Worldwide Beekeeping

Sustainable Living => Gardening => Topic started by: Ray4852 on November 13, 2014, 11:08:08 am

Title: 2015 Garden
Post by: Ray4852 on November 13, 2014, 11:08:08 am
My wife and I love growing outside hydroponic fruit and vegetables. We grow tomatoes, winter squash, peppers, beans and more. Our favorite day neutral strawberries.    This year I want to try growing hydroponic cantaloupe.  We put in our order for seed now. We grow everything from a seed. strawberries We buy bare root.

Tomatoes

old brooks
plum regal
super sweet 100
Cherokee purple
defiant
legend
bur pee super steak

winter squash

butternut
buttercup
acorn

peppers hot and sweet.

Strawberries

seascape
albion
monterey
san andreas
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Gypsi on November 13, 2014, 11:10:31 am
using fish or minerals to feed the plants?  I love the no-weeding part
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Ray4852 on November 13, 2014, 11:55:30 am
using fish or minerals to feed the plants?  I love the no-weeding part




I use hydroponic fertilizer 6-12-28 and 15-0-0 calcium nitrate to feed the plants. No weeds. My system is setup with food grade 55 gallon barrels. All water is collected from rain water. If I cant get enough rain water I use well water. most of the time the rain water is enough. I need about 350 gallons of water every 9 days. I go through about 25lbs of nutrients every year I mentioned above. About 70 dollars to feed the plants for the year.
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: mamapoppybee on November 13, 2014, 02:29:45 pm
looking forward to the raspberries  I had my mum just order me! I tried two bushes of doorman this year and they have done great! I will be adding five of those as well as have decided to get some september red. doorman are summer fruits and the septembers well the name says it all. My daughter love raspberries and this will spread the crop out. The blue berries i tried were a complete fail but nothing ventured nothing gained. I also have my orders for a melon patch. plus it will become chick hatching season then too.
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: brooksbeefarm on November 13, 2014, 02:41:30 pm
Hey >:(, watch that OLD Brooks stuff. By the way, how often do you have to water the plants? ;D,We have a vendor that sells Hydroponic produce at the farmers market and most of it is good, but have heard customers  say after buy tomato's from him that they will wait for the earth grown tomato's? Jack
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Ray4852 on November 13, 2014, 06:36:28 pm
I water 3 times. A timer is set for 2 minutes each feeding. Each plant gets one quart of nutrient during the 2 minute feeding. At the end of day each plant gets 3 quarts of feed. A lot of people think hydroponic vegetables taste different.. They taste better. Vegetables get the proper nutrient every day, plants grow better. No weeds to deal with. Soil gardens need nutrients also to grow. Roots search for feed in the soil. The plants compete with the weeds to grow. I had a good year gardening. Little problem with tomato blight but I controlled it with an organic spray. I spray once a week for tomato end rot. You can buy it at lowes or home depot. Strawberries were excellent. Some gray mold but a good fungicide helps control it. I spray Pyganic Organic pest spray to kill the tarnish bugs and other pest. This is how I do it. There’s other ways you can do it a lot cheaper. I took these pictures last may.


http://s1131.photobucket.com/?postlogin=true
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: riverbee on November 13, 2014, 06:59:15 pm
ps ray,
the link to your photo bucket photos only brings us to the login page of photobucket......
sending you a pm to help you out!
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Ray4852 on November 13, 2014, 07:37:24 pm
http://s1131.photobucket.com/user/Ray4852/media/Mobile%20Uploads/0606121422b.jpg.html?o=0
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: riverbee on November 13, 2014, 07:42:47 pm
(https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1056.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ft373%2Friverbee1%2FEmoticons%2FTwo_thumbs_up_zps2ef51654.gif&hash=d2b5bbdec0649f24da851720b5de44490f40cf8c) !!!
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Gypsi on November 13, 2014, 08:42:43 pm
After my blueberries died I put them on the tray on a heavily stocked fish pond, both leafed right back out. For now I've shoved them in the greenhouse.

I'm using tilapia and koi waste for plant food, tilapia in the greenhouse now.  Not sure what minerals I might need to add, but the tomato plants on the pond were huge and much healthier than in the ground, no irregular moisture/dryness.  I just ran the pond 24/7 with water from one pipe going through the plant tray, and the plants potted in 6 inch pots in organic mix so they had something to hold onto.  Broke all the aquaponic and hydroponics rules, but I have a counter full of green tomatoes and the biggest and best ones came off that pond.
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: mamapoppybee on January 19, 2015, 11:10:54 am
almost time for me to put some pea seeds in the ground! Got a good size row that im going to plant. Last time i did this we dident have the bees and got a good crop. Who knows this year it could be like peas gone Wilde! lol  Going to put some of those ornamental ones on the fence of the dog yard. I think the color will look good there too!
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Ray4852 on January 19, 2015, 05:35:22 pm
 My strawberries plants go in late April. I start my tomato and pepper seeds in March down in the basement. Those plants wont be able to go outside till the end of May. We grow hydroponic fruit and vegetables. 
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: tedh on January 19, 2015, 05:40:57 pm
MMMMMM, peas!  Not until March here.  Ted
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: riverbee on January 19, 2015, 09:04:07 pm
nothing going in here until after memorial weekend or even a little later, but we do starter plants in the house and keep them under growing lamps until then.......
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Gypsi on January 19, 2015, 09:45:11 pm
We are going to have watering restrictions.  I ducked them for the garden last year and it didn't produce enough to pay the water bill for it.  Going to put some sweet potatoes with soaker hoses in raised bed on the back lot where I was supposed to plant wildflowers today. (no sense wasting space just cuz sweet potatoes can't be planted til mid may)

