Post #440,214
10/25/21 6:30:13 AM
10/25/21 6:35:41 AM
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I just spent a day planting
About 350 seed starts. I have room that will allow me to grow indoors and have perpetual harvests and then when spring comes I'll bring what I can outside and reutilize the area for something else. I already had the led lights which were used to grow cannabis, legally, so everything else was a cheap no-brainer.
Oh my aching back. But it's worth it. It's at least 40 minutes of travel time to go to a store with decent prices and serious selection and come back. So I'm happy to have fresh vegetables and herbs and fruit tree starts that I can grab anytime. The fruit trees will be apples and pears and cherries and whatever else I can find that grows well in this climate. The backyard will have a half dome greenhouse running about 50 ft.
And in a month I'll have a room filled with green and really bright lights and humidity and warmth in the middle of the winter. This hits positives everywhere.
And M is setting up her own little countertop hydroponic herb garden. I guess she got competitive because she's growing exactly what I had already ordered and set up downstairs. I do dirt. I don't like hydroponics. For some reason I want my microbes to break down everything nicely and feed it to the plants. I have my nitrogen fixing bacteria and my root growing mychorizial fungus. I screwed up that spelling for sure. So anyway I am going all out in this room and M decides to set up a little competitive environment. Interesting. We shall see what happens.
Edited by crazy
Oct. 25, 2021, 06:35:41 AM EDT
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Post #440,222
10/25/21 10:09:03 PM
10/25/21 10:09:03 PM
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Be sure to let us know whose scheme worked better.
I too have trouble understanding how a plant can just be floating in a uniform solution of various chemicals and decide where to and how to expand. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #440,225
10/26/21 9:54:20 AM
10/26/21 9:54:20 AM
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What's the diff -- isn't soil just a *solid* "uniform solution of various chemicals"?
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Post #440,230
10/26/21 10:26:53 PM
10/26/21 10:26:53 PM
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I don't think that it has to be uniform.
It's why plowing makes difference. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #440,237
10/28/21 1:12:56 AM
10/28/21 1:12:56 AM
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Yeah, but in the ideal case? You plow it to make it more uniform, AIUI.
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Post #440,233
10/27/21 6:39:06 PM
10/28/21 6:44:40 AM
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Leaves go up roots go down.
I used to actually know the various chemical and light triggers that cause this but I long since forgot. Edit: So I seemed to recall that ethylene gas was a major factor. Yup. Which then led me to this. This is a very good starting point. https://untamedscience.com/biology/plants/plant-growth-hormones/Roots don't have to go very far, roots are going in search of water and nutrients. If they do not need to grow to achieve the nutrient mass required to feed the leaves then they will essentially slow down. Normally the root mass equals the upper half of the plant mass but that is not in the case of hydroponics because they don't have to go to work to get their food or water. My problem with hydroponics is you have to pay so close attention to the pH balance and the parts per million of the nutrients and each plant has a different optimal level. What's perfect for one might be totally wrong for another. If your water gets too hot or too cold overnight they will all die. If you use too much of any particular nutrient they will sick and some will die die. Dirt is much more forgiving. Dirt is essentially a living buffer for anything I might screw up. It's been a couple of days and the turnips are all popping up as well as some broccoli and some cabbage and some lettuce. I initially thought I horribly screwed up because I mixed the mycorrhizal fungus in with the dirt in general because I did not have that much of it. Typically I drop a couple pellets in the seed hole and it all grows together with the seed and the roots. At this point I have white fungus all over the place that I initially thought I just have to trash it all over and then I realized it was my beneficial fungus.
Edited by crazy
Oct. 28, 2021, 06:29:03 AM EDT
Edited by crazy
Oct. 28, 2021, 06:31:44 AM EDT
Edited by crazy
Oct. 28, 2021, 06:44:40 AM EDT
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Post #440,235
10/27/21 7:06:16 PM
10/27/21 7:06:16 PM
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Confirms how I remember when I first read about it
It's more efficient, but harder to manage. Reminds me of our current supply chains: Highly optimized and fragile. How's that workout out for us?
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Post #440,234
10/27/21 6:43:43 PM
10/27/21 6:43:43 PM
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It's not floating.
Hydroponic setups typically have the plants firmly anchored between the stem and the roots. So the plant is held in position. Usually the roots go through a large basket holding the base of the root mass and the rest trail in the liquid solution.
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Post #440,236
10/27/21 10:46:22 PM
10/27/21 10:46:22 PM
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That makes sense.
Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #440,238
10/28/21 6:24:29 AM
10/28/21 6:24:29 AM
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I enjoy watching the different rows pop up
Each day another half dozen cubes of dirt erupt with between one and a dozen plants depending on how many seeds I tossed in there.
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