Science Fair: Why don’t strawberries grow during the wintertime?
17.1 years ago indoor growbox, strawberries
My 6 year old daughter was the inspiration for the PC grow box for her science fair project to figure out why strawberries don’t grow during the wintertime. She started by picking a strawberry plant from our garden (snow still on the ground) and we potted it in a terra cotta pot which she carefully painted ahead of time. We put it in the grow box in our garage with the lights on for 14 hours a day. As she saw significant changes in her strawberry plant we took pictures. After about a month of growing we went through the pictures and she wrote her report explaining the changes.
She definitely had a good time standing by her display proudly telling people about her project and answering any questions that the various visitors had. She did take a break to take a look at some of the other kids displays which I took note of the gardening related ones which would be great for a science projects for any of your budding scientists:
– Seed germination (soil or paper towel)
– How plants grow with different color of lights (colored transparent plastic)
– How plants grow when given different liquids (water, soda, milk, vinager, diet soda)
– Effects of being mean or nice to plants
– Effects of music on plant growth
– Hydroponics
– Effects of temperature on plant growth
Tags: cheap, garden seeds, grow lights, growbox, outdoor plants, strawberry plants, vegetables
Strawberries in the PC Grow box (UPDATE #2)
17.1 years ago indoor growbox, strawberries
The strawberry plant is doing better than I ever expected, should have some fresh strawberries in a week or two. Hopefully no one tells them it is not June…
Tags: cheap, growbox, outdoor plants, strawberry plants, vegetables
SHOWDOWN: PC Grow Box versus The Sun
17.1 years ago Uncategorized
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I am running out of space in my PC grow box now I have added lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers along with the original inhabitant, the strawberry plant. I noticed that the two cucumber plants were approximately the same size and taking up quite a bit of space, so decided to have a little competition and experiment and see which grows better given different environments. I will have one in the PC grow box and the other in its permanent spot in the garden under a miniature greenhouse (2-liter bottle with bottle cut off)
At two weeks after my last frost date (end of March in my area) I will plant the cucumber plant in the PC grow box next to the other plant and report my findings. Anyone have any predictions of the outcome?
Tags: cheap, growbox, outdoor plants, strawberry plants, tomato plants, vegetables
My Lettuce seeds have sprouted
17.2 years ago indoor seed starting
My lettuce seeds sprouted faster than usual this year, I expected to have some problems since I have saved the seeds for 3 years now. I don’t have a heating pad (yeah I’m cheap) so just put them on top of the refrigerator in a makeshift greenhouse out of an old strawberry container. They would have still germinated in my mid-60 degree house, but the extra heat gained from being on top of the refrigerator will allow my cucumbers to sprout about 10 days sooner.
I will have to give coconut coir my two green thumbs up, my only complaint is that it retains water a little too well. I would recommend 1 part perlite to 2 parts coconut coir
to let the roots dry out a little more. For now I am just watering from the bottom so guess I am doing some cheap hydroponics. I have also added them to my PC case grow box.
Tags: cheap, garden seeds, growbox, strawberry plants, vegetables
Strawberries in the PC grow box (UPDATE)
17.2 years ago indoor growbox
Well the strawberry plant seems to be doing great in the $20 PC grow box. Can’t wait to try it out on my recently planted seedlings.
Tags: cheap, garden seeds, growbox, outdoor plants, strawberry plants, vegetables
Strawberries in the PC Grow box (FINAL UPDATE)
17.2 years ago indoor growbox, strawberries
Okay, I promise this will be the last time I talk about our strawberry plant in the grow box. After a little more than a month in the grow box our plant went from a small lifeless plant to one that looks like will bear about 10 strawberries. We are planning on moving it to the garden with the rest our strawberry plants later this week to make room for the growing tomatoes.
How strawberry plant looked when we started 40 days ago.
Picture of my daughter showing off her strawberry before she ate the first one.
I sampled on the strawberries and must say I do miss “local” strawberries, looking forward to the rest of them in the next couple months.
Tags: cheap, growbox, led, outdoor plants, strawberry plants, tomato plants, vegetables