and I will have soakers for my asparagus and grapevines. I am intending to put wildflower in the former garden areas in the next day or 2 when I can dig out the grass and weeds. After the wildflowers are done, and any areas too dry to even try them I am going to just clear and cover and mulch. I can water my foundation and my trees and a few flower beds by hand daily, but drought veggies are dry tough and deformed and tomatoes are splotchy so no sense putting in.

I have heritage tomatoes in the greenhouse learning to get wet feet.  They will move to the pond tray when the weather is warm enough.  I might throw some peppers in a flower bed or right next to the asparagus, and I might put melons around the asparagus so that no water is wasted. Cantaloupe is thrifty, and both it and watermelon finish early enough to not be an issue. Not sure I will have any squash this year, takes up a lot of room.  Might do yellow, probably no zucchini, might do buttercup or butternut again surrounding the asparagus bed, and I may add a lot more compost and mulchy stuff to help hold the moisture.  but from 1/12th of an acre the garden will be shrinking to about 15x15 feet.  The asparagus prefers fairly dry feet and even survives in high desert in northwest New Mexico.  I wanted to grow beets and I usually grow chard but I think the chard will be going on the pond and a bird guard will be going over the plants when they go on there.
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Bakersdozen on January 20, 2015, 08:17:22 am
I'm guessing you treat strawberries like an annual?  That's an interesting system.  Do you get more produce per square foot than in a regular gardening situation?  This must all be set up on automatic timers?  If so, I always thought the secret to good tomatoes is water, water, water.  This would work.  I have planted tomatoes in straw bales too.  That worked well.  I got what the danged squirrels didn't get first.
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Ray4852 on January 20, 2015, 09:35:24 am
I grow day neutral strawberries. I buy them bare root for 32 cents per plant. I start late April, done mid September picking. This system will grow anything. You cant compare it to a regular garden. Its a vegetable factory. Whats nice about it. You wont have to worry about weeds. The plants get the right amount of nutrient every day. It runs off a timer 3 times daily. I can go away for 9 days and don’t have to worry about watering. Two 50 gallon food grade barrels connected with a pump on one line does all the work. Nutrients are very affordable. I have to buy it out of state, I usually get them from Florida or Colorado. You will need Green house grade calcium 15-0-0 you can buy local. The tomatoes and squash pots you can buy them local. Other pots you have to buy them from a company from Florida or Texas. I like the ones from Texas better. If interested starting out with a simple system. You can pick my brain here. I wont keep anything a secret. Its not cheap starting out. Do a little at a time to you get the hang of it. When your done you will be glad you started it.
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Gypsi on January 20, 2015, 10:16:59 am
My nutrient system is 6 large koi and about a dozen channel catfish, my calcium additive is crushed eggshells. Potting medium, inner pot organic potting soil, outer pot will be expanded shale.  This is aquaponics not hydroponics. Ray does hydroponics.  I got more tomatoes off the pond than I got from the garden by 2:1, and the pond tomatoes were prettier.  But the pond draws birds, they plucked my seedlings out of the pots.  Will be my first year for strawberries, a few lived in the big garden but the ones in the flowerbed by the foundation multiplied so I will dig a few up and try them.
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: mamapoppybee on February 11, 2015, 08:58:05 am
Got peas in last week had the kids home to help and planting went fast! This week i have started building another section of raised beds in the yarden. The past two days I have been turning pallets into window boxes to mount on the out side of my fence. Ill post pics when i get them painted and up.  Starting to see some of the wild flowers I planted sprouting as well. So happy for gardening to start!
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Ray4852 on February 11, 2015, 09:38:35 pm
A couple more weeks I can start my tomato and pepper seeds down in the basement. I wont be able to plant them outside till the end of may. I'm building now a wicking container system with 5 gallon buckets to grow cantaloupes.
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: LazyBkpr on February 12, 2015, 07:13:41 am
Probably not going to do hydroponics, but i will probably try growing everything I can upside down..
   I have a stack of 4x4 posts, some cattle panels, and a stack of 5 gallon buckets..   Corn will still go in the ground, carrots and onions. Everythign else will go in the buckets and grow out onto the cattle panels.  Cukes, Muskmellon etc..   Tomatoes will grow downward from the bottom of the buckets, as will peppers.  That way, I should be able to MOW under the panels and buckets, a  lot less weeding!
Title: Re: 2015 Garden
Post by: Ray4852 on February 12, 2015, 08:19:12 am
http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=hIqssok6iXI

I’m doing mine this way.