Lettuce, basil, mint, cilantro and more. From seed to your very first harvest in a small apartment system.
Every crop here has its own guide with the numbers it needs, and the crop sources page shows where each of those numbers comes from. If you are not sure what to grow first, start with a fast, forgiving herb and work up from there. New to hydroponics altogether? The Start Here page lays out the whole path.
Read these first
The best herbs to start withSeven herbs that thrive in small systems, and which to grow first.
What to grow with one bright windowThe crops that do well on window light alone, and the ones that need a lamp.
Your first basil, step by stepThe easiest herb to get right, from seed to your first harvest.
All 39 crops in one chart, in the bookAppendix A of Apartment Hydroponics for Beginners holds every crop’s pH, EC, light height and first harvest, with the sources behind them.Free tools
Browse by crop
Kitchen herbs that grow well in jars and small systems.
Salad greens, microgreens, green onions and a fruiting crop to work up to.
From starting seeds to getting more flavor from every harvest.
When something is eating or spotting your leaves.
Short on time
Basil, mint or chives if you want herbs, and lettuce if you want salad. They are forgiving, grow happily in a single jar and give you something to pick within a few weeks. The best herbs to start with.
Lettuce gives first leaves in 4 to 5 weeks, and mint from a rooted cutting is ready in about the same. Basil takes 5 to 6 weeks from seed, parsley 6 to 8 and chives 7 to 9. The seed to harvest countdown works out the dates for your own crop. Try the countdown.
Most can. Run a shared reservoir at EC 1.5 as a compromise between them. If cilantro or chives share it, hold pH in the upper half of the range, 6.0 to 6.5. Spinach is the one to keep apart: it wants cooler water, 59 to 68°F (15 to 20°C), and a 12 hour day rather than the shelf’s 14. Planning a mixed shelf.
Mostly heat. Keep the water below 75°F (24°C), its critical ceiling, and sow a new batch every 2 to 3 weeks, since bolting happens eventually anyway. Growing cilantro indoors.
Yellow sticky traps catch the adults, and diluted hydrogen peroxide kills the larvae. Cover any wet grow media so they cannot lay eggs, and keep treating for at least 3 weeks to break the life cycle. The full gnat plan.
Everything in this category
Newest first.
Hydroponic micro basil is basil harvested as a seedling, 2 to 3 inches tall, from a shallow tray. You get the full perfume of basil packed into a tiny leaf, ready to scatter over pasta, tomatoes or a cocktail, from a tray that fits on a shelf. Micro basil takes 16 to 28 days from
Micro Basil in Hydroponic Trays (and Why Micro Mint Rarely Works) Read More »
Hydroponic sage is a slow start and a long reward. From seed it takes 3 months or more before you can cut it, which makes it one of the slowest crops you can grow indoors. Once it is established, though, a single plant keeps giving for years: sage lives 4 to 5 years in a
Hydroponic Sage Indoors: A Slow Start and Years of Harvests Read More »
Hydroponic Swiss chard is one of the most generous greens you can grow in a small apartment. One plant gives you big, glossy leaves on colorful stems for weeks, and you only ever take the outer ones, so the plant keeps making more. It shrugs off pH swings that would stall lettuce, tolerates a cool
Hydroponic Swiss Chard in a Small Apartment: Big Harvests from One Plant Read More »
You can grow arugula, kale and spinach together in one reservoir, and they make a better team than most mixed plantings. All three are cool-season greens, all three like the same pH, and their feeding ranges overlap. Put them in one tote and you get a peppery leaf, a sturdy leaf and a soft one
How to Grow Arugula, Kale and Spinach Together in One Reservoir Read More »
Hydroponic dwarf peppers are one of the few fruiting crops that make sense in an apartment. A compact pepper plant tops out at about 12 to 24 inches, lives for months, and keeps setting fruit in flushes as long as it has strong light and a steady feed. One plant in a single bucket can
Hydroponic Dwarf Peppers in a Small Apartment: One DWC Bucket Read More »
Hydroponic rosemary starts best from a cutting, not a seed. Rosemary seed is slow and unreliable. It often takes 2 to 4 weeks to sprout, and many seeds never do. A tip cut from a healthy plant, on the other hand, roots in 3 to 6 weeks and gives you a plant identical to the
Hydroponic Rosemary From Cuttings: Root in a Jar, Grow in a Bucket Read More »
Hydroponic pea shoots are the easiest way to eat peas from an apartment. You soak a handful of whole pea seed, spread it over a damp mat in a shallow tray, and 10 to 14 days later you cut sweet, crunchy shoots that taste like a fresh garden pea. There is no pump, no soil
Hydroponic Pea Shoots on a Windowsill: Harvest in 10 to 14 Days Read More »
Hydroponic radish microgreens are the fastest crop you can grow in an apartment. Seed goes onto a damp mat in a shallow tray, and 7 to 10 days later you cut a tray of peppery greens with a pair of scissors. There is no pump and no soil, and the whole setup fits on a
Hydroponic Radish Microgreens in Shallow Trays: Harvest in 7 to 10 Days Read More »
Hydroponic herb succession planting is the habit of never sowing everything at once. One jar is ready to cut, one is growing on, and one has just been sown. So the shelf hands you a harvest every week, instead of a glut followed by four empty jars. It sounds like extra work. In practice it
Hydroponic Herb Succession Planting: A Jar Rotation That Never Runs Out Read More »
A countertop kit looks like the easy way into hydroponic bok choy, and for baby heads it mostly is. The catch is height and heat. Bok choy is a cool-season brassica, so a warm kitchen pushes it to flower early, and a full-size variety outgrows most kit lamp arms long before it is ready to
Hydroponic Bok Choy in a Countertop Kit: Seed to Harvest Read More »
