Growing Tomatoes Indoors With Artificial Light: Good Idea?
This is not a trick question, and there is a simple answer. Yes, it’s a great idea!
If you do not have access to an outdoor garden and you want to grow some tasty healthy tomatoes, grow them indoors! With the convenience of science and modern technology we can now do things that were impossible years ago.
What You Will Need
Here is what you will need to successfully grow tomatoes indoors using plant grow lights.
A Good Space
A room in your house with a window would be best. If you do not have a window room, any room will do, since you are going to use artificial light. Tomatoes love natural sunlight, so if you can provide this, it is a bonus. It also saves you on your electric bill, since you won’t need to use as much artificial light. Your growing room needs to have ventilation. A fan with a cracked door is fine, in most cases. The room also needs to have power outlets for your grow lights, and other equipment you may need (like the fan).
Seed Trays
You can purchase seed trays from any home improvement store, or from online stores. They do not cost much money. You can also make do with egg cartons if you want to do it on the cheap. The seed tray or egg carton is used to get the seeds started from nothing to germination.
Water Source
This goes without saying, but plants like tomatoes need water. No list of materials would be complete without mentioning this, so we included it on this list. Water you have on tap will do the trick, unless it is especially hard or contaminated.
Heating Mat
This is not 100% necessary, but is well worth the investment. A heating mat significantly speeds up the seed germination phase, which always feels a bit like watching water boil.
Special Non-Soil Planting Mix
The important points here are the following:
- Must be sterile
- Must not contain garden or topsoil
Tomatoes are vulnerable to the fungi that common dirt and soil contain. Since you are growing them indoors you have a great opportunity to control the environment! Get sterile soil-less planting mix and thank me later.
Grow Light(s)
Since tomatoes need 8 hours of direct sunlight per day to grow, LED light is a good option, it works great. Now more and more people will use LED grow lights for indoor growing, which is a trend. There’re some grow light options on our store, check it out: Shop
Stakes
The stakes help your plants grow upward and give them a surface to grab onto to get more light into their leaves. If you are growing a bigger garden, you can use trellis or even a cage. This gives the vines more surface area to cling to and exposes more leaves to the direct light for maximum photosynthesis.
Large Plant Containers
Depending on how many plants you are going to grow inside, you may need only one pot. Or you might prefer a different kind of container, if you are growing many plants. You can purchase planting troughs or extra big pots online for not too much money!