June 2007

Weekend Update - Fruits of my Labo(u)rs and a Wet Deviation

No signs of flowers yet, but the upsidedown tomato plant's still growing. The main drawbacks of this experiment so far are: 1) Needs Frequent Watering and 2) Can Get Overheated. Was a bit wilty on a very hot day, a couple of days ago. Once it was moved to a shadier spot and given a good drink, it was fine. Upside Down Tomato Planters are still a space saver if you have just a patio, and slugs just look up and scratch their antennae.

Ok, it's hard to see in this picture. The "Window Box Roma" is beginning to bear fruit around my Japanese Tomato Ring, and I may have mis-tagged the "Black Prince" in the background, as it's fruit is looking a lot like it's neighbor. Time will tell, so stay tuned. I took my moisture meter and tested the soil around the plants, and though the garden was on about a "3" (on a scale from 1-10), the soil around the JTR was metered out consistantly at 8. I water the JTR's with a five gallon bucket, slowly pouring one bucket into the center of the ring every day or so.

After spraying with a garlic mixture (2 Tbs Dishwashing Detergent, 2 Tbs cooking oil, 1 crushed clove garlic, 1 quart water, set in the sun for a day), the beetles were "legs up". Odd little things, they have a clear shell with brown blotches - wish I'd taken pictures of it - it was on my microscope plate last night, "dead as a doornail" - really. Must have been a big wind, or a bug eating ghostie in our addition, 'cause it's nowhere to be found today. Haven't seen any more of them - but if I do, I'll be sure to take a picure before it disappears.
The Potato Bags have been filled twice since the last picture, with compost, then with straw.

I'm continuing to experiment with hydroponics as well. Here's a piece of styrofoam with 1/3" wedges cut out lengthwise, and "wicks" (cotton rope with polyester core) stretched and held down inside them. Each one is about 1-1/2" apart. This will be the first part of my "hydro-wickie sandwich", that will lay in the growing medium.

Here's the top view. Used a kitchen knife to cut 45 degree wedges out of the 1" styro, and added a 1/2" cut along the edge to hold the ends of the wicks in place.

Sitting on top will be another piece of styro, the rings drawn on the top are 3" diameter, the lines coincide with the wicks below. Holes will be drilled or cut out in the center of these rings for putting a "soil-less medium" (anything from rockwool to peatmoss to paper towels, the last being the most handy), and the plants. Any non-root crop that can be grown in a 3" diameter area should suffice (ie: lettuce, brocolli, etc., not carrots, radish). Found I had mixed results with the cup arrangement - they'd frequently get too wet.

Weekend Update 2007-06-23

 Oops - Forgot this one last time - it's hanging on it's own hook now. It's fighting gravity and winning at the moment. Hoping to have some flowers and tomatoes within a few weeks.

 The Japanese Tomato Ring tomatoes are starting to blossom. They're still smaller in height and "slower" than the ones in containers. The difference being that the container tomatoes are in potting soil (Miracle-Gro brand), and are aided with some time-release fertilizer as mentioned before. The garden tomatoes are smaller still.

 I'te getting crowded in here! There's also a lttle beetle that I've been looking for on google and so far haven't found. Thought it was a bird dropping on the leaf, but when I tried to flick it off with a stick, it raised up and moved... Next time I see them (if I haven't wiped them out with my organic mint spray - a neurotoxin for most insects), I'll photograph them and put them in a bottle for safe keeping...

 There are the the Matt's Wild cherry tomatoes that were in the hydroponic solution. Both doing fine, the bottles have timed-release fertilizer in them, and that's where I water them.

Beyond that, the strawberries I'd gotten via freecycle.org last year are bearing fruit. Friends of ours also told us to make three beds: one for this year's strawberries, one for this year's runners, and one for the third year's runners, rotating back to the first, since the berries will get smaller and smaller.
Asparagus is "ferning", hope to have a grand harvest in a couple of years, and will continue to enjoy the sparse crop from the three I'd started from seed three years ago.
The rest of the garden's growing and blooming, and the compost heap has so many pumpkin starts that I may begin to give them away too, or put them in where I haven't started anything yet.

Weekend update for 2007-06-16: Feel the Burn, and Straw Bale Gardening link

 Added more hay around the potatoes, finding something's nibbling on the leaves, so I've drenched them with a mixture of 1 gallon of water, 2 tbs vegetable oil, 1 tsp dish soap and 2 tsp scotch bonnet (hot pepper), let it set for a day in the sun then strained. Hope that does the trick. They're all looking well, including the ones in the ground.

 They just keep growing - though oddly slower than the ones in containers. The containered tomato plants are getting some of the fertilizer from the plastic coffee "can" that's in the containers, where I put some timed release fertilizer (about 2 tablespoons worth), so when the water pours through, it feeds the plant. The holes are about 1/2" above the bottom of the can, so water always sits in there. Been watering every 2-3 days. Fruit is also starting to set on the containered plants, while these are now starting to flower, and the ones in the garden are looking sickly.

