gardening

Only two of a buch of seeds that sprouted ended up surviving. One started flowering pretty early on, despite getting the exact amount and schedule of light as the other one (they shared a pot). The other kept growing taller then died without any signs of flowers.

The post pic is from ~2 weeks ago. At the start of this week, it looked like this: And the leaves just kept dying.

Today I decided to just harvest it. Here it is after cleaning:

I don't know what strain this is, because I didnt label the seeds. But it smells very citrusy and I know there were some lemon haze and lemon skunk seeds among them.

What are the next steps? I've heard I should hang them somewhere to dry, is that correct?

So I'm going to get some free raised garden beds and I'm broke. I'll be getting them mid-summer, I know I can get my hands on free horse manure, and I want to do this on a shoestring budget so here's what I was thinking:

1. Fill the beds with free horse manure in mid summer.

2. Get the horse manure to compost along roughly Johnson-Su bioreactor lines without being too strict about it.

3. Add in some rich soil that I can probably get my hands on from a gardener to colonize the horse manure to mitigate the risk of aminopyralid contamination while it composts.

4. Add a fairly small top layer of soil over the horse manure and grow a cover crop like clover or vetch during summer/fall to help keep moisture in and to chop-and-drop to make a good top layer for planting into come spring.

5. While the clover is growing, get some oyster mushroom mycelium going and then when it comes time to chop-and-drop the clover in late fall, lay out a bed of straw and open-cultivate oyster mushroom with the hopes of getting something to harvest but mostly to help colonize the beds with mycelium and to get spent mushroom bedding while breaking down the chopped clover beneath. (We have very mild winters here so oyster mushrooms will do fine with the local climate over fall/winter.) Obviously this will help maintain the moisture of the Johnson-Su layer below as well. The clover and then the oyster mushroom bedding will help make up for the loss in volume as the horse manure layer breaks down.

6. When spring arrives, the horse manure layer will be largely composted and the risk of aminopyralid contamination will be low, and I will have a rich top layer that will be a mix of soil, decomposed clover, and spent mushroom straw that I can either amend or I can dig some of uppermost horse manure into to make it something decent.

I don't really have access to free carbon-rich material as far as I know and I'm not sure if I can source anything for free unless some spoiled hay comes up along the way. I can throw in cardboard waste that I encounter but I doubt it's going to be enough. Any soil that I have access to is garbage and minimal, and I don't have access to leaf litter or anything like that either.

The longer term plan is, to have a very biologically active and rich medium in the raised beds and to leave the horse manure as mostly filler. If I'm lucky I'll be able to get some free woodchips or sawdust at some stage after the spring/summer growing season and I could tear down the beds and fill the bottoms with wood waste, then pile on the composted manure, then grow in the top layer again while the wood waste breaks down from the nitrogen rich, high mycelium composted manure at a fairly fast rate so that I will eventually have really good media to grow in or to use elsewhere.

Anyway, that's my plan to fill up the lower parts of these raised garden beds and to make good use of the space and what resources I have available.

Any thoughts? Is this workable?

(I'm going with oyster mushroom in this plan because mycology isn't my strong suit, oyster mushrooms are very easy to work with, and they'll do fine with paper waste or woodwaste that I throw it at too. I'm fine to diy some carboard spawn for the oyster mushrooms myself on the cheap and I don't have a lot of space so pasteurized straw seems like the most viable option, plus the relatively quick rate of decomposition makes me think that it's the right one for my plans.)

The economy is fucked and it's gonna get worse. You might live in a food desert right now or the food desert might expand to where you are living. Getting started on growing your own vegetables seems like it's really difficult and requires a lot of know-how and a whole lot of the right things - the right soil, the right amount of light, the right amount of watering...

All of this is kinda true. But it doesn't have to be.

There's a way to get around a lot of these problems and it can be done quite cheaply. So today we're Demokratkytizing Hydroponic Vegetable gardening and we're not gonna overthink this one.
(Keep in mind that this is intended to be the easiest on-ramp for starting out with growing vegetables, especially for the people who don't know where to start and those who don't have access to soil or who don't know how to remediate soil etc. If you're above this level then that's fantastic and this is probably not for you but this might be a good way of getting a friend or comrade started on their journey.)

Remember: the best time to learn how to grow a victory garden was ten years ago and the second best time to learn is right now.

