Growing plants indoors can be challenging, primarily because of lack of sunlight compared to outdoor growing. But what is a gardener to do if the only available grow space is indoors with no sunlight at all? By using artificial grow lights and selecting plants that either grow very fast or are low-light tolerant, you can grow plants from seeds even in a windowless closet.
Microgreens are miniature salad greens grown from seed that has been sown very densely, usually in trays of soilless potting medium. Any number of vegetable and leaf crops can be grown as microgreens, singly or in combination with other seeds. The University of Illinois Extension suggests broccoli, cabbage, beets, radishes, arugula, celery, basil and dill as tasty microgreen options. Lettuce, spinach, chard, and mache can be grown as microgreens or to small leaf-size heads for salad use. Because microgreens and small leaf-sized salad greens grow very quickly, they can be grown under artificial lights on shelves in a closet for healthy meals from very little space. Salad greens are also low-light tolerant, so they will thrive to a larger size under artificial lighting conditions.
The University of Missouri Extension suggests growing herbs indoors, noting that if the herbs are grown entirely under artificial light, the lighting must remain on 14 to 16 hours each day. Small, hardy, culinary herbs can be grown from seed and will thrive in the small space of a closet shelf given adequate artificial lighting. The Missouri Extension suggests chives, thyme, basil, parsley, rosemary, and mints as good indoor herb-growing choices. Each will remain small enough to grow comfortably in a closet and will yield fragrant leaves for cooking, teas and sachets while providing delightful scent throughout your home while they are growing.
Growing full-sized onions from seed is a long process, according to the Purdue University Extension. But onion greens are edible from the slenderest thinnings to the full-sized bulbs. Green onions, or scallions, grow to about 1/2 inch across at full maturity, and green onion seed sprouts prolifically in a shallow tray under artificial lights. Because the plants are slender, do not grow very tall and can be continually thinned and harvested at any size, green onion seeds are ideal to start and grow in a closet.