Summer 2023
Summer Inputs
The difference between what a plant needs and what we can provide. During the Summer that's going to be a lot. I hear somethin that goes the best fertilizer for a garden are the foot steps of the gardener. That's going to be more important with Climate Change "JUST STARTING". Taking a Fire Hose to a field is no longer viable. 80% of that water evaporates. Hydroponic is worse because it waste the water it uses and it's only good for growing Seaweeds. What else, Aquaponics? Same thing with water loss from evaporation. And you have to feed the fish. Please understand me. All these systems work. You get great results. But what do those results cost.
Yes it's great garden but during the Sumer I had to water it three times a day. There were all kinds of problem growing plants that only show up when you abuse them. Why I'm glad Nature reproduces in large numbers so we can experiment. The idea here was to use the smallest containers to grow the plants in that didn't restrict their size. The thought of Hydroponics came up and I gave it a try for about a month. Built a system of 100gal. Pipes, tube and pumps. It took a month for me to see how waste full a Hydroponic system was. Not to mention how low the nutrient levels were. Aquaponics wasn't much better. But had higher nutrient levels. While I was throwing a 100gal of toxic waste water away a week from Hydroponics. The the greenhouse Aquaponics systems were 2x 2,500 Raft and Stone Beds and tanks evaporating 100gal a week in water and you had to feed the fish. During the height of Summer in a greenhouse that's 30gal a day. Worse we had a passive insect defense system that made the evaporation worse.
Here's where the rubber hits the road. What5 I'm talking is comparing Systems for production. This Raft table 48'x4'x18". 2500gal of moving water.
These are 32oz Deli cups turned into 32oz inserts. Thinking now about each individual plant rather than a table.
Here's the first input we save on. !!!WATER!!! If we add the amount of water saved just from evaporation I was talking about before. The other input is Space. Because you no longer need a pump Rafts or a tanks to hold the water. Not even the fish. None of that is needed anymore. That another 40'x4' of added growing space.
You know the other output I got more of. People. Volunteers who wanted to learn. To get their hands dirty sort a say. An..An it's Summer. Students and volunteers learned thru simple Arts an Crafts how to made the inserts and containers in a half hour. Four volunteers working an afternoon a week can fill a 120'x4' table of the 32ozinserts./5lb container combos.
The mix that goes into the inserts is a neutral environment that allows the the Fauna in the air and what comes with plant or seed. The mix is very light weight and the insert and container can be separated for easier transport.
Another thing about the differences is: In Aquaponics you maintain a water level and the Rafts float on that. So the roots are always submerged. In Hydroponics it an Ebb an Flow water level. The method I use, uses the best of both worlds. From the time it’s filled up their nearly 100% humidity inside that container. It stays that way until the very last drop of water is absorbed by the plant. So the roots are constantly moist. For Gardeners, Water is the very first input we have to save on. We have become so use to having water to waste!!!
Found the Fire Fly’s
Wasn’t really looking but found they were where they always are. On the grapes. Now out in the wild I found that even in the tangled bush the Fly always prefer the vines to run on. Anyway went to get the NO2 spray and forgot it.
Ever Have A Water Puppy
It's a large salmander with feather like gills. Thing is if you put a drop of idoine in the water it will turn adult. But if if never gets that drop it stay julvilale the rest of it's life. Same with the Lantern Fly. But if it gets to Sumac the change to adult is nearly over night.
For the last couple of years we’ve been lucky so far as the Fly has been concerned. Because of the changing Winter weather the Fly has been emerging early and getting caught in the returning cold. But their still here. The lucky thing here is there’s no plots of vegetation to in the blocks to the right, the left or in front. So their stuck in this small area. An I’m sure I know where they hang out in the garden.
Thing is I brought these with me. Something I really hadn’t considered at the time. Since I was downsizing the trees I used all new 5gal buckets for the transfer. Seeing these few means I did an alright job. Nor do I see any Sumac trees in the surrounding blocks so lets see how long before they become or if they become adults. A bit of history here. Time travel if you will. I became aware of the Lantern Fly in 2015. My first contact was the first swarm of any insect I’d seen other than ants and bees. A swarm on that Sumac tree. Every year that tree was swarmed with the Lantern Fly. For seven of the “THIRTEEN YEARS” I lived there. You couldn’t have any thing under that tree that wasn’t blue/black by the end of Summer. But it was only in that area. In those seven year I had no damage to the fruits. The swarm was in the Sumac. An yes I feel Blessed that, that many insects weren’t in my garden.
