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Old January 10, 2017   #16
murihikukid
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Default Super Soil ??

Patti..i had a quick sleep so have found the soil recipe??..I must go out and do a Ph test....Thank goodness the plants are so strong that I can lie them down and work on the pot to release it and then its quite easy...I see some of my "final" propagation??? seeds are showing...I am also trying to grow roots on the Laterals just to see how I go....There are a lot of plants in the greenhouse that are not worth persevering with so at this point I am not worried about too many plants ...I still cannot get my seedlings right...maybe they should go outside and that may get the stems thicker...but in saying that my Eva Ste Wendal and Eva Purple Ball were both very weak seedlings and they have now got good stems on them ..I had nearly forgotten about them and its time they were put in a bigger pot..

Some time ago I bought a Screen Door down at the Habitat yard and I will be able to fit that as the rear door on my greenhouse ...it may stop a lot of the wind but I could make some clipons that would stop it all together .... but it could be just whats required ...

Re the drums ..?? It was never my intention to sit them in water up to a level they would drown ...I have put a "wick" in the centre hole ....and it should feed water up to the soil IF I can find a suitable receptacle to sit the drum in and use as a reservoir........there is a 4 to 5 inch plastic frame at the bottom of these drums below the soil line ...In my mind is having something that is completely refreshed each time the reservoir has water put in it..I think that was a major problem last season for me ...but I will do some study on other self watering methods...

The PH in both drums is perfect at 6.5 which is real good news...the 2nd drum did have some myco and ground oyster shell put round where the root ball gets seated...so apart from epsom salts that should help ...I just have a sneaking suspician that these plants have been dormant since I got them....

In the morning I will have to try and sort out some stakes...if I can...there is still a lot of work to do but to see the greenhouse is a real reward for me ....It took 3 years to graduate from plastic covered designs to what I go out and see what I have now is amazing ..I only hope the tomatoes play their part....In the second season I had what I considered was a good crop but last year I was certainly bought down to earth ....after promising people tomatoes and then there were basicly none...
Regards Ron..
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Old January 10, 2017   #17
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Patti...I think we have the first day of summer ...I will have to find some shade to work cause the sun is too hot ...My two TT's transplanted are looking good so will do the rest later...Cheers Ron
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Old January 10, 2017   #18
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Default Plantlings and drums

Patti..It is clouding over...I have put a tray of plantlings outside...this frightens me cause the breeze bends them so much ...Also a couple of photos of the top and bottom of the drums....Regards Ron
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Old January 10, 2017   #19
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Default Unfortunately I heard a crack..??

Patti..I have damaged the fourth one ...I never noticed the main stem was not taped to the stake and I had it out of the pot and in the process of putting it in the drum when I heard the crack ...I had no one to help so when I got out of panic mode I realised I had to lift it back out of the drum and lie it down which I did ..I then got some plastic tape and tried to see where it was damaged..I think it could be the main stem and taped it up to the stake properly and lifted it into the drum..I put the soil around it and compacted it down and managed to lift it into the greenhouse where i inspected it and put a side stake in and tied everything to keep everything upright...I think it twisted more than duubled into a break ..I will not move it now til I have to..I will just have to be very careful probably get some help ..
..Remenber the #3 Original TT..I broke the head of it and taped it up with bandaids ...They are still around the break and that is the last survivour so I presume the head breakage healed itself...

I have two more to do so I will make sure it does not happen again...these drums full of soil are at the very limit of my lifting capability...
Regards Ron

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Old January 12, 2017   #20
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Patti..Has Tomatoville got a Problem..or am I the problem....I have received no messages in my email box for two days ....its unusual... Thanks Ron
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Old January 12, 2017   #21
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I'm sorry, I was not notified that you had posted either.

I'm glad to hear that you still have Eva Ste. Wendell. Since you had said that it was so weak, I was sure it went long ago.

I am glad that the ph is right on your soil mix. I do hope that this mix works out for you. I did notice that it said "Garden Mix" rather than "Potting Mix". I would most definitely be adding the perlite to this.

Do not be afraid for the small plants out in the wind. The plants will become stronger by pulling themselves upright against that wind. It makes them quite sturdy. At this stage the stems are quite flexible and should not break under the wind. Just be patient and give them a couple of days and you will be amazed at how strong these little guys have become. I think that this is perfect for them.

It's too bad that you broke the TT. But, it was free and if it dies you have plenty of backups. Don't beat yourself up about it.
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Old January 13, 2017   #22
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Patti...I mixed one part Perlite with two parts of Garden Mix..so hope thats OK...They said that their on display tomatoes had used the mix and said with perlite it should be better still ...The TT's are looking like they are slightly wilting a sure sign that they need more water ...

I wonder if you have heard of the "best" wick material to use to provide water up to the soil...I have an experiment using the same material I use for my capilary cloth but it is not doing the job I hoped it would ..

