On the table and Utilising Waist

I am so excited about my new Calpus table it will allow me to produce more of my own seed stock.

New hybrid capsicum and Tomato

Lettuce Plugs

I am impressed how well the plants grow on it, the roots draw to it in no time, if you look you can see them in the pictures. the last few days we have had continuous wind and the table has kept up with the vaporisation.
I often get asked about recycling my medium, I used to but have decided the results are not as good second time round unless you spend reasonable time leaching out the old nutrient. What I now do is dump into cheep 40 Lt containers with plenty of holes drilled in the bottom and grow my bulky things like potatoes, rock melons and such giving them a hand feed once a week when I do a mix other wise the get a good wet with the hose

Rock Melon in Waist Medium

Sweet Potato in Waist Medium

The 4 week test

You may remember I started an experiment in growing lettuce in a 12" single hydrotray as I had seen in a picture. At the time I planted the wrong variety but decided to see how they went and would judge each variety at the 4 week mark which is what it take with my normal planting in the window box.

 Iceberge lettuce in the 12' single pot no soil no medium

I have lifteed the Iceberg which was with no soil at all I have now replanted Butterhead by popping out of the punnet leaving the soil and root ball untouched and filling the water cup with Perlite/ Vermiculite 50/50 mix. At the end of the 4 week I will replace that with the Green mignonette.

4 weeks grown in drink cups

Lovely crisp lettuce but not as big or developed as my normal method

Butterhead now on the 4 week test untouched root ball and Perlite / Vic Mix

I will also trial butterhead with the no medium option as well to be fair to each variety.

Seedling and spare pots on the capsul table

Also this week I added a Caplus table to my Autopot Garden this will alow me to produce more of my own seedling so I am absolutly rapt.

The new table fits in the middle and is hooked up to the same system

Whats happening at my place

October is disappearing fast and the weather can't make up its mind but the garden is enjoying the odd cooler day but the extremes do play havoc with plants.
You will need to keep a watch on things like lettuce providing a bit of shade on the hot days or they will bolt as well as get brown around the out side edges of the leaves.


This week busy replanting the hanging baskets at a local school which highlights what you need to do re maintenance when you are re potting and replacing clean everything out thoroughly.

Otherwise things are racing along I can't eat the amount of food that I can produce so I think I will start taking the extra to the markets each weekend and give people a chance to taste real fresh food.

Hanging baskets ready to be scrubbed

Cleaned and turned ready to remove base to clean Smart-valve

Root sneak through and can upset the valve operation

Ready for replant when plants arrive.

Beetroot for summer

My purple Carrot experiment

I have already picked 3 off this

Snow peas coming into flower

Capsicum  going great

Moved my seedlings up to a bigger pot

My Lettuce experiment coming along OK.

September update

With the month almost gone I thought I would give you an up date on some of the plantings.

Purple carrots experiment

Well this is an interesting one remember I had 2 different medium mixes  one with half river sand and half Per lite /Vermiculite mix the other half river sand and half potting mix,

Well as you can see the Per lite mix is well ahead of the soil one that's them in the top of the picture no deaths in the transplant and definitely stronger.

My Black Russian Tomato

This Tomato is looking very good so fare the test will be the fruit.

Hybrid Cucumber

Remember my little seedling that I started in a rock wool cube, well take a look at it now!

with ever flower a female flower you can see its covered in fruit this plant is unbelievable

This is Rossy and her mate who always help me in the garden

Not only do I enjoy working with this incredible growing system but I am able to share on a daily bases with other friends that appreciate this planet how lucky am I.

Bossy Boots rules over all even the bigger sulphur crested cockatoos

Mr Brown second in comand never squaks just sits and waits for food
most unusual for a sulpher crested, mote the brown front.

zucchini's producing very heavily and that's a spray on them not mildew

Ice berg lettuce experiment

This lettuce experiment should have been using the green Mignonette so I could compare growing time with my normal system but I picked up the wrong plants by mistake and did not notice until I had planted then so anyway decided to leave as is and see what happens.

Rhubarb

I am offen asked about growing Rhubarb and as I have mentioned before this is not the best climate, but never the less this is whats happening in my 12 inch single hydrotray. I have it on the ground and under my growing bench to keep it as cool as possible.

My Favorite Pink Pearl covered in Tomatoes as usual, sorry about the photo.

Rock melon in tub.

Sweet potato in tub of rcycled medium

I have used a couple of cheap plastic tubs for these but I should be using the single 12" but at $5 bucks at the reject shop with a few holes in them they are good value I will feed by hand when I mix each time.

Preparing for a Queensland Summer

From one extreme to another, this week every day in the mid 20s so its time to think about making sure I protect my garden from getting cooked before they get to the pot.

I thought I would carry out a test on what's happening to the supply tank temperature to start with so at midday I tested the tank surface and the contents of both a covered tank and an uncovered tank here are the stats.

Tank surface 35 degrees

Air temperature 23 degrees

uncovered Tank contents 24 degrees

Covered Tank contents 19 degrees

That's a difference of 5 degrees which is critical for the growing of some plants. As you know if the water temperature gets to high some plant tend to bolt and go to seed so this is important to me.
It was also interesting to note that the temperature in the Hydro trays and window box was about the same as the tank contents.

Surface temperature 35 degrees

With and withoutThermal cover I have used a 2.5 R rated Air Cell product.

                                      HYDRO TANK 

                               THERMAL BLANKET

A  GROWER GROUP member at Toogom making use of the same material on his tank.

Now my next thing to do was roll up my clear tarp on my Half Tunnel and replace with a white 50% horticulture cloth, this stuff is brilliant. Please avoid using the coloured cloths if you can, if you go back to an earlier blog regarding lighting you will see the results of using the wrong thing. Not everybody stocks this white cloth so email me and I can direct you.

50% white. It is woven so as to split the light to enhance the correct light for plants

The light inside is great and the Temperature has dropped by 10% immediately

KEEP COOL MAN.

Another New experiment

Just to prove how incredibly versatile this System is I am carrying out another experiment for you to follow.
This time I am using the MK2 12" Single Hydro Tray (injection Moulded)  This is a little different to the normal 12" Lighter in weight and a simpler design.

MK2 12" Single Hydro tray

What I want to do is duplicate what I spotted in a picture of lettuce growing on a rooftop in Malaysia I had notice that there was multiple plantings in a pot so here is my version.

Now I had a choice of using any medium from Per lite Mix to Potting mix but as I said to show you just how incredible this system is I am using no medium.

My lid to suspend the cups

I used an old plastic pot tray and cut 3 holes in it to take the drink cups, I used a bamboo stick wired to suspend the lid.

disposable drink cups 

hole drilled into the bottom of the drink cups, If I was to do this on a larger scale I would use a punch to make the holes it would be neater

Cups suspended in place

I am using Ice berg Lettuce tis time by mistake not sure how it will go.

I wash the roots clean and placed one in each cup for this experiment. If I had another Hydro tray I would have planted one straight from the punnet and left the soil on to compare. Why I did this was I want to see how it looks when I harvest I should be able to lift straight out and take to the kitchen.

Next Morning and looking good

WE will follow with interest.

A powerful message

I was sent this video from a man who cares about this planet as much as I do
and I want to share it with you.

                                                               it speaks for it's self.

Another good reason why you should be gardening with the Autopot system 

NO waist, NO run off, just caring for your health your future and the planet.