Growing Food

[sparrowhawk1]

The bad the good and the Beautiful update. Bad, mealybugs decimated my tomatoes this year. It didn't help that I misdiagnosed as mold. Good, this is the first year that I actually started another tomato plant right when my main one was close to Peak. So I have a plant that's just starting to flower now. Bad, none of my lettuce seeds germinated this fall. Good, my microgreens are doing awesome. I'm very surprised because my broccoli seeds are from 2014. Bad, my Swiss Chard is barely growing. Good, since I switched it to a 5 gallon bucket it's virtually maintenance-free I maybe have to top up the water once a month. Good, I'm experimenting with growing microgreens directly in coffee grounds. Although not growing as well as in soil they are growing fairly well. Good, my basil is growing fantastically. I have two plants, one I let go to seed, the other I have to prune daily otherwise it wants to flower, if you look close in the photograph you can see it already starting to Bud even though I pruned it yesterday. Beautiful, to make room for microgreens I took out all my sweet potatoes, one of the vines was flowering so I put it in hydroponic solution and for two months I've been getting 4 or 5 edible flowers daily. As always my chives and walking onions are doing fantastically.mint not so bad.

[Mike OReilly]

Pretty cool. We did well with the herbs and the sprouts (as per usual). That’s the extent of my "sailing the farm” .

[sparrowhawk1]

I've been eating the greens off my sweet potatoes all summer and just had a great harvest for the little space they took because I was growing microgreens above them. I forgot to take a picture before I harvested the potatoes but I had a lot of greens right before that. As you can see by the first photo The Vines come up in the very end of the container and flow off to the side. And these are the end of the vines that I just stuck in the dirt after I harvested the potatoes and they grew great. to my surprise I was able to grow broccoli microgreens all summer long. Also to my surprise aloe grows great in fairly wet conditions. Last photo is of sauteing sweet potato leaves and chives also from my garden.

[jmh2002]

^^^ That's great

[Blue Crab]

Thanks, Cap.

[sparrowhawk1]

My pleasure. In case anyone is wondering that brown patch towards the back of the microgreens is spent yerba mate. I'm experimenting using it as mulch that would hold the water in and as it breaks down put nutrients into the soil. Also it would keep soil off the microgreens although that's not really a problem. And I forgot to mention that although my tomato plants were decimated there's already two new self-sown plants growing.

[jmh2002]

Just thought I would throw this up here too. It's not me or my boat. It's an Australian guy called Tarci on his Wharram Tiki 38 catamaran.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/five-...160525-gp3inq/

[sparrowhawk1]

Anyone following the thread knows I'm a fan of self-watering containers(a better definition would probably be reservoir containers). I'm having excellent results with more soil than these have but for someone that wants to keep it small I think this is an awesome idea https://youtu.be/9ZgjHB75Wws

[sparrowhawk1]

when I harvested the sweet potatoes as a redundancy I planted sweet potato vine in my other planter that has fresh soil. A mixture of 50/50 potting soil and peat. I added natural organic fertilizer, kelp, and azomite (rock dust). It's been producing more than 10 flowers a day for over a week now. I've also harvested for several meals. At first I thought the flavor was so boring and then I realized when I mix it in a patty melt having almost no flavor is a good thing!
PS I thought the soil in the microgreens container was good but the vines are not nearly as big, maybe 1/4 the size. Time to supplement.

[jmh2002]

Again, this is really nice

[sparrowhawk1]

Thank you [emoji4]

[zeehag]

unfortunately the marina pest control killed the bees that made homes in 2 masts so my tomatillos are not pollenated dammit, but my toothbrush pollenation of serrano chiles was successful to max..awesome number of serranos. my cilantro plants deaded but i have one tiny one struggling, i have basil and oregano serranos and lawngrass(for catties). i grew yellow onions and garlic, but some beetle laid eggies in the dirt granting garden grubs which killed all but the i ate em onions. onions take 2 yrs...eeps. and i have seeds for yellow onions as one granted me a beautiful onion flower.
as my refit is taking 5 lifetimes plus 4 days i might just plant pumpkins to see what i get..hahaha want russet potatoes but donot want the bugs.
the chiles are awesome and i have a family using my oregano so i can mooch tamales and other yummylicious foods made by mama and abuela... gotta love barter

placement of the plants is important as these love sunlight--lots and lots....

[wolfgal]

this is a fantastic thread!

am sending SO MANY thanks to all those who contribute and show us how the potential to grow veggies and sprouts is about starting.

sparrow, your garden is gorgeous!!!

Zee, you are an amazing gal!


am reading Sailing the Farm now and am looking forward to starting


-has anyone had a go with growing strawberries?

-has anyone used the v-berth for the garden?

-has anyone harvested seaweed?

[zeehag]

when the marina murders the bees, toothbrush is the alternative bee feet... i now have many serranos coming out and i have a whole boodle of tomatillos coming out.. we will win this !!! and gekkos for any lil bugs or stuffies deciding t o move into the 'hood.. yaaayy we win again!!!
now if i could be as successful with the refit.......

[sparrowhawk1]

Thank you wolf gal. I know there's a lot of people watching and not posting, I did so for years. But it's nice to hear appreciation. Sailing the farm and ok I admit waterworld were huge inspirations. Bottom line, some plants produce a lot of food for very little effort.