Whatcha Growing?

[trapper]

planted lettuce and swiss chard outside in garden march11 coming up yesterday

[aigheadish]

I'm (well nature is) growing pond level rise! And we've got daffodils and bleeding heart coming up. It's supposed to get down into the mid 20s tomorrow night, we'll see what happens there. Also the phlox is coming in, that's one my favorites, though it's short lived.







Oh yeah, new light setup. It's amazing that the tomatoes stood straight up after only a few hours under non-leaning light. It feels like I need more light still. 

[doc henderson]

do you have a link to those lights.

[aigheadish]

Sure, but I'm not sure I'd suggest them. They were cheap, have several different light temps, and a 9, 12, 16 hour timer but they are probably pretty nice for shelving like 21 incher showed above. After getting them I find them a bit small for my setup, and of course I don't know how to measure, so my rack for hanging them was too small too. I should have gone with one/some of the bigger panels, I'm out of plant money right now, but I felt like the work lights seen at the top of the picture weren't good enough. Next up is starting to thin out stuff! The tomatoes are going bonkers! 

https://a.co/d/1GuYb2i

We've also abandoned our raised bed idea due to what appeared to be the ability to keep it standing properly. I think there are some extra barn panels we'll try to use as the raised beds and that should work better. I've got to get on that soon!

[aigheadish]

Here's a picture of one of the sycamores we planted maybe 2-3 years ago. They seem to love soggy feet and a creek, I think you can see another that's not doing as well in the background. It's probably close to 20 feet tall already and maybe six inches around.



Not growing related, really, but I got a kind of neat shot at about 445 this morning of the moon shining off the pond. Phone camera adds quite a bit of light, this is the west facing sky and it's not nearly this bright that early.

[newoodguy78]

Nice picture aig 

[21incher]

Aig if you want a stronger plants, use a small oscillating fan on them on low to blow like the wind does outside. It helps them build up some  muscles but be careful of drying them out with too high a setting. 

[SwampDonkey]

My pepper seed will go under the lights next weekend. 

[aigheadish]

Yeah, thanks 21, I may try that. I have a bunch of old antique fans I may try to use one of, so I don't have to buy anything. 

[SwampDonkey]

All I use is a $20 box fan from Walmart, been in use 4 years now. But I also have an inline fan in the grow tent to exchange the air. I have that on 1 hr intervals.

[aigheadish]

I just built a dust filtration machine out of a furnace filter and my shop box fan, I'm not sure if I have another sitting around. I'd imagine the dust filtration could be better made but it is better than one that doesn't filter at all. 

[SwampDonkey]

The inline has a charcoal filter on it. And polyester filter sleeve over it.

[21incher]

My online fan came with a charcoal cannister that goes on the output side. Found out it's not needed  for veggies but people that grow cannabis need them so their house doesn't get stunk up. 

[SwampDonkey]

My canister mounts on the input side of the fan. These fans help regulate temperature and humidity, reduce odor, creates a positive pressure in the grow tent when not vented outside the tent and freshen the air in the grow tent. They aren't just used in pot operations. You need to circulate the air. I actually use mine more like an exhaust fan and I see a lot of people do besides me. The installation instructions suggested doing it this way if you have a heat source sending air in. I have heat coming in from furnace duct and I vent outside with the inline fan. I maintain 75-78° when the grow lights are on.

[aigheadish]

I did some major thinning on my seedlings, tomato plants now all have their own little seed pellet things one to each. I may have let the other tray get too wet, we'll see what happens. A few of my peppers in the cups are starting to come up too! Woop! I forgot to take pictures. 

I started some basil and oregano seeds and they were of the extremely tiny variety. Is each one of those seeds what we think of when we see an oregano or basil bush? When I planted the seeds I ended up with a bunch in each hole, now it looks like all of them have taken. Should I cut them back so there is only one or two of the tiny plants?

It made me kind of sad to cut so many of the tomatoes down. I'll have to be much, much more conservative upon starting seeds next time. One per seed pellet seemed like way too few but they've all grown pretty well so far. Tomatoes are close to being read to transplant into cups, I think.

[SwampDonkey]

Basil grows pretty rapidly from a seed you can hardly see. A pair to each should be fine. You can even cut them back if they get too tall before planting. Never grew oregano.

Yeah, I always seed one per cell for tomato and peppers. I seed a few extra in each variety and keep the strongest to pot over in 1/2 gallon pots. I just determine how many I want of each variety. Some I grow a lot more of than others. Tomatoes grow fast, you'll want more than a cup.

[thecfarm]

I just sow basil in the ground and use a crop cover over it. I use 10 foot 1/2 inch electrical conduit and cut it in half and make my hoops out of that. I bury the edges in the ground and that keeps the bugs away so I can get some basil. No crop cover, no basil. 
I have no idea how many different types of Organo she has. 
We always buy that in a pot. It does come back each year, but does not spread much. Seems to stay in the same spot we planted it.
Not like some of the herbs that is planted.
That stuff sure does smell good when I ran my hand through it.

[SwampDonkey]

Rosemary has a nice smell to, but grows real slow.

[trapper]

Burned old asparagus tops off a week ago saw some coming up today. 
Anybody growing honeyberries?

[thecfarm]

honey berries, had to google that one.

[SwampDonkey]

They are known as haskap up here, and they have become popular in back yards over the last 20 years. I don't really care for them. A neighbour near here probably has 50 haskap plants. I like raspberry, blackberry, blueberries, black currants and black elders. The elders are a bugger to pick, I usually cut off the umbel, sit in a comfy chair and remove the berries. Takes for ever to get a pot full. They don't ripen evenly, one umbel might be still green and another might be very ripe. I freeze the berries I'm gathering until I have them all picked to make syrup. Make nice syrup, in which I usually add some blackberries.    Rarely see the black kind in the wild here, but we have the red kind (inedible) all over creation here, like weeds.

[thecfarm]

Probably what I call elder berry bushes.
I pick them the same way for the wife to pick the berries off.
They seem to like wet areas.
One year we had a bunch on each side of the brook. I picked bags for the wife. Then next year they were hardly any in the same spot.

[aigheadish]

I just posted this on the Watcha making thread too but here is my first raised bed box. It's not the prettiest thing but it was free and is much bigger than the totes you can see here.



Well, I didn't get an "ooh! You got one done!" from my wife who just got home from work... I got an "is it crooked?"

The next one should probably be built as a box first, in the garage, but we also didn't do any yard prep, so the ground is crooked too.

[trapper]

aigheadish How is it all held together.  I like it and have steel left over my wife wants me to get rid of.

[aigheadish]

Just screws and 2x4, I've got treated wood on the parts that should be touching the ground. I used rubber washered screws/bolts to attach the metal to the wood, same screws they used to attach the barn siding and roof.

I can't get the twist out of this one. I tried putting some diagonal bracing on it but my wife isn't heavy enough to untwist it while standing on one end. Maybe there's a better way? 

The next one is being built in the garage on a flat floor, I'm not sure if that'll help or if it'll just roll downhill when it's in place.