Equipmentsmall germination cups, wicking bottle, two-inch net pots, jars and bottles
Plants-
AudienceExperimental
What you can learnA broad research notebook with valuable ideas on propagation, container reuse, hydroponic regrowing, homemade soil, springtails, and water-use measurement.
Actions:2 Planting1 Pruning1 Nutrients1 Watering
Useful practices
grouping minor experiments in one laboratory thread
propagating succulents from leaves
regrowing grocery-store green onions in nutrient solution
sterilising and blending soil with coco coir and food-derived amendments
tracking future water use and plant recipes
Problems encountered
some old seeds molded or failed to germinate
fungus gnats influenced soil-design experiments
food powder initially produced mold
containers without drainage required careful watering
*The days were calculated automatically and approximately.
Day 81
UPDATE#5
Grower update
Update #5
🔧Actions taken
🌱PlantingFilled a bottle with layered organic potting soil, powdered food scraps, crab shell, and coco coir.
💧WateringInitially watered the layered soil bottle.
I may have finally found a way to grow plants, in soil, without fungus gnats or fertilizer! I will have to keep an eye on it, but I have some promising results coming from a bottle at the moment.What I did was I filled up the bottom 60% with a mix of 20 parts "no fertilizer added" organic potting soil to 1 part dehydrated and powdered food scraps (bread, meat, bones, fruit, vegetables, etc) and 1 part powdered crab shells. Then I filled up the next 30% with just the "no fertilizer added" organic potting soil, and finally the last 10% with coco coir.I did not add any springtails - but when I initially watered it, the bottom 60% was filled with mold as the food powder started breaking down, and then springtails (from eggs in the potting soil?) appeared and started breaking down the mold into nutrients for the plant.This container does not have any drainage holes, so I will have to be careful to not overwater it.
I started some more seeds tonight!Ashe County Pimento PepperGolden BeetMignonette StrawberryMy hope is to move all of these to their final homes once they sprout - the pepper will end up in a Bounty, but I am not sure where I want to place the other two yet.
Some updates:1. I am going to cut back on the AeroGardening a bit and limit myself to just two Bounties - I have discovered that I greatly prefer the larger units with larger reservoirs and less maintenance needed. I am also planning to set up both of my 5 gallon DWC buckets again, so that I can grow plants in those for four total.2. My method for growing plants indoors, with no fertilizer or fungus gnats, has been working great! I am still experimenting with different ingredients and ratios, but so far the best method I've found is to bake/sterilize potting soil, then mix together one part potting soil with three parts coco coir, adding in a 1/2 part ground up eggshells, food scraps, and powdered mushrooms to make a rich organic soil for plants. At the bottom of each container, I have been either adding drainage holes or adding sawdust and being careful not to overwater - both methods seem to work equally well.3. My outdoor barrel garden has been doing great this year - I still have not had to water it, and when I tried digging down in one of the barrels, I was able to dig through the logs with a hand shovel just as easily as I could dig through the potting soil.
Cleaning things up, preparing some new soil/compost to try that indoors again (now that the gnats are gone for sure), and I'll be setting up my AeroGardens and other hydroponic setups soon!Once I finish cleaning up all of the outdoor stuff I'll be back to regularly visiting these forums and posting weekly updates for my plants
I am still figuring out how to best do so, but I want to keep track of the water usage for future plants, both in soil as well as those grown hydroponically, like the AeroGardens.I think it would be interesting and provide a bit of guidance for Kratky setups, since if (for example) a radish plant used half a gallon of nutrient solution, then it might be possible to grow a plant from start to finish in a half gallon bottle with no refills.Likewise, for soil plants, I want to record how I put together the soil for each plant, and if I planted anything special in it (like one I have now where I buried a corn cob that I had cut the kernels off for cooking), then I want to record that as well.I'll also start assigning numbers to future plants for my own use, so I can easily find all of my images and notes by looking up that particular number.
