Something different

One of the exciting things of running a grower group is the little snippets of information that I get sent or photos of plants thriving in this system that I personally have not grown.
Some of our growers push the boundary's which is great I love it. here is a couple of photos I want to share from one of our growers who is well on the way of being self sufficient with and extensive variety of plants I just want to show you one that you may not have thought of.

Dwarf Mulberry 

Mulberry fruiting in first year

These trees are in a Perlight /Vermiculite 50/50 Mix in 12" Single Hydrotrays.

There is no limit to what you can grow with this system here are a couple of new things that I have

Peanuts

If you look closely you can see the the long stems dropping down to the ground the peanuts will develop down in the ground, quite a fascinating plant.

A Yellow Tomato Variety

Strawberry's in Perlite Mix

I have not grown Strawberry's before because I have a wonderful Strawberry farmer just down the road but he's gone on holiday so no second crop so this is a new experience with the system.

My Malabar Spinach

My beautiful Sunflower packed with seeds

Every Gardener Needs one!

Autopot Capillary Table

Welcome to Autumn I have been flat out potting up seedling and that's when I realised just how wonderful the Capillary Table really is,. If you love growing your own or love striking cuttings of any form of prorogation then you should have one of these tables.

On this 1260 x 720 mm top as you can see is a huge array of plants the larger one at the back right is an eggplant that has been on the table from day one and now has fruit on it. this is a real efficient unit and a must for any serious gardener. Ring me if you want to order one or email 0412174733 or auto.group@optusnet.com.au

Tomato cutting

Tomatoes what's the options
Do you grow from seed, seedlings or from cuttings?

I use all three and the tomato in the picture above is a cutting, this was a middle lateral that you normally pinch out, well here is the trick. let it grow to around 10 - 12 cm cut it out cleanly and place into potting mix but make sure you  make a hole for it, don't push it into the pot or you will damage the edges, if you have rooting compound then use it, in the case above it was just put carefully into the pot and firmed around and left sitting on my capillary table. Think about it if you start cuttings from each planting when they are half grown you would have an all year round supply of plants.

How many?

Hybrid Cucumber.

I am often asked how many plants should I put in to a pot, I get the impression that often people think because its such a brilliant feeding system why not put extra plants in a pot. My view is that I would rather have one healthy plant producing at maximum than a bunch of average plants that are prone to sickness and insects. What you see in the picture above is 2 cucumbers in a 2 pot 10" hydrotray, these 2 plants will give me over between  40 to 50 plus fruit they will develop a root system that will fill the pot so why spoil it. Think Quality and grow time, the quicker a plant grows the more nutritious it is for you.

These 2 plant will take over one end of my tunnel as you can see with the current crop in the next photo.

Cucumber and Pink Pearl Tomatoes hanging from the roof.


Here are a few more happenings around the place.

Petunia for my mobile display

Peanuts

My Crazy spinach

Another question that comes up a lot is what's the best medium?

I have experiment with just about everything and I do use a lot of soil note I said soil not potting mix I have found some of the potting mixes especially the cheep ones are no good and your plants will die I think its a chemical conflict with the way some of them work with our nutrient.

If you are not exposed to lots of rain that can wash out your nutrient then use Perlite, or Perlite / Vermiculite 50 / 50 mix that way you will have no conflict. For a soil medium I use Osomoaote organic soil. note it's a soil not a potting mix.

I have just done a lettuce plant in 50 /50 mix as you can see.

Lettuce in 50/50 mix

What ever you decide don't use a cheap potting mix as it can kill your plants due to chemical reaction.

If you would like to receive our monthly  GROWER GROUP news letter or to join our grower group just email me auto.group@optusnet.com.au

February is rushing by.

What's happened to the month?
It's almost gone, between the storms and 33 plus heat, not to mention the usual February humidity its been fun and it has not finished yet. Being able to quickly cover my Grow house means I am in control and avoid the plant damage that would occur in conventional gardening.

