Let's get a gardening general going on. What are you growing? What are you building? Problems, solutions, and advice are welcome. Books, non-gay yootoobers, and other resources also welcome. If we get enough engagement perhaps even a pastebin is in order!
this is my first year planting anything. bought these cheapo GOONMILL starters and made a light fixture for them https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHM473DW/. seems like san diego i can pretty much plant anything at any time, started some tomatoes and a few other things. picrel is my basil which didn't even sprout. ionno what i did wrong
Live in an apartment. Took a tomato seedling from my mom, doing great. It's over a meter tall now.Have a lot of other plants in the apartment, but this one's the favourite for now
>>2993981I just want to blowy brains out because of how lonely I am...
>>2993991this is gardening, you're looking for /pol/ they can help you out
Mine's coming along nicely
>>2994031>>2994037>>2994038nice, what's your growing process?
>>2994039I used a mound planting method in a horseshoe shape, and then I planted radishes first. Other than that, I've been watering in the morning before work, and once at night. I used heirloom seeds, no gmos. And if one plant has one thing growing on it, I process it and dry the seeds and just pop them in the dirt. I use balanced soil and treat what I see with corresponding minerals. I'm waiting for the rainy season to be over before I plant my corn.
>>2994050what are some things you look for when amending your soil?
Can I ask how to grow weed here? Or is there a better place to ask for that info
>>2994141what growing zone do you live in? https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/. you'll have to look at your hardiness zone and see when the best time to plant is. no clue on actual growing maybe someone else can chime in
>>2994143Zone 7 I believe
>>2994119Sheeeeeeeeeiiiiiit I just use my monkey brain instincts
Perfect timing, I was wondering who I should ask for advice.I've been germinating citrus seeds whenever I got some (various types: clementines/sweet clems, tangerines, satsumas, whatever's nice and large when I'm at the store), I believe all of these were planted sometime in March. The biggest ones are now slightly past 10 cm or 4 inches.I know trying to grow a tree from a seed is a fool's errand (especially in the UK), but I figure with large enough numbers something will survive long enough to turn from a seedling into a sapling.What I need now is some expert opinions on how to take care of them so that they don't die.
>>2994232there's a tree and shrub thread here that can probably help >>>2989977
>>2994239Thanks, I'll ask over there as well.
>>2993981hi anons, I'm good with plants but so far only in planters and pots, but we just bought a house with a front yard similar to pic related.A bit bigger but also surrounded by concrete on all sides, I was wondering how I could clean up the soil since it's been there for so long and the previous owners were doing some bullshit on it (it's got some spray painted stones and shit).I wanna turn it into a proper (if small) garden; should I remove all the soil and replace it or can I add new soil on top and pray? Should I mix it? Any type of soil? What about plants? I'd like to stay away from your standard lawn but rather add something pretty.
I don't have a faucet on my porch garden, but I want to set up a drip irrigation system using a pump and water cistern. Are there any solutions that don't come loaded with an extra helping of BPA and PFAS?
>>2994267Till it all up and add soil with a well balanced mixture. Look up your city's soil toxicity. I used to live in Pensacola fl, and because back in the days of post industrial horse and cart and dirt roads, they used kerosene to dampen the dirt roads to keep dust from flying into all the buildings. A lot of the soil in that city is toxic in certain areas. Figure out if you can find anything like that. Ultimately just start digging in your dirt, see if you find toxic materials that could leech into the soil, such as lead pipes, shingles, rail road ties, etc. If you're in the clear, just start planting and treat your plants according to their appearance.
>>2994435Say no morehttps://youtu.be/tJE3zUlway8?si=dDGfTtKzp8iYPlmY
>>2993981my damadas are comin along nicelygot some peppers in another bed that are doin pretty good too.
>>2994232If you want citrus outside plant trifoliate orange / bitter orange. Californian variety of Japanese species is the most resistant. They are frost resistant to at least -12 C and can be used as grafting rootstock.
