The cucumbers that were moved into #2's room are doing fantastic. The ones I kept in the living room are all dead. So I consulted my gardening friend on Facebook and felt really dumb when I found out that seedlings only need water once a week... not every 2-3 days. Oops. My son didn't water any of the plants in his room, so of course they're looking wonderful. Glad I have more cucumber seeds! I'll just plant fresh ones in the outside garden.
Today I mailed off a couple requests to other gardeners for tomato seeds. One lady offered to let me pick some seeds from her collection for five stamps. Another was a website (Wintersown.org) that offers six free tomato seed varieties for a self addressed stamped envelope with two stamps, so I put in my request there too. I also mailed off the seeds I am trading with someone to get some zinnia seeds. I hope to have some new tomato plants in the soil by mid- or late-March! The cucumbers that were moved into #2's room are doing fantastic. The ones I kept in the living room are all dead. So I consulted my gardening friend on Facebook and felt really dumb when I found out that seedlings only need water once a week... not every 2-3 days. Oops. My son didn't water any of the plants in his room, so of course they're looking wonderful. Glad I have more cucumber seeds! I'll just plant fresh ones in the outside garden. All of the cucumbers on the floating aquaponics raft have died.. The one in the gallon top that isn't actually touching the water appears to be in good health. I still need to get an individual set up for a pepper plant to complete the aquaponics set up.
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My wonderful husband figured out a way to rig a seeding tray on top of empty water bottles to make it float over the fish tank. I've moved a few peas, peppers and cucumbers onto it, but in the process the whole "raft" sank at one point. I guess it was enough to stress the cucumbers into shriveling up and dying within 24 hours. Now I'm fairly certain it's due to my over-watering. I'll stop watering them now... Most of the seedlings in containers are doing well. I did have one issue with the blue bowl as the cats have claimed this bowl as their personal throne to sit in the sunny window - creating crop circles with my peas (which remarkably survived the experience). The aquaponics experiment is almost set up. On the left is the floating seedling tray (from the original kit) that is buoyed up by empty water bottles. The white piece (right center) is the top half of a milk carton holding a cucumber seedling. On the right front corner is the top part of a 2-liter bottle holding a pea plant. I just need to make one more floating container to hold a single pepper plant and the aquaponics experiment will be a go!
The sunflowers do not appear to be too much bigger than they were last time I checked on them. This surprises me, but he doesn't have them in full sunlight either, so that may be part of it. I'm hoping it warms up soon enough that I don't have a 4-foot tall flower in the house by the time we can move it outside! The mango seed looks like it is beginning to sprout! There's a little nub inside the crack that is getting bigger and closer to poking out every day! No sign of roots yet though, so we'll see how it goes. I've been working on setting up a new page for this site, called the Seed Bank. I've run in to a few websites with seed banks where people can buy or trade seeds, and it seems like fun. I admit I'm in awe when I see some of the lists contain many hundreds of seed varieties. It's more than a little disheartening to email asking to trade my few meager seeds and getting rejected several times. As a beginner, that is really discouraging. So I figured I'd make my own seed bank and put a twist on it. It seems to me like most seed banks contain extra seeds that are there for no other purpose than to buy, sell, and trade. But wouldn't it be smarter to plant a few of them each year to harvest even more seeds? I mean, if I start out with 25 rare tomato seeds, and I plant 10 of them, I'd have far more seeds by the end of the summer than I had to start with, and that means I could share more. Perhaps the rare varieties would become a little easier to get a hold of, and more people could enjoy both the growing and the eating experiences that seem to be only for the elite gardener right now.
So - if you are reading this right now and would like to help not only our family, but others as well (we like to pay it forward), please consider donating your extra seeds! I feel like a bad blogger... another post without photos! Sorry! I'll try to work on that for tomorrow.
The mango is starting to sprout (cool!). The sunflowers are growing quickly (which was anticipated). I pulled up all of the long skinny broccoli shoots. The only broccoli left is the single plant that got moved to the indoor garden and doesn't seem to have grown at all. Many of the cucumber plants are suddenly falling over. Some are wilting, and some have creases in the stems. I suspect my cats may have something to do with this... or perhaps I'm just over watering them. I'm going to cut back water and see if their condition improves. I was able to track down and borrow a grow light. I haven't plugged it in or set it up yet, but it's there for when I have time for another project. Most of the cucumbers and peas have now been transplanted into containers. The ones still in soil pellets are supposed to be for my attempt at aquaponics, though I'm having some difficulty coming up with a way to float the plants on the surface of the water without them sinking to the bottom, or not reaching the water. So far I've only got one successfully balanced using the top of a 2-liter bottle and some wire, but I'm still afraid the cats will eventually knock it in, or the fish will eat the roots, or the soil pellet will rot from always being moist. Learning experience, so we'll see. Tonight I looked up the difference between aquaponics and hydroponics. Turns out they're very much the same (growing plants over water, so the roots take in nutrients from the water instead of soil). The difference is in the water. In hydroponics, you have to put chemicals in the water to grow your plants. This offers you the ability to tweak the chemicals to the needs of the plant, but it requires the maintenance of checking chemicals and so on. In aquaponics, you have fish in the water and the plants feed off the waste products the fish leave behind.