Enjoying another of my new lettuce varieties " Salad Bowl Green " like the "Darwin" variety they are excellent picking lettuce and just keep bouncing back with new growth. I defiantly recommend for mid
summer growing.
Also doing well is my Beet-root, onions, capsicum, and eggplant plus stacks of Herbs.

Salad Bowl Green

 Finally got the Malabar Spinach planted into a 10" Hydrotray and its rocketing away.

Malabar Spinach

Tomatoes are now hanging from the roof especially my Pink Pearl and Hybrid 101 varieties.

My Second planting of Black Russian are now setting so things are on track.

Pink Pearl

Hundreds of flowers

2nd Black Russian Planting

Looking forward to the winter veggie season,

My Clay Ball Experiment

A little time back I mentioned I wanted to try Clay balls as a medium just to see what happens.
Well I am pleased with the results for several reasons.
1. I notice they don't grow algae like the Perlite / Vermiculite Mix can.
2. Its very stable and supportive in the wind due to its weight.
3. It will wash up for re usage.
Has the plant develop well YES take a look

Capsicum in Clay Ball Medium

This plant is in a 12" single Hydro tray it gets the same food supply as everything else.

it is sitting on about 5 ml of Perlite 50/ 50 Mix which I use in all my plantings, I call it my wick.

the plant is sitting right down onto the Perlite base with the rest of the space filled with Clay Balls.

This now leads me to possible experimenting with pebbles or road chip.

While on the subject of new things I have been given an interesting couple of plants that I have set up a special place to grow due to there vigor, its commonly called Creeping Spinach but it has a list of names depending which country you come from but it is called "Basel la Alba" or Malabar Spinach it can grow up to 10 meters very prolific growth with the leaves and vine being use extensively in Asian cooking.

Being such a quick grower I am interested to record its performance under the
Autopot System.

Malabar Spinach

This is the spot that I will grow it on

I have set up a special place that I will plant the seedling into a Hydrotray so I can keep a close eye on its progress an d it will make picking easy.

Food for thought

I spend every weekend at the local markets with my mobile display and their would not be a day go by that someone will bring up the subject of organic gardening and believe me there are some interesting interpretations out there which bring me to an interesting article I came across which I will share with you.

AUSTRALIA

Australia: Organic Label Outdated? 
 A recent article in Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses magazine has called into question the value of the soil grown-only ‘organic’ label, noting that soil growing is far less efficient than hydroponics and far more likely to lead to pollution of groundwater through the runoff of plant nutrients.

Dr. Mike Nichols, a retired university teacher from Massey University, believes that the whole concept of an ‘organic’ rating for food crops is outdated and of little practical value, stating that “much of the ‘organic philosophy’ appears to be based on the UK Soil Association and the writings of Rudolph Steiner. Both organizations [had] their origins well before anyone considered growing crops commercially using hydroponic systems, and so hydroponics did not get considered.”

I am sure there will be a few that will challenge this view but it opens up a very interesting topic.

I would like to thing I am personally practising what I feel is a form of organic growing by using a pure organic soil as my medium and supporting that with a Nutrient supplement that is derived from good quality products. My medium acts as a buffer to the plant which in turn draws exactly what it wants for maximum growth. another important factor is due to the fact the plants are strong and healthy they are less susceptible to insect attack there for no need for any form of spray.

I would like to think the Autopot System gives me the best of both worlds.

THE TASTE TEST.

I am currently feasting on Fresh salads using the Darwin lettuce that I have been testing, also grown in an organic medium so this is what I think of it.

Grows like the acorn leaf varieties but more flat, lovely light green with excellent flavor but is inclined to be a very soft lettuce so you need to pick and use. It is supposed to be a slow to bolt variety but in all fairness probable similar to the  butter head.

Will I grow it again YES.

Darwin Lettuce

SHELF LIFE

This is a very important subject and a lot of research goes on all the time trying to improve it, especially where you have long distances to market or multiple handlers of your product before the end user.
I was just reading a very interesting article from a very well known publication on hydroponics I will past it below and then add my thoughts to it:

The article was discussing the problems of wilting at harvest.

