Not sure about wicking action of my mix

[Rockporter]

Deleted double post.

[Stvrob]

Actually it is Limestone or dolomite that you want. These are calcium and/or calcium-magnesium carbonates. Limestone (and dolomite) is not lime, though people use the words interchangably to often. Lime is an oxide (CaO-"quick lime"-highly caustic) or hydroxide (Ca(OH)2, "slaked lime" or "hydrated lime") of calcium. Quick lime is quite hazardous and I doubt anyone needs to be putting it on their garden. Hydrated lime is also quite alkaline, and I would not use it in my garden. Ordinary limestone and dolomite is pretty safe though and you wont have a disaster if you apply to much, since its natural pH is not high enough to destroy your garden soil.

Lime is manufactured from limestone, by cooking it in a calcining kiln.

[dice]

You can always look on the label if you are in the store.
If it is Dolomite, it will list both calcium and magnesium
as ingredients.

A lot of big box stores, hardware stores with garden departments,
and nurseries stock this stuff:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lilly-Mil...0#.UW_d1ddlBxA

[ArthurDent004]

Unfortunately my local Home Depot doesn't stock the Dolomite Lime Dice mentioned and they don't offer it for online ordering either. They do offer a 40 lb bag of Soil Doctor that Rockporter mentioned for $4.25 and a 6.75 lb. of Espoma Garden Lime that Tightenup mentioned using for $4.98. The Soil Doctor does list both calcium and magnesium as ingredients.

When I was in Lowes yesterday looking at the fertilizers I saw they had a Scott Buy one get one free up to 14.95 sale going on to 4-21-2013. Too bad I had bought some Miracle Gro Shake and Feed two weeks ago.

[JamesL]

Arthur,
Plant is looking good so far.
I used both Espoma and that same bag of soil Soil Doctor last year when I ran out of Espoma. I can't say there was a difference other than the price.

[ArthurDent004]

Scored six more 5 gallon buckets from Sam's Club Bakery. These will replace the six I used on Saturday to make three more SWCs. I planted bare root strawberries in them. For these I made sure the top bucket rested on the bottom and found I have three inches left. I can see the top bucket in my first SWC rocks a bit because the 24 oz yogurt cup used as the wicking chamber is 4.5 inch tall. For the new SWCs I measured up 2 3/4 inches from the bottom of the first bucket and added two additional 1/4 inch air holes in each side of bucket. The drain hole is located 2 1/4 inches from the bottom. You can also see from the picture below I put holes in the lids of the overflow jugs, instead of removing the cap entirely. For a better fit I had thought of adding a grommet so the 1/2 overflow tuber would be a closer fit.

I turned my tomato plant around so I will have room to put an additional two tomato plants to max out the space in my grow area but it will be two or three weeks before I do that. The plant was bent over after I moved so I put in a bamboo stake and secured it.

[JamesL]

Nice work Arthur! You are going to need a bigger apartment...

[ArthurDent004]

Now that's a thought. I could go from a 3 foot square space to a whole bedroom. If I found one that included a balcony with southern exposure I'd have even more room. Years back when I was looking at apartments I viewed one that had a balcony so small that one person sitting in a chair took up all the available space.

[ArthurDent004]

Here's an update on my plant. It's 7 weeks old now and has four blooms and another one on the way. I touched one of the blooms with my electric toothbrush and was rewarded with a puff of pollen.

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by ArthurDent004

Here's an update on my plant. It's 7 weeks old now and has four blooms and another one on the way. I touched one of the blooms with my electric toothbrush and was rewarded with a puff of pollen.

Sounds great and the plant looks great. I just want to clarify this, did you tuch the bloom or the truss the bloom was on? You don't want to touch the bloom with the toothbrush.

[ArthurDent004]

Thanks for pointing that out. I should have said I touched the backside of the head of the electric toothbrush to the truss of the bloom itself.

[ArthurDent004]

Here's the latest picture of my tomato plant. It's almost ten weeks old now. I had originally planned to have three of these plants on one side of my grow area but wound up starting just the one plant. I'm glad that's how things worked out because this plant is now so big that it's shading the strawberry plants on the other side of the grow area while branches are brushing against the Orca Grow Film on the other side.

This is a determinate tomato plant (Sophie's Choice) and I know that you aren't supposed to prune them but I'm not sure what else to do to reduce the spread of this plant. I thought I'd ask the expert for some advice.

[JamesL]

And I thought my plants looked purple......
You can prune it. You will probably end up with less tomatoes from it, but such is life.

[ArthurDent004]

I used T5 grow lights for my hydroponic build last year but wanted to try a LED light for this grow. I've been very impressed with the one I selected.

http://www.plantlightinghydroponics....ht-p-4173.html

[dice]

What about one of those 3' mini cages that everyone is always
complaining about being too small around here? Maybe draw it
into a narrow, tall bush with a few loops of string so that you can
get the existing branches inside the cage before installing it.

Like this: http://southofmain.files.wordpress.c...o-cage-015.jpg

What would that fit?