Ingredients

• A clean 20L bucket (5 gal) with a lid

• A pool noodle (alternatively: an EVA foam floor tile or cloning collars)

• Any hydroponic nutrient (Powder or liquid, liquid is easier to manage)

• A tool to measure your hydroponic nutrient fairly accurately (Precision scales for powder, a measured pipette or syringe barrel for liquid)

• A hole saw between 2.5-5cm diameter (1-2"), approximately (Alternatively a round cookie cutter of roughly the same diameter)

This is what we're gonna be making

Steps

Cut 4-8 holes below the rim of the bucket that are reasonably evenly spaced, ensuring that the holes do not cut into any structural support parts of the rim.

If you're using a cookie cutter, heat it up and carefully press out holes. (Remember not to use these cookie cutters for food now that they've been used on melting plastics.)

You can use other methods but they are going to be more difficult so I'd opt for a hole saw or a cookie cutter here.

Remember to avoid these bits when cutting the holes so they stay intact

More holes doesn't necessarily mean more better, but I'd recommend doing 6-8. This will be explained in detail below.

Now you're gonna make the collars to fit these holes.

Cloning collars are the easiest and the most accessible, but likely the most expensive. You may need to cut out a wedge to get it to fit in the holes if they are a bit big. It should be snug without being overly tight.

Pool noodles are probably the cheapest option. Cut a disc that is roughly 3cm (1") then cut a wedge out of the disc to get it to sit snugly in the hole you just cut. Here's how to do it

Here's how to make them out of EVA foam tiles

Once you've plugged every hole up this way, the next thing is to fill your bucket. You can use reverse osmosis water or rainwater or even tap water. We aren't overthinking this.

Measure out how much water you can put into the bucket until it reaches the holes you just cut. You can either use a large measuring jug or you can put the bucket on some scales that are designed for people, write down the weight of the unfilled bucket, then subtract that from the total filled weight.

You should end up with about 15L (4 gal.)

Now you need to add the appropriate amount of hydroponic nutrient. Follow the directions on the package closely. Remember to double check your maths and know that, while accuracy is good, slightly undershooting it is better than overshooting it.

Once you've done this, you're almost there. The next step is to find some easy to grow plants or to make some cuttings. This is beyond the scope of the post but I'd start with whatever is cheap and easy, as long as you will have a use for it. I'll make some suggestions at the bottom.

If you get some seedlings, remember to gently rinse off as much soil media as possible without damaging the roots. Then remove the pool noodle/collar/foam plug and place the plant in the center. Gently ease the roots through the hole and resituate the collar so it sits snugly and holds the plant securely. Check the inside of the bucket to ensure that at least half of the roots of the plant are submerged in the water without the stem being submerged.

Repeat until you have your plants situated in the bucket to your satisfaction. Now place your bucket in a location that gets full sun for at least 6 hours per day, unless info tells you otherwise.

That's basically it. You're done!

FAQ Section

What hydroponic method is this?

This is called the Kratky method - it's a passive, non-recirculating hydroponic method.

Don't you need to add aeration to the liquid so the plants don't die?

Not for this method. Your plants will grow air roots at the top of the bucket and, as the water level drains, the topmost roots will gradually be exposed which allows for the plants to get as much air as they need.

How do I refill the bucket?

Mix up around 2L (2 quarts) of hydroponic solution.
Top it up as you need but no higher than 10cm (4") from the bottom point of the holes - you need an air gap!

Don't refill a bucket from almost empty to almost full in one go. Give your plants time to adjust and refill it by 2 or 3L at the most, and do this once every couple of days until the bucket is refilled.

It's ideal to leave one hole plugged but unplanted so you can use it as an observation/refill hole.

Do I need to sanitize the bucket first?

Probably not. Clean your bucket and rinse it well, it should be fine.

Can I stack buckets on top of each other?

You can but be careful that they don't topple and that you aren't going too high.

Remember that you've cut into the sides of the buckets so I wouldn't go higher than 4 buckets tall.

Try to put buckets with fewer holes at the bottom because they'll have more structural integrity than ones with more holes.

Is it better to plant more per bucket?

No. Less is often more.

If you have smaller, fast growing annuals like lettuce or parsley then you can max out your planting but if you decide to go with big plants like tomatoes or a perennial like sweet potato then these will get very thirsty and you might only want to grow 2 or maybe 3 in one bucket.

You want this to be fairly hands-off. If you're refilling the bucket every other day then it's going to be a burden and there are better hydroponic methods available if you're growing this much in one container.

Can I use a smaller bucket?

