Growing Groceries Indoors with Tower Gardens
As a Juice Plus Partner, I earn from purchases, and this post contains affiliate links to the Tower Garden products that I love and have been using for 10 years. See my full disclosure here!
Tower Gardens makes growing groceries indoors easy and convenient, right in the comfort of your own home. The unique vertical design of these gardens makes them an ideal choice for indoor and outdoor use, enabling you to relish fresh and nutritious vegetables, herbs, and fruits all year round.
What is a Tower Garden?
Tower Gardens are vertical, aeroponic garden systems that allow individuals to grow groceries indoors. Whether you want to grow your fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers indoors or in small outdoor spaces, the Tower Garden is the answer. These aeroponic systems are designed to be space-efficient and water-efficient and allow for year-round gardening.
With Tower Gardens, you don’t need any soil or traditional gardening equipment. Instead, these gardens use aeroponic technology to grow plants in nutrient-rich water. This means you can save space, time, and money while enjoying fresh homegrown groceries. And the best part, there is no weeding or crawling around on your hands and knees in the dirt.
Tower Garden uses aeroponic technology. This technology has been shown to increase yields by as much as 30% and triple the speed of plant growth while using less water when compared to gardening in soil. This vertical garden’s compact design is ideal for a small space.
How does it work?
Literally, the Tower Garden rains inside the tower column. There is a pump inside the reservoir that pumps mineral-enhanced water to the top of the tower, raining down to provide all the plants with everything they need to grow 3x faster with 30% more yields. Juice Plus Tower Garden systems are available in two styles; the Tower Garden Flex (grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers indoors and outdoors) and the new Tower Garden Home (has many ports and is on wheels making it ideal for indoor growing).
Rockwool and Seeds
Rockwool is a soilless growing medium inside the grow pots. This material gives roots plenty of oxygen and moisture for fast, healthy growth. Without a soil base, the system is very clean. Seeds are started in a tray, outside the Tower Garden, until they have germinated and grown into little seedlings. See more information on starting seeds in rockwool here. Once the seedlings are large enough, they are moved to the Tower Garden where they will grow a nutrient-dense food supply for you and your family. Here is a full list of plants you can grow in the Tower Garden. You can even grow your own microgreens in the Tower Garden with the microgreens extension.
Nutrients
The reservoir, or base of the Tower Garden, holds 25 litres of water. In order to provide the necessary nutrients to the plants a Tower Garden Mineral Blend is added to the water. This specially formulated blend of liquid nutrients supplies the plants in the Tower Garden with all the nutrients and minerals for optimal growth.
Pump and Timer
The Tower Garden uses closed-loop system technology whereby a submersible pump, in the reservoir, pumps the nutrient solution to the top of your Tower Garden. As the solution rains down over the plant roots inside the Tower Garden, each plant receives the water and nutrients needed to grow. The use of an automated timer ensures that the plants always get the ideal amount of oxygen, water, and nutrients, to thrive. The bonus to the grower is that this is all done automatically, leaving you with a hands-off growing system that allows you to grow your groceries at home.
Harvest Time
In just a few short weeks some plants will be ready for harvest. Some plants will continue to grow giving you a continuous food supply before having to replace the entire plant. Harvest your organically grown foods, wash them up and they are ready for your plate.
Caring for your Tower Garden
The upkeep on the Tower Garden is very minimal. The first thing is to check the water levels, next is ensuring the pump filter is free from any roots, adding the Tower Garden Blend, checking the PH levels using a PH kit, and finally periodical wiping down of the tower itself.
LED Grow Lights
For indoor gardening, lighting is crucial. Without adequate light, your plants will grow tall, thin, and weak — they will struggle and be unproductive. Even when grown next to a window with a lot of natural light most crops will not do well therefore making the LED light kit essential to being a successful indoor gardener.
The Benefits of Growing Groceries Indoors
- It saves you money.
- With the rising costs of groceries these days, one seed package costs approximately $3-$5 and gives you a min of 50 seeds (on average). So let’s use romaine lettuce as an example, one package of romaine lettuce has the potential to grow you 50 heads of lettuce for a cost of $4.69. What are you paying for a 3 or 6-package of romaine lettuce where you live? It won’t take long to see how just one food item is already saving you money. So just think, what if you grow more than just lettuce? Tomatoes? Kale? Swiss Chard? Bok Choy? Celery? and the list goes on. No matter what different plants you want to grow, growing your own food will reduce your monthly grocery bill.
- It’s Convenient
- It alleviates frequent stops to the grocery store, and your food is right in your house. No long and crowded situations there!
- It’s Healthier
- Immediately after foods are harvested they start to lose minerals and vitamins. Growing your own produce provides you with a more nutrient-dense food, and creates a growing environment whereby you control what goes into your food. Growing your own food produces wholesome foods with the most nutritious harvests, without the addition of sprays and chemicals.
- Being more Self-Sufficient
- You take control of your food prices and food supply.
- Helps with food waste.
- You pick the food as you need it. You will have less waste because your organic produce is fresher than the produce purchased at the grocery store.
Tips for Growing Great Seedlings – coming soon
Strategies for Continuous Production – coming soon
How to Preserve and Store Your Harvest – coming soon
Educational Opportunities
Not only are Tower Gardens a great way to eat healthier and save money on groceries, but they’re also a fun and engaging way to teach kids about where their food comes from. With a Tower Garden, children can learn about the science of growing plants. They can get excited about eating their own fresh produce. If you are a homeschooler or a teacher, you can educate young minds by bringing the wonders of agriculture, science, and technology directly into the classroom.
Incorporating Tower Garden into your curriculum is easy as 30 FREE lesson plans and learning materials for Pre-K through 7th grade are available. If you are ready to transform your classroom or learning environment into a dynamic learning experience, add a Tower Garden to your space. Learn more about the Tower Garden here. If you would like to obtain the lesson plans, please reach out to me and I will be happy to help.
FAQ
- Can I grow produce in the winter?
- Yes, you can! The Tower Garden was designed to be used year-round by making it simple to grow both outdoors and inside. The addition of LED Indoor Grow Lights ensures your plants are receiving a light spectrum to that of the sun. These lights mimic the lighting it would typically receive outdoors.
- Can I use regular seed packages to start my plants?
- Yes, seeds obtained from any seed company will grow delicious herbs and vegetables in the Tower Garden.
This indoor growing system not only lets you grow a variety of vegetables but also gives you the freedom and control to grow healthy produce. When you grow your healthy food you produce a nutrient-rich food source for you and your family. Now is the perfect time to add a Tower Garden growing system to your home. Don’t have a green thumb. No problem, the learning curve is minimal and without the time commitment of traditional gardening.
Finally, growing your produce can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience, which allows you to connect with nature, save money on groceries, and promote a healthier lifestyle. Homegrown produce is a great way to enjoy fresh, nutritious, and flavorful produce that is better than what you can find at the grocery store.
