Growing plants in the Rockies

Been a cold week

Chris — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:47:46 +0000

We have had the coldest week since havng the greenhouse up, with temps dropping to around-5 F / -25 C the greenhouse heater has been able to just keep the inside temp at 55F at night, with daytime temps in the 60-70F range. So not hugely hot, but when you go in there from outside you definitely feel like you are in summer.

With some modifications to the left side ebb and flo system as the roots grew the flow slowed in the upper pipes, so had to change the pipe angle to let more water out of the top pipes, which of course meant a couple of days of drips as I tried to plug them with silicon. The right side drip system has leak still in one of the buckets in the outlet pipe, still cant get it to seal… one day but its not a big leak.

The tomatoes are growing like mad, and we have already been able to get some nice sized peppers from the plants, and many strawberries… although they get eaten normally before they get to the back door of the house!

The only real problem at the moment is the seedlings, we are having a hard time getting them to grow, so this week I tried to plant some in soil with the intention of washing off the soil once they have grown to transplant size…we will see if it succeeds.

This is a transplanted Utah Celery seedling	the tomatoes and peppers, the toms are cold weather Canadian varieties.	Strawberrys and parsley thrive in the ebb and flow
Strawberries are all covered in fruit

Its cold and the greenhouse is still growing

Chris — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:50:09 +0000

Well its been a while since I have updated this blog, with recurrent training at work and then vacation it just has been too hard to do the updates, but here it is!

The hydroponics now rule the greenhouse, which is great as there is no way to have a watering system for soil based plants when its below freezing outside.

Today is was 8 F outside, there was snow on the greenhouse roof and it was 55 - 60 F inside (with the help of a fan heater set at 55 F )

These pepper plants came from the soil based garden and hae thrived since been washed and transfered to hydroponics. The tomatoes are grown from seed and are getting there	This is the little greenhouse that could as it sat today in the cold and snow, it was 5 F	Strawberries, who would have thought, these plants too came from the soil garden and started getting fruit on them within 1 week of being soilless
the ebb and flow system in operation, and just 1 month old	the lower level, still waiting for more plants to grow from seed ... which is the slowest stage of the growth	this is a little iceberg lettuce seedling

Building a home made ebb and flow hydroponic system

Chris — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:18:05 +0000

The idea is to replicate a expensive ebb and flow hydroponic system.

The ingredients (all bought from Home Depot)

1/2″ irrigation pipe - 50ft roll
1/4″ irrigation tube - 50 ft roll
8 x 1/2″ T fittings
Pack of 10 of 1/4″ couplers
8 x 5 gallon buckets
19 gallon dark colored tote with lid
2 x large bags of perlite
tube of silicon
170 gph aquarium or fountain pump
aquarium air pump
aquarium air stone
aquarium water heater
timer - multiple on off (need to be able to do 4hrs on then 4hrs off)
hydroponic chemicals
cable ties (25 pack)

This is the system how it will be laid out, 8 buckets filled with perlite and the nutrient tank with water pump, air pump and heater in it at the end.	Inside the nutrient tank, we have the water pump connected to a length of 1/2\" pipe, a air stone to aerate the solution and out of the pic is a water heater.	The cables come out thru under the handle, the air pump can be see cable tied to the side. Remember to put a no drip loop in the power cables or keep the cabled and air pump higher than the water level.
The nutrient tank has he pump pipe coming out the top and the drainage pipe below it.	A closer look at the pipes in and out of the nutrient tank	This is the drainage pipe, put in by using a 1/2\" drill pipe and then silicon to secure it.
Inside the bucket the drain pipe can be seen, this needs to be covered with screen material secured by a twist tie.	Nutrient, air rock, pump and heater	This is some of the containers with the inlet water pipes (found you need 1 pipe per plant). Thats perlite in the containers
You can see the pipes in the middle of the pipes, the inlet or nutrient to the plant main pipe needs to be level and level with the top of the buckets for even flow I found.	I placed some window screen material over the end of the return pipe to stop it getting clogged with perlite.

Its time for a change to hydroponics

Chris — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:02:22 +0000

With the hassles of soil based growing, add to it the fact that we have to keep the soil warm and disease free at the same time we thought there has to be a better way….and hydroponics came to mind.