My idea of lettuce was that you plant once, just pick the outer leaves when needed and you’ll have year round lettuce with just a few of them, but after 10-20 times picking the outer leaves mine all start to rot form the outside, is that common?
>>299524410-20 times seems like you're getting your money's worth. no clue if that's expected or not, i like this guy's hydroponics setup though to get a couple heads a week https://youtu.be/Mb6tAGIM62g
>>2993986>It's over a meter tall now.Avoid nitrogen based fertlizers since nitrogen makes tomato plants grow tall and grow a lot of leaves but less fruit.>>2993991You are never alone with a rubber duck. Second to that, plants are super comfy.t.Forever single
>>2994762Any type of soil is fine or would you recommend something specific? I just get potting soil, like I said, but I know for actual gardens there's so many other types of soil and some people layer it but no idea. Thanks in advance anons.
>>2995137I wonder when we'll have GMO citrus that can grow in Siberia.
>>2995785In croatia, we call trifoliate orange "siberian lemon"
>>29939811/3
>>29958582/3
>>29958593/3picrel is the typical output of the grow room tray method.the overall design is to use 1/3 size lexan food service trays 6" deep and ~6x12" grow size inside. the trays themselves end up costing around $5 each and are more or less unbreakable. each tray is filled with a mix of-peat moss-composted manure-moisture crystals-permethrin granules (gnats)-wetted out with copper soap and neem oil mix (gnats)and tends to dry out quickly because of the peat moss, while varying the amount of composted manure in each tray can be varied, but they are all around 1/5 fertilizer to 4/5 peat moss. this allows for the action of draining without needing the holes, also preventing pooling and standing water for gnats to form colonies. the yellow plastic stickies were needed before using permethrin and neem oil, now they hardly ever catch any gnats for not having any.the grow lights are a mix of pink and normal grow lights on an 18-hour timer. the lower levels are for germinating in silicone starter pods in stainless steel food service trays with a clear vinyl sheet on top to hold moisture. overall it works great. having perpetual kitchen herbs is good, and I am starting more berries for the yard. total cost is around $90 per month to run at around 10 amps full load.more of a starter room for outside plants, but also just as good at growing compact indoor food plants.
>>2995858>>2995859something I didn't know before trying out a 100% pink light system was what would happen to the plants once they got out of the early stages of growth and into more mature development. some of the yellowed out leaves you see on the more unhealthy plants was somehow related to their first exposure to fertilizer.the odd part is, plants started and grown under white lights tend to survive their first exposure to fertilizer, which makes typical plants like these>>2995862which are watered by looking through the plastic and seeing whether or not there is any standing water, also making a strong root mat and indicating when the plant can be hardened off and lifted out of the tray at the stem and placed into a larger pot.picrel here show splants which started under normal grow lights and survived first exposure to fertilizer. can't figure out what causes that.
>>2995867cornell has a useful paper on hydro. i know you're not doing that but they do mention effects from spectrum
>>2995874super interesting. thanks for that. plants are all completely new to me. I've never grown anything in my life before setting up the room. hydroponics are part of the plan, eventually, but I was paranoid about the humidity, upfront cost, and having to deal with constantly running equipment.I am doing a mix of pink and white lights now with good results. no surprise about the red light stretching. I've been trying out vining berries with a woody aspect to them, mulberries, gooseberries, grapes, and etc... maybe pink lights would be good to extend the vines with white light for root stocks. probably have to figure out some sort of differential timer for them, maybe 12 hours white light and 18 pink, 3 hours before and after for a sort of sunrise/sunset effect.do you have more links to papers where I can get more info about what might've caused the yellowing from first exposure to fertilizer? I suspect there are some sorts of cells which didn't form that I could probably see under a microscope I'll eventually get so I can do sterile micropropagation and stop messing with germination.
