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:

Week 4 Indoor Vegetable Progress and Mods

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.

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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!

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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Week 3 New Growth Update

Hey Everyone, this is a basic update for the soil tent. It’s week 3 and a few things have transpired over the course of the week.

First,I added a product to our filter to keep the worm castings from getting into the lines from the nutrition mixture.

It’s a basic white mesh bag which just goes around the filter allowing it to work, but keep out debris.

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Second, one of the bell peppers was not coming up so I replaced it with a Jalapeno pepper that we had grown as an extra for the ebb and flow hydroponic table.

The soil tent is growing great! Here are some bragging pictures. The plants are growing so beautifully:

2018 Water Delivery Drip System Setup

FINALLY, NO MORE HAND WATERING!

With the new setup, a water drip system was developed for the soil tent. Here are the components we used:

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The white reservoir is a 10 gallon holding tank. Inside of the tank will be a submersible water pump for the water distribution and an oxygen pump with stones connected to aerate the water. This is in an effort to keep down algae and nutrients in the water from settling.

Connected to the white water reservoir is 3/4in tubing which has been directed up through a hole and then down to each of the tiers of the box. There is an on/off valve connected to each tier for both water flow control and also for any issues which may arise in the event of any blow outs or leakage problems.

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For the actual water delivery, spaghetti tubing will be directed to each plant with a disk that outputs a specific amount of water per hour, or with those plants such as radish and carrot, there is a unidirectional broadcast head that will distribute water in the same method. Each shown in the picture was placed in the box to pressure test for leaks and double check the rate of delivery for each disk.

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The green disk (the light makes it look black, but it is really green) provides water at a rate of 2/gal per hour.

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The black disk provides water at a rate of 1/gal per hour.

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The red disk provides water at a rate of .5/gal per hour.

Overall, I may use the red emitters more than the others, but each has it’s own benefits depending on the plant and its water requirements.

Baby Dragon Homesteading

Learning New Things Each and Every Day

soil tent