Indoor container gardening

[Shawn]

Excellent.  Nice to see that everything is growing.  Hopefully the yucca wont be far along.

[maskedsonnet]

Eggplant has pushed up far enough that it's almost time to take off his dome!!




And, best of all, a barely-able-to-see-it hint of green inside one of the yucca pods!!!



I'll be going to hang out with my parents for a couple weeks on the 26th, so this will probably be my last Aerogarden update until after the new year. BUT!! But dad is some kind of plant wizard, I swear. I may snap a couple photos of his patio to share, it's always a jungle.

[Shawn]

Enjoy the time with family.  We will still be here when you return!

[Sher]

Enjoy!

And I am looking forward to seeing those pictures!

[maskedsonnet]

These are all ready for transplant today, except for the yucca. Which actually all came up already!! I'm going to let the yucca get quite a bit bigger before I transplant it, but the Bounty will be relocated to the room with the other AGs today after moving out the veggies!

[Sher]

How exciting!  You have really put that Bounty to good use!

[maskedsonnet]

Got things transplanted and settled in! 

Cucumber, Eggplant, and 2 Tomatoes:


The 2 Zucchinis on the bottom with a lemon balm, plus a pequin, sage, and rosemary on top:


And bonus pic of the pomegranate and turmeric!

[Sher]

I am betting you will need more lights and space soon! 

[maskedsonnet]

Lol that room's started to get pretty full, though I can squeeze a bit more in there I think. The master bedroom in my house actually has 2 walk-in closets - I use one just to store junk in and am thinking about clearing it out to convert to a mini grow-room just so I can have more plants!! I've been meaning to throw out a bunch of junk that's piled up over the years anyways, it's a good motivator to actually get it done.

[Sher]

I empathize!

I bought a folding screen to keep the bright AG lights from bothering me when I am sitting in my recliner. It arrived today, and my first thought was,

"Oh goodie! That makes another little nook for plants!"

[maskedsonnet]

Ah yeah I love finding new spots I can turn into plant homes! I actually made my guest bedroom my AG room, since I haven't been able to have guests for nearly a year. As I'm hoping that'll change at some point with the vaccine roll-out, I'm trying to come up with a way to keep the super bright lights from disturbing said guests. I really like the mylar-coverd panels I've seen posted about here, with either velcro or magnates to hold them up. I just haven't gotten around to it yet, since there's really no hurry right now. But if I do convert a closet (or three, since there are a couple barely-used storage closets in the house too) into plant nooks, I'll have to figure out a way to block the light at least around the edges of the one in the master bedroom. I have to flip between day and night shift quite a lot, and having lights shining out of the closet might make that difficult. At the same time, I've gotten used to sleeping during the day with my bedroom door open at my dogs' insistence (turns out daylight is easier to sleep through than scratching and whining), so maybe it wouldn't actually be a problem 

[maskedsonnet]

My parents got me this drip system for Christmas and I just got it set up!! I've tested it a couple times and really think this will be a great way for me to be lazy lol





In all seriousness, if it keeps working well this will be a load off my mind when I have to travel!!

[Sher]

Ah!  TLC for your potted plants!  Great idea!

[Shawn]

What a great set up.  I do not have the room to do anything like that.  I just can not bring myself to have anything with dirt in the house.  I do not have a basement and my garage is way too cold in the winter.

[maskedsonnet]

Lol yeah the dirt sometimes bothers me a bit too, but I vacuum at lot anyways because I have two huskies and they shed non-stop. The thing that really bothers me is the carpet itself, I never feel like carpet is ever truly clean, it drives me nuts. But I can’t afford to have it all ripped out and tiled over right now. Someday!

[Shawn]

Jan 10, 2021 8:35:02 GMT -5 maskedsonnet said:

Lol yeah the dirt sometimes bothers me a bit too, but I vacuum at lot anyways because I have two huskies and they shed non-stop. The thing that really bothers me is the carpet itself, I never feel like carpet is ever truly clean, it drives me nuts. But I can’t afford to have it all ripped out and tiled over right now. Someday!

I am always vacuuming with Piper.  I actually puled my carpet cleaner out to do my carpets this week.  I do them several times a year.  Our house is all hard wood with the exception of the bedrooms and family room.  I do have area rugs and runners because of Piper (and Proxy before her).  She needs them or she would be side sliding all over LOL.

As for the dirt, it is the bugs that come with them that bother me.

[ERR0R1755]

Jan 10, 2021 12:59:30 GMT -5 Shawn said:

As for the dirt, it is the bugs that come with them that bother me

Not sure if you'd find it worthwhile, but for my few soil plants (like my cayenne in a bottle) I find it extremely helpful to put something else such as coco coir in the top few inches. Anything that would live in the potting soil can't get through that and "escape", so instead it dies in the soil and becomes free fertilizer.

Also, when buying potting soil, don't ever buy potting soil that is stored outdoors (since it will inevitably have a small hole that bugs get into) and stay away from the Miracle-Gro potting soil that comes in a yellow bag.

(alternatively, you can always put your potting soil in a tote/bowl/container and pour boiling water into it to kill all the insects and eggs)

[maskedsonnet]

I always put a top layer of diatomaceous earth on the potting soil to kill the bugs, but didn’t realize until after I potted everything that day that I needed more lol. I’ve got them all fixed up now

[Shawn]

Thanks.  I have read and heard of that but just the thought of bugs make me itch.  So I do not bring them in.  The last time a plant was brought in (from my MIL) went directly on the deck.  With the maybe 10 minutes it was inside I had gnats.  No thank you

[maskedsonnet]

Oof, can’t blame you there, gnats are the worst!! Annoying and hard to get rid of! I think the worst bug experience I’ve had was actually when I discovered a huge grey centipede with orange legs crawling through my carpet a couple years ago though, which is when I started being a bit neurotic about carpet lol. After sweeping it into a long-handled dust pan and hurling it out the front door I went and bought a big bottle of Home Defense, sprayed the whole house, and found TWO MORE dead ones the next day. No idea how they got in my house, but thinking about it still makes me itch to this day!