The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Saving money by saving seeds

16.7 years ago seed saving, seed storing 5 Comments

Many people do not know that given the right care you can save a package of seeds for 3 years and depending on the variety possibly even longer.  When you want seeds to germinate you provide heat, moisture, and light. To prevent them from germinating you want to do the opposite by storing them in a cool, dry, and dark environment.

I happen to live in the humid Pacific Northwest so finding a dry location can be difficult, but I happen to have the perfect environment in my kitchen in my refrigerator.  Just thoroughly clean and dry a glass jar and drop in your seed packets and close the lid. If you happen to one or two of those silica packets lying around (those things you find in the toe when you put on new pair of sneakers) drop that in the bottom it will help soak up any moisture that may exist in the jar.  If moisture seems to appear inside your jar simply open the top and the dry environment will suck all the moisture out.

Strawberries in the garden

16.3 years ago indoor growbox, strawberries 3 Comments

Strawberries thrive here in the Pacific Northwest but this year the June bearers almost missed their month this year with some of the erratic weather we have had during the past couple months. Last year I planted about a half dozen June bearing plants in the holes of the cinder blocks that surround my raised bed. We got enough strawberries to keep our oldest daughter satisfied for an occasional snack but still had to supplement from the grocery store to satisfy her strawberry habit and with the rising produce prices I let the let some of the runners spread to their neighboring cinder block holes and some cases transplanting the start to a more appropriate location. A couple months ago I also planted some different varieties of Everbearing strawberries to provide fruit throughout more of the summer.

The normal life cycle of a strawberry plant is 3 years. The first year will consist of plant growth where you should see a decent number of strawberries but not as much as the second year. My second year plants are about a foot tall and have dozens of large strawberries growing on them. I have been cutting any runners that shoot out to allow the plant to spend its energy on those delicious berries. The third year the plant’s production will be less and will be spending more of its energy on its runners which is a good time to let those runners turn into new plants and let the cycle repeat. After the plants have finished producing this is the time to fertilize with a balanced fertilizer (10-10-10) otherwise this can lead to excessive leaf growth and less production. Fertilizing at this time will also give the plants the chance to store some much needed energy over the cold winter and have a good head start for the following spring.

Now this morning my oldest daughter was tired of picking strawberries sure it had nothing to do with her picking two and a half pounds of strawberries at Harvold Berry Farm the day before.

Propagating peppermint and lemon verbena – UPDATE

15.9 years ago lemon verbena, peppermint 3 Comments

As you can see from the picture, my peppermint and lemon verbena propagation has come a long quite well. I did have a little aphid infestation on the peppermint plant which I attempted to take care of with manual pinching, but eventually I gave up and chopped off the top off the plant. I then followed up with a hefty dose of insecticidal soap to the soil and the remaining stem. I would have preferred an even more natural method such as ladybugs but sure my officemates would prefer I didn’t.

The lemon verbena did pretty well on its own with one exception I think I mistakenly broke or cut the top off the plant so there was no vertical growth and just crazy shoots horizontally so I cut most of these off and replanted to 3 new starts which have taken off as well as their parent.

Growing a stevia plant

14.3 years ago stevia, sugar 11 Comments

While heading to my local home improvement I noticed an unusual plant in the herb display and moved closer to investigate.  It turned out to be a Stevia plant which is more well known as the primary ingredient in a new artificial sweetener Truvia.  I immediately grabbed a good looking plant, I have wanted to grow one of these myself but given the high price of the seeds and it is known to have serious germination issues and normally leads to failure.

The stevia plant can grow to a height of about 30 inches and a width of 18 to 24 inches.  They prefer rich, loamy soil and need frequent shallow watering to keep the roots moist but not wet.  Given the requirements growing in containers is a great option (which is my current plan).  Plant in a container about 10-12 inches in diameter and plant with your favorite potting mix.

The plant will normally not require side dressing of fertilizer but if your plant requires it, make sure to use a low nitrogen organic fertilizer since high nitrogen causes reduced leaf sweetness.

Once the plant matures in the fall, dry the leaves by leaving out in the sun for 12 hours or use a home dehydrator and the lowest possible temperature.  The leaves then can be ground with a coffee or spice grinder and made into a fine powder which is called Green Stevia Powder.  You can replace 3-4 teaspoons in place of one cup of sugar.  It retains its sweetness for at least two years in storage in an airtight container.

