basil

It’s Fun to Soil, But Fun Has To End

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We concluded our indoor tents bot the hydroponic and the soil tent.  The soil tent did very well for it’s inception but there are a few things that I will need to change when I move forward for next year’s tent.  In my tent we planted squash, basil, cherry tomatoes, radish, carrot, beans, and some peppers.

Again, the fun thing, for me personally, is just to see the difference in the season.  Our all organic approach worked well but it kept clogging up the emitters because of the worm castings.

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Over the course of the time the tent was up, we pulled whatever vegetables and fruits we needed but there are some things definitely worth mentioning that were fun.

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The squash seemed to do well in the soil and we harvested on the plant several times but over time, because of the footprint of the squash, it started to take up lots of space so… we decided to see if the squash would go vertical.  We added a soft netting for it to climb and amazingly, it didn’t argue much with the process and kept giving off more flowers which we fertilized and harvested when we were able to do so.

Overall, there are a few things that I will need to improve and do differently but the tent was a success because we were able to harvest vegetables, herbs and fruit from it during the indoor season.  That’s the bottom line.

Here are some bragging pictures:

 

Week 5 Oh My, Squash!

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Over the last week, a lot has happened in the soil tent.

The fertilizer regimen has a boost in some of the reagents that includes quite a bit of calcium and magnesium which has given a great boost to most of the plants, but most notably the squash which now have small squash and more flowers.

 

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We had to “rope up” the squash because they were taking over quite a bit of room and the peppers were not getting the light that they require, especially my poor little jalapeno that is already quite small and was planted late.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bush beans are doing well and growing and because of this, I had to string up both of the plants in order to expand the plant.  Hopefully they will fill out, continue to grow more foliage and keep sprouting beans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Early Girl tomato seems a little more wilty than I like, but the base of the plant is thick and strong and over the course of the last week has developed some flowers, so that is a positive thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did prune a little bit off of the bottom of the plant so I hope that helps over the next week.

 

The bell peppers are doing well.  The small jalapeno pepper is still hanging in there so as long as it seems to want to grow, I will just let it be until it no longer wants to stick around.  Hopefully it will take off at some point.

 

 

The basil in the soil tent is not doing as well as it is in the hydroponic tent insofar as the height and girth of the stem; however, it’s much more aromatic in the soil tent than it is in the hydroponic tent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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To be honest, I am not sure if the carrots are really doing that well or not, but I will just let them keep going and see how they do.  The radish are all done growing at this point so It’s time to either plant something in their place or to plant more radish (which is what I will most likely do at this point given that they did well this last run).

 

Week 4 Indoor Vegetable Progress and Mods

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In a better effort to streamline our weekly clean out process, We made some adjustments.

 

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A drain valve was added to the 10 gallon tank.

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A 1/2 inch tube was then connected and an on/off valve was added so that when the weekly fertilizer draining and washout takes place, I don’t have to carry the tank across the room to the sump pump.

 

 

 

 

 

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On the way to the sump pump another junction was added to the tube in front of the tent itself with another on/off valve connected to the drip pan located under the soil structure itself.

 

Previously we had been catching the overflow in an aluminum pan and dumping it every night.  This way, it will dump into the drip tray and automatically drain out to the sump pump in the same tube.

This new streamline method really helps with the weekly change-outs.

The soil tent seems to be responding well to the fertilizer system that I have been product testing this time.20180211_203523.jpg

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The squash are thriving well and have small flower buds.

 

 

 

 

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The beans are doing exceptionally well and have quite a number of flowers!

 

 

 

 

 

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We just planted an extra jalapeno pepper plant in the soil tent and it’s slightly stunted; however, this last week it has shown some signs of life by growing a small set of secondary leaves which is great progress as peppers grow relatively slow.

 

 

Below is a overall picture of our pepper row, the first and second peppers are both bell peppers which are doing extremely well, the third is the jalapeno (seen above).

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Our tomato plant is doing very well as well, but does not have any flowers as of yet. The stalk of the plant is relatively thick even thought the plant seems slightly small.

 

 

 

 

 

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The basil is growing slow.  It does have a nice odor and wonderful color but it’s counterpart in the hydroponic tent is probably twice the size of the one in the soil tent which tells me that I have to do a little research and figure out the differences between the two tents at this stage.

 

 

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Our radish will be ready to be picked within a week to two weeks!  The carrots are growing at a great rate.

 

 

 

Here is the overall picture of the tent for week 4:

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The Peppers Are In! Week 2

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Patience is a virtue.

When it comes to plants, being patience pays off.

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The peppers have sprouted!

They look great and so very healthy.

Most of them were root-bound which is great for replanting!

