Hydroponic vegetable gardens

I'm a big gardner, so I'll add my 2 cents worth.
I don't like hydroponic or aerogarden for a couple of reasons.
They are more expensive, they are not very forgiving, and you pretty much have to use chemical fertilizers (in carefully measured and monitored doses). One mistake or extended vacation and the entire garden dies. With soil, you have some forgiveness, and all your plants aren't dependant on the same source. Given that, aero/hydro is faster and can produce bigger yields, but those aren't my goals. I don't really have a problem running out of lettuce, so speed/yield are not important. Cheap and sustainable is.

I grow lettuce indoors year round using potting soil and 4 foot flouro shop lights. I always have organic grown lettuce reasy to pick, including multiple varieties. I have only had to buy extra lettuce at the store probably twice in 4 years.
Lettuce in particular should really be in soil. You need to direct sow them and are not worth the whole transplanting to net-pot hassle. a few tips on sustainable home lettuce:

Use about 4 of the window box style planters (preferably with a bottom water tray to catch overflow) and have the plantings staggered so you always have ready to pick lettuce.

Have chunks of 2x4 handy to raise up the individual planters. You need the lights to be 1-3 inches away from the plants or they won't grow. You could hang the lights so you can move them, but the planters will have different stages of growth, so this doesn't really help. You could use a grow light instead which doesn't need to be so close, but they use much more energy and put off a lot of heat. I use grow lights for tomatoes and for preparing outside plants, but have always had better luck with cheap old fouro's for my lettuce.

You must have an oscilating fan on them periodically. I use a timer that turns the fan on for about 10 minutes, about 10 times a day.

A heating pad for good seed sprouting is essential for me, as my lettuce is in the cool basement. It's needed for a week or 2 till the lettuce gets going.

If you water with tap water, let the water sit for a day to let the chlorine out. I keep a few gallon jugs filled and ready for use. If I determine I need ferts, I add some fish emulsion right to a jug of water (stinks for a day in the room, but it's effective and organic).

(Very important) Once in a while, take a wooden skewer, pencil, or whatever and stir up the soil around the plants. Keeps the roots breathing and prevents fungal problems on the top.

Once in a while, pick off the leaves on the bottom (they aren't getting light anymore and you don't want them hanging into the soil and blocking air flow).

To harvest, just pick off the leaves that look good, leaving a few of the outer leaves to help the plant regenerate. You can do this 2-4 times before the plant starts getting bitter. Use a salad spinner to wash them and eat. It will taste better if you let it chill in the fridge for a while. I ussually fill our tupperware container once a week, rather than pick fresh each time.


As for other plants.
Tomatoes
I've grown indoor tomatoes and while feasable, the cost per tomato doesn't make sense. (After lights, pots, nutrients, dirt or pumping equipment (depending on method) water, planters, etc. You must use determinate plants that stay compact, and they don't produce the yields you are used to with an outside indeterminate variety. Determinate plants also produce a number of tomatoes all at once, then their done (indet. keeps producing till frost kills it). So you spend months to end up with a bunch of tomatos that last 1 week. You also can't properly stagger the plantings effectively, since you need multiple plants with a good fan on them to get the tomatoes to pollinate. Someday I hope to find a good indeterminate variety that stays compact and won't outgrow the small area a good grow light can cover. That way, it can keep producing tomatoes over a period of time, rather than all at once.

Carrots
Does work inside quite well. Must start with flouros, but move to a grow light after they are 5 inches tall. You need a taller pot though so they don't bottom out.

Peppars -never tried it, but I image it would work, since they stay compact.

Cucumbers, melons, squash - FORGET IT! they need too much space.

Broccoli - never tried it. Probably feasable, but you can maybe hand 4 plants with a good light, and the cost of a head of broccoli is just too cheap to bother devoting 2-3 months of your space for 4 heads of broccoli.

 

What ever kind I like! Although you should try to stick to loose leaf varieties instead of head varieties. I prefer prizehead, which is a crinkled loose leaf style with some red coloring in it. I also grow buttercrunch, Nevada, a mesclun mix, and have just started arugula at my wife's request.

Any home grown lettuce is going to be tastier and more nutritious than the supermarket iceberg heads people buy that are all water and no flavor or nutrition. There are no pesticides or herbicides needed in my lettuce and I only use organics. I find lettuce growing inside FAR easier than outside. Though it does require electricity then. But 4 flouros 14 hours a day don't use that much.

Head lettuce doesn't get enough light under the flouros, unless you switch it to the grow lights (minimum 250 W. metal haylide) halfway through. They also need to be harvested all at once, instead of multiple light pickings. The mesclun mix is a good starter variety. That's what I learned on. It provides a mix of smaller loose leaf plants, and you quickly learn which kinds you like, which grow better inside, and you get a nice variety without having to buy seeds you know nothing about. Avoid the romaines, as they grow too tall for the flouro's. Buttercrunch is similar in taste, but stays small enough to be manageable. The last few years, most of my lettuce has been a mix of prizehead and buttercrunch. they make a great contrast in taste, look, and texture. I always have those two varieties ready to pick. The others I grow periodically for a nice change.

One last tip I forgot. When you sow the seeds, sprinkle them all over the planter and thin them as they are growing. By your last harvest, you'll only have about 3 plants in there, as that's all the room you've got. But initially, you need many seedlings to soak up the water. It is important that the dirt can dry out a bit and get rewatered every three days or so. If you only plant a dozen or so seeds, they won't use enough water and the dirt stays wet too long and the plants won't grow properly. Once they are growing, you thin down to about 6-8 plants first. These will grow up and give you a good harvest. Then removes 3-4 plants completely and let 3-4 of the best ones regrow after that harvest into a nice 2nd harvest. Sometimes, you can get a good third harvest too if the lettuce isn't bolting or putting out the bitter milky sap after picking.

Oh, 1 other thing...Get a large spray bottle. Use this to water at first. When you sow (into lightly watered soil), you can use the spraybottle to keep things moist without drowning everything. Keep a clear cover over the top to keep the humidity up. Spray it daily at first and a week or 2 later, you can stop using the cover and water more normally. An occasional misting still helps, though. The younger the plant, the more humidity it prefers. As the plants mature, they need less humidity and more air flow (fan).