I’ve had my Rise garden for over a year now. Hard to believe! And since there isn’t much going on for an outside garden right now (haha) I thought I’d share some things I have learned from this inside garden.
Currently I’ve only grown different types of greens and herbs in this garden. All have done very well. Having the two trays which are at different heights from the lights allows for different sizes of plants to be grown. There are sometimes that I wish I could change the height of the lights myself, but like I said, having the two different tray heights has worked too. Overall this has been a great indoor garden!
Things to Know:
- Big plants use more water. Really large plants take a lot of water. You will find yourself needing to fill the water tank much more often if you have a lot of older plants.
- Keep plants short. Letting plants get tall can cause them to get close to the lights. This can cause them to get brown ‘burn’ spots on them, is bad for the lights, and the roots will also be very large to support the plant. Large roots can cause problems with the water flow, clog pipes, etc.
- Replant every 3-4 weeks. To keep from having plants that are too big, especially if you are planting things like lettuce and greens, plant new seeds every 3-4 weeks so when you are ready to take out the old plant you have a new one ready to put in its place.
- Roots grow together. It is easier to remove old plants if they are all together on one tray than it is to remove individual plants/pods from all over the garden, because plants that are growing close together have roots growing together also. It can be hard to separate roots of older plants from ones of newer plants if they are tangled together, and tiny pieces of detached roots can cause clogs in the hoses.
- Don’t use scrubbers when cleaning the water trays. If you get mineral buildup from the water on your trays I suggest using a smooth plastic scrapper or something like it to clean them off, not a scrubbing sponge. Little scratches on the water trays just leads to more buildup of things as time goes on.
Some tools I use to help clean the garden are: a brush for reusable straws with a nylon string tied to the end to pull it through hoses, a self-priming beverage pump with a filter on the end to clean out sediment from the water trays, and a 3-claw bendable grab that fits in the tubes to pull out clogs. You can watch it all in the video below! Enjoy!
