Seeding and Thinking: How About Containers?

I've been thinking about what to do this Summer, our first Summer in our new house in Woodstock. I'd like to do a hydroponics system but I took a horrific fall in January which completely tore my right medial quad tendon (whatever that is, but it's important if you want to walk around). After the news from the MRI (neat pictures) I ended up going under the knife and now have this neato incision scar that runs from above my knee to below my knee over the top. That put me in a full leg brace for six weeks and I'm still working on physical therapy and can't walk up stairs except one step at a time.

So obviously hydroponics has not be my number one focus. Also we're planning to pour a cement backyard patio which is about where I'd tend to put a hydroponics system. So what I've decided to do is experiment with container gardening. I have a book named "Crops in Pots" and The Great Courses company has a video course on container gardening which I downloaded to my Kindle Fire HD (got it running which was awesome) and so now I'm an expert (well not really, but I did do some container gardening on the deck a couple of years ago).

 Meanwhile a friend from Pennsylvania, Stephen Haust was kind enough to send me some French Dona seeds. Those who have followed my adventures know how much I love the little French Dona hybrid tomatoes and my Totally Tomatoes folks where I would tend to buy my seeds stopped handling the Dona a couple of years ago. I got by with some old seeds but Stephen sent me some more recent ones. I just seeded them into some peat pots (usually I'd do it into rockwool cubes and feed them on a weak nutrient solution, but since I'm going to try to do containers this year I opted for some peat pots that I had lying around. I also bought some interesting plastic pots at Walmart which can be watered from the side.

I'll generate some pictures for you all soon. Meanwhile I have to watch all those Great Courses videos and read through that container gardening book. I always end up using some hydroponics nutrient to enrich the plants growing environment too and I'll tell you about that.

Starting to Think About Winter ...

Winter is design time. It's not Winter yet, but it's after Thanksgiving and people are starting to say Merry Christmas and that's a sure sign Winter is on the way. In the Wintertime I start thinking about what I'm going to do come the Spring. I just moved about 40 miles North from Harrisonburg, Virginia to Woodstock, Virginia. I have a little more property and a little less house not that I'm retired and have more time to putter around I'm discovering that I have way too many things to do.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo and finished by 50,000 words on the 25th but as usual the characters are not cooperating and the story still has a lot to go. So I'm still working on it. I'm hoping to finish it up so I'll actually have a novel to edit and trim up. Since this is a combination of the 50,000 + words I wrote in 2009 and the 50,000 + words I've written in 2012, I actually have the length of a pretty respectable novel. If the characters will cooperate I might be able to actually finish it in a few more days.

I'm also working to develop materials for Home Schooling parents. That's fun too. Then of course the wife, otherwise known as "She Who Must Be Obeyed" (SWMBO) is lobbying for me to actually arrange all the books and empty all the boxes that were moved a few months ago. They're all down in the basement not bothering anyone except her.

Then of course we're selling the other house.

Never a dull moment. But what about design time?

I'm actually thinking about building a nice compact little four hole system. The one tuber I was planning for 2012 never materialized due to the move and I tossed all the paraphernalia for the large stars, just too much work and too many tomatoes now that I'm retired. You might think it would go the other way and it probably would if I wanted to go into business, but I just want enough good tomatoes to make great sandwiches all Summer long.

Jessica (SWMBO)wants only big tomatoes. Her definition is when you cut a slice it covers a hamburger bun. So I have this system in mind. I'll just describe it, a drawing will come later when I'm in a drawing mood.

Trash can for a tank. On top of the tank a rectangular piece of something or other that is about 3' on the diagonal squarish with a plant site in each corner. The nutrient feed would come from a vertical manifold coming up from the tank and distributing the nutrient to each corner. Then the supports would be four vertical thin walled conduit verticals with crossed bracing at the top and strings dropped down. It would be compact and produce quite a few juicy tomatoes. It actually would not be too difficult to create a version with a few more plant sites.

I'll see how it looks when I get around to drawing it up. It's been wandering around in my imagination for a few weeks now. I guess I'll get more serious when Winter really gets here.

Vertical Farming In The Urban Maze

SEE HERE

Growing plants in crowded environments requires real planning but it can be fun and productive. HERE's MORE

The Crowded Stunted Tomatoes of 2012

I suppose this is what happens when your plans are messed up and the tomatoes just keep growing in the original container in one inch rockwool cubes. I've been keeping these twenty-one plants in this container since sometime in May I think and this is what happens to tomato plants that are crowded and fed hydroponics nutrients.

You do get tomatoes of course. Here are three and they are all about 3/4 of an ounce apiece. I've taken a whole five of these guys off the plants and there are more coming of course. Sliced up they actually look pretty good.

But of course they are tiny. You might be interested in what the roots look like. I've been putting nutrient onto the rockwool about once a day. The plants are healthy enough given their crowded conditions but the bottom line is that the tomatoes are very stunted. These were supposed to be three varieties of large tomatoes but the crowding clearly stunts their growth.

I'm going to keep them going. It's interesting just seeing what happens. Hydroponics is always an adventure and it's a great way to explore what happens with plants under various controlled conditions. This started out as a plan to grow big tomatoes but since we're moving it turned into an experiment in crowded conditions. The sliced tomatoes still tasted good with my morning omelet.

Float System Production of Lettuce

Float systems are really cool, but tend to be limited to low growing plants. I've grown a few herbs in float systems and using the small kiddie pool I did tomatoes a couple of years ago but I didn't solve the support problem very well.

Wicking Baskets: Pretty Cool!

This is a fun little video about building a kind of a wick system. It would not be difficult to transform this into a true hydroponics system by replacing the soil and the wicking material with passive medium and watering with hydroponics nutrients in the water. I'll have to try a design like this. It looks like it would likely beat the kind of wicking system I've used in the past.

The Mini Jungle Saga Continues — Tiny Tomatoes

Not sure what to do with this little mini-jungle that's been developing.  One problem is that it has now reached the point where it might be unsustainable since it's gobbling up nutrient at about a gallon a day, well maybe a smidge less.  If you forget to check the plants can get droopy really fast.  This afternoon I went to check that the rockwool was getting fairly dry (I must have forgotten to put nutrient on them yesterday) so I filled the tray and after a couple of hours they were back.  But I imagine that that kind of stress is not good for them.

Now they have little tomatoes on a lot of them, which makes them all that much more difficult to just sacrifice.  See picture.  Jessica found a bunch of pots and is lobbying to put them into pots.  That might work but the shock from separating the plants might be a problem.

I'm currently thinking of it as an experiment in plant crowding.  How's that for a rationale for screwing up?  It's also an experiment in just adding nutrient to rockwool without any flow.  The oxygenation doesn't seem as if it ought to be very good, but the plants don't look all that bad given the crowding and the sporadic watering.