I love my fish tank - it's 100% organic (no chemicals, rarely cleaned, it regulates itself and all fish are happy and healthy). Now I just need to come up with a way to make something that floats that still has holes for the roots to get into the water... This will be my next project, right after I finish re-potting some more of the seedlings. I got most of the peas and cucumbers replanted into containers, but still need to find new containers for the peppers. Perhaps we'll plant a couple peppers, and a few peas and cucumbers in the aquaponics set up I'm planning. What fun! Sorry, no photos tonight. We put the newly re-potted plants in #2's bedroom (he has a shelf under his window that's just perfect for setting them in the sun), and he's already asleep. I had hoped to get the seedlings transplanted today, but I got a late start, so it didn't get done. I did make it to the Salvation Army thrift shop to pick up some large bowls, and to Fleet Farm to buy the soil. I managed to find a few containers around the house to use too. Total investment for this project (containers plus soil) is under $20. We plan to use the soil in the raised outdoor garden when we move the plants again. The peas have caught up with the cucumbers now and just today started to grow their very first climbing tendrils! I've got to figure out a trellis system that can be transported with them out to the garden later! As for the broccoli, they're looking terrible since I moved the tray to the window. I think we will be having broccoli sprouts with dinner tomorrow. I'm continuing to offer the reptile light to the straggler broccoli plant that got moved to the indoor garden. If I named my plants, I'd call this one "Last Hope." I'll be trying more seeds outdoors anyway. The peppers are looking nice now that most are up and growing. I can hardly wait to see what colors we get from the 26 rainbow pepper seeds we bought from the store! I also wanted to share the root growth in just 24 hours for the front-right pea plant in the indoor garden. Refer to yesterdays post for the original photo. Here's what we found today! I noticed that avocados were on sale at the store yesterday, so we picked some up and made guacamole with dinner tonight. Turns out, I don't like avocado. Good to know. I had saved the pits, thinking I could grow our own, but now I'm not sure. I've been exploring the world of seed trading, and have found someone willing to trade a few of my meager seed collection for some zinnia seeds. They look pretty, and easy to harvest for repeat planting, so I'll give them a try!
I was so proud of how quickly the veggies were growing, but I couldn't figure out why the broccoli was looking so stringy. In searching for photos of broccoli seedlings, they don't look like mine. I know it's not a mislabeled plant because I bought the broccoli seeds at the store. Well, a little more research and I got my answer. Apparently, when you plant broccoli indoors, you are supposed to provide the seeds with heat underneath and a grow light above. Failure to do so results in stringy seedlings that won't mature properly and won't produce properly. Oops. Another lesson learned. Today I moved both seed trays over to the window for some extra sun. I also transplanted the last broccoli seedling (that was a slow bloomer and hasn't grown all stringy yet) into the indoor garden tank and dug out an old reptile bulb. I'm wondering if a UVB bulb for reptiles will work as a grow light. I'll continue to use it every day on the last broccoli seedling to see if that is enough to save it. Otherwise, I have spare broccoli seeds and will just plant them directly outdoors once we get the raised bed built. We also discovered another cool aspect of having an indoor garden in a glass tank. As the seedlings continue to grow, their roots are sinking lower and branching out, and with the plants closer to the edges, you can actually see the roots through the glass! An added lesson, and really neat to see. We're considering adding worms to the indoor garden so we can watch them burrow through the soil, but I'm not sure what we'd feed the worms without disturbing the plants. Speaking of roots, the seedlings still in the tray are starting to reach out with their roots. It's definitely time to transplant them! Unfortunately, the weather is nowhere near ready for them to go outside. So I had planned to do container planting temporarily until they could be moved. I didn't get to do that today, but will be doing it tomorrow. I'm hoping to pick up some second-hand containers, more soil, and make a craft project out of creating trellises so the kids have a new project when they get home from school. It should be interesting to see what kind of second hand containers I can come up with. I don't want to leave the pepper plants out - they're now 16 days old and only three of the pellets haven't come up yet. At this point, I'm pretty sure those three pellets are just duds, but I'm going to leave them in the tray just in case.
Seedlings are still growing. Not much to comment on them today. Some of the cucumbers in the indoor garden are now touching the net trellis, but not climbing it yet. A few of the peas in the indoor garden are really starting to get tall. I wonder if they'll start climbing before the cucumbers. The mango remains the same. My son (#2) wanted to share that his sunflower seeds have sprouted and grown out of their original pot, needing to be re-potted into a larger pot. He planted six seeds, five of which sprouted, but one didn't survive. I expect them to grow quickly now that they have more root space. I'm a little concerned about the seedlings starting to get root-bound in the soil pellets, so tomorrow I'm hoping to pick up some more soil and some random containers to transplant them into bigger containers until we can plant them outdoors. Clearly I planted them way too early. Lesson learned!
