It’s Fun to Soil, But Fun Has To End

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.

From this————————-To this:

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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:

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

Hydroponics! Better Late Than Never!

FINALLY!

We 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.

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:

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

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):

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

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

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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SPRING IS COMING!

It’s that time of year again! Time to prep for the outdoor garden. Our seedlings need to get in the planter so that they can germinate for the upcoming season.

This is this year’s line-up:

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

There are still a few other things that still need to be planted but, this is the bulk of the garden and will be the starter of the garden in a few weeks.

Baby Dragon Homesteading

Learning New Things Each and Every Day

peppers