 

 

 

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The rubric has changed… again.

We added squash to our hydro-tent as an experiment.  We just wanted to see how it would do, plus it was an extra that grew and it wouldn’t be right to just put it out in the cold, plus we had some duds so we had the room.

 

A new look at the plants and how they have grown for week 2 (don’t be alarmed about the white powder on top of the baskets.  It’s Diatomaceous Earth which is used simply as a precautionary preemptive measure)…

Tags are from Left to right, as the plants get bigger it will be easier to distinguish one from another:

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*Brussels Sprouts                   /               Anaheim Pepper                  /              Cucumber
*(barely visible but they are there!)

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Jalapeno Peppers         /                Habanero Peppers          /     Sweet Banana Peppers

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Snap Peas             /           Anaheim Peppers                    /         **Bush Bean
**(it was an extra from the soil tent)

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Porterhouse Tomato         /                      Summer Squash                  /       Giant Bell Pepper

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Opal Basil                 /            ***Place Holder                   /         Monster Bell Pepper
***(this place holder is to give the squash room to grow)

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Cherry Tomato               /                             Multiple types of Lettuce Box

 

Hydroponics! Better Late Than Never!

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FINALLY!

20180128_210910.jpgWe changed a few things from our original charted rubric, it’s not a huge change, just some vegetable changes because we had a few extra sprouts of basil and bush beans.

 

*** this rubric is subject to change at any point as the amount of space needed may vary if more plants are put in the “vacant place holder” spaces.

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Our sprout-lets let us know that they were ready to go into the hydro tent so we obliged.  The peppers are, of course, taking their time so we did not plant any of those because we are waiting for them to break the surface, but everything else has come up.

 

 

 

Here is an overview picture of our tent with the baskets:

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Here are some baskets with sprouts, we filled up the reservoir and added our first set of nutrients.  We flooded the table for a bit just to get the plant’s roots wet and get them settled a bit in their new homes with the hydrocorn (things tend to shift after they are placed in the baskets).  The timer is currently set for a 16 hour time cycle just like the soil tent.  The water reservoir is set for 5 cycles per day currently and will be scaled back once the roots establish and the plants grow some.

They are hard to see, but I promise our little anemic plants are there in the big wide world of hydrocorn pellets.

 

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Top Row:
Brussels Sprouts/Vacant/Cucumbers

Middle Row:
Peppers (Not Yet Planted, NYP)

Bottom Row:
Peas/Pepper (NYP)/Bush Bean

 

 

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Top Row:
Porterhouse Tomato/Vacant/Bell Pepper (NYP)

Middle Row:
Basil/Peppers (NYP)

Bottom Row:
Cherry Tomato/Lettuce types

 

The lettuce box was established…

So what we have here is (from left to right):

20180129_212551Romaine / Burpee Bibb / Grand Rapids / Buttercrunch / Red Romaine

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Based on how the lettuce box grew last year, I am sure that we should have quite a nice flourishing crop this year.

 

Day 1 Soil 2018 Season

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Today we started the seedlings for the indoor soil garden:

 

As you can see by the above list, starter seeds were planted for squash, bell peppers, tomatoes, beans and basil. We will also be planting carrots, beets and radish.

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The new structure for the tent was placed in the tent and we finished purchasing the last of the pieces for the irrigation system and fertilizer set up.  This year I will be experimenting with new products.

 

Winter 2017 Indoor Soil Garden, Day 19

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So, Awesome things have been brewing in the indoor garden!  Here are my update pictures:

Each of the potters have grown so much.  Unfortunately, I am still waiting for my lavender to sprout, but it will soon, I am sure.

The white powder on the top of the potters is diatomaceous earth to keep away the gnats that were in the tent.

 

The left side is yellow onion, the right side is red onion:

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Grand Rapids Lettuce on the left, Radishes on the Right:WIN_20170331_17_04_39_Pro

Raab Broccoli on the left, Black Opal Basil on the right:WIN_20170331_17_05_16_Pro

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Turnip on the left, Kohlrabi on the right:

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Beets on the left, Carrots on the right:

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The Navel Orange has been accruing new growth.

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It dropped some of it’s flowers and some of the fruit, but it’s supposed to drop what it does not feel is healthy to flourish.

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There are still over a dozen oranges left on the tree.

WIN_20170331_17_04_13_ProThe potato bucket has flourished!  All of the sproutlets have developed very nicely.  In a few days I will cover the spoutlets with more soil and wait for them to continue to grow.  As the potatoes grow vertically, they will put out more potatoes in the bottom of the bucket horizontally.  Within about a month, there will be potatoes to pick and harvest from the bottom of the bucket where I cut the holes.