And I thought I was being strange for enjoying the pepper seeds!! LOL
Beauty is in the eye, right?
<Chuckles>
Beauty is in the eye, right?
<Chuckles>
Mmmmmm......... green onions!
Looks Good, The only thing I have left, is Lettuce, carrots & green onions
I agree, Love those green onions. I'd be lost without onions and Tony's they go in just about everything I cook !!
Mmmmmm......... green onions!
I do have a control bucket. My float is in a small tote over near my hose bib. My control bucket is closer to the actual plants so that when I add fertilizer to it the water doesn't have to wander down 50 ' of hose to get to the first plant. I drilled a hole about 3" up from the bottom and this seems to work really well at letting the excess water escape when it rains a lot.
That looks awesome, I'm Jealous. I'm a but surprised you don't have a control bucket. How often do you water and do you replace the soil each year?
Do you do anything from seed! I'm thinking of starting from seed and setting up some grow lights for 2016.
- The only thing that I still have alive (not growing but alive) is some herbs, lettuce and carrots, although the carrots are still growing a tad.
- The parsley has been great, I didn't realize how nice of a spice this is fresh, has a nice mellow pepper flavor.
I do have a control bucket. My float is in a small tote over near my hose bib. My control bucket is closer to the actual plants so that when I add fertilizer to it the water doesn't have to wander down 50 ' of hose to get to the first plant. I drilled a hole about 3" up from the bottom and this seems to work really well at letting the excess water escape when it rains a lot.
Gotcha!
I would like to get my system off of city water and use rain water. A barrel or two that can hold a couple hundred gallons and let gravity do the work. My system would be completely off the grid then. Maybe I can get that done this year.
Depending on how many plants, how big they are, and how heavily they feed - I usually put fertilizer (Master Blend) in the control bucket so that it's the equivalent of mixing up 2-3 gallons of solution every day or two. I fertilize from the top with different things about every week while sometimes giving them a break by skipping a week - Texas Tomato Food is great stuff as well, extra epsom salt for peppers, extra calcium nitrate for green leafy stuff, etc.
I start quite a bit from seed. The wife won't give me that much room to do it inside, but I do what I can. Here is the light I use:
link
It's a 4' foot grow light with 4 T5 bulbs. It costs about $85 delivered and puts out a lot of light. It is a basic model but it has worked great for me plus the 4 bulbs are included which saves you $40 right there! They also have a 2' model for $20-$25 bucks less.
Almost bought that light, this will be my first year growing seedlings... well growing seedlings the right way. lol.
Here is what I will be planting from seed this year
Cold Crops
- Marigold February13th
- Gerbera Daisy (only had a few fertile seeds)
- Tomato, Mortgage Lifter HEIRLOOM February13th
- Tomato, Brandywine Red (Potato Leaf) HEIRLOOM February13th
- Eggplant, Black Beauty HEIRLOOM February13th
- Eggplant, Meatball Hybrid February13th
- Pepper, Hot, Anaheim Chili HEIRLOOM February6th
- Pepper, Sweet California Wonder HEIRLOOM February6th
- Pepper, Hot, Tabasco HEIRLOOM February13th
- Squash, Summer, Sure Thing Zucchini Hybrid
- Garden Bean (Bush)
- Sugar Daddy Pea (Vine)
- Parris Island Romaine Lettuce
- Iceberg Lettuce HEIRLOOM
- Spinach Big Ruffles Hybrid
- Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
- Black Seeded Simpson
My house is full of family right now, but I'll get started with my seeds in a few weeks. I'm giving big heirloom tomatoes a try for the first time this year as well. I settled on Cherokee Purple and Brandywine. We have lots of diseases and fungi that like to attack tomatoes down here, so I'll see how it goes. I have had good luck with big beef here.
My first for Heirlooms as well, plan on harvesting seeds this grow as well.
Delicious looking roast there! Just put a 14 lbs packer brisket on the smoker - hot and fast to 170, cover and should be ready for supper this evening.
After I complete my grow station I'll post the finished product.
Sure I'll try them!
You listing your plantings made me think about a tomato plant - Matt's wild cherry. It is supposedly an old school breed from Mexico that some guy named Matt re-discovered on a visit to Mexico and then marketed. Who knows? Anyway, the fruit is about the size of a marble (the small ones we played with when we were kids) and they have an amazing tomato flavor. Last year was the first year that I attempted to save seeds, but it was also the first time that I tried fermenting tomato seeds. They may work, they may not. I don't know yet. I'll send you a few if you want to try them.
It's been so warm down here that I may try and over winter some of my pepper plants outdoors. We are still in the mid 80's and will be for the next week or so. We normally have a few freezes in December which kills everything. I have tomato plants that are still sending out suckers. I can usually plant them in early March and cover them if there is a late freeze. Heck, I'm 60 days from that so I'm thinking of just rooting the suckers and having some good sized plants come March. I love learning new things and trying different stuff.
With regard to the soil in the buckets... I have no clue. What I have done up to this point is dump it into a trashcan when a plant is finished. I chop it up with a shovel, add bone meal and lime, mix it with some new peat moss and vermiculite, then put it back in a bucket and add some worms. I am lucky that I can dig worms from my back yard. I think they eat up the old roots and leave good poop behind.
I wish I had the space for a grow station. My little area is a corner of computer room. It works, but I would like to have a table size deal like you.
Sure I'll try them!
90% finished my Grow Station, just waiting on a few more parts. Blew out an LED strip and ordered another one.
Gonna plant some spinach and Black Seeded Simpson tonight for a trial run, making a wicking planter with a soilless potting mix.
My seedlings will most likely be started in Rockwool beings that for the most part will be dropped in my Deep water culture and Aquaponics setup. I wil be doing some in soil as well.
Still playing around with these survivors, got them on 16 hours of light.
I also tried pruning last year with great success.
Any ideas why my Black Beauties turned yellow? this happened with my soil plants and deep water culture plants.
They were looking good until we got a lot of heat high 90's
I threw together a wicking planter for a trial run of some winter crops, if this works out I'll make 2 more and grow some greens and radishes in the winter. . I picked up 2 Sterilite containers at Home depot for under $5.00 each, they will fit inside each other, one will be the wicking container and one will be the reservoir. I really wanted to have an opaque reservoir but couldnt find the right size containers in containers like the the Rubbermaid or Husky containers, if there is an issue, I'll wrap in some reflectix.
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