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Micro-farming is becoming a hobby for a growing group of people of different ages. It is an innovative way to ensure quality food and spices and to know what has been used to grow them. The joy of growing not only tomatoes and basil, but even pumpkins is a nice bonus.
Micro-farming is, from its name, a way of growing in a small space. It is therefore important to choose plants that not only don’t mind the tightness, but like it. Herbs like basil, thyme, oregano are excellent for this purpose. If you prefer food to spices, you will be pleased to know that tomatoes, small peppers, lettuces and spinach can be grown in pots.
The days when only a person with a garden could grow things are passé. The great thing about micro-farming is that, if you use the space cleverly, you can grow several types of vegetables even in a prefabricated house on a balcony. For this purpose, a couple of shelves on top of each other, where the boxes are placed, and suddenly a 2m2 bed is laid out in such a way that it takes up space like a narrow cupboard.
━━ Gardening on balconies is now a normal part of many people's lives.
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The cheapest and most common form is ordinary pots. You can grow several types of herbs in oblong pots. Large and round ones will grow tomatoes or peppers. The deciding factor for choosing the size of the pot is the length of the roots and how deep the plant sends them. As for the soil, there is no need to mix your own composition. Florists are equipped with bags of different types of soil depending on the purpose of the planting.
Before planting or sowing the seeds of the plants, it is essential to make sure that the place you have chosen will have enough light. Each plant needs different conditions for proper growth and nutrient absorption. For most plants grown for consumption, it is specific that they need plenty of light.
If it’s not within your means to provide these conditions naturally, you can invest in LED grow lights to boost daylight and give the plant what the sun can’t reach.
━━ Grow lights have low energy consumption and long lifetime.
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When growing at home in pots, we must always remember that this method is not natural. If we think of a flower bed, we are dealing with several hundred kilos of dirt that functions as a separate organism. It has its own bacteria and micro-organisms that create a balance and, to some extent, self-regulate the formation of harmful and healthy substances in the soil. The smaller the bed, or the complete limitation of space by the box, we must count and watch out for plant diseases. Indoors, they will be mainly at risk from mildew, when growing outdoors it can be insufficiently mineralized and nutritious soil.
Mould can be prevented by “sparing watering and only in the amount that the plant needs and can absorb”. In order to keep the soil nutritious and the fruit growing well, liquid fertilisers are available, which are mixed in the prescribed proportion with the watering.
Micro-farming can be a way to go partially independent, at least for a season. Homegrown tomatoes are incomparable to those that come halfway around the world. If you’re worried about the initial cost, believe me, it’s not expensive to start growing. The joy you will get from your work is many times greater than the initial investment.