This is a Tangerine I started either 2015-16. The 2gal insert has broken up so it fell thru the lid. Sunlight causes the gas in the plastic to evaporate over time. That's why I spray paint. To block the gas from escaping. I'm going to repot it to the same size 2gal insert. You can see it has a nice root system going. I have two other Citrus trees. A Ponderosa Lemon and a Orange tree. Both about 7yrs old. All three grown from seed. All growing in the system that long. I started several others last year. Tangerines mostly.
The three pictures below are a Macadamia nut tree. The one below is a a Barbados nut cutting I took from a larger tree about 8yrs ago. The picture right below is a Barbados nut in flower. Of course the only insect that pollenates is a small Wasp I rarely see. I tried hand pollination but that didn't work.
I'm still looking around for trees. Still have this feeling these will become valuable soon as next year. This is a nice Elberta Peach tree in a 3gal pot that being downsized to a 2gal insert. The root system fit.
I see the changing times in the world. See I grew up during the change over from the “Old ways” to the “New Ways”. In other words from the hand made to computer made. I was a Master Candy maker for 10yrs. For 7yrs I made Nuggets, Circus Peanuts, Queen Ann Cherries, Luden’s cough drops, jelly beans, molded chocolate. Chocolate . I’d get 60lb blocks that I use to push my hands down on and watch my hands melted into the bar. Just lifted it up and let it drop into the vat. That’s how I learned about textures. How a product looks in the vat how it looks going on to the product. Then the machines came in and all you did was watch gages. So in one move 500 people lost their job. Then they cut the number of lines and products they were making an another 500 jobs gone. Cut the number of jobs but made more product. It taught me about mass production. It gave me perspective on making a lot of something. One of the products was the York Peppermint Patties. Was called the Mello mint. That was sold all over the World. I was watching a tv special about a village in China. A little thatched hut store and just in passing there was a candy shelf was a York Peppermint patty. A moment of “WOW” PRIDE. Just a moment tho. Because it really wasn’t anything I created. Just made it right. And to me that’s what I have here. I believe Climate Change is real. That our changing environment is real. Our resources are starting to get costlier. I guess that’s a word. We’re finding out that Hydroponics, Aquaponics are not the way. If we’re talking about in ground how many people lived there before you. What industry. What chemicals were sprayed. We have a history you know. Not to mention we have a whole new list of pests. See this is not just about food but the variety that we’ve become accustomed to. It all sounds complicated but it’s really just an Arts an Craft product you can mass produce yourself. I make mine watching ..do we call it a tv now or a monitor. Age.
Point being the containers are mass produced. The mix you can make yourself. There’s nothing hard about any of it. Those problem were sorted out by me. All you have to do is clean off the roots. Clean them not half assed either. Your not looking to cause pocket problem. Make a bed for the plant to lay on and fill to the tree line. Then insert into the container and watered till it pees. Move on to the next.
Here’s where things get...interesting. My great-grand parents lived on a farm. Not a big one but big enough to provide for them plus a little extra to trade or sell. Everything was done in house. Even the production of making their own fertilizer. An what was used as fertilizer then. Why the waste they and what animals they have produced. Instead of going out in the woods somewhere they built little houses just outside. After a year they’d dig it up and put it right out on the field with the rest of the animal waste. Before I go any further I want to bring up a point. Have you ever matched a vitamin label with a boxed mined fertilizer. No, I mean really set them next to each other and compare. So if your taking a pill a day your pissing out better fertilizer than the whole human history ever knew. And you just piss it away. We like to say our grandparents were healthier than us. Why , because they ate healthier food? Why was it healthier. What was taken out of our food that made it less healthy for us. Because of our change in how what we eat is produced. Don’t forget those words, “how it’s produced”. What is mined fertilizer. It dead stuff made from another age of Life. Big bulky life. And we just add water. Think of it this way. Science tells us if you twist a molecule one way you get health, twist it the other and you get fat. Twist again and you get nothing. Remember Star Trek, The Trouble with Tribbles. Our food is being produced in a way that’s not healthy for us. But we have choices. An we make them all the time.