You can use 10L (2.5 gal) buckets but I'd really only use that for a top bucket in a stack or for smaller plants. 20L (5 gal) buckets are ideal and offer more versatility if you want to change things around.

You can also use smaller containers like clean ice cream tubs but you will need to plant in the lid and to grow smaller vegetables/herbs and keep a closer eye on the water level. This is better for windowsill gardening imo.

Can I put some plants in the lid?

On the top bucket, yes. See above re: how much to plant. The lid of the top bucket can be used for bunching plants as well.

What about plants that grow in clumps like bunching onion or lemongrass?

This is where you will need hydroponic media and net cups or similar, and this is beyond the scope of this post. I'd leave this for another day and I'd research different methods but, for now, start simple. Get familiar with the process and then tackle bunching plants when you feel you're ready.

Can you use this method indoors under grow lights?

Yes.

What plants do you recommend?

It depends on your climate but try your hand at taking cuttings from herbs like mint or basil, especially if you can get them for free.

Other good options are non-heading lettuce and other vegetables that you can pluck the outer leaves from, like many Asian leafy greens.

Semiaquatic plants will love hydroponic growing and three really good options are sweet potato (grown for its leaves), kangkong/water morning glory, and watercress. These are great beginner plants that don't require much care as, once they are established, they should take care of themselves.

Are there any plants that don't tolerate this growing method?

Some plants don't like hydroponics. Of the ones that take to hydroponics, only a few don't like this method. The majority of common vegetables and herbs will be fine with this method although I wouldn't try growing potatoes this way.

If you aren't sure, just search "kratky + [plant name]" and see what people have to say. If that doesn't pull up any results then try searching to see if the plant handles hydroponic growing.

How can I make this more accessible for me due to physical disability?

Set the bucket up in the location you want it to be in before you fill it with the nutrient solution.

You can buy pot stands with castors to put the bucket on if you need to move it, e.g. to find the right position for it.

Consider putting a larger, more comfortable grip on the handle, perhaps using a length of pool noodle, to allow for better grip of the handle if you need.

Place a bottom bucket filled with water, soil, rocks, sand, or anything heavy to raise up the growing buckets to avoid the need to bend too much (if you grow a vining plant on the bottom bucket then once it's established you won't need to bend over to harvest it as it will grow to reach a comfortable height for you.)

Aren't I supposed to use reverse osmosis water and adjust the pH and check the TDS?

You can, but don't overthink it. We're going for the most simple option, not the most perfectly optimized one.

You will sacrifice a small amount of productivity and efficiency this way but remember that the most unproductive garden is the one that goes unused and that chasing efficiency, paradoxically, often becomes extremely inefficient.

We're keeping this as simple as possible.

Won't it grow algae?

Yeah, some. It's not that big of a deal though.

Darker colored buckets are better for preventing algae, although don't worry too much as lighter colored buckets do just fine too. You could probably paint the buckets black or you could cover the bucket in burlap fabric or similar if you want to but it's really not necessary and doing this risks overcomplicating it and blowing out the costs and the time it takes to make a set up.

What do I do if I get extremely hot summer sun where I live?

Bring the buckets inside if it's really bad. Otherwise, shelter the bucket from the hot afternoon sun especially and ensure that there's enough liquid in the bucket to get the plants through the day.

Hydroponics is good for hot weather as it provides all the water a plant can absorb and the water creates a good thermal buffer that takes longer to heat up vs a pot plant with soil.

What do I do about frost?

Bring the buckets inside and opt for frost-tolerant plants.

Will water get in the bucket and dilute the solution?

Probably in very small amounts. It's not a big deal so don't worry.

How many plants is too many?

It genuinely depends on the size of the plants. For small plants like salad leaves and herbs, 6-8 is fine. For larger plants 1-2 is enough.

If you find yourself constantly refilling the bucket with nutrient solution then it's time to consider making a new one to take the pressure off the current bucket by transplanting.

What do you recommend for plants that grow large or set heavy fruit?

My advice is to avoid it until you're familiar with the method and to use pool noodles (especially if the disc is cut a bit wider to accommodate the extra weight on the stem.)

Also keep it to one or two plants per bucket.

Happy gardening!

I posted this about a month ago asking you guys for help, and I got so much more than I expected! Since then, I changed the soil, the lighting 'strategy' and the watering regime/practice.

