hydroponics, indoor gardening

[Caruthers612]

       So I have a large area in my basement where I'd like to start growing kale, chard and various vegetables, all organic and non-GMO, and be able to grow them right through the winter. I know nothing about growing or gardening, let alone whether I should learn how to do hydroponics or go the traditional route with soil, etc. If any of you who know about such things could help me get started I'd appreciate it. I have some kale seeds and some of these little mini cupcake sized starter things that you plant a seed in, then put it in soil or water, whatever.

[droog]

There is plenty of free info online.  I live off the grid, so I have to use the sun, and can only grow in the summer and preserve what I can (at the moment, I am canning tomato sauce).  If you want to do indoor, you should get LED lights to keep your electric bill down. I find outdoors with sun and dirt to be the cheapest, easiest and most natural way to go.  Perhaps you can grow outdoors in summer and indoors in the winter.  Hydro systems can get complicated and power failures can screw you up. If you decide to use dirt, let me recommend an excellent book by Steve Solomon, "The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food." This guy is extremely knowledgable (everything I learned, I learned from his books.  I've had complete success since day one despite many challenges from my gardening site) and is always available via email to answer questions, no charge!  I've availed myself of this several times.

[Caruthers612]

There is plenty of free info online.  I live off the grid, so I have to use the sun, and can only grow in the summer and preserve what I can (at the moment, I am canning tomato sauce).  If you want to do indoor, you should get LED lights to keep your electric bill down. I find outdoors with sun and dirt to be the cheapest, easiest and most natural way to go.  Perhaps you can grow outdoors in summer and indoors in the winter.  Hydro systems can get complicated and power failures can screw you up. If you decide to use dirt, let me recommend an excellent book by Steve Solomon, "The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food." This guy is extremely knowledgable (everything I learned, I learned from his books.  I've had complete success since day one despite many challenges from my gardening site) and is always available via email to answer questions, no charge!  I've availed myself of this several times.

        Thank you for this helpful reply. I don't want to grow outdoors, although I have great land for it, because of the enormous number of deer, rabbits and other critters here, and the fact that I'd have to put in extensive fencing and such to keep them out. I don't want to do this for certain reasons. Also, we get long, cold winters where I live, so my thought is to get a year round indoor garden growing. I've located Steve Solomon now on YouTube and am going to check him out.

[GuerrillaUnReal]

 

I tend to dabble in hydroponics now and again.

Let me just throw out basic info and you tell me what you need or want to know.

1. There's a seemingly infinite amount of online communities devoted to urban gardening, hydroponics and all that good stuff. Read, read, read and read some more.

2. You're going to want to sterilize your grow space before doing anything. There's also sorts of info on this online. But a good clean sterile environment is essential to start with.

3. Personally I love hydroponics as I think it's the best and more efficient method of plant growing. Everyone out there will be devoted to their preferred method but I think hydro is the best and most efficient on top of being the easiest. You'll get bigger yields in shorter growing times using hydro.

4. There's all kind of different lighting at different prices now. Research and read as much you can to figure out what's best for you.

Really though its just about reading as much as you can online.