Fire Blight Test
Using Anaerobic Methods
this method was developed because of my belief in Climate Change. Not just Climate but changes in availability of inputs, water electric, space..knowledge.
I picked up 10 trees for a experiment from a local box store. I bought then cheap because end of season. But I bought them because they wer showing signs if Fire Blight. My thought being will a Anaerobic way of growing makes a difference. I think this a problem with modern Agriculture. use of ph balanced fertilize. They beat the Osmosis barrier that lets the Fire Blight in. What if you bring back that barrier, will it block the Fire Blight. Then too what about Citrus Greening. Will it stop the attacks on the root system because of a change in the medium the roots are growing in. Hmmm
These are DWF Gala trees. For tight now you can tell if it's Blight or neglect. Nut I'm going to give it a month to settle in. Plus if things are working new growth should start about then. Main thing I'm looking for right now is turbor in the leaves. Doesn't matter what the color is now but how their hanging on the branch. Wind and rain will knock off any weak one's.
Above somewhere I was saying about making sure to clean the roots off. THERE'S A REASON FOR THIS. Clumps of dirt in the roots and the plant will grow dirt roots at that spot. Even if your growing any of the Working Water ways. Those roots will die off but the plant keeps making them there. That mess rots and the plant dies. There are little flecks of wood in the mix. There not bad if there only a few. As soon as you wet the mix the interchange between roots and the Fauna begins. The change from Aerobic to Anaerobic. A change from Ph to bacteria. Bacteria that makes use of the osmosis barrier wall. Fire Blight seems to like Nitrogen renforcing the barrior might stop the Blight for getting to it. I could just be talking out my hat, the trees could die from a dozen other reasons. But they were cheap so what the hell. Could be a long shot..but if it works.
That first picture above is that Tangerine I made about falling into the container. The 2nd is the root system that developed thru the nylon hose I used for the 5lb insert. There's a good example of the Stubby long roots I was thinking of. I should pull a picture of aerated roots vs non. There's a big difference. The last is what the 2gal insert looks like after 7yrs of sunlight.
The first of the three Sago are starting to leaf out. I have three. One old two new. The first to leaf was a new one. The next is a Bing Cherry that starting yellow . I think I'm going to lower the water level. The last is one of the 4 Ghost Pepper I have growing now. They all have good growth and flowering. Wish tho I would have started them earlier because of producing a larger plant to increase production.
Now most would think that's a great root system. Problem being it shows a lack of air. This is the first day with the two 2,500gal Aquaponic systems.
Here is a very healthy root system with improved aeration.
Then this means that the plant isn't getting enough air. This is where I started thinking of ways that I could get the same plant with much shorter root systems.
I was thinking why do I need 5,000gal of water to grow plants. Thinking of other ways to grow with. So a 32oz insert with a 5lb container with air.
This was the first tree cutting to go dormant. There was nothing to do for them for 6months every year. The roots turned to paper. But once the medium was wet those roots transferred that water right to the base.
This is an example of anaerobic roots. Their always in the second stage never growing the third stage air roots like the first picture.
I know we're in a heat wave and I'm showing you a frozen tree. Because this method allows you to grow trees or any plant hardy to your area. Grow them in water,
Trying to think how to explain the difference between aerobic and anaerobic roots. The difference is how the plant gets it's air. When you strip the dirt from a plant The first 2" or so area are a concentrated mass of very thin roots Air roots. In Aquaponics there are no surface roots so the plant depends on the lower roots in water for nutrients and air. The longer the roots the lower the air and the darker the roots from unabsorbed nutrients The other part of the problem is nutrient absorption. That goes for growing in a bucket as well. If you separate the roots needing air you grow shorter roots. The air intake is done in the first 2"-3" of the mix. The roots in the water where a wide range of Fauna are growing. The "Boom" an "Bust" cycles of Nature. One of the advantage's in the picture on the left. There are bacteria that live quite comfortably below 32deg. Those little bugger run all thru the tree dropping their slime. . Anti-freeze thru the tree.
