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It's coming quickly to the time where I am about to start seeds here in NE Wisconsin. I've got a hanging 4ft grow light to put over the seed trays, but the reflector seems somewhat narrow, and I want the 2, 72 pod trays to get equal light, rather than just the middle pods soaking up all of it. Does anyone know of, or how to make, some kind of unit that holds the trays, and moves them slowly under the light so over an X number of hour cycle, the beds receive equal light? I want this to be as automated as possible.
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Feb 20, 2014 04:16
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| # ? May 30, 2024 08:19 |
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How nerdy are you? TI Launchpad kits are super cheap and you could knock out a simple motor drive program in a couple hours if you're familiar with C. Rig up a motorized tray, and voila. Arduino would another, slightly less technical option. If you've got a hackerspace in your area, you could probably find dozens of people willing and able to help you do it with an Arduino.
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Feb 20, 2014 18:06
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Personally, I don't see the point unless I'm seriously misunderstanding the layout. Just rotate or shift the trays every day. You'll need to be checking on them for moisture and adjusting the height of the lights anyways. Adding an oscillating fan to improve airflow and toughen up the seedlings would be a bigger benefit in my opinion.
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Feb 20, 2014 19:00
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Cpt.Wacky posted:Personally, I don't see the point unless I'm seriously misunderstanding the layout. Just rotate or shift the trays every day. You'll need to be checking on them for moisture and adjusting the height of the lights anyways. Adding an oscillating fan to improve airflow and toughen up the seedlings would be a bigger benefit in my opinion. Besides why not buy more lights. And thread I've read on light movers usually says they aren't worth it.
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Feb 20, 2014 19:20
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The brocolli was finally done so I tore that out this afternoon and also removed the dead New Zealand spinach. I pulled out about 40 carrots, some tiny some pretty big and a few small random heads of lettuce. I tilled some clear areas and replanted. So far I have some borage, bee balm, Swiss chard and red lettuce planted for spring. I still need to pick all the spinach and replant the area with more lettuce and till the area that had the carrots and brocolli and plant more lettuce. LETTUCE!!! After that I need to clear out my pots and plant my herbs to get them started.
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Feb 21, 2014 01:42
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Cleared and tilled another area and planted a bunch of lettuces. Lettuci? Whatever. Also planted the asian long beans in the cement blocks against my fence. We lost our lime tree this winter so we replaced it with a big improved Meyer lemon tree. We will find another space for a lime tree next weekend. I also put 3 blueberry and 2 thornless blackberry plants in around our big oak tree. As long as they fill in the space I won't be upset if we don't get a lot of fruit from them. For decorative purposes we added some jasmine and Carolina jasmine to the chicken coop and relocated some trellises that used to be for the beans to the coop sides so they can grow up along it. It smells great. Next up I have to build a bunch of small raised beds for the tomatoes we intend to plant this year. I'm going to go with individual plants in each 2x2 bed 4 feet apart so I can isolate them better. Hopefully stink bugs won't destroy them this year. I'm excited for my spring crops to start popping up! Another 2-3 weeks and I should be seeing sprouts. I also cleared all the ferns out of the old rabbit hutch and replanted herbs, some marjoram, thyme, chives and basil as well as a bit of bloody sorrel. I have 5 pots to fill up with the rest of my herbs and I need to clear the bed y the parsley and plant my cilantro. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Feb 23, 2014 |
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Feb 23, 2014 22:17
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I put onions and shallots in this evening and cultivated the potato row so it will be quick to do once they callus over. Thankfully the soil really didn't compact down much at all from when I gave it a solid tilling last year. Also despite it being a couple weeks since we had any rain the soil was still moist. That bodes well. Also some spinach has come up! The garden now officially has things growing in it!
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Feb 24, 2014 02:21
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I finished my garden plan and ordered seeds while watching the snow fall outside today.  I'm going to rearrange my good germin' rig this year. I've always struggled with the hooks and chains suspending the lights. I saw someone else just used an extra shelf and set the light on top of it. Then I'll stack random stuff under the trays to get seedlings up to the lights and remove them one at a time as they grow.
