EarthTainer, round three

So far we've had one failure (carrots) and one success (broccoli). Encouraged by this last success, we've maybe gotten a bit bolder in our attempts at EarthTainer gardening. We've planted two cherry tomatoes plants, two poblano plants, and one tomatillo plant. Fingers crossed!

Update on Monday, June 11, 2012 at 5:04PM by Chris Parker

Despite limited sunlight, the tomato plants are growing well, but only one is bearing fruit.  We also have a single poblano pepper, but the tomatillo doesn't seem to be growing despite staying green.

Earthtainer broccoli!

We got a pleasant surprise when we got back from Portland earlier this week:



It took a while, but the broccoli we planted in the earthtainer is finally coming in!  Now it's taking all my energy to not pick it right away.

Feelin' like a farmer!

I finally got to plant our "fall crop" today!  I decided to use a mixture of 3 parts Miracle-Gro potting mix to 1 part perlite.  Feeling pretty excited about it, but now that the seeds are planted, I have to be patient and let them sprout, etc.  I used a little bit of soluble plant food to help get them started.  That's going to be the hard part...

 

This year we planted American spinach, dragon carrots, and scarlet nantes carrots.  All the seeds were bought from SeedSaverExchange.org.

Hopefully something will sprout in the next two weeks.

EarthTainer progress report

The EarthTainer is fully assembled:

All that's needed is growth media and plants...

And we still need to decide what to plant for our fall garden.

My next project

This summer, I tried my hand at something that has traditionally baffled and confused me: gardening. Don't get me wrong, I understand the mechanics of gardening, but unlike my mother, I've never had a green thumb. All of my previous attempts at gardening have ended with me staring at a poor, withered plant, wondering where I went wrong. This year, Nattiebug and I planted basil, mint, rosemary and tomatoes. The first two have done well, but the other two have not been so lucky (assuming cherry tomato plants are supposed to produce more than six fruits). While I should probably count the fact that the plants are still upright as a minor victory, I feel I can do better. During a recent visit to a friend's house we noticed, a little jealously, that they were able to grow a bounty of nice, ripe tomatoes using a strange device, possibly from the future...

Enter the EarthTainer:

The EarthTainer

As many tomato growers know (and wikipedia is eager to inform me), most vegetable plants, including tomatoes, are very sensitive to over-watering. A creation of Ray Newstead, the EarthTainer is designed to provide the plants with only the amount of water they need through wicking and capillary action; and possibly magic:

"Magic"

I have decided that in order to prove my manliness I can either a) make fire or b) successfully grow food. The first would be frowned upon at our home, so I'm determined to build this magic vegatable-growing device and plant a fall garden, or winter garden, depending on how much I procrastinate.

Updates will hopefully follow...

Update on Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 12:30PM by Chris Parker

One trip to Lowe's down:  $48.21 + tax for all the supplies needed, except for one "aquatic basket" and planting media to be bought at a hydroponics store at a later date.  I also bought a Dremel to help with the cutting and whatnot.  Buying a power tool made feel like I passed one more rite of passage to manhood...