical potted plants inside for the winter.  we only have one available south facing window, in the dining room, and even it is shaded from around 2pm on due to a large pine tree in front of the house.  So everything barely treads water over the winter waiting for spring and going back outdoors.  My garlic languished, same with potatoes and sweet potatoes planted in potato pots.  Unless I use grow lights, nothing thrives indoors here except the low-light houseplants like spider, pothos, prayer plant, and a few others.  Even with grow lights some things just don't do more than hang in there.

The net pot method in water is interesting.  I was not familiar with Kratky but looked it up and it sounds like a system I learned about from Mike Adams the Health Ranger.  He uses rectangular food-safe plastic bins with lids, and hole-saws appropriate-diameter holes in the lids to fit the net pots perfectly.  You can either fill the reservoir once like Kratky suggests, and harvest your plant when it is "done", or you can cut and come again with greens and add water and liquid fertilizer as needed to keep the plants happy and growing.  This method does use grow lights indoors though.  He uses a meter that shows "total dissolved solids" so you can adjust the fertilizer level as needed for each different plant you grow.  Originally Mike designed a circulation pump system to go with these bins, but eventually came around to the simpler no-electricity-needed method, except of course for the lights.

There is a growing system called Greenstalk that can be indoors or out.  I got one last fall and planted strawberries in it, but they did not make it.  Probably I was too new at using that system to maintain the moisture level in the soil indoors for new plants.  Then someone told me that it works much better to start strawberries in this type of system in the spring and let them have the summer outdoors to get a good start.  Then you can bring them in for the winter and they will survive, and even keep fruiting if they are everbearing and have enough of the right kind of light.  But again that requires grow lights.

Maybe we should design new homes with a large central atrium with glass ceilings to allow direct overhead sunlight to hit food plantings.  Then supplemental lighting would only be required part-time for plants that require longer "days" to fruit.  This is in my "dream home" design!  Insulated on all sides by wings of the house, it would be much easier to regulate temperature, and super convenient to harvest what is needed for each meal. Plus it would be much more varmint-proof (2-legged or 4...) than stand alone greenhouses.  The retrofit version would be to install skylights where you want to try to grow food plants indoors.

When I saw the first post I thought of Stephen Barstow He talks a bit in his Around the world in 80 plants book about how as a vegetarian in Norway he found it difficult to get fresh food though the winter in particular. He grows a lot of plants in his cellar over winter - providing fresh leaves for salad and because they are in the dark the leaves become blanched and are extra sweet and tender.

Stephen Barstow cellar harvest

Edimentals

See how pale the dandelion leaves on the right look?

Donna Lynn,

Thank you for posting so much detail. I'm bad at details while I'm typing. I think I've seen his videos. I like the Greenstalk idea, too. Keep us posted on the success of the spring planting, please.  I really like the house ideas too.

Micro Dwarf tomatoes are perfect for growing inside.  Some folks working with them have the vision of them growing inside using normal indoor lighting.

Megan Palmer wrote:We grow several chili plants that overwinter indoors  and they fruit well. One of them is at least six years old, I prune it hard every year and even if all the leaves drop it manages to bounce back.
... Basil and cherry tomatoes do well indoors for me too.
...

Tomato and chili seedlings are now growing in my window sil*, to put them in the garden after last frost date .... But when I see your photos I think I'll keep some of them here in the living room!
* using racks that were meant for shoes, two (low) floors each to stack trays with seedlings. This living-room window is South-East facing.

This photo doesn't show how much light there usually is through that window. Sun is almost down now ...

Second that on the micro dwarf tomatoes.

I grow them under grow lights indoors but you pretty much need grow lights to hit the red end of the spectrum that triggers fruiting.

Check out Curtis at Renaissance Farms for all the details on all aspects of micro dwarves:

https://renaissancefarms.org

Secret Seed Cartel in France has some very high quality seed for these too. what's not to like about getting a letter from France...with seeds? How romantic!

https://secretseedcartel.com

I like sweet tomatoes so my absolute favorite there is Snegerdjok in red tomatoes  followed by Pinocchio and flora gold in yellows. Mohammed and red robin get good output with good tomato taste and Tiny Tim makes a lot of tomatoes for such a tiny plant..

For lighting, figure out the square footage of the area you are trying to light. For high-light plants like tomatoes you will want  around 40 watts per square foot for optimal growth and fruit production. For low light plants, and small leafy plants like herbs and lettuce, you will only need to achieve about 25 to 30 watts per square foot.

I have experimented with different LED grow lights and the Barrina white full spectrum work best so far. Also among the most affordable.

https://www.amazon.com/Barrina-Spectrum-Equivalent-Greenhouse-Linkable/dp/B0B3CM9FYK/ref=sr_1_15?