>>2995876this is what i referenced before: https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/8/8824/files/2019/06/Cornell-CEA-Lettuce-Handbook-.pdf, there is a nice troubleshooting section that goes over nutrient deficiencies towards the end. aside from that i really like the vegetable gardener's handbook from the farmers almanac, i think it was like 15 bucks. i'm also new to plants in general and have already killed many (but learned from most of my mistakes)
>>2995876sorry actually it was this pdf that had the troubleshooting section https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/8/8824/files/2020/05/Guide-To-Home-Hydroponics-For-Leafy-Greens.pdf
>>2995876>>2995886that pdf is a pretty quick read and has tons of info not specific to hydro. i think what you're seeing is chlorosis if that helps
>>2995885>referencedI like the part where they mention>The CEA group tried nicotine as an aphid deterrent but not only did it not control aphids, but it also left a discernible taste on the lettucewhich makes me feel a bit better about using permethrin for bug control. I read a lot of info about the unethical use of it outdoors due to how toxic it is to fish and bees, but when compared to the other options for indoor foodsafe use, I thought about using nicotine and eugenol until finding out that they either didn't actually work (nicotine) or had side effects which weren't foodsafe.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenol#Otherhttps://www.zoecon.com/all-products/essentria/essentria-g-granular-insecticideand permethrin being a medication prescribed for lice and such. so far it is working great alongside neem oil. I'll check out more of the CEA articles. they look to be the type of material I needed. thanks.
>>2995887>chlorosiscertainly, but I just couldn't figure out why it was that when I would start 2 trays of basil under pink lights and 2 trays of basil under white lights with otherwise identical living conditions that the pink light basil tended to get chlorosis more.it is probably something irrelevant because I am starving the plant of some wavelength it probably needs for some growth process and ends up being stunted somehow at the cellular level. the ones I have brought outside from that all shed their chlorosis leaves and immediately sprouted new healthy leaves. when I eventually get a microscope setup I will do a more thorough analysis. getting jazzed up about doing this nexthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUsooZg1A6Yhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTA8EHBNKPM>>2995886I'm going to rip their archive of papers and pick out what I find useful. thanks for the lead.
>>2995889yeah no prob. if you're doing indoor growing are pests really an issue? i'm spec'ing everything out for an nft hydro setup but somewhat assumed being indoors i wouldn't have to deal with insects.anyways let us know if you find useful resources, i should start a pastebin or something>The CEA group tried nicotine as an aphid deterrent but not only did it not control aphids, they became cool, reproduced more, and started distrusting their local politicians
>>2995893>assumed being indoors i wouldn't have to deal with insects.>The CEA group tried THC as an aphid deterrent to catastrophic resultswhat I found was that in the process of sifting out the peat moss to remove the knots and twigs, I would keep around 20% as mulch for outside use later. having built up 3 bags of these at 10 gallons each, I had them stored dry in my basement for a while. no surprise they had infested that, and despite being dry, had managed to make a colony.>pastebin type info>gnat controlthe same story with any pooled water anywhere in an indoor grow room. winter is especially bad with condensation on the window causing puddles in the slide track, and therefore a colony of gnats to feed on the water. I run an ozone generator in there once a week for a while. I haven't seen any problems with the leaves so far, and it certainly runs off all the gnats and kills off the young ones. I also occasionally use citronella incense in there to good effect, also using neem oil on the sticks to fume up more to kill more bugs.yellow stickies are very good, but stopping them from breeding and feeding is most important. one other big problem I haven't figured out is how to install mylar reflective sheet without leaving an air gap for mold to grow from the humidity in the room, making food for gnats and causing damage to the drywall.>shelvingthose closet shelf wire racks were 20% cheaper in terms of equivalent cost of any other shelf, including cheap pine boards. they are fireproof, clean, and transmit light to the lower levels, unlike a solid shelf. firesafe. recommend 100%.