The last time I used hydroponics to grow anything I was 14 years old and had a really simple system in my parents glasshouse, so things have changed since then, mainly in terms of chemicals/mixes used and components in the systems.

One thing I did notice now is the cost of the systems you can buy online, they are really really expensive. So I set out to convert the greenhouse to hydroponic using stuff bought in a local hardware store.

In researching this I found a lot of links and pics, unfortunately most were for growing drugs in your garage or attic!, I also found here in Evergreen we have a store selling hydroponics.

I am going to build 2 systems, a ebb and flow system using buckets for tomatoes and peppers and bigger plants, and a NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) system for lettuce, bok choi, strawberries and herbs.

Here are some links:

Chemicals and supplies

http://www.ageoldorganic.com/

Local evergreen supplier All Season Gardener

http://www.thebigtomato.com/

Building ideas and system info

http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/

http://www.jasons-indoor-guide-to-organic-and-hydroponics-gardening.com/homemade-hydroponics.html

http://www.content4reprint.com/home/gardening/understanding-ph-for-hydroponic-growing.htm

http://ezinearticles.com/?Easiest-Homemade-Hydroponics-System&id=109225

Update, prior to going to Australia

Chris — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:23:57 +0000

Spent the last 10 days in Australia, visiting family, so didnt get to complete the growing update before I left, so here it is.

These updates were taken on Oct 1 208, plantings of lettuce, winter tomatoes and celery, together with the standard toms, herbs and strawberry plants seem to be all ok, we will see how the upcoming colder weather treats them.

The little insulated greenhouse	Lettuce plants	More lettuce
New planter with heating for toms	Strawberry plants	Toms, still growing and going
Giant tree toms

Tomatoes, tomatoes keep on coming

Chris — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:15:24 +0000

Our first giant tree tomatoe plants have finally given birth to fruit, lots of big tomatoes, it only took 3 + months!. Our roma tomatoe plants have been a late suprise of the season, and our first tomatoe plant, a early riser tomatoe plant will be removed this week, as its life is over and its completed its season, here are some toms from it

A small giant tree tomato	Giant tree tomato fruit	Last of the early riser toms

Poor mans heating system for plants roots

Chris — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:08:21 +0000

As a way to cheaply keeps the plants roots from freezing and keep the soil warm, I came across an article on using a ropelight to warm the soil.

The rope light uses just 5 watts of power, is totally waterproof and is flexible. We leave it on 24/7, the soil temp in punnets for seedlings stays at 70 F, and we fed it thru some planter boxes to help keep he soil warm, so far it seems to work.

Have a look:

Fall colors in the webcam

Chris — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:48:02 +0000

You can see the aspen trees leaves changing in the webcam we have:

Updated every 5 sec, hit refresh or F5 key on your keyboard to get latest pic

Winters around the corner - insulation time

Chris — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:45:55 +0000

My idea is to insulate the inside walls of the green house and cover the whole green house with a clear solar pool blanket, the one like bubble wrap.

So stage one was the internal walls.

Initially I thought I would just do 2 ft up the sides, and the wall that wont get the direct sun through it in the winter…. the northern wall. But after seeing how thin the plastic is on this greenhouse and the heat loss it already had I decided to try and cover all side walls and leave the roof open.

Using simple construction 2 inch polystyrene insulation panels I lined the inside of the walls.

So far it seems to be working well. The outside temp can be 40F (5C) and the inside temp is around 60 F (15C). There is a heater in there but at the moment it hardly comes on, it is set at 60F. The inner side is pure white, so it seems to work in reflecting the light around quite well , and the plants dont seem to suffer at all.

Plants in general are still growing

Chris — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:36:29 +0000

While everyones outdoor gardens have now died from frost and cold weather the greenhouse still looks unchanged.

We have herbs still growing strong, and tomato plants, strawberry plants, bok choi, lettuce, a cauliflower, and bell peppers. There is also some winter zuchinni seeds that have sprouted.

Poor mans heating system on the punnets, rope light. Its waterproof and really warm	Herbs still a growing	Some of the tomatoes on the giant tree tomato plants
More giant tree tomato plant	The overview	Early bird and roma toms. The early bird to the right arent looking very happy.
This is some beefsteak and early riser toms	Bell peppers still growing happily