2018 Container Garden-Tijuana, México
 

Hello Everyone, happy gardening this 2018 season to you all.

This thread will hopefully document growing in containers
of various types and sizes, and under varied conditions.

[B]CONTAINERS[/B]
About 50 containers (nursery blacks in various sizes,
converted 5 gal water bottles, and 10-25 gal grow bags)
will house Cherries, Dwarfs, micros, determinates, and
other assorted plants.

Indeterminates will live in 75 hybrid RGGS slots ([I]in short,
a 4 inch sewer pipe is filled with fertigated water permanently,
containers wick up via a coco coir-peat moss filled net cup
sitting under the 4-5 gallons of potting mix[/I]).

Doubling up in each slot, so that’s 150 indeterminates.

[B]SUPPORT SYSTEM[/B]
RGGS slots will be supported with green trellis netting (6 in holes)
suspended from overhead stainless steel wires. Height
from ground to wire is right around 7 ft—secured below
via stapling to the wooden RGGS tube supports.
[ATTACH]79340[/ATTACH]
I use large plastic clothespins to attach stems to the trellis,
so it’s pretty low stress.

Towards the end of last season there was significant weight
pulling the wires-trellis and they did fine.

Free-standing containers will have CRW cages, dollar
store trellises, and bamboo.

[B]POTTING MIX
[/B]Potting mix will be 50:50 (new:recycled), with Royal Gold’s
Tupur being the major contributor. Price is decent and I like
that it’s a blank slate to play with. The recycled component is
a diverse mix that's been resting for months.

[B]FERTILIZERS[/B]
Have a lot of osmocote I scooped up at 2 USD
per bottle. I’ll use it sparingly in combination with Tomato
Tone as part of a fertilizer strip for free-standing containers,
supplementing Magnesium-Cal Nitrate accordingly too.

For the RGGS slots, I’ll likely use Haifa Polyfeed with Micros
for the initial part of the grow and then switch to a formula
closer to ChemGro. I’d love to go with ChemGro, however,
the 25kg bags of Haifa products are priced lower
here in MX, so we’ll see if I can make it work.

All will enjoy periodic veg-compost tea via drench, and foliar supplements.

Inoculation with beneficial microbes will occur throughout the grow.

[B]NEW ADDITIONS[/B]
This year’s addition will be shade cloth over these 75 slots.
I have to check what percentages are available/recommended
for our area when I head to the Ag section next week.

[B]TEMPLE OF JANUS DOORS: OPEN.[/B]
On the insect front my citrus trees are starting to bloom, so
I’m already going hard at them trying to evict my favorite
interlopers.

Spinosad, garlic-superhot pepper infused oil, detergents,
DE, Met52EC, and copper round out the current integrated
pest management strategy.

And if I continue to see the little thrip b@$T@rd$ in the
blooms I’m gonna bite the bullet and buy Exalt (spinetoram)
just so I can watch them die writhing.

[SIZE="5"]Die thrips, die! [/SIZE]

VARIETIES
 

I have 3 objectives this season.
[LIST=1][*]Unravel Elgin Pink x Anna Maria’s Heart F2
(selection criteria: hearts, compact plant, large fruit, taste!!!)
[*] Grow out Spain, Eastern Europe, dwarfs, saving lots of seeds for distribution.
[*] Eat delicious tomatoes[/LIST]
Here’s some of the already emerged ones:
[LIST][*]Better Boy[*]Big Green Dwarf[*]Dwarf Emerald Giant[*]Dwarf Kelly Green[*]Elgin Pink[*]Fred’s TD[*]Gribovsky[*]Isolde[*]Koroleva[*]Larisa[*]Orange Minsk H.[*]P. Datterino dolce de Pacino[*]Spudakee[*]Summertime Green[*]Zarca[*]Villariego Grande[*]Rosado Pastrana[*]Cabezón de la Sal[/LIST]

Sowed, awaiting emergence.[LIST][*]54 cells of Elgin Pink x Anna Maria’s Heart F2 [*]18 cells of Tyazheloves Sibiri[*]Canestrino di Lucca[*]Castellano[*]Cheste[*]Corazón de Huesca[*]Cuarentena[*]Elche[*]Flor de Baladre[*]Gallego[*]Gigante Avila[*]Limbo[*]Lyana[*]Marizol Purple[*]Maskotka[*]Mikhalych[*]Morado Cuevas de San Marcos[*]Morado Rondeño[*]Morado Vejer de la Frontera[*]Mozkorra Aretxabaleta[*]Negro de Moratalla[*]Pombriego El Bierzo[*]Riojana[*]Rosa de Teruel[*]Rosado de Aracena[*]Rosado Levante[*]Rozovoe Rafaello[*]San Marzano Redorta/Nano/Super/3[*]Tradicional Olmeda de las Fuentes[*]Zamorano[*]Zaragozano de Utebo[/LIST]
Saving lots of seed, so I'll be aggressively fighting off invaders to minimize viruses and other fun stuff.