I'll be very interested in your water usage experiments, because of California's drought situation. We got a couple of days of rain at the beginning of November, but nothing since. ☹️
ERR0R1755 I'm getting ready to experiment with a laser time of flight sensor that (theoretically) should give an accurate indication of water level. Parts are supposed to arrive this week. learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-vl6180x-time-of-flight-micro-lidar-distance-sensor-breakout/overview
That looks interesting! Does it work with the reflective/transparent properties of water?So far all of my tracking is manual, since I don't have enough space to build anything automated.
In today's episode of The Laboratory, we have... green onions! These were originally bought at the grocery store, but I kept the bottoms and placed them in nutrient solution (at 6ml AG nutes per gallon) in order to regrow them.
The 2-inch net pots fit a large variety of containers - I've used them to grow in my smaller glass cups (that I use for starting seeds), in soda cans (use a can opener to remove the top), in sauce/pickle jars, and even in some flower vases.There are a lot of different brands out there, so you don't have to get the one I linked - the one that is in my picture is no longer for sale on Amazon but it doesn't feature any branding on it like the one I linked does.
I started some seeds tonight for Golden Beets and Red Planet Radishes. I also have seeds started for Lemon Cucumber (I want to try growing that indoors), Rhubarb, Mountain Mint, and Bob's Pickling Pepper.
The Red Planet Radish now has its own thread and is being grown Kratky-style!I started some more seeds tonight - Black Beauty Eggplant, Tiny Tim Tomato, Super Snow White Tomato, Jamaican Bird Pepper, and Molten Fire Amaranthus.
Molten Fire Amaranthus is surely the coolest plant name ever. I love beets and am looking forward to updates on the golden ones. They don't have those at our grocery store.
Started more seeds tonight - Rhubarb (old seed molded over), Bob's Pickling Pepper (old seeds molded over), Mountain Mint (old seeds are still germinated, decided to try flipping a foam cube upside down so the seeds have more light), some ground cherries from last time I grew them, and some more Red Planet Radish.
I've moved most of the seedlings into their final homes. A few (the ground cherries and Jamaican bird peppers) have been persistent in not germinating, but they also haven't molded over, so I'll set those aside and continue to let them grow.My hope is to clean up the Bounty that I am using as a light for starting seeds and other plants - and instead use Sprouts or Harvests for that. Then I can use the Bounty for a new, larger plant
I took the leaves off of my largest Ghost Succulent plant in order to propagate them - that plant is over a foot tall and could no longer support its own weight, so I will be cutting it near the base and letting it regrow soon.Most of these plants will be potted into small plastic condiment cups and given away at a local restaurant that I've worked with before.
Whenever I can, I try to experiment with different materials and plants to see what happens. Some things, like starting a plant from seed, does not always result in me creating a thread for it - since sometimes the seed does not germinate, or I decide not to grow it after it germinates, or I start growing it but with the intention of giving it to someone else to grow.I figured I could start a thread where I detail other projects and plants, that way if anyone wants to know more about them, there are photos and a thread to ask questions in.Here are a few that I have going at the moment.Growing Venus Fly Traps from seed - three seeds per cup, three small cups. They have been germinating for over a month but are notoriously slow to germinate.Russian Red Kale, getting started for a friend in a self-watering wicking bottle.Some type of cactus or succulent - it was given to me by a friend half-dead, and seems to be doing okay at the moment.
I love reading about your experiments, ERR0R1755. The Venus Fly Trap project looks interesting, but obviously there isn't much to show right now. I had a fly trap plant many years ago, but I don't think it ever caught any bugs. 😀
Venus Fly Traps are very interesting to grow from seed - they have very unstable genetics, so the seedlings normally don't look like the parents at all. It's not uncommon to get an "evolutionary failure", which is a venus fly trap that does not have teeth that properly close. I've even seen venus fly traps that have no teeth at all!(you can still keep them alive by feeding them manually, but they're incapable of catching bugs)
No teeth? Fascinating. I think you just explained why the tray of Venus Fly Traps that I selected my seedling from had so many odd-looking plants, ERR0R1755. They all seemed very flat to the soil. The seller was some sort of commercial nursery.