>>2995896>wire racksi have a ton of fir as i also /wwg/ so i'm just gonna build a dedicated piece of furniture. for lighting i have some 2'x2' 48w led panels i got for $1 which should do the job. i'm hoping humidity in the room won't be an issue but i have an old dht11 temp/humidity sensor i'll get going with an esp32 to automate the light cycle, fan and general monitoring. it's amazing how much hydro crosses with home brewing; ph, ec, tds, i already have a ton of sensors i can use. good look on the gnats, i'll have to investigate safer ways than o3 to deter them as i was planning on putting this setup in my home office
>>2995899>humidity in the roomI was running one of those commodity dehumidifier units 24h during the winter. picrel will drive you fucking nuts having to drain it 2x daily for a 10x10 room. I eventually had to rest it on top of a wood platform resting on a set of huge dry sponges just to stop the irritating rumble of it.and then, I 100% advise doing thisget a can of expanding foam and take the dehumidifer apart. practice some shots of expanding foam on a piece of cardboard to get an idea of how much you need to spray to make a certain void fill up. then, spray everything you can inside the dehumidifier which is plastic and rattles. make sure to not spray foam inside the electronics or compressor areas to overheat the machine, focus on the casing and plastic pieces inside.after you reassemble it, get a garden hose thread adapter to 1/2" vinyl tubing. raise the dehumidifer up on a shelf, rest it on a board on top of sponges, and route the drain hose to an office drinking fountain bottle on the floor. that will be a weekly drain operation.failling to do that will cause a shit ton of noise, moisture, mold, and damage to the room, not just gnats. I did a test in the room with an aquarium fountain hydroponics setup and immediately ran into moisture problems with 4 trays being fed that way.also make sure to have not only room air turnover fans, but some fresh air input and stale air output, otherwise more mold and problems. getting plants to grow is the easy part. keeping the humidity from destorying the room and swarms of gnats is the hard part no matter the setup.
>>2995904hmm, maybe this might turn in to a garage project then. problem with that is i want to eat what i grow, and i generate a lot of sawdust. i just want 1 head of lettuce a week, at 35 days that'd only be like 6-7 plants growing. you really think moisture would be an issue? humidity here is like 50% on average, we turn the furnace on a couple days in the winter that's it
>>2995899>investigate safer ways than o3 to deter them>home officepicrel. you'll notice the difference between cheap incense and quality by the use of either sawdust as the carrier for the scent oil or charcoal. these are made with plant derived charcoal and scented with nonsynthetic extracts. I find them to not have the typical sting to the nose people most often have with incense made with sawdust. these burn clean and also take well to soaking in a scent oil of your choice. one popular thing to do is buy bulk quantities of spearmint, peppermint, stuff like that and soak them in either charcoal incense sticks or cones.religiously, if you are aware of the use of incense and such as a sanitary practice in homes and other practices to banish away the pestlient demons of the home. I find the frankencense and myrrh works well, as does the citronella, and doesn't smell like a nest of barefoot hippies. the bugs go fucking crazy and end up swarming into the yellow stickies.>>2995906>garage projectI run my lights on a night schedule to take advantage of the price differential. I tried that same room as a day office/night grow room and it just didn't work. no way. it's cool to have houseplants in an office, but all the gnats, lights, dehumidifier, tasks, clutter, all that stuff just didn't work.try the garage grow room first and do your work in the driveway like a real man. that way when the humidity gets out of control, or you just let it roll since it is not in the main section of the house, it all gets simpler.
>>2995906>you really think moisture would be an issue?my setup right now is running a central AC unit in the humid Missouri summer. the amount of water the entire house puts into the condensate drain, daily, is about 2 gallons. during winter, the grow room dehumidifier would do that 2x daily running 24h to prevent moisture condensing on the walls, which will after enough time, take root to mold, rot, fungus, and all other sorts of problems. it will get in through the screw holes you make in the wall for the shelves, under the crack in the paint, somewhere. that was during a winter where my home was at 20% humidity and I was keeping the plants watered only as much as they needed, depending on the moisture crystals to keep them watered.then, after maybe 2 years of running your indoor grow room, your swollen drywall will have that typical musty smell.and thats the problem with any indoor setup. without controlling for moisture, it will eventually sneak up on you so bad that you'll eventually have to rip out all the drywall and redo the entire room. even worse is when you use pushpins to secure reflective mylar on the walls, making crevices and such for bugs to eat the mold and moisture which will eventually destroy the wall.your garage is probably the best place to start. try setting up some sort of NFT system where you can move the plants and trays around. that way you can have a work day with sawdust after moving the plants out for a while.