And it worked 😀

I have a bunch of cannabis seeds laying around, so I'm practicing with them. Most of them died, but I'm adjusting something every new try and this new batch is doing great. The older ones in the pic are ~15 days old

Thanks to everyone who helped!! I didn't know I would get so happy just by seeing these little guys thrive hahaha

This one looks like it's flowering although it's still so young. I've read a bit about them, and it has something to do with the proportion of dark/light hours that they get in a day.

Edit: no other lavender seeds germinated after that post, so no update on them. Maybe in another month

The dreaded day has come. Our landlord ended the contract of everyone in the building a few months ago due to a large renovation and I definitely wasn't happy about it, because we only got to live here for a few years and moved in on the premise that we can live here a long long time. So I got all these houseplants with the idea that I can just live life with them here, but no.

So today I am moving them. It's winter, but thankfully such a shitty one that the temp isn't below freezing. It is about +2C though and very windy.

So I am posting a few highlights of them to this post, in case some of them die.

Started by untangling the pothos from the plant shelf:

Packed it in a box and it fills half of it. In the same box are some of the most sensitive guys like two hibiscus and a rare and very sensitive begonia variety from the beginning of the last century.

This is the begonia in its normal state, it might not survive the move:

Then I took Bob, my fern out from the corner it's been living and my god, this boy has become HUGE again!

The shelf is the larger Ikea Ivar and this boy fills almost the entire shelf.

In the corned under Bob was also one of my variagated monsteras. It's a shadier spot so its leaves are smaller, but it has grown into a beautiful plant next to a moss pole. I never really saw it well as Bob was shading it quite a bit.

To be continued as the packing proceeds.

I love growing weed! I smoke maybe 4 times a year, but I find it to be such a fun plant to grow. Even if you find it hard to keep house plants alive, it's such an easy plant to grow (it grows like a weed)! It can cost a little bit to get going, but craigslist/facebook marketplace can get you going for only ~$200.

What you need:

• A grow light (100w per plant w/ good lights)
• Nutrients. I use General Hydroponics Flora Series
• Media. I use Coconut Coir in fabric bags.
• Smell control. A fan with a carbon filter.
• A grow tent (if you don't have a closet)
• A clone or a seed.

The plants grow in two phases, the vegetative and flowering phase. The first phase takes about a month and the flowering phase takes 8-10 weeks (depending on genetics). You'll need to water it every day with a nutrient solution, and make sure it doesn't get too hot or too cold, and make sure it gets the right amount of light. The plant will tell you what it needs! Weed grows like 1-2cm a day so it's fun to check on every day. I love it!

Going to post some of my favourite cool houseplants here weekly as the weather has gotten properly miserable and dark around these parts so taking pictures of my plants is a great pick me up.

This here isn't exactly a plant, but an algae.

This is Aegagropila linnaei, known as Marimo (moss ball, lake ball). In Finnish the name is ahdinpallero or palleroahdinparta, literal meanings: water gods ball and ball of water gods beard.

These guys grow in the Baltic sea for example, in depths of up to 8 meters. It's a green algae that grows into sizable balls of densely packed algal filaments that radiate from the center. The balls do not have a kernel of any sort.

Here's the ball after I gave it a bit of a rinse and changed its water, the surface is full of little air bubbles right now.

These keep their round shape in nature when the winds move the water and they toss and turn so different sides get exposed to light for photosynthesis. At home they need to be swirled around to maintain the shape. This guy here has gotten a little one sided because I haven't changed its water that often.

Wanted to show some pictures of my pitchers, and an older pic of its flowers.

This is a Nepenthes I've had for years, the original vine has long since gone but it sends out suckers occasionally.

Each individual pitcher only lasts a month or so

^___^

All my plants die after they start growing and I don't know why. I've tried controlling every factor that I can although without a thermometer, higrometer, pH measuring etc. I even have a shitty microscope that I try to analyse the sick parts, but I can't find any reliable resources on how to actually interpret what I'm seeing. I want to know how to use this kind of data so that I can raise my plants right.

Where can I learn about this? I mean diagnosing problems, monitoring variables, finding solutions to each situation etc. google obviously sucks and gives nothing of substance

I will say that I recently got a new substrate, maybe the old one was the problem. But then there's my mother-in-law, who raises beautiful lavenders and all that using the exact same soil I'm getting shitty results with. I'm literally not doing anything different to her, so maybe it's the water? I really don't know.

Edit: in fact, the lush lavender 🪻 she is currently flexing is a piece of the one my partner bought. Same plant, same soil.