These come in different packages of numbers of lights but be sure to get the 24 watt each lights and the white color light.

I hate florescents because I seem to be sensitive to them cycling with the alternating current but you may be able to put together or find used enough stuff to build a cheap grow rack and put it somewhere it isn't a bother. On Curtis' Renaissance farm site he has a blog post about which fluorescent tubes work best.

https://renaissancefarms.org/seeds/operational-cost-of-t5-ho-grow-lights/

If what you want doesn't fruit, so needing red spectrum light, and is just for the greens, you get a lot more leeway.

Cool  white full spectrum LED household light bulbs work great for this and are quite economical to buy.  They may go far enough into the red spectrum these days for fruiting plants but I haven't tried it.

I grow the indoor stuff "redneck Kratky" putting the plants in small pots and sitting the pots in the hydro solution in 10 x 20 nursery trays.
I use Masterblend fertilizer, suggested additives such as calcium nitrate and epsom salt, plus sea 90 sea salt.

I have so much stuff growing indoors I got tired of mixing the Masterblend by the gallon,and  then by the 5 gallon batch. Final solution? I have a 44 gallon (red pickle barrel)  sitting near the plants and mix the solution 44 gallons at a time and hand dip it out with a pitcher. .. which reminds me, this should be useful:

https://www.tool-rank.com/tool-blog/editorial/masterblend-hydroponic-fertilizer-calculator-for-any-container-size-201610071988/

I had a problem with mosquitoes getting into the water last summer but out of all the solutions to that I tried the simplest (and last one I tried, of course) ...which is a few drops of dish soap per gallon of Masterblend solution. In a mosquitoes life cycle, at one point  they depend on surface tension of the water to float them and the detergent lowers the surface tension enough to drown them.

Masterblend isn't listed as organic but it's close if not there but not certified. My dog and cats love drinking it out of the outdoor hydro setup and they're all incredibly healthy.

Anne Miller wrote:Thank you, Lauri, for the information.

After you posted I put Kratky into eBay and found I could buy 80 net pots though I only need six.

I am still thinking of a solution though I happened to be putting something in the trash and saw 7 pudding cups which will might be a substitute for the net pots once I add some holes.

If I make cardboard rings for the mason jars I might have found a solution without spending any money.

Another option is mini cheese forms. Search something like "button-petit form" or "small fresh cheese form" and you can see what small baskets are available in smaller denominations. They are made to allow whey drainage so they hang from a rim and have plenty of holes for moisture to escape. That said, you could possibly use one as a template to cut some small rimmed container into the proper permeability without buying them as well.

Garlic chives do well in Kansas as well as longevity spinach grown inside. Parsley, garlic, onion do ok on the window sill and hosta makes a good edible house plant. You can plant lettuce butts from the store on the window sill too.

chili's and lemons look beautiful and it is always nice to have them on hand. my dressings are mostly homemade because of them

This thread has inspired me that, until I have access to a greenhouse, I can grow some things inside (as long as they don't need to fruit during the time they're growing inside I mean).  My back door faces east so gets morning sun all year long  Not quite as much in winter since its behind the trees part of the time, but at least a bit.  I can't do very many things at once, but since its a sliding glass door it should be adequate for a few plants to thrive, our living room is cluttered already, looks like its about to get worse (we're in a 550 sq. ft. appt.)  My poor husband haha.  I think I'll start with strawberry spinich (going for spinich, not berries, I grew the berries last summer, they're very different).  I like the leaves better.

Postscript:  Last night my husband lodged a complaint about how crowded the living room is, I thusly won't be trying to add more to that situation, aka no growing veg. as houseplants right now, hopefully once we can move somewhere bigger.  Next winter.

I cannot really grow figs in my climate but I have acquired two fig cultivars to try and raise indoors as house plants. I have a Chicago Hardy and a Green Ischia. Funny enough, I found that my Venus flytrap makes a great companion to deal with bugs around the figs! I supplement light in the winter months with LEDs and find the plants thrive compared to not having the lights. A small cost but a well worth one. These will soon be up-potted to floor pots to continue to grow strong.

"A proper growlight is expensive, but it could pay for itself in a year if high quality organic salad greens and fresh herbs are a regular purchase. When I finally got one for seed starting, the speed and volume of growth really surprised me, compared to plants under household lights or window light."

Aaron, would you mind sharing what type and brand of grow light you settled on?

Timothy Norton wrote:I cannot really grow figs in my climate but I have acquired two fig cultivars to try and raise indoors as house plants. I have a Chicago Hardy and a Green Ischia. Funny enough, I found that my Venus flytrap makes a great companion to deal with bugs around the figs!

