Indoor container gardening

[Sher]

I am glad to hear that the zucchini is doing well.

I plan to start mine when I make space for them and get my lights hung. I also bought a bag of flower drying silica gel so I can dry and freeze the pollen. I hope! I don't have room for two plants.

[Shawn]

Question, will all these plants stay indoors or any any going to be transplanted outside?

[maskedsonnet]

The pequins and lemon balms are going to be transplanted. The others are either sentimental (pomegranate and turmeric, which used to go outside in the spring but after a bug incident are permanent indoor plants) or part of a larger project to see how much of my own food I can produce indoors without plants spilling out into the rest of the house for the dogs to get into. The drip system is an attempt to make it as ‘set it and forget it’ as the AG and my outdoor garden usually are, which also has automatic watering and just needs to be weeded and cleaned up after dust storms, because I always end up with a bunch of trash in my back yard when the wind gets that high.

[maskedsonnet]

Feb 8, 2021 20:05:05 GMT -5 Sher said:

I am glad to hear that the zucchini is doing well.

I plan to start mine when I make space for them and get my lights hung. I also bought a bag of flower drying silica gel so I can dry and freeze the pollen. I hope! I don't have room for two plants.

I forgot to say, both zucchini varieties (actually all the veggies) I chose are parthenocathic, so there’s no need to save pollen to fertilize the flowers with. The varieties I went with are Cavili (a green zucchini) and Easy Pick Gold (a yellow zucchini), but I know there are others out there. I have lots of seeds left over if you want me to send you some to play with! Just let me know

[Shawn]

Cool!  I thought they were indoor plants but wanted to ask.

[maskedsonnet]

I may keep one of the lemon balms indoors to replace the super old container one, which I keep indoor year-around because I love to make tea with it. But lemon balm plants are weirdly hard to find in my area compared to other types of mint, so I’m half-way tempted to buy an actual seed-starting kit for one of my AGs to grow a bunch with. My goal is to spread the lemon balm throughout a very difficult/weedy part of my yard. I’ve had some great success with that with the one plant I was able to find two years ago, but more plants will speed up the process a LOT! These overwinter like champs in my area, so it should be a much shorter process now that I know I can start these from my own seeds and the smell when I mow it all down at the end of the season is divine

[Sher]

Thanks for the seed offer,  maskedsonnet. But I specifically want to try the Astia container variety.  

[maskedsonnet]

Still fighting a little bit of a bug problem in the containers, which has spread a little bit to the Farms. I've been treating with Safer Brand End All Insecticide Soap, which has been working very well against the bugs but has been a bit hard on some of the plants. The cucumber plant looks especially crispy. I've been inspecting them all every day, and there's a lot less insect damage now. I think The eggplant has gotten a LOT better because of it. The tomatoes not so much, so when I get time to go container shopping I'm going to get some bigger pots for the zucchini plants and get rid of the potted tomatoes.

[Shawn]

I hope those that need it recover and that the bugs are gone and they all thrive.

[Sher]

Good luck, maskedsonnet.

[maskedsonnet]

The pot-o-penos have been transplanted and hung up! Plus a spider plant I've been meaning to transplant for a while

[Sher]

I haven't had a spider plant in years. Seeing yours makes me want to hang one in my bedroom window!

And I am so intriqued by your pot-o-peno!  It's going to be fun watching it grow!

[maskedsonnet]

The poor spider plant has been in a teeny pot in my kitchen window, it already looks much happier in the bigger basket! I just got the lights hung and I’m 100% going to have to replace the hooks on these with carabiners, accidentally jostled one of the baskets while plugging the lights in and made a humongous mess, the hook swung right off the bracket. Soil everywhere. :| at least the plant was okay.

[Sher]

Been there with the messes. Sending empathy!

[airscapes]

Feb 19, 2021 23:31:27 GMT -5 maskedsonnet said:

The poor spider plant has been in a teeny pot in my kitchen window, it already looks much happier in the bigger basket! I just got the lights hung and I’m 100% going to have to replace the hooks on these with carabiners, accidentally jostled one of the baskets while plugging the lights in and made a humongous mess, the hook swung right off the bracket. Soil everywhere. :| at least the plant was okay.

I was looking for a solution to suspend my light and make the easy to adjust and found these. They work very well!  

[Shawn]

My mother used to have spider plants all over the house.  Memories...

Uh Oh, I am sorry you had a mess.  I know you will get some sturdier ones up.

[maskedsonnet]

We now have water, lights, and hooks that won't fling themselves off the brackets at the least touch! 
If I expand this setup any more I'm going to have to get another power strip lol, I've used up all the slots.

[maskedsonnet]

A while back the local garden place posted this and I've been in agony all month wanting to go buy a few of these pots. They're so pretty!! Soon I'll be off night shift and able to match up with small-town business hours. I want a couple of the largest ones for the zucchini plants (the sunflower ones on the top right shelf especially are pots I hope they have left next month) and some small ones for herbs, I'm thinking about ending my Kratky bottles by transplanting them all to pots. It's a cool project, but higher maintenance than I thought it'd be, probably because of how small the bottles are.

[Shawn]

You have it all lined up and under control

[Sher]

I am crazy about pretty pots, too, maskedsonnet . I have replaced almost all my plastic pots with ceramic, and have the pots to get the rest of my houseplants in them as soon as I am sure I have won the battle of the bugs.

Yes, Kratky in small containers is a pain. I need to move my grow tent tomatoes into larger jars. Right now they drink their containers dry in three days.