 The LED tomatoes are out in the garden, though I learned first hand why you don't put them straight out: the sunny weather we had burned the leaves.

 The white wilted look means that I did these plants a dis-service by putting them straight out. Most if not all of the others had a time in the back yard with indirect sun before being planted, and are doing quite nicely. Nothing like first-hand experience to make a point.

Straw Bale Gardening is something I ran across while looking for some more companion plants. Sounds interesting enough that I may try it on an area that I eventually wish to make a raised bed: "...Straw bale gardening is an interesting option for those who have either limited soil, limited space or have difficulty bending over. I’ve used straw bale gardening and found it productive although I note that commercial grower recommendations tend to use fertilizer more than I currently enjoy doing. More on that below. ..." Link

Weekend Update for 2007-06-11

Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato plants are almost touching the tubes, so they've got to find an alternative "tank" - possibly a small one sunk into the garden will work. Hoping the sun will make them grow even larger, too. The broccoli is not doing well, have found that the media (peat pot) is too wet for germination.

The second hydroponics tank is a slight change from the first one, as we're using translucent cups just barely below the water. They're currently sitting above the water on another piece of styro, because the brocolli in the first tank is not sprouting. Seems it's too wet, as these are sprouting.

 The tomatoes are all liking the Japanese Tomato Ring, despite some cold nights and less than ideal weather. They're all still ugly, though they are compacting some now. Still would cover them over inside with a large black plastic bag, or a large leaf bag so the - er - contents aren't visible. I'm "grooming" the one's pictured by minimizing t8he leaf branches and suckers, while the other one I'm just removing the suckers. The tomato plants in the garden are looking sickly compared to these.

The Potato Bag experiment is going well, the first ones are growing and just about the right height (6-8") to add some hay or compost to cover them up some more. The 2nd and 3rd bags are starting to show, as are the ones just planted in the ground.

This is the second attempt at my upside-down tomato plant using a plastic coffee can. If I can keep the kids from touching it, or move it out of reach before they do, I may have a crop of cherry tomatoes "cascading down from the planter". Further searches have turned up that upside-down may have smaller yields, but it is a space saver. Should also work well indoors if I can find a sunny or well-lit place for them.

Depestication

Anything that crawls, creeps, walks or flies wants to eat your hard work. It's not that they want to make your garden look bad, they're just hungry. And so are their relatives. Though there's no cell phones in the bug and varmint world, they've got other ways of googling for food. The flying insects have the bird's eye view, and can distinguish the shapes of leaves and crops quite well - especially if the pattern is repeated:

yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yucky
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yucky
yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yucky

Perhaps a little too subtle for a morning read, but you can discern the good from the bad, and there's plenty of it!

yuck yucky yuck yuck yum yucky yum yum yuck yum yum yuck yuck yum yucky yum yuck
yuck yum yuck yum yum yuck yum yum yuck yuck yum yum yuck yum yuck yuck yum yuck
yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum
yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck yum yuck

Better, though still visually so web 1.0 - some would say web 0.5 beta, but I digress.

yuck ick yum avoid yum bad yum danger yuck ick yum avoid yum bad yum danger yum
ick yum avoid yum bad yum danger yuck ick yum avoid yum bad yum danger yum yuck
yum avoid yum bad yum danger yum yuck danger yuck ick yum avoid yum bad yum bad
yuck ick yum avoid yum bad yum danger yuck ick yum avoid yum bad yum danger yum
yum avoid yum bad yum danger yum yuck danger yuck ick yum avoid yum bad yum bad
ick yum avoid yum bad yum danger yuck ick yum avoid yum bad yum danger yum yuck

Weekend Update for 2007-06-03

The Hydroponics tank has been cleared out, making way for some broccoli that wouldn't sprout under normal means. We're hoping it will do well in this, so I can put it out with the rest of the garden. Also interested to find out if it will work in this environment as well.

You can start experimenting with hydroponics using small 'round the house items like I have here: a Stonyfield Farms quart sized container, a 2" thick piece of styro from a computer box, some miracle-gro, a coffee cup and a peat pot. Matt's Wild Cherry Tomatoes seem to like this.

The Japanese Tomato Rings (JTR) or "Muffin Stands" as I'm calling them at the moment (they're UGly with a capital UG), have a full compliment of tomatoes around them, including "Window Box Roma", "Early Girl", "Beefsteak", and "Black Prince" heirloom. They've been looking a little better than the ones planted into the garden, so maybe there is something to these things. If only I could make them look like silos or somethig.

The "Potato Bag" is showing some green, I have to get some companion plants for them (anise or horseradish from what I've found so far). There are now three bags, and a small plot without the bag as another "control" If I can do without the bags, I will. A zippered bag would be nice, though. Maybe an old sleeping bag would work - just unzip it at the end of the season and out dumps the spuds! Hmmmm.

That's all for now, looking into eco-friendly pest remediation, though the only problem I've had so far have been the slugs, that have an affinity for old beer in small shallow containers - be sure they're not too deep, otherwise you'll drown the salamanders that eat the slugs, too.
'til the next update, drink your fluids!