The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

Growing with hydroponics in the grow box

15.7 years ago cheap, hydroponics, indoor growbox, tomato

There has been some major changes since I started the plants above in my cheap DIY hydroponic setup about a month ago.  Since then I have added a couple of pepper plants I saved from thinning.  I must say the plants are doing better than I expected.  I am still using the same homemade nutrient solution, 2 pumps of liquid plant fertilizer and half a teaspoon of Epsom Salts. 

The sickly plant on the bottom left is a cloning experiment which is not going great but the plant is growing roots and apparently surviving.

Some views from below:

Tags: cheap, growbox, outdoor plants, pepper plants, vegetables

Make your own supplemental LED grow light

15.7 years ago cheap, indoor growbox, LEDs

I never got a round to making a hydroponic system out of my Cafe Steamer, but I did use part of it to create a supplemental red LED light.  The construction of this was very easy and you can do the same thing with an old string of LED Christmas lights and some soft plastic (margarine or frozen dinner container) from your recycling bin.

Take the plastic and drill evenly spaced holes through the plastic.  Make sure to do a few test holes with a few different bits to determine which will allow a snug fit but not causing you to force/break the bulbs.  Once all the holes are drilled, carefully slide in all the bulbs, plug it in, and your project is done.

I am adding this one to my computerized grow box as a little supplemental light for my peppers plants, which I am planning on growing completely indoors this year.

Tags: cheap, garden seeds, grow lights, growbox, led, outdoor plants, pepper plants, vegetables

Last frost dates are not the same

15.7 years ago last frost date

It came to my attention it seemed every time I see my average last frost date it comes up as a different date.

Now the humorous part of this is I didn’t go out trying to find as many non-matching dates as I could, these came in order from my Google query for “last frost dates”.

Under conventional wisdom, this number should be simply an average of the last frost dates for the past 30-40 years to give you about a 50% chance of avoiding frost given past history.  So it seems really strange why these numbers vary so much.

Then I came across U.S. Climate Normals this site includes no only the dates but the probability of them being true.  So if you are a betting man/woman (or just impatient) you can press your luck and plant with variable odds.

For my area (Seattle, WA) I have the following options:

Tags: garden seeds, outdoor plants

Water your plants with authority

15.7 years ago gadget, water

This is only a concept, but I am surprised SuperSoaker has not already released something similar.  Now a gun shaped water nozzle is definitely not necessary or possibly even safe in some neighborhoods but sure to make you more manly while watering your pansies.

design reactor Via Gizmodo

Tags: outdoor plants

Protecting your seedlings when your weather does not cooperate

15.7 years ago cold season crops, outdoor seed starting, sieve

I like to push the envelope my luck when I decide to start seeds outdoors and this year is not an exception.  Just yesterday I posted about planting the rest of my outdoor seeds where karma responded with a freak snow storm and freezing temperatures.

I am not too worried about about the new seeds I planted since many have been sitting dormant in the refrigerator for almost 12 months so few more days in about the same temperature shouldn’t be too traumatic for the lettuce, carrots, and cilantro.

The plants I have concerns with are the spinach seedlings which have just started to break through the soil.  Fortunately spinach are pretty cold tolerant but weight of the snow on top of them is not a great way for them to start their time in the world.

After a quick search through the garage I found a great solution, a plastic storage tub, which fit perfectly over the irregular rectangular space I planted them.

Tada.   If I wanted to get all fancy, I would add some holes for venting/etc but I chose to set a small cinder block on top and call it good.  After a couple days, I should be able to remove it until the next freak storms comes our way.

Stupid groundhog…

Update: This is what the tub looked like after a few minutes in the sun (instant humidome)

Tags: cilantro, garden seeds, outdoor plants

Finish outdoor seed planting with coffee grounds

15.7 years ago garlic bulbs, onions, outdoor seed starting

It has been a blessing that the competition for free coffee grounds at the Starbucks at my work has increased now the weather warmed up and I have freed from the temptation to grab yet another free shiny silver bag of grounds.  The reason is, I have put four bags in my compost, worked generous amounts into my vegetable garden and I still have six bags left.  Now I am looking at inventive ways to use the rest up.  I tried mixing with perlite to make a cheap potting soil (failed still no room for roots) but I believe I have come across one success I thought I would share.

When you are finished planting seeds outdoors apply a thin layer of coffee grounds.  This will deter slugs from going after your new seedlings and keep cats from mistaking your nicely loosened and raked soil for their kitty litter. 

I have done this for my larger seed plants (peas, garlic, onions, cilantro) but for the small seed plants (carrots, lettuce, spinach) I used the coffee grounds as a seed covering.

So far the results are great.  All of my peas/garlic/onions/spinach have sprouted with no signs of pests (four-legged nor zero-legged).

Tags: cheap, cilantro, coffee grounds, compost, garden seeds, garlic bulbs, led, outdoor plants, vegetables