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 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:

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.

2018 Winter Outdoor Soil Experiment

The beginnings of our soil “experiment” start with our planter boxes which we had already established a few years ago and installed irrigation set-ups in each box (smartest thing we did in that garden!). For now, just because this is new for us, we are only using one planter box to see how well it works.

We purchased greenhouse domes made by Outsunny which fit our box which measures approximately 8’x4′. Rory and Chewy really wanted to be in the photo. We added a little peat moss in and tilled the soil (yes, I know, gasp… we should be turning it by hand with a shovel, but to be fair, it’s winter and soil tends to be hard.)

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The basic of outdoor plants that we, in our household consume were planted
(in order from left to right):

Peas
Brussels Sprouts
Broccoli
Beets
Acorn Squash
Onion (red and yellow, planted throughout the whole garden).

As the season progresses, updates will be posted.

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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Outdoor Garden Progress, Day 5

We have had the sprouts under a T5 fluorescent light for 5 days now. As I thought, the seeds are sprouting wonderfully! Most of the peppers are taking their time, but for the most part, the other plants are up and running!

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Left Side:

Right Side: WIN_20170331_17_06_36_Pro

Winter 2017 Indoor Soil Garden, Day 19

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:

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

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

Buttercrunch lettuce:

Turnip on the left, Kohlrabi on the right:

Beets on the left, Carrots on the right:

The Navel Orange has been accruing new growth.

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.

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

The 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.

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.

Winter 2017 Indoor Soil Garden, Day 6

Today I lightly watered all of the plants and put the miniature red potatoes on the top rack so that they can start rooting. Once they start rooting, I will begin a potato bucket. I have never done this before so it will be an experience for sure!

I will be doing this for both miniature red potatoes and russet potatoes.

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The turnip and kohlrabi are flourishing!

I thinned out the sprouts today.

The beets have decided to make an appearance, right on time (germination time between 5 to 10 days) and are doing very well. I thinned them out.

The Buttercrunch lettuce finally made an appearance! Right on time as well (germination time between 5 to 10 days).

The Rapini (or) Raab Broccoli is doing very well, especially for being early! I thinned it out.

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The radishes and Grand Rapids lettuce is doing well and I thinned them both out.

The Winter 2017 Indoor Soil Garden’s Genesis

I began my soil garden on March 11.

It was completely on a whim. I was in HTG Supply picking up some stuff for the garden and decided, well, rooted vegetables sound like a great idea.

The thought was as simple as that.

At this point it is too cold to start the outdoor garden so, it made sense.

The soil tent started to take shape and the first seeds were planted on March 11th. While I was at it, I also purchased a navel orange tree. I wanted to see how it would do in the tent along with the other items. The soil I used was the MiracleGro plant soil.

I used regular tap water to water the plants.

This is the final set up of the tent on March 12th.