The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Science Fair – Will smaller seeds sprout faster?

14.5 years ago kids, science fair 2 Comments

This site was practically started because of my oldest daughters science fair project Why Don’t Strawberries Grow in the Wintertime?  Now with my youngest in kindergarten she was very excited to have a science fair project of her own, which should be pretty obvious from the picture above.

With no influence from me she decided on answering the question if smaller seeds will sprout faster.  These days science fairs are more than just gluing some some Styrofoam balls to a couple hangers and calling it good.  They require using true scientific methods and procedures, which is pretty advanced for a 5 year old, although she didn’t seem to notice.  Here is the contents of her experiment…

Hypothesis: Smaller seeds will grow bigger in a shorter amount of time because their roots don’t need to grow as big to support the plant

Procedure: I planted 3 seeds of each plant type (lettuce, cilantro, pumpkin) and watered them and gave them sunlight and I watched them grow.

Results: I planted the seeds at the same time and measured the growth over 2 weeks.  The lettuce was the first one to sprout.  The cilantro was the next one to sprout and the pumpkin was the last one to sprout.  At week one, the lettuce was still the largest, cilantro was the second, and the pumpkin was the smallest

Conclusion: Smaller seeds sprouted and grow quicker than larger seeds.

I was very impressed with her project as well as the hypothesis, one of those moments of thinking, “hmm…is that how actually works…”  Though you probably can think of a few plants that would break the hypothesis but pretty much on target for most plants.

Interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday

14.5 years ago Uncategorized 10 Comments

Another exciting day this week to be included in an interview on Science Friday with Ira Flatow. I’ll update this post and press page with a link to the interview when it becomes available.

For people who were listening live here are a few of the topics that were discussed for quick reference:

• How to make your own upside Down Planter In your Garden
• The most profitable plants in your vegetable garden
• Using used coffee grounds in your garden/compost
• The Great Sunflower Project [external]

[link to radio interview] [mirror]

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. – Thomas A. Edison

14.5 years ago Uncategorized 4 Comments

I saw this quote on a project at my daughter’s science fair tonight, this could totally be my tagline for this site…

Featured in The New York Times

14.5 years ago cheap, upside down planter 15 Comments

We were very excited to be featured in The New York Times last Thursday.  Welcome to the many new visitors that visiting us this week.  If you want to check out the entire article it is available online. 

I have been considering creating a press page and figured this was a good opportunity to start a “CVG featured in the press page”

How to make your own upside Down Planter In your Garden

14.5 years ago garden planter, planter, upside down planter 35 Comments

Over the past year I have created a few different versions of garden planters for growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers inspired from my daughter watching a Topsy Turvy tomato planter commercial.  Here is a quick summary of the different options which you can click the link for full instructions how to build on yourself.

	2 Liter – The Original — This is the one that started it all.  Very simple design using a 2 liter bottle covered with duct tape with a hole cut in the side to add soil and water as needed.Pros: Simple to create, dark color helped keep soil warm during the early part of the year, unlike the sibling seedling which I planted in the ground as a control which did not make it.Cons:  Really had to keep up on watering, given it had a 2 inch hole in the side water was able to easily evaporate and it did not get the advantage of being watered automatically on raining days/weeks and given I wasn’t watering any other plants forgot about this poor one which led to reduced yields.
	2 liter — Version 2.0 — This year I wanted something that did not appear as hideous hanging and also took care of the watering issue from the previous version.  With this I created a slow drip watering reservoir and used spray paint and skipped the duct tape.Pros: Easy to water through manual or automatic (rain), evaporation is minimized due to small drainage holesCons: At the moment, there are none known.  I am happy with this design.
	1 gallon milk jug (with auto-watering) — I was curious about if the extra 1.799 liters with a larger contain would significantly help yields so I went with this version.  Also decided to add an experimental external watering source.Pros: Larger volume of soil, extra watering capacityCons: Keeping the whole thing balanced was a pain, currently have it under control with a couple rubber band but will probably have to be replaced with something more permanent later.

So there you have the short evolution of my homemade upside down tomato planters all created from materials from my recycling bin.  Though if you do not want to make one yourself here are a just a few of the commercial upside down planter versions on the market right now.

1 Gallon Milk carton upside down tomato planter

14.6 years ago cheap, peppers, tomato, upside down planter, water 15 Comments

I wanted to see if (how much) my yields varied by allowing more volume of dirt in my homemade tomato planter, so I made this variation with the same type and size “Husky Cherry” seedling I am using in my 2-liter planter version.

The build for this one is also very simple:

• I started with an organic milk carton given it was already opaque, but if you have the non-organic variety you will want to paint or cover the outside with duct tape.
• Next cut or drill a 1/2 inch hole on the bottom of the milk carton, this will be where the stem of the plant will fit through.
• Cut four slits out from the center of the 1/2 inch hole to make it easier to insert the plant into the planter.
• Insert plant through the bottom.
• Fill with soil (mix of 1 part peat moss/coconut coir)
• Finally drill a hole and feed though eyelet secured with a nut from the back side

Now here is where you can stop or you can go with the advanced auto-watering option.

Materials Needed:

• 20 ounce water bottle
• plastic straw
• sponge

Build Instructions:

• Drill hole just large enough to barely be able to pull the straw through
• Cut a 1 inch long piece of sponge just wide enough to be able to slip inside the straw.
• Fill with water and screw on cap and insert into top of planter

As the dirt dries it will also dry out the sponge which will release water and repeat as necessary.  This works in a very similar concept as a Aqua Globe you may have seen advertised on TV.