The indoor garden is very happy, although not producing much of a harvest.
Here is a pic of the Onions, Brocolli, Basil and Cilantro. The Onions and Brocolli were started on September 1st, and have had 14-16 hours of daylight bulbs every single day inches from foliage, plenty of water and no issues or problems. (aside from never producing a flower or bulb….)
The Basil and Cilantro were planted almost a month ago and are doing very well. I even harvested some basil to put in my curry last week and it was delightful! I need to get some tomatoes from the store because I have plenty of Cilantro for a nice batch or two of home made salsa/pico.
Based on this years more expert care, and still it’s inability to produce anything worth while before Spring I am going to limit my indoor garden next year to just herbs and seed starting. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
Sara Murray
I have to make room to start my seeds indoors, so I have decided to harvest my carrots. These carrots were started on September 1st 2010! I can’t believe it’s been that long. That’s about 200 days. That is a very long time to not have full grown carrots at harvest time.
These carrots got 14-16 hours of daylight bulbs within inches of green foliage every single day, plenty of water, and had no issues or pests. They were developed under the best circumstances and still the largest ones are only about two inches long, and most never made it beyond the starter stage although the foliage was abundant and tall.
Needless to say, there will be no carrots in my indoor garden next winter!
Here’s a pic:
Thanks for stopping by!
-Sara Murray
So, I have discovered that tomatoes need a lot of light. Mature plants need more light especially if they are going to flower/fruit soon. So I am increasing the light on my mature plants to 18-20 hours per day. That should get them to flower/fruit. 🙂
The seeds and seedlings that I have started for outdoor transplanting will still have 12-16 hours of light until they are larger.
I am also going to fertilize the mature tomatoes for 2 weeks when I water them. That should give them enough nutrients to flower.
I will keep you up dated on their progress!.
So, I have discovered a few things about potting soil, and seed starting soil etc… that I want to share with you!
Seed starting soil:
- Already has fertilizer in it! Unless your soil is over 6+ months old do NOT use a fertilizer when you water!
- Seed starting mix has a lot of Peat Moss in it, which can throw off the Ph of your soil a bit if you don’t transplant right away. I have found in particular that it is deficient in Calcium. I remedied mine by adding a 50/50 solution of milk and water to one watering. I will also add some egg shells to the top of the soil next time I have some. This can also save tomatoes from blossom-end rot.
Potting Soil
- Not only does potting soil generally come with fertilizer already in it, you can get different kinds of fertilizer, and different kinds of mixes. Read the package well so that you understand exactly what you are getting!
- Testing the Ph of your soil in this case is also important. Simply by being on the shelf in that plastic package for too long can throw off the Ph.
Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and not end up burning your plants or having them wilt due to being calcium deficient!
Thanks for stopping by!
Well, the tangerine tree is totally against all this care and change that has come to its home recently! It was thriving just sitting by the window, I would forget to water it, I certainly was not fertilizing it, and all it had for light was indirect, winter light deflecting from the yard which is over 20 feet away. The leaves were green, the stem was hard and it was very happy!
Since I changed the indoor setup to be that of the indoor garden (for veggies) it has dropped 2 leaved which yellowed, weakened and fell off! So, no more water, no more extra light, no more liquid fertilizer for that one!
I have moved it to a place (on the top shelf for now) where it only gets natural light and I will not be watering it as often, and I will just be using plain water, and fertilizing only about 1 time per month.
Hopefully this will stop the leaf shedding!!