>>2995906check this vidhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wjZtpg7SaEyou'll find a lot of info about what they had to do in terms of water and pest management in a compact indoor grow room environment. they are doing a process which is more or less industrialized and you'll find they talk in detail about things like water drippage, unforseen hydroponics surprise catastrophes, and such.their setup is essentially a giant garage setup which would most likely be along the lines of what you would be doing for the most cost effective option. looking back on it, if I had set my room up in the basement with a dedicated vent fan and possibly some winter curtains, that would've been a much more productive setup.
>>2995889> Permethrin Probably safe as lice medication but I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to consume it from food on a daily basis for extended times. It’s anecdotal but I do think nicotine works in some way. Used a tobacco plant right next to others, and the plants closer to the tobacco would have less gnats in the reservoir and around them.>>2995896>>2995899Been a while since I saw gnats but also had gnat problems at some point. I now use kratky pots with lids for a pitch dark reservoir, hole in the lid that just fits the net cup, fill cup with rockwool, then put duct tape over most of it once the seedling appears. After the first roots reach out the bottom of the cup, the rockwool is kept dry. This keeps the reservoir more or less sterile and almost impossible for bugs to get in. Making sure that there is no water source around the plants is just as important btw
>>2995924>kratky potsthat design sounds better than what I had going. before I started adding water crystals, I had tried using a drip feed system for each tray. it worked, but it is just too difficult to nudge a valve from 1/15th a turn open to 1/14th a turn open just to change from 1 drop every 10 seconds to 1 drop every 20 seconds.no luck either with soil moisture sensors. too many instances of the all in one diy-style pcb sensors being shit. one idea I had was to just use a sound card output as an oscillator to run the core of a tiny ac-ac transformer buried in each tray, reading back the return signal into the soundcard to convert the soil moisture capacitance of the buried conductors to trigger a solenoid to water the tray. it eventually became a cost and complexity nightmare.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airlift_pumphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RccAa_qrPA8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcB5ZP1GuOAvids for something along the lines I had been working on. the oxygen bubbler system your CEA gorup lettuce paper mentioned. I wanted to use that to circulate water for an NFT system to prevent from needing to use an electric pump and all the cleanliness to go with that, besides being super simple with no moving parts. this keeps from having to do daily watering, tray checking, moisture sensors, all that.the only problem I have so far is figuring out how to keep moisture down short of using kratky pots in a PVC header which is fed via an airlift pump. the idea is to use a lower power quiet compressor in another room to provide room turnover air. moisture and humidity is no so much a problem if it is fresh. stagnant moisture tends to breed the problems. I think there is also an option for pumping the water with dissolved oxygen, similar to how the CEA papers did theirs.you're making me by kratky pots now. thanks.
Sure seems like a lot of work to grow the plant when I can go buy a metric ton of delta 8 at the head shop for nothing. I think delta 8 gives a better high than real weed anyway. I get the same comfortable and relaxed feeling but I dont run the risk of over doing it and developing a panic attack or just becoming a dysfunctional retard.
First time trying to grow giant pumpkins. Started this one from a seed i bought online for $15. I grew the vine out from under an oak tree in my back yard, really hoping I get enough sun on it later in the season.