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Feb 24, 2014 02:44
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I finished my garden plan and ordered seeds while watching the snow fall outside today. I just had some orange crates on the floor and put my light right on top of that, my light setup doesnt really throw off enough heat to worry about it. Couple sheets of cardboard underneath the heating pad for insulation and the soil temp is easily over 75F in a relatively cold room. Edit: Crosspostin from the Urban Garden thread: I started 6 cells of peppers in my indoor heating pad / grow light setup and all of them have germinated now after only 1 week. I had 4 cells of bell pepper and 2 cells of lipstick peppers. I uh, thought they would take longer and am a little worried about how long these will have to sit indoors. I can transfer them to slightly larger pots but will not be able to keep them right on the heating pad as much. My guess is the soil temp will range from 65-75, right now it's sitting pretty even around 75-80F. I haven't even started tomatoes yet as I had read that starting them early and not being able to transfer them to larger pots in a timely fashion is bad for the plants. Is that true? Anyway, zone 5B boston area, still lots of snow on the ground and below freezing for a while longer. Good to know I can germinate the gently caress out of pepper seeds at least! Here's the setup so far:  And here's the little guys  
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Feb 24, 2014 02:50
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None of my pepper seeds are wanting to sprout, and I think all my tomato seedlings are going to die. I started hardening them off and the little peat pots dried up, and they all wilted. Maybe I'll just buy plants this year instead of growing those from seed. Probably not buying peat pots again, either. I had way too much trouble controlling the amount of moisture in them and several either got moldy or dried up. Zucchini and cucumbers are doing fine outside though. Just need to finish preparing beds and plant them out. On the plus side, I made a small investment in a couple of fruit trees today. Costco was selling trees for a little less than $10 each, so I picked up an apricot and a pomegranate. Going to try growing them in half barrels, since I'm currently renting and I want to take my trees with me whenever I move. I might go back later for a peach tree or a couple of apples if these ones do well. I know I won't be getting fruit off them any time soon, but I'm super excited. My fiance helped me pick them out, so it's like an investment in future happiness. And fruit. Fruit is like happiness
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Feb 24, 2014 11:32
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/\/\/\Water your plants, man!  I love peat pots. Keep the peat pots in a tray or pan, and water the tray every other day or so. They will wick up all the water they need, and stay moist. Don't sweat a little mold on the outside. Breaky posted:Pepper pictures That is about where our peppers are. After last year, where we hardened off 12+ inch tomato plants, with little shrimpy 4 inch pepper plants that we started at the same time, I'm not worried. They grow slowly (at least for me?) We are 5b/6a (MO), and I haven't started tomatoes yet--probably in a couple weeks. I didn't have any issues transplanting last year's tomatoes. They got too big for the seed tray, and I put them in little pots and stuck the pots under the lights. I think they could have kept growing quite happily for a while longer. You can always transplant to a small pot and keep them inside until you are ready to move them to their real home. Sooner than later, we'll be able to work the root veg bed and get parsnip seed and potatoes out.  I'm super excited for spring.
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Feb 24, 2014 15:02
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I was thinking of starting Tomatoes within another 7-10 days. I'll transfer those peppers to 4" pots within the next 5 days and start them on a light cycle (instead of full 24h which they are on now) and moving them off of the pad to ambient temp next to it. Right now the avg soil temp is 78F or so. They would be around 68-72F. If they slow down it's cool, it'll be a while before the ground is unfrozen and I can start putting in raised beds. I was surprised that all of the peppers came up right around 7 days on the dot. I had them in peat starter blocks and barely watered them after the initial soak. I put the seeds into the blocks while they were just rehydrated and still very damp then maybe watered them twice over the entire next week. Seemed like they all came up great.
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Feb 24, 2014 15:22
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I'm thinking I'm going to pluck all my tomato seedlings and start over again in about 2-4 weeks. I think i'm way too early, and the last time I started around now I had a kitchen full of monster tomato plants. Yeah, I'm early again. drat it! Edit: Yup, just went back and checked my post from last year, and I'm even earlier than last year! What the hell is wrong with me (Cabin fever)? SpannerX fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Feb 24, 2014 |
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Feb 24, 2014 15:33
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Man since I have been living in Texas for so long I cant even imagine a place where you cant just direct sow in February and grow stuff until November. I admire all you northern Goons for being able to plan and work these grow pots correctly.
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Feb 24, 2014 17:59
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Man since I have been living in Texas for so long I cant even imagine a place where you cant just direct sow in February and grow stuff until November. I admire all you northern Goons for being able to plan and work these grow pots correctly. Moving from Texas to Boston I know what you mean. A good way to explain it is that you have a lot of free time on your hands to plan out garden stuff during the weekends when the weather is absolute poo poo and a snowstorm is moving in.
