You Don’t Need Soil to Grow a Tea Garden on Your Kitchen Windowsill – Experts Say Start With These 3 Easy Herbs

Have you ever considered growing your own tea? It's a rewarding experience to pluck homegrown flowers and herbs and turn them into a delicious remedy to drink, but the idea of doing so from scratch may seem daunting. Well, with the help of indoor hydroponics, it can actually be pretty easy to grow your own tea garden.

The truth is you don't need soil to grow your own herbal tea. With a hydroponic garden, you can grow tea plants on your kitchen countertop or windowsill in water alone. That is, so long as you perfect the growing environment and choose your tea plants carefully.

From herbs to edible flowers, there are a wide range of tea plants you can grow indoors in water. Here, tea plant experts share not only their top picks, but also how to set up and grow your own tea garden in water.

How to Grow a Tea Garden in Water

Before selecting which tea plants to grow in water, you need to establish a suitable growing environment.

Just like growing herbs indoors, you'll need plenty of sun to support plant growth, so a warm windowsill can be a good location.

You can also put a grow light in place if you don't have particularly bright windowsills. This grow light from Amazon is a good choice because it has an automatic timer, making it less-effort to turn on and off.

You'll also need an appropriate vessel for your tea plants.

You can invest in a hydroponic garden system (like this from Amazon) which are equipped with grow lights, a water chamber, and water level monitor.

For something more affordable, you can create a DIY hydroponic garden.

'I recommend using clear containers so root health is easy to monitor,' says Carmine Del Sordi, tea plant expert from Pure & Easy Tea.

Anything from this propagation station from Amazon to these clear glass jars from Wayfair will work well.

Whichever vessel you choose, it needs to be cleaned easily and the water refreshed regularly – a vital way to avoid hydroponic gardening mistakes.

You may also choose to put in place things like a seedling heat mat (from Amazon) beneath your tea garden to provide extra warmth and encourage root growth.

You can then either grow your plants in water from seed (with the help of tools like hydroponic net pots, available on Amazon), or simply root cuttings in water to establish hydroponic plants.

Carmine Del Sordi

Carmine Del Sordi is the founder of Pure & Easy Tea, a premium clean-label tea brand. He is an expert in tea plants and offers advice on how to grow them at home.

3 Tea Plants to Grow Without Soil

With your indoor hydroponic growing station set up, you can start to grow a tea garden in water.

It's not just a case of choosing any aromatic herbs and edible flowers, however. The experts say there are some tea plants better suited to growing in water than others.

Here are their top three easy picks:

1. Lemon Balm

You can grow lemon balm in water quite easily, according to Michael Cramer of Adagio Teas.

'As a soft-stemmed herb, lemon balm cuttings adapt well to water cultivation,' Michael says.

You can take a few cuttings from a starter lemon balm plant (from Amazon), with each one measuring at least four inches long. Strip any lower leaves and place the stems in water, before placing it somewhere bright.

Within just a couple of weeks, you'll spot roots starting to emerge.

'Adding a hydroponic fertilizer (from Amazon) will speed up growth,' he adds.

'Once rooted, it produces tender, citrus-scented leaves that are wonderful for calming teas and evening blends,' Carmine notes.

If you're keen for more of a challenge, you can also find lemon balm seeds at Burpee and lemon balm seeds on Amazon.

Michael Cramer

Michael is the Chief Executive Officer at Adagio Teas. He offers advice on tea plants and growing them at home.

2. Mint

Water culture is one of the easiest ways to grow mint indoors, especially from cuttings.

'All you need to do is take healthy cuttings, remove the lower leaves, and place the stems in a clear jar with fresh water,' says Carmine.

It's the same technique used when propagating mint in water.

You should therefore pay attention to water propagation mistakes for this, for example by changing the water every couple of days to keep it clean and reduce algae build-up.

'Mint roots quickly and provides continuous fresh leaves for tea and cold infusions,' Carmine adds.

There are also some unusual mint varieties you can try adding to your hydroponic tea garden, such as orange mint (starter plant from Amazon).

Or, use a regular mint plant (from Amazon).

3. Chamomile

A floral tea plant to grow in water is chamomile, say the experts.

Chamomile is surprisingly one of the easiest herbs to grow and a valuable addition to an indoor tea garden.

In fact, you can even purchase hydroponic chamomile kits from Amazon with everything you need to grow this sweet, mild, floral ingredient in water from seed.

You can also try growing chamomile in water by rooting cuttings from a chamomile starter plant (like this from Amazon).

It's the flowers that are used for tea, so it's important to provide lots of bright light to encourage flowering.

You may also need to use a hydroponic bloom fertilizer (available on Amazon) to give a boost of essential plant nutrients.

FAQs

How Do You Make Tea From Plants?

To make tea from your herbal plants, harvest leaves and flowers and steep them in warm water (the infusion stage). By steeping your ingredients for at least five minutes, the flavors should be extracted. Strain the ingredients and optionally add in sweeteners to taste.

Once you've made tea from your plants, don't discard the tea leaves. You can get even more use out of them by using tea leaves in the garden, for example by adding them to compost.

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