Plants for Cubicles?

Frank of Earth asks: "Our company recently moved to a new location and I was lucky enough to get a cube with a window. Now that I actually can benefit from sunshine, I thought it would be cool to grow something in a potted container. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on growing plants in your cube. Most of the indoor plant growing topics I found are related to illegal types of plant growing you do in your closet. What types of plants make good cube plants with a geek flare? Rather than just growing a boring spider plant, I would like to grow something cool like a fruit or vegetable. If you've had experience growing something unique, please post your thoughts!" What kind of plant would you grow in your cubicle?

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

[panker]

A Chia Head [buying-chia-pets.com] would be interesting in a cubicle. And it would be the source of lots of discussion. Or, how about an underwater plant [watergardenweb.com]? Or one of those dirtless air plants [mgonline.com]? Or some wheatgrass [wheatgrasskits.com].

I grow mold all the time, but nobody seems to be interested or impressed.

Bamboo or Sprouts

[CsiDano]

A buddy of mine who happens to be a programmer grows alfalfa sprouts in his window, they are easy to care for and he uses one of those busboy trays like in a restraunt as a planter. Also he has a really nice beer glass filled with nice stones and water and stuck some bamboo into it, then these nice offshoots grow from the sticks.

Something hardy

[JoeD]

Find something that can thrive on neglect.

I like jade plants [tamu.edu]. They're very long-lived, and don't require much care beyond watering every couple of weeks. When they get older, they start to look like miniature trees.

Re:Bonsai Tree

[orangesquid]

Try a bonsai kitten. ;)

OK, ok, you wanted fruits and vegetables---I would suggest peppers. They grow pretty quickly, aren't hard to grow, and you can use them in your lunches.

Also, you can cultivate morning glories. They're not actually illegal (it's just illegal to consume the seeds), and I'm sure once you have a batch of seeds, a few people will covertly approach you and ask to buy some seeds off of you. It's not illegal to sell seeds (as long as you don't know they're being used illicitly), so you'd be doing nothing wrong, and making money. However, I don't know how much space they take...

Zinnias!

[De Bas Meister]

I suggest growing zinnias [seedsofknowledge.com]. They're easy to grow, grow quickly, and turn out some darn impressive blooms. Plus, you can always use them to surprise coworkers of the opposite sex...

How about an ecosystem

[lukesky]

You can have your very own ecosystem, complete with water and fish. It will not need any care (only a little light), since the bowl is completely sealed.

http://www.gadgets.co.uk/eco-sphere-ecosphere-sh ri mp-ecosystem.html

I thought of buying one myself, just for the geekfactor.

pineapple

[joejor]

On my desk, I have a pineapple plant. You can start you own by saving the crown of any store-bought pineapple. Mine is growing hydroponically in a glass jar. The plant is very forgiving and can handle prolonged neglect. I've let my jar run dry up to a week.

Re:Start with some Basil....

[Houkster]

This is what came to my mind. I was thinking herbs to spice up you your lunch or tea. Maybe some mint. Another idea would be to get a strawberry pot with the multiple openings and see how many strawberries you can harvest for the year. One final option would be to setup some sort of salad garden in a box. That one might be interesting with leaf lettuce and some herbs to add to a vinegar and oil dressing.

A fern

[bluesourcecode]

They are uniquely beautiful plants, they live a long time, require little maintenance. They are also quite adaptable when it comes to amount of sunlight.

Of course, if you have some room and really want a conversation starter, grab yourself a "Laurier" [google.ca] (not sure of the english name). Its quite an impressive plant. Mine is 6 feet tall and lives with about 3 hours of direct sunlight+rest of the day in shade.

As a rule of thumb, avoid any plant which requires constant or high humidity, since the windows will most likely trigger variations (sunlight/aircurrent/heating) when you are not there (weekend/vacations). However, anything with a big, unexposed pot will be able to fare better ,even when the plant is in exposed conditions.

Upside-down tomato garden

[autarkeia]

I saw this upside-down tomato garden [hammacher.com] on a recent flight in SkyMall and thought it looked pretty cool. The tomato plants grow downwards and then you can plant something else on top. It's rather large, but I think it's rather unusual and is the ideal geek planter.

bonsai

[Glog]

If you want to be original I'd suggest adding a bonsai to the cubicle farm. You can get as geeky as you want with it - there is lots to learn about bonsai care and it might even make a nice hobby when you are not dealing with IT stuff.