Growing Food

[sparrowhawk1]

In the near future I'm going to show how to make a self watering container using a 5 gallon bucket and soda bottles. Just giving a heads up so you can save 2 liter soda or juice bottles.

[sparrowhawk1]

Using as many 2 liter bottles that will fit will give a bigger water reservoir but the procedure is the same.
https://youtu.be/E8aE9nd8D4s

[sparrowhawk1]

I thought I lost my tomatoes last year for good to Mealybugs but the Everglades tomatoes just keep coming back. Today I had 14 tomatoes for breakfast, yes they're only the size of big blueberries but they were GOOD. High winds for months on end decimated my sweet potato greens and I'm finding some mealybugs so I pick any leaf that is slightly yellow or shows any sign of bugs and discard. It seems the more I pick the flowers off (and eat, I'm getting between 5 and 10 a day even without leaves) the more flower buds there are.: The beauty of growing microgreens in a self watering container is if you get too busy to eat them they just keep growing. now I'm making smoothies with the bigger leaves. Stay tuned I'm going to start microgreens in a self watering container made from 5 gallon bucket and I'm going to start hydroponic lettuce again, applying lessons learned.

[zeehag]

this year--my squash was eaten by chico which scared the rest into not popping out of soil, my tomatillo is a magical plant that appeared from a last years crop. all were small marble sized things but did the job.. this year i have exactly 3 and one is size of a small marble, one size of a shooter marble and one tiniest... serranos decided i didnot deserve chiles and the onion seeds are staying under soil. 3 garlic regrew--1 is dying 2 are showing promise....i just harvested some cilantro and it should grow more quite nicely.
whiteflies have decimated my tomatillo except the three growing.
gggrrr...
my catnip and lavendar are fail...scared and staying in side dirt bed.
the cat sod pad is fine and chico keeps trying to dig up the grass. and there is basil--loveliness that grows well.
hhmmpphh. more seeds being planted soon.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by zeehag

this year--my squash was eaten by chico which scared the rest into not popping out of soil, my tomatillo is a magical plant that appeared from a last years crop. all were small marble sized things but did the job.. this year i have exactly 3 and one is size of a small marble, one size of a shooter marble and one tiniest... serranos decided i didnot deserve chiles and the onion seeds are staying under soil. 3 garlic regrew--1 is dying 2 are showing promise....i just harvested some cilantro and it should grow more quite nicely.
whiteflies have decimated my tomatillo except the three growing.
gggrrr...
my catnip and lavendar are fail...scared and staying in side dirt bed.
the cat sod pad is fine and chico keeps trying to dig up the grass. and there is basil--loveliness that grows well.
hhmmpphh. more seeds being planted soon.

Do you go ashore to pick grass for your cat(s)?

I find mine screams and cries with joy and excitement when he gets a fresh bouquet of grass blades to chomp on. Really craves the stuff.

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Do you go ashore to pick grass for your cat(s)?

I find mine screams and cries with joy and excitement when he gets a fresh bouquet of grass blades to chomp on. Really craves the stuff.

i grow a sod circle for em. they wont eat cut grass, but chomp this lawn grass i grow em. they didnt like wheat grass, oat grass was an eh, and lawn grass is a champ. i have more seeds to restore the sod growth when chico digs it up by its roots. chico is a destroyer. bubba is more gentle on it, and uses it when his tummy aches before a hairball hurling

[Grimgrak]

The Garden Tower 2 – Canadian Distributor of The Garden Tower 2
I've been tempted with throwing one of theseon a cat once I get one

[sparrowhawk1]

A perfect candidate for a wicking container.
https://youtu.be/9u-MYWDQFxI

[sparrowhawk1]

This is a truly set it and forget it way to grow microgreens! I top watered on day one and that's it. Now a Rubbermaid container would be better for microgreens (more surface area and smaller reservoir because they don't drink much) the buckets are better for bigger plants. But the procedure is the same. I already had a hole in the 5-gallon bucket from my hydroponics. So I cut the tops off of the juice containers so that when turned upside down the bottoms would be about an inch to 2 inches above the hole. I drilled small holes in the corners and I put a piece of PVC tube in the corner so I can see the level water and water directly to the reservoir. This cuts down on evaporation. Eventually I will put a float in it so I can see water level at a glance. Then I just filled the buckets up with 50/50 potting soil and peat, next time I'm going to fill the bottom spaces with vermiculite - always experimenting. One of the nicest things about microgreens is there's no worries about pests, they're grown and harvested too fast for that. Speaking of pests I could not believe one morning I came out and the tops of my tomato plants were missing growth, after looking for a long time I found five full size caterpillars! And then every day for going on 5 days now, I found at least two more everyday. Fish bait [emoji848] I inspected these plants for a good 5 minutes which doesn't sound like a long time but when you're sitting there staring at a little plant..... Several times I found them by seeing their poop [emoji4]. My radishes didn't take so I'm trying it again with a different packet. My seeds are old, and because I'm well provisioned I'm not going to go to any stores and even if I did they'd probably be sold out.

[sparrowhawk1]

https://youtu.be/q-JitnHKCY8

[jmh2002]

@sparrowhawk1

You keep posting interesting ideas (or channels/websites) here to broaden our thinking (or remind us of things we have previously forgotten) - thanks

[sparrowhawk1]

Thanks. I'm taking this social distancing very seriously. I haven't been to the grocery store in 2 months and between my fresh greens, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, fermented food and dehydrated food I'm eating vegetables everyday.

Originally Posted by jmh2002

@sparrowhawk1

You keep posting interesting ideas (or channels/websites) here to broaden our thinking (or remind us of things we have previously forgotten) - thanks

[dannc]

I have read of seed shortages but our local home store and grocery store have the usual seeds in stock. Have not been to the farm store but I doubt they are out of seeds.

Later,
Dan

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by Grimgrak

The Garden Tower 2 – Canadian Distributor of The Garden Tower 2
I've been tempted with throwing one of theseon a cat once I get one

Thought you might be interested in this one. https://youtu.be/iG6HN2bPsVU

[sparrowhawk1]

Just one batch of both: comparing microgreens grown in a paper towel medium and soil.

https://youtu.be/1_otbB8N-uI