Food Gardening

[wide eyed and legless]

Also had heavy weed infestation, removed and applied mulch to keep weeds down, planted today, Violent Sicilian Cauliflower, January King Savoy cabbage, next crop of Woden beetroot seedlings, Dwarf Curly Kale, Red Choi and lettuce.
Beetroot in foreground of the garlic ready to harvest when I get some malt vinegar.
Not happy with the seeds ordered off eBay UK, come nicely packaged but due to the lack of success of the germination rate of those which I have planted I believe they are a mix of old and new seeds.

Strawberry plants (from seed frozen in freezer for three weeks) now showing, looking like a 100% success rate, the strawberry is called Temptaion believe it is from Fothergills range.

My shade/ greenhouse 6 weeks after the first photo, Chinese, red and savoy cabbages coming along nicely, also the cauliflower, Bok Choi and Shiraz Mangetout peas on the left now flowering.

 

[spog]

Weal are you all hydro in the greenhouse ?
I did some research on bulk buying ingredients to save money on the various stages of growth but it wasn't viable in Lincoln.
I was told that Mitre 10 is going through the steps to be a hydro supplier so it may work if they can do bulk.
Do you make your own or buy ready made fertilerzer.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Everything in the greenhouses is Hydroponic, it isn't a fertilizer as such spog it is nutrients, no chemicals, just nutrients. I buy mine in bulk, when I say bulk 5 kg of part A and 5 kg of part B 200 gram of each mixed with one litre of water each and then 500 ml of each mixed with 9 litres of water so ending up with a 10 litre batch of nutrient which is then fed into the water supply via a venturi system if using a pump. Depending on how many pots in a system say a dozen the nutrient will last for a couple of years and it is around the $100 mark, as for the growing medium almost anything will do, as long as it will not upset the pH as wood chips would, I tried the rice hulls and they worked fine but I tried the coir blocks from Bunnings and the plants died. I have read of growers using sand,coarse grit even textile waste in places where the clothing sweat shops are.
If using a gravity feed then using the smart valves is the way to go, the plant will only drink when it needs too.

 

[shaunous]

I am guessing your still at the same address

You know it

Want any pink sweet potato???

 

[shaunous]

Your hydro-hothouse looks the goods WEAL, I wish i had the time now to do that set-up.

My mate who does hydro everything , won best tomatoes in the Sydney Royal Easter Show 2 years ago, maybe 3. Anyway he uses sawdust as a medium.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Not surprised he won a prize for his toms, you get really good tomatoes from hydro, you can from soil grown but it takes a lot more care and work, looking forward to this coming years tomato growing, next month I will be sowing sweet pepper seeds probably some more chili, I am not brave enough to carry on growing the Carolina reaper plants I have will give them away when they are bigger.
Growing Hydro everything is not worth the risk, ok for a single bloke but its a prison term if your caught, police think there is some sort of magic ingredient giving the plants more potency but it is only a healthy plant being fed the right nutrient.

 

[wynnum1]

If you are going to grow probably best not to diy electricity system there was a news report from US marijuana grow blows transformer, causes grass fire.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Just been reading a review of Rocket Wasabi, (Thompson & Morgan seeds) apparently tastes very much like Wasabi but without the 2 year wait to harvest the root, google search found a supplier in Tasmania, Green Seeds Tasmania for anyone who is interested.

 

[manticle]

Will check out green seeds. Always looking for new seed suppliers.

Cheers.

 

[manticle]

Just had a look at greenseedtas.com.au. Spring planting, here I come. Delicious.

 

[Dave70]

I'm spewing. Not one of my heirloom toms has borne fruit. I suspect the heat may have been to much of a good thing and made the pollen a bit sticky. I've read heirloom varieties can be fickle. I even tried the old electric toothbrush thing on the flowers.
My dreams of passata self sufficiency are being crushed..

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Your suspicions are well founded Dave, heat is the most likely culprit, plays havoc with bean flowers as well, start the tomatoes off early then another crop for later in the season doesn't make any difference whether heirloom or F1's.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

My dreams of passata self sufficiency are being crushed..

I see what you did there.....

 

[wynnum1]

How deep do you plant the tomatoes i see that they can be planted deep but have never tried.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Plant above the first 2 stems from the bottom, they will then turn into extra roots, plant in the ground when the first flowers appear and until that time give them tough love to force them to flower, after that TLC.

 

[shaunous]

F#@k tomatoes. So much effort goes into them. I gave up after the 3rd year of little to no produce.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

F#@k tomatoes. So much effort goes into them. I gave up after the 3rd year of little to no produce.

Go hydro, tomatoes take so much time and effort otherwise.

 

[shaunous]

I do have plans to do as u have WEAL. Im just in the middle of being busy as fock. Ill get there.

 

[Dave70]

F#@k tomatoes.

Thats the spirit!

Ironically though, the very reason I went to the trouble in the first place was I had the pricks springing up everywhere a year or so back. In the compost, between rows of other vegetables etc. So I thought this tomato thing is as easy as pissing on your hand, but as soon as I did it 'right' - nada - its like they're mocking me. I'm moving them out of their comfortable greenhouse digs this weekend into the open. We'll see whose boss.

 

[spog]

Wild windy weather can piss off ! My caulis and broccoli seedlings got a flogging with the wind, bits broken off ....not happy.
So many jobs to sort before I can build the greenhouse .