PS. I'd love to grow more Siberian tomatoes, alas, I've misplaced my seed bag and will have to continue searching. For the moment, Tyazheloves Sibiri and Orange Minsk heart will be the representatives. I really liked Tyazheloves S: excellent flavor, semi-det, and keeps for a very long time.

early stages
 

Mostly SPAIN
[attach]79336[/attach]

small round pots, just right to start them
[attach]79337[/attach]

Lots of sweet basil
[attach]79338[/attach]


Overwintered peppers, hot. The one in the red container didn't make it.
[attach]79339[/attach]

Good Luck!!!
My Spanish are up, too!!!!

[QUOTE=asmx91;684272]Good Luck!!!
My Spanish are up, too!!!![/QUOTE]

great to hear, more good ones this year too!!! Hope the snow says goodbye soon.

What variant of Haifa are you using? The GG?

Best of luck with your garden. Looking forward to pictures.

What brand of Coco Coir do you use? I've been mixing 50-50 with Promix or the Lucky Dog Potting mix.

I used the cheap brick stuff up in quality of Wonder Soil. I relied on the rain some but ended up washing the cheap stuff until the water ran clear.

You are committing a lot of space to Elgin Pink x Anna Maria's Heart F2! What is the appeal of this one?

[QUOTE=zipcode;684276]What variant of Haifa are you using? The GG?[/QUOTE]

Yes, 18-18-18 GG. The "drip" is also available, although it seems to be more for soil.


[QUOTE=Barb_FL;684287]Best of luck with your garden. Looking forward to pictures.

What brand of Coco Coir do you use? I've been mixing 50-50 with Promix or the Lucky Dog Potting mix.

Thanks! I used the cheap brick stuff up in quality of Wonder Soil. I relied on the rain some but ended up washing the cheap stuff until the water ran clear.[/QUOTE]

I usually buy the "open" bag at my hydro store, sometimes it's the very high quality stuff others it's the brick you mentioned. Doesn't matter much, only a wicking medium below the potting mix. I've seen the Lucky Dog, have not tried it, do you recommend? Tried the Ocean Forest once and some plants liked it a lot, others felt it was hot. Hard to predict which ones can handle the amendments.

This year Tupur (Royal Gold) is the mix of choice, decent quality coco coir, good bang for the buck. The absolute best Coco Coir I've tried is Bio Bizz Coco Mix, fun to run fingers through it. Silky Smooth.

[url]http://royalgoldcoco.com/soils/royal-gold/tupur-pid-3[/url]


[QUOTE=Salsacharley;684293]You are committing a lot of space to Elgin Pink x Anna Maria's Heart F2! What is the appeal of this one?[/QUOTE]

Taste, size of plant, and disease resistance in my neck of the woods. Also, I've gotta pick the right horses, so I want to have a sample size that allows me to see genetics at play. Curiosity mostly.

Winter greens
 

Fun stuff to grow in the cold.

Cold? You can grow basil in the cold? How 'cold' is it in Tijuana in winter?

[QUOTE=GrowingCoastal;686107]Cold? You can grow basil in the cold? How 'cold' is it in Tijuana in winter?[/QUOTE]


spine tingling 40s-50s

Solid germination
 

We have liftoff.

Somewhat yellow, the Kings Mix is hot apparently, or it's the cold evenings, or both.

I can live with it, as will the seedlings.

Next batch will start in Tupur.

No dense planting this year.

Spares in the mixing tub, looking forward to Spudakee.

Lots of Tyazheloves Sibiri, Cabezón de la Sal, and Villariego Grande.

thanks a million Andrey and Baikal.

Mine have been pretty slow to grow in these the cold nights and rainy days recently. Looks to be warming up though.

[QUOTE=rocketFOOD;687125]Mine have been pretty slow to grow in these the cold nights and rainy days recently. Looks to be warming up though.[/QUOTE]


If the seedlings had grown up inside they would be further along. Citrus blooms agree with you on the warming up part. On a few of those nights I had to bring in my pooches. Let's hope for warmer evenings.

Mass cullling
 

There's no escaping thrips and their gifts. Although I've controlled their numbers with Capt Jack's Dead Bug brew, the massive number of blooms on both citrus trees and the fact they're continually opening makes it tough to eradicate my enemy.

Dousing the open blooms every 5 days with Spinosad has paid dividends, and instead of seeing a ton of thrips on every single bloom, I now see 1-2 on every 6th or 7th bloom inspected, which is marked improvement.

I figure as long as I can keep the numbers down they won't descend like a barbarian horde onto my new tomatoes, and that's about as good as it gets.