Edit 2: also, the roots always look alright when I dig their cadavers to analyze. No parasites, insects, obvious fungi etc in any part of any plant so far.

Got this guy as a cutting from my dad. The original plant was my grandmothers who grew these huge monsteras in big vats that were built next to large windows in their petty bougie house. They were like trees.

They used to scare the shit out of me as a kid, because they cast these spooky shadows on the walls in the room I slept in when I had a sleepover there.

Anyway, I put this guy outside for the summer this year and boy did it thrive. It just put out a new huge leaf in the dead of winter with those double fenestrations I am told these do when they mature and have enough light.

Updating this post from 4 days ago, showing my first seedling 🌱 and asking for help

While transferring the other 3 seeds to individual little pots, I noticed one of them was cracking open 👐, with a root poking on the other side. I left that one undisturbed, took away another one, and couldn't find the other.

After about a day, that little cracking seed turned into another seedling (left in the pic) and the missing seed is also cracking open 😺 (green dot to the right of the taller seedling). The older one has two very tiny white leaves, starting to turn green.

I'm being much more careful with watering (I tend to overwater my plants) and also made this makeshift grow tent due to not enough light exposure time in my apartment. It's this shitty lamp I bought online that is very weak (using two lux-measuring apps, it gives about 10k when less than half an inch away from it), so I wrapped my pot close to the lamp using foil paper.

I have no idea how I'll keep them alive once they grow more, but at least I think I've got this initial phase down. Next I guess is to look for a better/bigger lamp and to make a larger grow box, maybe with some cardboard for structure. That and nutrients.

Not a skilled plant-owner here.

A friend got some buds with seeds on them, and I'm trying to grow some. Tried two first, but both died right after sprouting. Now there's this other one in the pic, planted last week and sprouted yesterday. Theres three other seeds next to it, too. I think they were either orange haze or godzilla cookies, if that matters.

It's hot where I live, and there's a good range of sunlight I can expose it to, from direct, harsh sunlight all day to partial, indirect sunlight, depending on where I place it in the apartment. I also got a cheap yellow+blue+red growlight that I can adjust the intensity of and set timers.

Other stuff I have lying around: a rooting agent, bokashi, and a substrate made of spaghnum, perlite and rice hulls.

What should I know about watering, light schedules, wind, temperature, budding care etc?

E: I should add, I'm not interested in a super-optimized,industrial scale high-yield techniques, this is just for hobby

Last year the critters ate like all but one of the fruit. This year my tree finally exploded with fruit, I won’t be able to get it all off the tree. I’m gonna freeze a few pounds of arils and throw them into my smoothies all year.

Looks like these are definitely mini pumpkins we composted,

but also... Something else...

It's the middle of the {season} in {your hemisphere}.

How are things growing? Or not growing?

Any successes you'd like to share?

Any challenges that have made you learn?

Have you gotten to eat much of what you've grown?

How's it going fellow gardeners?

Does anybody have some tips for growing lavender? My girlfriend desperately wants to grow some and can’t even get it to germinate in soil. I alsohave an indoor hydroponic system and we’ve tried it in the aerogarden as well with no luck.

So I bought 20 strawberry plants a few months ago from someone in town and decided to do some experiments. I planted some in soil, some I put in my outdoor hydroponic NFT system, and these four I plopped into two of my indoor tabletop hydroponic DWT systems.

I decided to just let the mfs grow to see what happened and look at all those fucking runners they won't stop growing, I can't keep up it's never ending. These have been by far the most successful (although still no flowers/fruit yet lol).

So I've been planting some of them in soil to produce new independent plants:

Others I might transfer to my NFT system (I still have a few open slots there). Still not sure how I'm going to manage overwintering the hydro ones I have outside but I'll figure something out.

If you're curious this is the system in the picture, they're awesome I have three of them in total, but you could easily make your own much cheaper with a plastic insert, some spray paint, an aquarium air stone, timer and light.

I am going to be the undisputed king of Strawberryland

First time trying to grow, excited to see how these turn out!

I took a strawberry seedling and poured it into a larger pot.

The central part is fine, and some strawberries are growing. But some parts are dying, drying from the base, as you can see in the pic.

I was wondering if it is like basil, where the plants you buy are made of many different plants too close, so it is better to separate them? Or, is there is something else I’m doing wrong?

Do you have any advice?

crossposted from: https://urbanists.social/users/lgsp/statuses/114626799946985779