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Feb 24, 2014 18:12
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Man since I have been living in Texas for so long I cant even imagine a place where you cant just direct sow in February and grow stuff until November. I admire all you northern Goons for being able to plan and work these grow pots correctly. I am very jealous. My dream is to one day live someplace I can garden all year, and the air doesn't literally hurt my face for like 6 months at a time.
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Feb 24, 2014 18:35
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 I put the potatoes in as well.  I'm way too excited about all this.
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Feb 24, 2014 19:45
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What kind of tiller/cultivator should I be looking at? We need a small one for maneuverability within the beds; it doesn't have to be super burly, but I want to be able to work the beds several inches down and not break or seize up every time it sees a root. Gas? Electric? We've worked everything by hand up till now, and we're just done with that, so we need one to continue working beds that are already in pretty good shape (no rocks or tree roots). It would primarily be working three, 4x20ft raised veggie beds, plus a 10x10ft raised herb bed and some odd jobs in my flower beds.
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Feb 24, 2014 21:12
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SpannerX posted:I'm thinking I'm going to pluck all my tomato seedlings and start over again in about 2-4 weeks. I think i'm way too early, and the last time I started around now I had a kitchen full of monster tomato plants. Yeah, I'm early again. drat it! I have the same problem; I get too excited and then there is no stopping me. I have an industrial type bookshelf that I have converted one shelf of into a grow station, But it is already getting pretty full and there are months to go before I can move things outside.  
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Feb 24, 2014 21:24
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AlistairCookie posted:What kind of tiller/cultivator should I be looking at? If you get an electric one be sure to get one with the option to add some amount of ballast to it. The ones that are just the motor (Sun Joe) will bounce all over the place.
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Feb 24, 2014 21:35
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The hardware store didn't have pepper plants yet, but they had several varieties of tomato that I was tempted to buy. Instead I ended up with a variety pack of potatoes, a pack of strawberries, and a spearmint plant. I have more disposable income than last year and I'm sort of going crazy with it. AlistairCookie posted:/\/\/\Water your plants, man! They were in a tray; the water just dried up too quickly.  It's been really warm here with daytime temps averaging 70F for at least a week. Most of my summer crops are already outside or getting ready to go out.
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Feb 25, 2014 01:29
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Good germin' rig cleaned and set up, seeds are on their way. Short top shelf with heat mats for starting stuff and a tall second shelf for the inevitable huge tomato plants. Oscillating fan for air circulation. Gonna pick up some new flats and seed starting mix tonight on the way home. I couldn't find the little plastic bits for installing the 6th shelf. Apparently they are called split sleeve shelf clips. There are some online sources but I'll have to measure to see if I need the 3/4" or 1" version. Then I could have two medium shelves.
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Feb 26, 2014 19:03
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Better put up some cat protection, or you'll find yourself with a nice batch of leafless(and meristem-less) sprouts soon after they germinate.
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Feb 26, 2014 23:36
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Kilersquirrel posted:Better put up some cat protection, or you'll find yourself with a nice batch of leafless(and meristem-less) sprouts soon after they germinate. Sprouting stuff will be on the top shelf out of reach, and only moved down when it's bigger. A few shots from a spray bottle has been pretty effective in training them where to not be.
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Feb 26, 2014 23:48
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There is no such thing as "out of reach" for a curious housecat. In my experience spray bottles train them where not to be when you're around, though.
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Feb 26, 2014 23:58
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Kilersquirrel posted:There is no such thing as "out of reach" for a curious housecat. In my experience spray bottles train them where not to be when you're around, though. This isn't the first year I've used the rack, it's going to be fine.
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Feb 27, 2014 06:00
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Kilersquirrel posted:There is no such thing as "out of reach" for a curious housecat. In my experience spray bottles train them where not to be when you're around, though. Hahah that's exactly how it is for mine too!
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Feb 27, 2014 13:52
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My cats can easily reach my seedlings, but luckily for me they don't care. I keep a makeshift curtain hanging down in front of my grow shelf and that seems to "out of sight, out of mind" it for them.
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Feb 27, 2014 14:29
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Can I plant seeds taken directly from a melon or do they need to be fermented first?
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Feb 27, 2014 21:56
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Tossing the guts of the canteloupe straight into the ground worked great for me when I tried it.