I overwintered a bunch of superhots and regular hot peppers. After soil changes and hand-holding throughout the winter, their new growth bears the yellow [I]Cheetara [/I]look. Hail Mary was a shot of copper, and it did not improve things. So there was no escaping it, death by blade to two dozen fairly large pepper plants.

One Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate was by itself in a Gro Pro NC-20, and was a monster. It hurt to put it down.

Fortunately, I pooled a bunch of really hot yellows and a bunch of really hot reds, and mass planted them in 1 gallon pots. Superhot bingo sampling will be fun.

ready for transplant
 

plants happy

ready for transplant
 

plants happy 2

lettuce
 

in 3 inch net cup, perlite only

Those are some happy looking tomato plants! And I really want that lettuce head for my salad!

All is looking very good!!!

All the plants look good, but that lettuce is a real scene stealer!

Thanks everyone, that lettuce will be the star of a salad some time this week.

I had to look up what a "Cheetara" look is. I'm perhaps a fatal optimist, but I would be extremely hard pressed to put the axe to 2 dozen overwintered pepper plants because they looked like Cheetara. Gerardo, would you be so kind as to explain to my simple brain how you determined the severity the Cheetara situation was.
Thanks mucho.



[QUOTE=Gerardo;687618]There's no escaping thrips and their gifts. Although I've controlled their numbers with Capt Jack's Dead Bug brew, the massive number of blooms on both citrus trees and the fact they're continually opening makes it tough to eradicate my enemy.

Dousing the open blooms every 5 days with Spinosad has paid dividends, and instead of seeing a ton of thrips on every single bloom, I now see 1-2 on every 6th or 7th bloom inspected, which is marked improvement.

I figure as long as I can keep the numbers down they won't descend like a barbarian horde onto my new tomatoes, and that's about as good as it gets.

I overwintered a bunch of superhots and regular hot peppers. After soil changes and hand-holding throughout the winter, their new growth bears the yellow [I]Cheetara [/I]look. Hail Mary was a shot of copper, and it did not improve things. So there was no escaping it, death by blade to two dozen fairly large pepper plants.

One Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate was by itself in a Gro Pro NC-20, and was a monster. It hurt to put it down.

Fortunately, I pooled a bunch of really hot yellows and a bunch of really hot reds, and mass planted them in 1 gallon pots. Superhot bingo sampling will be fun.[/QUOTE]

What do you mean, "Lettuce in 3 in net cup, perlite only"? I have lettuce that needs transplanting, I want to try what you're doing

Yeah inquiring minds want to know. Gerardo, you mean in a hydroponic solution? And everything looks great as usual, truly the master of the outdoor container grow.

[QUOTE=Salsacharley;693047]I had to look up what a "Cheetara" look is. I'm perhaps a fatal optimist, but I would be extremely hard pressed to put the axe to 2 dozen overwintered pepper plants because they looked like Cheetara. Gerardo, would you be so kind as to explain to my simple brain how you determined the severity the Cheetara situation was.
Thanks mucho.[/QUOTE]

It was a difficult decision, and a necessary one. Having cut back and observed the new growth twice, and sometimes thrice, appear spotted puffy stunted, AND (this was the deciding factor) seeing malformed fruit and high percentage of flowers affected, it was no longer feasible for them to hold coveted real estate and not produce. Granted an overwintered at 40% output will beat out a new plant, nonetheless, it is depressing to put in a lot of work and see that kind of result.

Fresh pepper plants with huge leaves make me happy. Large semi stunted plants with leaves the size of the nails on my boys' hand, those have got to go.

The good news is Manzano peppers have shown unexpected resilience in Thrips TSWV land

These pics are from the net, and they illustrate what Cheetara looks like (my favorite Thundercat after Panthro).

The second one shows the puffy stunted growth, mine had smaller leaves.

Lettuce
 

No real secret to it, I mixed lettuce mix from Harris and Park Seed, and dropped a pinch onto wet perlite inside 3in net cups, that sat in liquid with trace amounts of Fe 2+,4-18-38 ChemGro, CalNitrate and Epsom Salts.

These particular ones have been on straight water for the last month or so.

All I did was select the strongest plant in each cup.

My Guinea Pigs are the beneficiaries, they also get dill, basil, citrus leaves and blooms, and a few other store bought items.

Neglect works awesome sometimes.

A few pics

Bottom is Summertime Green

A few in permanent homes
 

Larisa, x4
[attach]80156[/attach]

Zarca, x4

[attach]80157[/attach]

Marizol Purple x2

[attach]80158[/attach]

Cabezón de la Sal x4, weakest one to be culled shortly.


[attach]80159[/attach]

Thrips traps I imbue with spinosad.

[attach]80160[/attach]

[attach]80161[/attach]

Doused blooms yesterday with Capt Jack's and inspected a few this AM. Two blooms were like this one (death for all) another one had 4 going about their business. I know they all got equal amounts, die rat b@$tard$s, die!