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Growing Vegetables in the Office

Posted on 04. Jul, 2009 by Tracey in How to Grow Veg

A month ago I decided to grow my own vegetables on a windowsill to show people how easy it was to start growing your own vegetables on a small scale. I took up the windowsill challenge at my place of work in a finance department as I wanted to show my work colleagues that it was very easy to sow the seeds and after a few days seedlings would be visible.

The salad windowsill seemed to be very popular after the lettuce was seen to be growing strong and questions flooded in. Most people were quite surprised that the growth was so quick and even said they may give it a try themselves.

To grow vegetables in an office, there are a few issues that need to be overcome:

1. Fluorescent Lighting,

The office has squares of fluorescent lighting but this made no difference as the main light was from our very large window.

2. Air Conditioning

Can a vegetable plant be tricked into thinking this is a cool breeze? In this case – Yes. On some days the air conditioning unit was switched off and this made no difference to the overall growing conditions.

3. No Ventilation

Our office windows are non-opening however due to the air conditioning providing a cool breeze this did not appear to be a problem.

4. Windowsill may be too hot as its in full sunlight

I had to keep up to date with the watering to avoid wilting and leggyness. Some of the radishes did have a spout of leggyness so I was forced to rotate the pot every few days.

5. Permission

We already had real plants in the office so some vegetables in pots wouldn’t make much difference. I did keep the lettuce covered with the propagator lid due to hygiene reasons and so it remained untouched.

Tracey at work with her Lettuce

Office Windowsill Results

How long did it take for seedlings to appear?

• Loose Leaf Lettuce – 3 days,
• Radish – 6 days,
• Baby Carrot – 8 days.

How long from sowing to harvesting?

• Loose Leaf Lettuce – 3 weeks,
• Radish – 6 weeks to grow,
• Baby Carrots – 10 weeks +.

Here’s a photo update of how my salad vegetables (lettuce, radish and carrot) are growing on my sunny office windowsill.

Other Posts in the Grow Your Own Veg Windowsill Challenge Series:

1. What do you need to get started?
2. Growing Lettuce in a Tray
3. How to Grow Radish in a Pot
4. How to Grow Carrots in a Pot
5. 5 Reasons to Grow Vegetables on a Windowsill
6. Growing Herbs in Pots

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