End of the season update!

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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:

 

 

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

 

Week 2 Indoor Soil Tent Progress

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I followed the first week schedule for the Roots Organics feeding system and found that the worm castings in the Buddha Grow product settled in the bottom of our reservoir.  The worm casting sludge is not a big deal, but does make for a messy cleanup from week to week when I change out the water and re-fertilize the plants for the next week.  Overall, I will have to make sure to check the water feed lines well just in case they get clogged with the worm castings during their daily watering.  Midway through the week I found that I had to add water to my reservoir, which I find to be serendipitous as I had planned to water down the reservoir halfway through the week in order to start flushing for the new additives by the time the fertilizer change out is to occur regardless.  Currently, the timers are set to water once per day.

The light timers are currently set for 16 hours per day during the vegetative cycle.  We could leave the lights on for a 24 hour cycle, but the lights are set for 16 hour cycles so that the plants are not too freaked out when the change over to a 12 hour light cycle happens during the bloom cycle.

The plants seem to be thriving well, so without further ado, here are some wonderful bragging pictures from the top of the soil structure to bottom:

Squash(s)

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Early Girl Tomato

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 Bell Peppers, both Monster Bell and Green Bell

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Opal Basil

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   Radishes

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  Carrots!!!

(they just decided to come up so while they are teeny tiny in the picture, they are actually pretty big for only having been up a few days)

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