I am in zone 6.  My Chicago Hardy Fig survives outdoors in a protected location, but  the figs haven't yet had enough time before first frost to ripen.  I've seen dozens of green figs die on the branches because they just don't have time to mature here.  So I bought a fig tree that is supposed to grow well in containers to bring indoors for the winter after getting (hopefully enough) chill hours in the fall.  The leaves fall off after coming indoors, but after a month or two new growth appears.  No figs yet, even tiny ones, but the tree is only going on 3 years old.  We'll see how it does this year.  In winter I have it close-ish to an LED grow lamp that covers several tropical plants I bring in for the winter, and adjacent to an east facing window.

How old is your Venus Flytrap plant?  I am on my third one.  the first one got too dry and eventually died.  the second one was kept in a dish of water like yours, and rotted from the stem out.  lucky number three gets water in its dish only after completely soaking up the previous water.  It came planted in moss which retains a lot of moisture.  It seems to do fine unless I don't notice its dish is empty quickly enough.  It does currently have a flower stalk that I am curious to see open up.  Any tips or tricks you've discovered about these cute little workers?  Ours has caught quite a few pest insects so it is worth a little trouble to keep it alive and growing!

Sandy Bradley wrote:Arthur Lee Jacobsen in Seattle is compiling a book about edible house plants.
Sandy Bradley

Thank you, Sandy!  I looked up his website and found that he has this downloadable draft that folks can check out if interested in seeing more of what he's up to with that book.  I'm looking forward to it.

What a great thread!

I am about to move into an apartment.  After almost 5 months of camping, visiting, house sitting, motels when there was nothing else, I am very excited.  Last fall, I did not think renting a temporary place was worth moving twice.

No, I see things quite differently.

I don’t have any idea the square footage, it’s small, but not tiny.. There is a beautiful big window in the living room facing north. There are tiny south windows in the kitchen and bedroom. There is no yard. At all.  There is “patio” with pavers to the south, and there is a small greenhouse in the patio. There’s a sidewalk out front, (north). Former tenants have had chairs and a table and container plants against the wall. It’s a wide sidewalk. I will likely be creating a school garden in the summer but  while  I am moving in, I think I could have lots of fun creating indoor growing spaces.

I do have a lead on about 8 acres with irrigation water ( means EVERYTHING in North America’s arid west ). No house no utilities of any kind it’s only ever been pasture. So if I get this property, I will design a house and I am loving the idea of some kind of indoor growing space!   The elevation is about 6000 feet and we have a real winter so the indoor garden would be wonderful. Thank you so much Donna, for  that idea.

And thanks Carla for starting this thread!

Donna Lynn wrote:How old is your Venus Flytrap plant?

I'd saw we are hitting the seventh month timeframe. I have had three waves of dieback but have managed to catch it every time before the plant just dies completely. I think the biggest thing I am struggling with right now is light requirements. The plant is also wrapped in moss like yours, it is a bog plant and I am trying my best to replicate that but sometimes I miss the day that the water level drops and it isn't siphoning anymore. I really want to explore a wicking version of moisture rather than just sitting in an open container but I haven't thought out everything I would need.

I just do distilled water and light. The traps have surprisingly caught a decent amount of prey so I feel no need to try and supplement anything. When it is not winter, I put it in a windowsill and let it bask in sunlight. With the winter, I'm trying to keep it in the warmer parts of the house but have to supplement light. I was doing 8 hours with an LED but I am currently trialing 12 hours to see if the plant improves from where it currently is. So far it seems that might be the trend.

Timothy Norton wrote:When it is not winter, I put it in a windowsill and let it bask in sunlight. With the winter, I'm trying to keep it in the warmer parts of the house but have to supplement light. I was doing 8 hours with an LED but I am currently trialing 12 hours to see if the plant improves from where it currently is. So far it seems that might be the trend.

After reading your reply, I did a quick search and found the following webpage:   https://tomscarnivores.com/resources/venus-flytrap-complete-guide/
...and learned that Venus flytraps like a dormancy period during the winter!  I had no idea.  So, it might be better to keep yours on that windowsill in full sun year round if it gets cooler there in winter like mine does, rather than putting it in warmer areas of the house under lights that might trick it into thinking it's spring already.  Some die-back is apparently normal for wintertime.  One of my previous ones died back, then weeks later sprouted some new leaves, but I had thought it was due to my inconsistent watering.  I hope we didn't toss out perfectly good plants that were just resting up for spring!  But now we know and can do better.  

I'm currently trying to over winter peppers in sub irrigated planters.
Last time I covered them ìn upturned buckets to reduce light and protect them from mice.
This resulted in them rotting.
This year I left an opening for air flow and added garlic to fend off mold, mice, and fungus gnats.
It's worked well enough that I have expanded the garlic planting to all the house plants.

I read a blog post about eating forced/blanched Jerusalem Artichoke greens a while back.
I wonder if this would work on sweet potatoe slips.