End of the season update!

One of my favorite things about gardening in general is the progress that can be seen from week to week.

We are at the end of our growing season which we extended a bit by using water flushes intermittently throughout the fertilizer cycle.

It’s pretty amazing to think that in only a few weeks/months that a garden can go from this:

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to this:

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Over the course of the growing season we have made more notes and developed a new game plan for the 2018/2019 growing season which will be discussed in the reflections page.

We had one real good harvest for the lettuce this year but it seemed as if once they were cut once for the initial harvest, the rest of the crop bolted, but at least we were able to get one good harvest:

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Surprisingly squash grow well; however, because of the real estate one plant takes up in the tent we will probably not do the squash again but it was good for an experiment for sure. We were able to get quite a number of squash from this indoor season; although, some were not viable as they seemed to become waterlogged. I have deduced that their condition may be due to the hydroponic tent as the squash from the soil tent did not seem to have the same problem:

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The peas grew and grew and grew and grew but for some reason they did not throw any pods until almost the end of the fertilizer cycle. The plants were very very happy just like last year but not as fruitful. The same thing happened with the cucumbers.

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The cucumbers did well insofar as growing vines; however, the plant kept throwing off only male flowers. There were very few female flowers and the ones that did bloom seemed to fall off very quickly when fertilized and the small growth would wilt and die which, when trying to harvest fruit does not work too well.

When we needed veggies or fruits we would just pick them from the vines or plants so here are some pictures of our season long bounty from the gardens:

Week 5 Oh My, Squash!

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).

Comparing Weeks 3 and 4 Progress

Over the course of week 3 and 4, a foliar mist has been added to the overall regimen.

There have been quite a few growth changes over the course of the few weeks.

Peas week 3

peas week 4

The snap peas are climbing the trellis rapidly so we have had to re-direct them several times. The direct comparison is very apparent between the two pictures:

With respect to the bush rojas beans, over the course of weeks 3 and 4, there are several beans which have sprouted and the plant has almost doubled in size:

Bean week 3

Bean week 4

Sweet Banana comparison between weeks 3 and 4. By week 4 the leaves are now above the pot.

Sweet banana pepper week 3

Sweet banana pepper week 4

The habaneros are slow going, but seem to be regardless of whether they are indoors or outdoors. Last year, the peppers were very small in the hydroponic tent but they seemed to be super spicy, moreso than the peppers that we were used to harvesting from the outdoor garden.

Habanero week 3

Habanero week 4

The jalapenos have doubled in size over the last week.

Jalapeno week 3

Jalapeno week 4

The Brussels sprouts are bushing out very well.

Brussels sprouts week 3

Brussels sprouts week 4

The cucumbers have finally started to develop feelers of their own and have also started to grow some flowers. Once they get bigger and have more flowers, I will be able to add a section on flowers and indoor plant pollination which gets really tricky with some plants such as the cucumbers and the tomatoes.

Cucumbers week 3

Cucumbers week 4

We have two types of bell peppers in the garden. Monster bell and giant bell. Both of which are showing about the same amount of growth during the two weeks, seen below…

Giant Bell week 3

Monster Bell week 3

Monster Bell week 4

Giant Bell Week 4

The squash plant that was a volunteer that we threw in the tent just to see what would happen is definitely flourishing!

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There are two type of tomato in the garden. We have noticed, with respect to the tomato plants, that the tomatoes that are to produce larger tomatoes, they seem to not do quite as well as the cherry tomatoes. This is the same problem that we had last year when trying to grow tomatoes as well.

Porterhouse tomato week 3

Porterhouse tomato week 4

Cherry tomato week 3

Cherry tomato week 4

The Cherry tomato have flowers on them; however, as wonderful as it is, I had to prune some of those branches off of the plant because they were sucking energy from the plant without any benefit as they were lower branches. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Opal Basil has grown faster in the hydroponic tent than in the soil tent but does not seem to be as aromatic as in the soil tent.

Basil week 3

Basil week 4

Last but not least, the lettuce box. I harvested the lettuce from it because it was beginning to bolt. We will see if any of them grow back and if not, I will plant more. They grow really fast.

Lettuce Box week 3

Lettuce box week 4

The Peppers Are In! Week 2

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:

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

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Jalapeno Peppers / Habanero Peppers / Sweet Banana Peppers

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

Porterhouse Tomato / Summer Squash / Giant Bell Pepper

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

Cherry Tomato / Multiple types of Lettuce Box

Day 1 Soil 2018 Season

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.

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.

Outdoor Garden Progress, Day 18

It’s almost planting day, but not yet… we are anticipating planting on Earth Day (April 22).

So, without further ado, here is our outdoor garden… again. ~18 days after planting (plus the grid, again):

The peppers are a little slow and stout but generally they take longer to germinate, so it’s expected. Most everything in this big planter is up, so it will be ready to plant when the time is right.

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The below seedlings actually went into the tent for germination about a week after the original batch so they are still catching up but still doing quite well.

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The medium sized sunflowers are still having a little trouble, but I let them get a little dry last week, so hopefully they will catch up; however, the 5′-7′ flowers are all up and ready to go.

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