I just have the chance to buy some trees cheap. Some of them are infected with Fire Blight. They've been stress by sunlight and lack of water. Now a month later and the yellow leaves have fallen and new shoots are developing.
I have no idea how old this Sago palm is but it's more than 30. I've had it for 10. The insert it was in was falling apart because of sun damage.
The Sago palms are in the same mix as every other plant in the garden. From the Orchids to the Cactus, the Citrus, fruit trees Even the peppers are starting to form.
I found another 4 trees, Ayers pear, 2 Elberta peaches and a DWF Gala apple. All were a good size to work with. Thing is I take the understanding that I know these trees are infected. They were infected before they were delivered to the store. The buyer beware model of doing business. Also found Apple Cedar rust on some too. I have a small Cedar tree I can get rid of. So that should cut that out next season. My worry is more about food. An not just food. But the spices we now call the norm. How much coffee can you grow. Banana's, Oranges, Rice , Wheat, Chocolate. We're going to have to get use to growing some of our own food stuffs.
That Sago palm is nine days later.
I was going to write something about roots but you really have to get in the dirt to understand. If this was dirt all those fine hair roots would have fallen off. This as an Ebb & Flow system. Because the roots are constantly wet the roots are thicker. They don't fall off. Different systems grow different roots. But they all work the same. Roots for air, roots for structure, roots for water.
Large Bell pepper after a week. Should have started the peppers earlier but the would have, should have thing comes to mind.
Here's something I want you to understand. I didn't like peppers until I was 60. It was a cold winter day. Took a sliver an added to my choco. Been hooked ever since. I'll give you a test. Once the skin on a Ghost pepper starts to boil. Take a toothpick and stick it into one. If you take s second taste of the tooth pick your hooked. Share it with some special in the morning and your tongue won't be the only thing burning.
Found another box store with Blueberries, about 50. They were 1gal pots for $13 down to $4. Not only that but they had varities that I hadn't heard of. Now that's a lot of plants and don't know where I would put them. So I'm going to bite my tongue and just get a few more. So while I was looking thru them I made a list to look up later. That was a mistake. No, really. Seems Climate Change is just for the books on a coffee table. Eveything, EVERYTHING they talk about is wrong. We don't have all that water to waste. All those inputs before you even start to think about growing. What you think Blueberries weren't growing just alright before we came along. It makes me cringe thinking of drip lines pouring a gallon an hour in hot sun to grow their blueberries. A GALLON AN HOUR. I can fill a container with 3gal of water and it might last 3 months. During the winter it doesn't take any at all. Doesn't anybody ask how much water does it take to grow a plant? Not how much you can spill on it. There's 35yrs of pictures on this site showing the slow process of water retention. There's 5yrs of Aquaponics on both Raft and Stone. That's how the GARDENS OF EASE came about. So let's get this Party started. The pictures below are the 4 Blueberries. 3 Duke and a Sharpblue. I transplanted them to the system. I'm leaving them in 5lb inserts with a 5lb container. I found it interesting that the root system for the Sharp Blue is different from the Duke. Just in the mass roots. Could be simply where they were on the table. But it was enough to be noticeable.
Something I want to say is with my method you just shake off the mix set it in the insert and that's it. No preparing the soil. No added chemicals just add water. No really that's all.
Duke Blueberry 7-18-2023
Sharp Blue Blueberry
Duke Blueberry 7-18-2023
Duke Blueberry 7-18-2023
Water Hickory Nut
I waited 80 days and no sprouting. Repotted it because I saw new roots. Waited another 80 days and this sprouted
I made a commet earlier wondering if using a bio based fertilizer vs a ph based system fertilizer. The picture on the left is infected with Fire Blight. Or should I say was? This was a good example of Fire Blight. There's a picture above of yellow leaf tree is how this began. Now a whole new flush of leaves have grown. Of course it's next Spring that will really tell. Again it's my thought that the prevailing thought of using mined ph balance chemicals to over ride the cells osmosis wall barrier. is allowing new FUNA to invade plant tissue. Because we are force feeding plants. What we're really doing is force feeding them water. The consentration needed to get the nutrients % is pretty high. So we make a soup that we only use a little of AND THROW THE REST AWAY. SOME OF YOU ARE DOING IT NOW. This isn't a guilt trip it's an awareness one. Everyone is part of he problem. Even this method uses plastic. But now you might thing about every time you reach for the drain valve.