I also discovered the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) yesterday, and spent a day and a half looking at the rare, exotic, and experimental seeds they have available before putting together a list to request some seeds. I'm not sure if they will accept my request or not, but I wrote up a long explanation of how I plan to use the garden as an educational tool for the kids (see the Garden page for more information). I guess I'll just have to wait and see. The seedlings continue to grow. The bell peppers are finally grown enough that I feel comfortable taking the lid off the starting tray. The cucumber plants in the indoor garden have straightened up and are already at or near level with the trellis hanging over the top! The peas in the starting pellets seem to have grown more in the last 24 hours than the indoor garden ones, but I suspect this may be due to the stress of being transplanted, or perhaps from #4 trying to help and adding extra water when we weren't looking. Really no progress visible with the mango, but if it's supposed to take two weeks to germinate, I'm not surprised. I'll throw in a photo for good measure anyway. In other news, day two of cloth diapering and we're still smiling. The kids have fun picking which diaper #5 will get to wear next, and he seems happy to try them all on. He also seems more content at diaper change time. With the disposable diapers he would cry though every diaper change, and with the cloth diapers he seems much calmer, even smiling through a change today!
Today I went to Landsburg Landscaping and picked up two bags of their highly recommended potting soil (the kind they plant their own seeds in). We stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up river stones (8 bags = 16 pounds), and made a quick trip to Fleet Farm to pick up a net trellis and other supplies. Tony cleaned out the old 30-gallon tank we had previously used for gerbils, and the kids and I carefully put a layer of rocks on the bottom of the tank. After the rocks were in place, we filled the tank with the two bags of soil. I then picked the biggest of the cucumbers and peas to be moved from the pellet tray into the new indoor garden box. We took the biggest of the "rainbow" peppers and planted it in there too. We then hung the net trellis from the top of the blinds and draped it over the top and front of the tank to give the plants the best opportunity to grab hold and start climbing! As I was munching on a mango for breakfast, I decided to look up how exactly the seed in the middle could be planted. It turns out that you can apparently use toothpicks to hold it over a glass of water and it will magically sprout a tree in just two weeks. Another experiment in the making. While at Dollar Tree to get rocks, I also picked up a neat glass to be the home of my new mango experiment. Maybe it will grow, maybe it won't. I know the tree won't survive indoors, and it won't survive freezing outside, but it will be fun to see if we can grow it anyway. Maybe I can send it to a relative that lives further south and see if they can make it survive. Assuming of course that it actually germinates and starts a new tree. We started it today (2/20), so two weeks would be March 6th. I'll check back to share the progress of this project. The cucumbers, peas, and broccoli are doing well and continuing to grow quickly. The bell peppers are mostly up now, or at least should be in the next day or two. There are about 7 pellets without any seedlings coming up yet, but maybe they're just late bloomers. And lastly, I'm so excited to try out the cloth diapers I've been waiting to use on #5. We're finally out of disposable diapers, so today was our first experience using cloth diapers. So far so good!
We are now 5 and 11 days after planting. I had to take the lid off of the second tray because the cucumber seedlings were brushing the top and bending. We are now rotating the tray as the cucumbers lean toward the window. I contacted a local nursery and plan to pick up rocks and dirt hopefully tomorrow to set up the 30-gallon aquarium with some of the cucumbers and maybe some peppers (once they start growing bigger).
Seedling explosion!! Check out how much they've grown in the last 24 hours! I'm considering making an old 30-gallon aquarium into an indoor garden plot. I just need dirt and rocks... While making some progress, the bell peppers are still far behind at 10 days after planting. A Facebook friend (and experienced gardener) said peppers are slow growers, but I admit, I'm a little discouraged after seeing how fast the other seeds came up.
The day before yesterday the very first pepper plant started to peek out of the dirt. By last night a few more started to poke up. This morning there are a few more joining the others. There are still a lot of pellets without any seedlings yet, but I'm hoping for the best. Not that we really need 72 bell pepper plants, but it would be very nice to have a big selection. So far most of the new seedlings are coming up from the "rainbow" seeds we bought from the store. Only two plants are sprouting from the seeds we harvested from a pepper we bought at the grocery store. We'll see what the success ratio is once they're all up and growing (or not). We also planted 24 cucumbers, 24 peas, and 24 broccoli and I hadn't checked on the seed tray because they weren't supposed to be sprouting yet, but today I was surprised to find that the seedlings sprouting in the second tray are bigger than the pepper plants!
The kids and I planted a 72-pellet tray of bell pepper seeds 2/8/14. They haven't sprouted yet, but it got the kids excited about gardening other vegetables too. We bought another tray of 72 pellets, and bought seeds to plant cucumbers, broccoli and peas - which we planted today (2/14/14). We also bought corn and carrot seeds as well, but they'll be planted directly outside once the weather cooperates. Tony and I have been throwing around ideas on building a raised garden to plant these seeds in once it warms up. We'll be using the side of an old crib for the trellis for the peas to grow on, so we'll be growing organic and recycling too! I'm also looking for some old tires to use to experiment with optimizing potato production (and again, recycling). If anyone in the Brainerd area happens to have 4-6 extra car tires laying around, I'll be looking for some in the spring!
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