If desired you can also make some Stevia concentrate liquid which will allow your Green Stevia Powder to stretch a little further.  You can make your own by steeping 1 tablespoon of Green Stevia Powder with 4 cups (1 liter) of hot water for 5 minutes.  This liquid Stevia concentrate will be good for 3 days in the refrigerator and one tablespoon of this liquid is equivalent to 1 cup of sugar.

Sure much less work to buy some of this at the store, but not nearly as much fun…

Effects of color spectrums on plant growth

15.8 years ago indoor growbox, LEDs, spectograph 9 Comments

I have written about the importance of lumens when growing indoors but the intensity of the light at specific wavelengths can be over even more important.  NASA has done some significant research on the subject to determine the possibility of growing leafy vegetables on a trip to Mars using as little electricity as possible to get the most benefit out of every watt.  In space any wasted energy (heat or light not used by plant growth needs to be severely limited.

It should not be a surprise that using LEDs is part of the solution they came up with since they use 20-30% of the energy of a comparable HPS (High Pressure Sodium) bulb which is considered very efficient given the lumen output per watt.  The most interesting part of their findings was how specific red and blue wavelengths were imperative to the growth of plants and actually could sustain growth with just these limited wavelengths.  Given the freezing temperatures and masses of snow on the ground the best use of this information for indoor gardening and specifically my $20 PC Grow Box.  Understanding the wavelengths that your artificial lights creates can help you have increased plant growth and save on your electricity bill at the same time.

When evaluating which light you must consider wavelength and also the intensity of the light at that wavelength.  A tool to do exactly this is a spectrograph, which you can purchase, make your own (this was a fun project with the kids), or just trust other peoples readings.  I chose made my own, but am displaying results (led museum) since I would have to estimate the intensity based on the brightness of the spectrum created which would lack some accuracy.

Just to get some perspective, this is what how various light sources appear to a spectrograph:

Sunlight
Florescent Bulb
Incandescent bulb
Low power  blue LED (5mm)
Low power red LED (5mm)
Low power white LED

As you can see incandescent appears to be the closest to matching the wavelengths and intensities of sunlight though it we need to remember that the orange/yellow/green wavelengths provide essentially are wasted from the plant’s perspective due to natural reflection of these colors.  So if a light looks bright to you, there is a good chance you are wasting electricity, as humans our eyes respond well to these wavelengths why we will find these bulbs to be much “brighter” from our perspective.  The fluorescent bulb is a good example where we see this light as bright for plants other than the small slices spectrum much of the light is unusable.  I have had good luck growing indoors with CFLs along with incandescent, but from the information above I my results cold have less spectacular if hadn’t included the incandescent bulb.  At the time the only reason I used it was to generate a little extra heat on some of the cold nights.

The key point is I could easily have much better results using significantly less power.  According to NASA’s research the most efficient configuration is to only have red/blue LEDs consisting primarily of red (80-85%) with the remaining (15-20%) being blue LEDs.  I would recommend replacing the some of the of the blue LEDs with white LEDs to provide a full spectrum including a pretty intensive blue spectrum in itself.  As an added bonus this will provide some “human” light in orange/yellow/green spectrum to allow us humans to view plants with less strain.

By replacing the two 24 watt CFL and one 80 watt incandescent bulb with a few hundred LEDs I could drop at least 124 watts with my new configuration.  Assuming I am running my grow box every day for 14 hours a day this could save me over $45 a year as well as just being the more environmentally conscious thing to do.

So during these cold winter months if you grow indoors whether just for seedlings or vegetables all year round be sure to remember that not all indoor lights are created equal.

$3 LED light bulbs coming soon…

15.7 years ago cheap, LEDs 7 Comments

Researchers at Cambridge University have come up with a method to significantly reduce the cost of creating LED light bulbs.  LEDs use gallium nitride and requires being grown on sapphire wafers.  The new technique allows growth on silicon wafer reducing the cost significantly from $28 to $3 per bulb.  The big news for the bulbs is they use 12 times less energy that incandescent bulbs, last for 60 years, and they are far enough in their research that they could come to market in just a two years.  Just imagine, in just a couple years you could be buying your last light bulb(s) of your life, unless you physically break them of course. 

This this so exciting for indoor growing, my cheap LED grow box works great for the small space for seedlings.  When I start thinking of expanding my growing area, the current LED prices make the start-up cost to illuminate a large space is considerable.  Because of this I am forced to resort to CFLs as the more economical solution.  With these innovations we could definately see indoor gardening much more accessible to a greater audience with this financial barrier lifted.  via Gizmodo