Anyweay the tree on the left is the DWF Gala trees I picked up. There's a picture a few pages back showing what it looked like when I first got. Now all the yellow leaves have dropped off and it has a new flush of leaves. Out of the nine I picked up, one tree died. Point being all the trees had Fire Blight. But their all dropping the old leaves and sprouting new one's.
I really picked up an interest in growing Blueberries this year. The one on the left is called "Big Ass" Blueberry. I transplanted one in May this year. Didn't fertilize. This was bare rooted.
This is a Ayers pear I bought from a box store last June. For some reason I put in a dirt mix. No root growth outside the root ball it came with. Plus you can tell how the plant was watered. This tree was watered using "Ebb & Flow". There's root at the top nearly none in between . But a good amount you can see across the bottom.
Now I'm going to tie the branches down to encourage flowering. The stair way isn't used so I can tie it to the railing.
Made up my mind that I'm going to get 20 more of the Blueberries. That won't take as much space as you think. For right now I'm getting 10 of the Legacy and 10 of the Duke. There's a number of the Biloxi and Sharp Blue. I'm looking at the one's they'd have left.. There's some Hibiscus trees, trumpet vines small plants I can nurse back to health. There's a number of flowering plants I might get yet.
Water Conservation
April 17 2023
July 24 2023
This is what I mean by water conservation. Nearly four months and that's all the water it used. You can see the starting line where Alge started to grow before the environment changed over to Anaerobic. If you used a dirt mix how many times would you have to water in four month. In direct sunlight. So I ask again how much water does it take to grow a plant. Not how much you can throw at it.
I want to admit to a failure with the Cherry tree. It started to grow very well at first then this started. It started dying from the top down. Could be any number of things but I'm betting on the root stock. So, I'm going looking for another Cherry tree which I'll hook up to a air system and see if that helps
Elberta Peach July 26 2023
Not sure what kind of Pear. This was one of those down sized from last . A 35gal tub to a 5gal insert.
Ponderosa Lemon
Tangerine
Conservation of water means controlling how much water a plant gets. See when an inground plants gets saturated it destroys the tissues because of ph. The plant can’t stop excepting water So with fruits they split. While with the “system” there’s a pee hole in the container. So even if it rains for hours the level remains the same. This is another factor we have to weigh in Climate Change. /Right now I have the urge to grow some sweet corn. I’m using two 5gal SW’s. Just a change. Trying to save mix. I have plans next week for 20-30 Blueberries. I’ll set up a 5gal inserts with 5lb containers. I think that size is good for the coming Winter.
The problem with some plants is their tap root. Notice I said tap root not tap roots. The idea behind the design is to spaghetti that tap root so that it does the same thing as one large root. But it does it faster. What would be a thick root growing straight down it becomes many. Good example is the picture above. Each of those tap roots create secondary roots where normally you have just the one.
Water Hickory
I brought the above up because this is the first time growing Hickory nut. Which main problem is it's tap root. This was ordered bare root. The tap root was cut back.
Sweet Corn July 29 2023
Ponderosa Lemon
Going to cut this 3 parts and repot.
I’m sitting here having conversations with myself about having 30 Blueberry space. See I’m looking at the root mass going into winter. But I guess I worry every winter. These aren’t cuttings any more their full grown plants with lots of root mass. Once the water reaches 32deg the roots are protected because it doesn’t get below that. So here’s where the “Boom” an “Bust” cycle comes in. One type of Fauna takes over for another. They don’t die off just suffer a little. Think of it this way. During the warm time the the veins of plants have fluids running thru them. As cold weather begins the fluid passing thru them begins to slow. Then stops. The “veins” are filled with fluid that’s not moving. The winter Fauna consumes that frozen fluid. They move up and down the plants during the winter with the sunlight. So even frozen the Fauna moves thru the plant leaving it’s anti-freeze slime behind it. So when Spring comes the veins are open to take water to regrow.