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Feb 27, 2014 23:19
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What are most people feelings on using landscape timbers for vegetable beds? I built two 4 X 8 beds last year out of regular untreated pine (2 X 12 boards) and it seemed to hold up ok, doesn't look like there was a whole lot of rot or decay so far. This year I am going to build two more for my house and setup one for my parents as well. I'm debating if I want to use untreated 2 X 12s, treat them myself with linseed oil, or go with timbers. I know that some people swear by timbers and some people don't use them for fear of chemical leeching. Not sure if it's the case anymore and just wanted to see what the consensus was.
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Feb 28, 2014 18:40
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Kilersquirrel posted:Tossing the guts of the canteloupe straight into the ground worked great for me when I tried it. Thanks, I'll just plant them then. I got this really tasty "Korean melon" from the local Asian market (I think it was a very small canary melon if Wikipedia is to be trusted) and I'd like to see if I can grow it.
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Feb 28, 2014 18:47
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dangittj posted:What are most people feelings on using landscape timbers for vegetable beds? I'm curious about this as well, debating the same choices.
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Feb 28, 2014 19:09
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dangittj posted:What are most people feelings on using landscape timbers for vegetable beds?  (note the beds in the background, those AREN'T made of cedar) Most purchasable raised beds I see are made with 1"x8" or 1"x"12" cedar however from what I've seen, those can bow outward kind of badly. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Feb 28, 2014 |
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Feb 28, 2014 19:25
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coyo7e posted:2"x12" utility-grade cedar. It smells and looks great, and I got them for like $12 for a 12' board. three makes a perfect 4'x'8 raised bed that's 12" high. It's way way cheaper than anything else that was viable, although I had to call the home improvement store daily until they had a shipment come in - they're usually gone within a day or two. 1 cubic yard of dirt will fill one bed this size up to about 8" high. Nice. You get these in the US? If so what store?
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Feb 28, 2014 19:35
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Agreed cedar is the best option. If using linseed oil be sure it is pure. Most BLO has additives that you wouldn't want in soil to make it dry and cure faster. Another option is lining the sides with plastic sheeting. Anything that minimizes contact between wood and soil is going to help. Last night I planted my three columnar apple trees and 2 of 6 aspargus crowns (ran out of day light). I'm going to plant the rest of them tonight and then go crazy starting seeds. I remembered I have a bunch of true potato seed and physalis peruviana from last year.
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Feb 28, 2014 19:36
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coyo7e posted:2"x12" utility-grade cedar. It smells and looks great, and I got them for like $12 for a 12' board. three makes a perfect 4'x'8 raised bed that's 12" high. It's way way cheaper than anything else that was viable, although I had to call the home improvement store daily until they had a shipment come in - they're usually gone within a day or two. 1 cubic yard of dirt will fill one bed this size up to about 8" high. I've never seen cedar that cheap around here, a cedar 12 foot 2 x 12 was over $30 last year. I'll have to call the lumberyard and see if they have "utility cedar"
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Feb 28, 2014 20:31
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dangittj posted:I've never seen cedar that cheap around here, a cedar 12 foot 2 x 12 was over $30 last year. I'll have to call the lumberyard and see if they have "utility cedar" Yeah, the regular 2x12 stuff is like 2 or 2.50 a board foot easily, but the woman in the lumber department at http://www.betterheadforjerrys.com/ (local Oregon company, worst website ever) mentioned that they had a MUCH cheaper alternative. It was very much worth calling twice a day for two weeks. I'd imagine most Home Depot/Lowes/etc would know what you're asking for if you call. Edit: as for worrying about the wood rotting, the untreated fir that I put together three years ago is still doing fine, and my parents' beds are like 8-10 years old,  I think they were untreated cedar as well. I'll probably replace my fir beds next year though. They were made from old scrap boards laying around my dad's shop when he was cleaning it up though so the price was right. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Feb 28, 2014 |
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Feb 28, 2014 20:41
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Crap. In the course of replacing some dead seedlings, I've lost track of what was what and have no idea what's currently planted. Anyone got a brilliant way to tell straightneck squash seedlings from bush-type zucchini seedlings? 
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Mar 1, 2014 19:38
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| # ? May 30, 2024 08:19 |
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coyo7e posted:Yeah, the regular 2x12 stuff is like 2 or 2.50 a board foot easily, but the woman in the lumber department at http://www.betterheadforjerrys.com/ (local Oregon company, worst website ever) mentioned that they had a MUCH cheaper alternative. It was very much worth calling twice a day for two weeks. I'd imagine most Home Depot/Lowes/etc would know what you're asking for if you call. What are those blue flowers off on the right? They look great!
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Mar 1, 2014 19:49
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