Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Bountiful Plant Starts + New Wicking on Sub-Irrigated Planters

Spring is fraught with anticipation and then--boom!--everything seems to happen at once. Yesterday I walked over to Bruce's to pick up some plant starts. Are they ever glorious.

Tomatoes
 Peppers

Carl guards them on deck

The coop is looking mighty with its racoon-proofing

Today we were up before the heatwave so Art could make saw cuts in all our SIPs to get them ready for the fabric wicking we now prefer over the soil-packed drink cups.

Windowsill portable micro-gardens thriving in the southern exposure. They needed water today after our 90-degree temps yesterday (and could I just say, WTF?--it's May!).

Also got a couple Tomatillos Two-Color Fiesta from Renne's Garden (seeds from last year) into our adopted earthbox.

8 comments:

Brad said...

Things are looking great! I've been doing quite a bit of research waiting for planting time. I think I too may go with the fabric wicking (I've seen rayon mop head strings also used) in my next generation of SIPs. I can already foresee too much moisture in my SIPs. Hopefully my 1st growing season is a success.

-Brad

H2 said...

Here's to a bountiful first growing season. Keep us posted, Brad...

Nick said...

Hi Bruce & Everyone Else,

Not sure if you remember me, and all my talking about trying to make my stuff grow veganically. So - I just thought I'd updated you on my endeavors. I've decided to attempt to make my own veganic fertilizer. Basically using Steve Solomon's recipe. What I purchased:

Soybean & Alfalfa Meal
Rock Phosphate
Lime
Kelp Meal

So I'm going to attempt to whip up a batch of that this weekend along with building the SIP's for the first time. here's hoping for the best. I'm going to have to look at your post on the new wicking method - see if I can purchase that stuff locally to have it in time.

So what do you think of this? I have the NPK numbers of each ingredient, just not sure when I put the proper parts together if my math will serve me on what the over all/total NPK will be, ha. Either way, hoping it turns out to work well.

Keep up the great work, any recommendations are welcome!

In health,

Nick

H2 said...

Good luck with it, Nick, and let us know how the SIP plants like it too. Seems like s smart approach. Where are you getting your ingredients?

Nick said...

H2,

Thanks - I'm hoping for the best. I bought the rock phosphate online through eBay seller and the rest of the stuff I got from a feed store. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks,

Nick

Nick said...

Hello again - quick question. In one of the SIP's, how many cucumber plants would you recommend? I was thinking maybe of putting 2 Straight Eight Cucumber plants in one SIP sat up again an trellis. What do you think?

Thanks,

Nick

Debbie said...

Hi Nick. Debbie here from Green Roof Growers. You can put 2 cucumber seedlings in a 5 gallon bucket.

Here's the Earthbox planting guide which should help.

Good luck!
Debbie


http://www.earthbox.com/resources/what-to-grow/

Nick said...

Debbie,

Thanks so much - looking forward to trying it. I'll keep you guys posted.

Nick