You know I’m seeing a number of articales on using urine as a fertilizer. Well yeah. But what’s that to you. It means you give meaning to the Circle of Life. You don’t use urine to feed the plant. You use it to feed the Fauna in the soil. It’s the death and decay of little bodies that the plant feeds on. But here is where the circle comes in. We like to think our Grand Parents were healthier than us. But why. The Fauna that’s produced creates a small slime or juice that it like a health bar on a video game. The more you run over it the more health you gain. So every time you plant the field you get stronger feed back. So your not eating urine the Fauna is. The Fauna dies, breaks down feeds the plant. It’s that interchange , that creates the health slime. Not much but over number of years it creates a lot. And you know what’s amazing. We piss out nutrients our Grand Parents never dreamed of.
Had the chance to get a deal on plant sales. The lemon tree cuttings put on sale right on time.
This is why I say cutting because you can see the little sock it's rooted from.
Right now it's in a 5lb insert. It can stay in that size insert with a 5gal container around 4'-5' tall.
Again right place right time. Picked up 22-1ltr Blueberry plants on sale. High and Low bush varieties. Most in bad shape. They’ll recover before Winter. Plus 4 large 1gallon Blueberries as well. All transplanted to the system. Well most any way. I was beating myself as where to put them and being a Plant Person I just figured out where. Since I only grew Blueberries from cuttings I missed what happens when you already have a root mass growing. I think I have a cure for that. The first Blueberries are two weeks in the system. Getting good growth starting.
I really like to get to see the ddifferent types of roots these different roots have. This was a 3gal container Emerald Blueberry. Got as one of four 3gal Blueberries. 2 x Emerald and 2 x Biloxi. Three in the system so far need to make another 2gal insert. I got all of them cheap because they were on their last legs. I'm not growing them for this year but next. I was wondering if all low ph plants have the same type root structure but nio. The Hibiscus is a low ph and I've grown them with out checking ph. There wasn't a penetrating tap root any where.
Here's a lesson Blueberries taught me. The diference between a bare root plant and a plant with a root mass. The bare root grows roots new roots that build with the Fauna over time. The root mass tho starts but doesn't have any Fauna to build with. It takes time for that relationship to build. But the plant still takes water from the environment to grow. That "ph" if you will is higher than what the plant had before so the leaves turn white yellow. I drained the insert and emptied the container. Then added water with vinegar. Used the first 4 I got for the test.
Jus some thoughts for the moment. I mentioned about Fire Blight and if it could be controlled by growing using this method. Several of the DWF Gala apple trees I bought from that box store had Fire Blight. Several of them lost all their leaves But the new growth is flush with green. No sign of it so far.. The real test is next Spring.
Here's something I want to ask? Does anybody notice that the trees and bushes are turning Fall colors. One of the apple trees turn yellow and died off. The tips have the hairy white tips so it's still alive. it went dormant this early? I've seen several trees and bushes showing their getting ready for winter this soon. The 2nd week in August?
One at the top of the stairs.
Another at the bottom.
You know a major problem becomes what to do with the left over Ebb & Flow mix. The mix these plants were planted in. This mix while good for absorbing and holding water. It also means when the water starts to dry out it starts taking it from the plant. That’s why I shake all that stuff out. But what to do with it then. I have 20gals of the stuff. Limited space inside and out. The mix has a good nutrient mix in it but it’s a hard draw. It does make a nice mulch. Before I settled on Anaerobic I messed around with SWC’s. Single Watering Containers. I showed how to make them in the Spring 2023 chapter. I had a thought that I could grow Weed with this stuff. Now, now. There’s more than one type of weed. Corn anyone. I’ve grown Corn, sweet and popcorn, pumpkins and tobacco this way. Had to ask the guy next door at the time to tie it to his balcony. Got pictures somewhere. These Sweet corn started sprouting on July 28th. Problem tho was I didn't think about the sun hiding behind the buildings in the front come middle of September.
At the top
At the bottom
This is going on the fourth week. I'm going to tie them them up to the railing. By the end of this week they'll be falling over. I have a lot of the mix from the plants I picked up. Since I'm testing corn in this mix I could hold on to it to grow corn next year. I don't want to throw away a useful mix. Even if it's not my usual mix.
