"Jim Greenfinger" wrote in
message ...

Hi All,

I am currently a pupil studying Design Techonology in my final A Level
year.

I intend to design a compact product which will allow people to grow
Fruit, Herbs, Vegetables or whatever in order to obtain home grown
produce particularly if you lack space.


There are a great many window boxes, herb boxes, stacked and hung arrays of
pots already on the market. If this is what you are aiming for you will have
a tough time doing anything original.

Please advise me on quick growing plants or ones you believe to be
suitable.. also potential difficulties i may face with growing indoors
solutions would be great as well.


The main problem with growing any food crop indoors is lack of sunlight. Many
"indoor plants" are drawn from forest understory and will grow in full or part
shade. I suppose some are edible but none that i know of. Food plants
require full sun to part sun/part strong light through the day. The
difference between the two levels is significant. Getting sufficient light
indoors requires large areas of sunwards facing glass and/or high power
lights.

Yes you can get fruit off quite small trees or plants in tubs but only if the
conditions are right and that means sunlight (or equivalent) most of the day.

To save space you can grow upwards instead of outwards, many gardeners do this
outdoors with climbing or espaliered plants on fences or trellises. You can
do this in front of a window too. One problem with this (I have tried it) is
that other persons in the house tend to take a dim view (!) of greenery taking
all the light in window spaces.

Good luck

David