Wilting

Some plants are prone to wilting in high heat but the wilting they were talking about was at harvest. The owners had grown a large crop of Basil and blamed Aquaponics as the culprit. The plants after all had it too easy. The Basil plants were full of water with their roots submersed in the stuff all the time. It was a DWC floating raft system with heavily oxygenated water so the plants were very happy indeed – until harvest day. Then the plants flopped over and wilted when picked. They had lost a whole crop to wilting.

Harvest

A little closer investigation revealed that the owners had decided to let their Basil grow nice and big and then when they decided to harvest the plants out,  they also removed the roots and cut up the stems into marketable sizes and wrapped the whole thing in plastic and threw it into the truck to take to market the next day. They didn’t have a cold room so shelf storage of the product became a big problem. They had also tried adding a slurp of water into the parcels to give the plants a “drink” but that method didn’t work either!  All they had was a pile of wilted plants that no one would buy.

                     They had failed to understand the way a plant works.

                "now I think this is a critical statement they had made here"

 To me this is a very good example of the difference between the conventional hydroponic growing systems and the Autopot plant driven System. plant roots in the Autopot System are not submerged in water they just receive the amount they need to grow strong and healthy by capillary action very similar as if they had grown in a conventional garden except they had not endured the  fluctuation in food and water supply plus soil deficiencies. With the Autopot System I use a lot of pure organic soil as my medium which is then supported by a well balanced nutrient, this medium acts as a buffer to my plants which reduces the need to be constantly monitoring, the plants virtually look after them self and they grow with the strength to  withstand travel and storage.

This simply applies to all things grown in the Autopot System.

Box wood Basil

While we are on the subject of Growing Basil let me introduce you to a wonderful variety called BOX WOOD BASIL

Grows into a lovely bush, has great basil smell and so far has not shown signs of bolting. You only have to brush past it and you will get a whiff of aroma.

Summer Salads

Well the mad season is almost gone just the kids back to school is next then we can all get back to normal.
With the extra space in the new "Grow House" things are racing. I am extremely impressed with the DARWIN lettuce variety the taste test will be the final thing to call on. I have just sown the other variety I want to try and that is Salad Bowl Green. Had to pick my first Black Russian Tomatoes they where starting to burst, due to the fact that they don't show up as bright red like normal tomatoes I left them to long so the lesson is as soon as they show colour pick them. I have saved a couple that had burst as a seed source which are undergoing the cleaning process at the moment.

Black Russian

This is virtually from one branch weight 2.5 kg and there will be as much still to come so lets say around 5 kg from 2 plants.

3 lettuce variety's plus cocktail tomatoes and fresh herbs

 This is what I love about the Autopot System I walk out to the garden and bring in fresh lettuce and put it on the bench. now I can choose to pick of a few leaves and return it to the System or I can cut it fresh there and then and replant knowing that i will have another ready in 4 weeks. Sorry "Woollies" you cant beat that. In this Photo you will note the lovely Cocktail Tomatoes as well as fresh bush basil, Italian parsley and curly parsley along with Currie Herb. By the time I add cucumber, radish and red onion, carrot and cheese along with avocado I have a wonderful super fresh salad that my grand kids line up for
Take a look at this lettuce beautiful colour flat growing very soft in the leaf and will stand being picked leaf at a time slow to bolt so ideal for Queensland summer growing.

Darwin Lettuce

Oak Leaf Lettuce

This is another good lettuce to grow, stands a little more heat than the butter head and is a good picking lettuce if you prefer to go that way.

Beetroot doing well

Red and Brown onions

These Hybrid Cucumber will hit the roof in the next few days.

Remember Sunny the sunflower that I showed you in an earlier blog well I have just done some stats on it and here they are. Taken at 47 days Height 1210 ml.  less 210 for pot leaves 1000 ml that's an average of 23 ml per day growth from day one. I think that's pretty impressive.

Sunny the sunflower