Found one of the pictures of growing pumpkins from a 5gal SWC.
I was growing all kinds of ways trying to see what was the best. Maybe the best isn't the right way to think about it. Growing plants with the least amount of inputs.
This is a Biloxi Blueberry from a 4liter pot to a 2gal insert.
Part of the group of 17-1liter potted Legacy, Duke and Sharp Blue Blueberry plants to 5lb inserts.
A grouping of 4-1ltr potted Mandevilla plants to 5lb inserts.
Wondering why I'm thinking of Winter and we haven't gotten to Fall yet. Does give a good look at what's going on in the cold. New roots are forming. There's no added air. The only air change they get is when I lift the lid off. I may not do that for the whole season. But the point being you can grow any plant hardy to your area in a bucket of water. An all your doing is what Nature does.
I just found that the Blackberry out front had an 8' vine with 3 terminal shoots. I buried them in separate 5lb inserts. I’ll leave them till next Spring then cut them off. The pictures are of the same thing just using a 2gal insert.
You know it’s good to have a Vice or two going thru life. One of the biggest Vice all across the planet is coffee. But our delivery systems are breaking down. So I think we should make a grand investment is producing our own. Using this method would allow you two harvest a year. Plants would start to produce coffee in 3yrs. There’s nothing hard about it. Just need the space and light. And many an office building will do.
Here's it not even Fall yet and I'm thinking Winter. Right now I have the chance to pick up some plants on sale. Added another 6 Tropical Hibiscus and 6 of the Red Vine Mandevilla.
The picture above is the Mandevilla which had 3 cuttings. I kept them together for the transplant. The picture of the Hibiscus flowering after a month in the system.
This is the same Sago but it had a problem with the transfer to the new lighting. But it survived. This plant was old when I got it. It's been growing in the system for 13 years. This is the 2nd growth spurt this year. I guess it got it's strength back.
A point I like to make over and over is water conservation. Both these trees have gone from April to September with no water change. They've been sitting in the same water for 5 months. I'll compare that to any other system.
A Belle of Georga Peach and a Red Chief Nectrine after 5months growth. Should check out the roots tomorrow.
Let me explain something further. While the water level may fall below the insert of a plant the water. The container is sealed. So when the container is heated by temp or sun light it evaporates. That water forces it way thru the cracks of the material to the roots of the plant. There it follows the roots to the surface. Those holes are quickly blocked off by the plant filling those gap to hold on to the water. So until that waters is all gone, taken up by the plant. The container has to be completely dried out. So that’s why the water lasts so long. An Again how much water does a plant need to grow.
Brining in Tropical's for the Winter
Something I hadn’t given thought to ,but getting a feel for was getting ready to take the tropicals in. I was just listening to others taking about the problems they say you have trying. I have a method I use by where I take the tropical and move them from full sun to just morning. Or any place they get half what they get now. Even a open North area with open sky. Let it sit there for a month than the next month full shade. Take a few of the leaves off. By then wait til the temp drops and move them to the brightest spot you have. In fact several tropicals go dormant with this treatment. Barbados Nuts, Coral tree, Citrus. Yes, Tangerines, Mandarins, Improved Meyers Lemons. A whole gambit of plants survive Winter unchanged till Spring. It’s all you do to get them use to the change. I have a 6' Citrus tree I’m not sure what it is but it’s been sitting back from a West pointing window. Might get might get 3hrs a day. It’s doing fine. Hasn’t been out all year. It hasn’t produced any flowers in that time but wasn’t expecting it to. See there's the thing. Sure you lose flowers for a little while but you grow a larger plant for next year.
I have 14 Manderines, Clementines and Tangerines that have been growing for 2years now. They’ve been growing under the system I mentioned above to “store” plants until I’m ready for them. Remember tho that the “Age” of the plant is what matters. These will still fruit when given better conditions to grow. Also look at the Anaerobic roots. Their straight and unbranched. An the water level. I had mention that the low water level in the container. The lid fits snug with the insert so evaporation is blocked. So the moisture stay in the container and keeps the medium wet thru out the mix.
Fall is about to start and I'm thinking of getting with the schools. So I'm going to express MY opinions a little more.