>>2995966Get a soaker hose on a timer ran around it. Let it run for 30-45mins every morning. pluck off all but 1 or 2 of the pumpkins (preferably near the root).
alright, so tell me if this is a bad idea. i'm thinking of a hydroponics setup that i'm calling a "vegetable cabinet." it will be a fully insulated, fully enclosed cabinet, with reflective mylar or mirrors inside, using kind of a hybrid nft setup/deep water nft setup like the video i sent in >>2995338. to deal with humidity and heat i'll build an intake with exhaust fan from the bottom and exhaust in the top (for positive pressure). the entire thing will go in our dining room, which is two stories and about 1000 sq ft (shared with our "great room" and upstairs balcony). i don't *think* moisture will be an issue because there's so much space. i'll build it in either white oak or spanish cedar to combat bugs and rot. kinda like this, except obviously not all retarded. it will provide us lettuce, herbs, and maybe a few other things. the inside will have two shelves, with 4 2'x2' led panels total. thoughts? not doable?
>>2996049It is probably doable a huge waste of money and effort unless you do it for the ‘art value’. You’d get what, 20sqft of grow space for the price of a small greenhouse. Doesn’t your castle have grounds around it?Nah but jokes aside I think it would be better to just put a grow tent or tote of sorts inside a wood cabinet instead of making it one huge integrated cabinet, and why insulate it fully just to push air through with a fan? LED panels generate pretty little heat, a few degrees above room temp is fine, and I don’t see how it would get super humid with an NFT setup, just let the condensation weep back into the reservoir
>>2996053see this is why i ask these things. yeah it'd be slightly bigger i guess than just putting up some wire shelving. and yeah it would become a little bit of an art piece, i'll probably laser some gay plant designs on the doors. insulation was to make the temperature more consistent; in the winter we often let it drop down into the low 60s at night and exhaust fan would only be to lower the temp or humidity, i wouldn't have it running constantly. we have plants outside too this would just be for hydro friendly stuff that we go through quickly
>>2996049>i'm thinking of a hydroponics setupYep. Bad idea.
>>2996365why? seems pretty straightforward and i already have an extra pump
>>2995955They are banning delta 8 everywhere which I think is really fucking gay. I think of my delta 8 like a pitching wedge. If I’m almost high enough but not quite high enough then take a hit of delta 8 and get right where you want. I’ve never gotten too high or had extreme paranoia since I started using delta 8. It’s like weed with training wheels or something
>>2996377outdoor hydroponics = ok indoor hydroponics = gayyou're trying to recreate something nature does FOR FREE by spending a bunch of money on lighting and climate control.
well boys after buying a 5x5 fence post, some caps, and bulkheads here's my proof of concept for the next 4 weeks. buttercruch lettuce, basil, and fenugreek planted in it. takes 5 gallons of water total but have room for another 3 if needed. went with cz garden 4-18-38 fertilizer, already had calcium nitrate and epsom salt; mixed according to their directions and pH is at 6.5, which is a little high but i'll slowly bring that down. led panel is currently about 14" above on a 15.5 hr schedule, once these sprout i might adjust themideas, improvements, and criticisms welcome. the only mistake i made so far was setting the water level about 1/8" too high but i tipped it to one side so the nutrients only slightly touch the bottom of the baskets. there's another bulkhead on the bottom for draining it that i think i'll plumb the outlet into and angle the pvc upwards so i can fine tune the water level. also gonna cover the tubing with a trash bag to keep the light out and come up with a safety mechanism to cut the pump off if a leak is detected>>2996629it's in my garage, does that change it to queer instead of full on gay?
>>2996748What's the appeal of hydroponics when you could put the seeds in the free soil with free nutrients and use the free sunlight? Is it just the fun of engineering something or are there any advantages that I'm not seeing?
>>2996755so far it seems much more controlled. i can grow a lot of things out of season and the only inputs are light, water, and nutrients. i have plants outside too but my goal is a little lettuce and herb factory right next to my kitchen >>2996049
>>2996049If you watch youtube vids of good hydro setups, it is so appealing to the autistic mind. Very elegant, very controlled.But, IRL, especially during several years of learning phase, it will be so much more work to do rightLikewise, planting in the ground (especially if you have gotten your soil good) is soooo much more forgiving (of heat, water, etc) than in pots/bags Likewise, if you have room, not planting things densely/cloe together is way more forgiving
>>2996772what tips do you have to do hydro right?