Regards Ron
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Old January 13, 2017   #23
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Add one more liter of water. I still think that 4 of them is too much.

Ron you have some of the best container/greenhouse gardeners on the forum giving you advise in other threads, so why not ask this question to them in another thread?
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Old January 13, 2017   #24
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Ron, that's some good looking fluffy dirt. 2::1 perlite is way overkill. You could easily go to 4::1. The classic 5:1:1 recipe is 6::1. Perlite is chemically inert. The primary purpose of perlite is that it holds air to help supply the roots with oxygen. So long as you have well-draining soil that isn't overly wet, you could even get by without perlite.

I have high winds here too and when I put my young peppers out I will sometimes even get torn leaves. But no serious stem damage so far. So long as the stems haven't hardened, your young plants could benefit from being out in the wind, as they will grow stronger stems.

Those drums are terrific! How many do you think you can fit in the GH?
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Old January 13, 2017   #25
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Hi Patti..I have found an article on wicking...what to use and not to use...On post 18 I posted a picture of my seedlings ...They are still growing so I wonder if it is now time to put them out in the greenhouse....I got rid of most of my Baking Soda plants and some others as well ....With the weather people are looking for plants so I will put an add in the paper ...Its Free on Thursdays...My TT's are looking better this morning ...several times now I have noted slight wilting and I water them and they quickly pick up...these TT's really take a lot of water..I have to get back to the pruning...I am still trying to set out my plants in the GH...Regards Ron...
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Old January 13, 2017   #26
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I'm glad to hear that the TT's are thirsty. I want you to water them either by bottom watering or pouring water only on the outside portion of your soil. Do not get the root ball wet. This is to force those roots to go searching farther out for food and water. You do not want the root ball to stay in the confined areas that they were in.

How are those seedling doing out there? Have you noticed the stems thickening up? Are the plants standing any straighter? I would leave them out in the wind for a few more days. Just keep checking so that they do not dry out. Wait until you notice some considerable strengthening. Why not even try to leave one or two out all season and see how they do compared to those growing in the greenhouse. You certainly have enough plants to experiment with.

You have surprised me Ron! I thought that you would wait to part with all of your plants until you were into deep disease problems and it was then too late. I know that they are your babies and that you have a hard time parting with any of them. I will be watching to see just how many plants it is that you decide to grow...

Cheers ~ Patti
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Old January 13, 2017   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dmforcier View Post
Ron, that's some good looking fluffy dirt. 2::1 perlite is way overkill. You could easily go to 4::1. The classic 5:1:1 recipe is 6::1. Perlite is chemically inert. The primary purpose of perlite is that it holds air to help supply the roots with oxygen. So long as you have well-draining soil that isn't overly wet, you could even get by without perlite.

I have high winds here too and when I put my young peppers out I will sometimes even get torn leaves. But no serious stem damage so far. So long as the stems haven't hardened, your young plants could benefit from being out in the wind, as they will grow stronger stems.

Those drums are terrific! How many do you think you can fit in the GH?
Hi thanks for the information....I am really going through perlite ...I can get it at 1/2 the price it is down here but it costs me $16 a bag for freight...Its beautiful perlite...not as coarse as the local supplier so its been seived properly..but the cost was worrying me so with 2.1 being overkill that is certainly good news...also I really like the 6.5PH on the new soil mix I am using and I am sure that will make a big difference for me...
The drums are great ..My objective is to wick water to the soil from a 2 inch high tray they sit on...I am conducting an experiment by drilling a hole in the botton plastic of the drum ..pushing plastic piping through the hole connected to water ....this will fill the tray with water and it will then over flow ...If I can wick the water from the tray into the soil my soil will get clean refreshed water all the time (it can only get water from the wick) ...In my experiment I pulled some "capilary" cloth through the bottom centre hole of a clean drum and waited for the cloth to show water on it inside the drum but it has not ..so i am thinking that the tightness of the cloth in the hole is stopping the flow cause I know the cloth should normally do it ...so I will cut the cloth so that it is not so tight through the centre hole and try again...i will also try some other material like rope etc........If it works my intentions are to loop each drum to the main water supply and just every morning turn a tap on to refresh all the trays and then turn it off when i see an overflow ....Easy....and manually feed them MG every ten days...

I really do not know how many drums I can fit in ...they are $5 each and are easy to get ....I will let you know how many I can get in as soon as I find out myself ....These Tasty Toms I bought ???? If I could get my seedlings as strong and virile as them I would not need too many plants to supply me with as many fruit as I require....especially now that I have a greenhouse with a high roof ...The next few months could hopefully be very exciting for me......developing a seed bank etc and growing some dwarf and smaller plants inside over winter from lessons I learnt last winter...

Cheers ron
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Old January 13, 2017   #28
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Default Oh Dear?Done It again..

