There are so many plants to grow. However, the most successful plants to grow are vegetative vegetables. You are saying that’s silly. Vegetative vegetable. Right?

Well vegetative growth is the growing stage between germination (the seed sprouting) and sexual maturity (flowering).

Vegetative Stage

In the vegetative stage, the tiny plant is putting all of its energy in growing stems, leaves, and roots. All plants go through this phase. Eventually, all plants follow the vegetative stage with flowers and seeds. We like to pick and eat them before they get there.

With greens, we eat the vegetative parts of the plant. We eat the leaves and stems mostly, and sometimes the roots.

Let’s eat leaves

With greens like herbs and lettuce, the game is grow-baby-grow. These crops are relatively brief, and short lived. Because we consume the leaves, we want to keep the plant lush and healthy.

The nice thing is that for most of these plants, the need for lots of light isn’t a big issue. Usually, they grow well in somewhat low light. The critical thing is to have the right amount of nutrients in high quality water with the right pH.

Humudity is the key to good healthy leaves

We need to remember that the thinner the leaf, the more important humidity plays in the health of the plant’s grow and appearance. If the air is bone-dry, your greens will go limp and be more acceptable to diseases.

Two vegetative groups

You know you can separate the vegetative crops into two groups: Ones that love their roots wet all the time, and those that don’t like to be in water all the time.

The nice thing about high pressure aeroponic systems are that they can support either type of plants just by varying the spray interval. Use shorter spray interval plants for plants that like their roots wet, and longer spray intervals for plants who want their roots just moist like lettuce and basil.

Way to go, Aeroponics

We all know all plants can grow in soil. However, these greens like lettuce and basil will grow twice or more as fast aeroponically. Hurray! Aeroponics may be more convenient and more suited for indoor growing than soil. depending on your home circumstances.

If these plants continue on to sexual maturity, we call it bolting, and when this happens, the crop quality declines. We want to eat these crops before they flower.