Kickstart Your Growing Journey With Herbstation

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you through the process of setting up your own home farm with Herbstation. We have also added some helpful tips and suggestions that will help your plants thrive!

So, let’s get onto it.

1. Pick a good spot

 First, and foremost, choose a nice place where you can grow, meditate, and care for your plants. Place it anywhere in the house and even on your veranda thanks to its wheeled mobility that makes relocation super-easy and fun. So, now you have your own garden on wheels, a dream comes true, right? 

Tip: Place it somewhere where there is no garden such as a porch, deck, or in the darkest corners of your house, just make sure you place it near an outlet to power grow lights. 

2. Decide what to grow 

The next important step is to choose a plant. Whether you want to plant a vegetable garden, herb garden, or a flower garden. If you want to grow herbs and vegetables to contribute to your meals, plant those that your family loves eating. If you want to grow flowers for their bright, vibrant color and fragrance, decide whether you want to grow annuals (that blooms most of the summer but requires replanting every spring) or perennials (that blooms for a limited time but does not need replanting and continues to grow year after year). 

Consider planting those plants which will be favored by the clock. Different plants have different growing seasons. Make sure you refer to the county planting schedule to find out what to plant and when.  The best way to determine the exact timing for your garden is to ask the county cooperative extension in your area for a localized calendar.  

Tip: To get the most out of Herbstation, select shallow-rooted and dwarf varieties of plants.

3. Get your hands dirty

After deciding on the plants you want to grow, you’ll need to add soil. We recommend using a lightweight, well-aerated potting mix that will provide good texture for wicking, and retain moisture for a long period. You can even use a soilless growing medium like cocopeat.

It is advisable to fill the base layer with a porous material such as clay balls, perlite, or any other water-absorbent gravel that will provide proper aeration and encourage fast root growth. Fill ¾th of the container with moistened soil.

4. Cultivate joy

Once you add soil, you’ll need to start out either with seeds or seedlings. If you’re a gardening newbie,  start small until you know what you’re getting into. You’ll need to start out either with seeds, seedling, or a transplant. Plants such as spinach, arugula, lettuce, kale, mini varieties of tomato, capsicum,  and many others are easy to grow from seeds directly in the garden.

If you have access to the mother plant you can start with the transplant but if you don’t, seeds will be your only choice to start with. For those of you growing with kids or who want quick results in limited time and growing skills, microgreens are great choices as they can be eaten in as little as seven days, are super tasty, and easy to grow. Simply sprinkle a handful of seeds over the soil and cover it gently with a thin layer of soil.  

Tip: Be sure to read the seed packet for information about planting time, depth, and spacing.  

5. Let the light shine in  

Among all, energy-efficient grow lights are the most exciting feature of Herbstation that allows you to grow many plants indoors throughout the year irrespective of the season. It is tailored to provide a light spectrum similar to that of the sun providing complete autonomy from the sun and produces low heat so, can be placed close to the plants. 

You’ll manually need to turn on and off the grow lights. We recommend giving 12-16 hrs of light and at least 8 hrs of darkness to the plants per day as it is important for their growth. You can automate the turning on and off of the grow lights with a light-timer that is easily available online or in any electronic store. It comes with a working schedule of 16 hours on and 8 hours off.  

Tip: Keep the light 2-3 inches above your plants as they grow to encourage strong and full growth and can prevent foliage burn or leggy seedling. 

6. Add water, watch, and enjoy! 

Last step! Whoa! 

Fill the built-in reservoir with water until it shows the maximum level on the water level indicator. The water in the reservoir will continue to supply water up for at least a week so you don’t need to add water daily. Refill the reservoir when the level starts to run low.   

Note: If you’re growing hydroponically using cocopeat as a substrate, you’ll need to fortify the water with hydroponic nutrients and adjust the pH if required with a pH up or down solution.  Fill the reservoir with a hydroponic nutrient solution. You should gradually increase the strength of nutrients as your plant matures so that you do not stress your plants.  Use EC/TDS meter to check the nutrient strength and pH meter/pH solution/litmus paper to look over the pH of the nutrient solution.  

Tip: The first time you water the seeds or transplant make sure to water a little from the top–this will ensure that the soil is nice and moist and all the way through. 

Quick Plant Care Tips: 

• Use the Greenhouse Pack to protect your plants from extreme weather and curious pets.   
• Pests can be a real pain. Regular monitoring of your indoor plants is key to beating an infestation. To get rid of most pests in plants, spray the infected area with a mixture of 1-2 tablespoons of liquid dishwashing detergent and a liter of water. Repeat the application twice a week for a month to break their life cycle. 
• Prune your plants regularly to encourage lateral bushy growth in your plants.  
• Make sure to pollinate your plant if you’re growing fruiting plants like tomato, capsicum, or strawberry.   

And that’s it! We hope your first plant set up should have been damn easy!

If you have any questions? Leave us a comment, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

 If you’re new to plant parenthood or an aspiring green thumb-be sure to sign up for our community and find out how to keep your plants alive, happy, and healthy.

Happy growing guys!