Quote:
Originally Posted by MissS View Post
I'm glad to hear that the TT's are thirsty. I want you to water them either by bottom watering or pouring water only on the outside portion of your soil. Do not get the root ball wet. This is to force those roots to go searching farther out for food and water. You do not want the root ball to stay in the confined areas that they were in.

How are those seedling doing out there? Have you noticed the stems thickening up? Are the plants standing any straighter? I would leave them out in the wind for a few more days. Just keep checking so that they do not dry out. Wait until you notice some considerable strengthening. Why not even try to leave one or two out all season and see how they do compared to those growing in the greenhouse. You certainly have enough plants to experiment with.

You have surprised me Ron! I thought that you would wait to part with all of your plants until you were into deep disease problems and it was then too late. I know that they are your babies and that you have a hard time parting with any of them. I will be watching to see just how many plants it is that you decide to grow...

Cheers ~ Patti
Patti..Unfortunately I have watered above the root ball...I hope by restricting to the outside from now on will get the roots searching out ...
Will these seedlings actually surivive in a gale? If I lower the windo and open the back door its like a huricane coming through and its cold ,,,I think I will leave it to my common sense ..depending on conditions ...They will not get the wind like they do inside in the greenhouse so I will keep them near the window and put them outside if they are not getting the wind ....

I hope you can advise me on this... Remember I bought a Campari and a Black Cherry plant ... They were planted inside but neither produced ..Instead of doing away with them I put them out in the greenhouse...both are still surviving and both heads are showing new flowers so would i am sure produce some fruit...but what interests me is that up the barren stems are new growth Laterals......My intuition tells me that these would be best if cut off and used hopefully to produce a new plant or two especially the Black Cherry as unlike the Campari I have no seeds or seedlings... ..and I will not have to use a ladder to get fruit off them...I will attach some photos...
Cheers Ron..
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Old January 13, 2017   #29
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Ron, the seedlings will survive in a gale. You have 4 sides on your greenhouse, choose the side that is on the far side of the wind and keep them out there. This will give them the "Cold Treatment" that we all encourage you to use and it will also give them the strong wind that we tell you to give them by placing a fan on them. The cold will slow your plants growth and the wind will force the stems to become stronger by trying to stay upright in the wind. They will be fine as long as the temperatures stay above 50 degrees F.

Boy these plants are sure leggy. I can see why you want to know how to create sturdy stems. They have been overcrowded and did not get enough light. The last picture shows some blotchy stems. Can you tell me more about this plant and if the stems are that color? Is it a disease? Which is the Black Cherry and the Campari? Black Cherry will put out more laterals than the Campari. I would think that starting laterals would be better than keeping these plants except for the fact that your season is already so far along. It really is a iffy situation. I guess that I would grow these plants out and then in mid to late February take some cuttings if you would like to bring some in. Black Cherry will fill in and become bushy. Campari is always a spindly plant and does not make many suckers, but perhaps with the light change, now it will. The plant in the last photo needs to be given some phosphorous. This is demonstrated by the purple coloring on the new growth and on the undersides of the leaves. So I would just feed it some of your MG.
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Old January 14, 2017   #30
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Patti..I apologise cause I do not think I have explained my photos properly....The first two photos are basicly the same...The foreground plant is the Campari and the back one is the Black Cherry...they were both purchased from a garden centre... ...they were looked after then they were put in drums inside in the freezer and were doing great ( Early photos show that) then of course were sprayed with bleach ..their flowers and a lot of their lower foliage died and that was that ...How I got them out into the greenhouse...well I scooped by hand as much soil out of the drum (one at a time ) and managed to lift one out of their drum ,roots and all..I lay it down on a flat "stretcher" and got it out into the greenhouse ...I then lifted its drum from the freezer and got it out into the greenhouse where i repotted it with its own soil that I had bagged ...then I did the second one....I still do not know how I was able to do it by myself..But no damage was done although the Black cherry has sticking plaster round the stem so something happened...in the process.

Both plants have sat out there and been watered etc just in case ... and what has happened is they have both grown a brand new healthy head on each with flowers...in the greenhouse with its high roof they have a chance... .....on their stems they also have some new laterals (no branches)and THEY are what the other photos are of......After all my effort I do want to get something ...the new heads may produce fruit if I can support them properly but I would presume the new laterals growing out of the spindly stem could be snipped off and try to be grown...however I do recall a method one can use by putting a soda bottle round the lateral while on the stem .....putting soil in the bottle where it would grow roots and then snip it off...Both would be ideal plants to try that method on....The Black Cherry I have no seeds etc for although I could get some ...The Campari I have Seedlings growing....Now I do not believe its too late ...there is every chance that Summer is still coming??This weather cannot continue...Apparantly to my sister its all over the South Island ......perhaps the North Island also...
Of course I could learn something persevering with these two plants and at my age I need knowledge..Yes I do notice the purple blotches and I have watered both with MG....
My seedlings have had the wind treatment again but not outside ..with the window open and the back door also the house is like a wind tunnel..

Regards Ron..
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