This is me slowly dialing in an intuitive understanding of planting and growing from absolutely no money spent. There are Jalapeños, three tomatoes in pots - experiments, and a pot of green onions.

These were just quick and dirty affairs of tossing the refuse from some Pico de Gallo in an empty egg carton and watering it daily. I transferred the individual egg carton pods into the most lazy of mulch and dirt from another dead plant. I didn't even remove the plants from the cardboard carton because the roots were breaking through and embedded when I tried with one.

So I was curious how the tomatoes might battle it out in a plant-diator death match style, or at least that is what it has turned into. The right most pot is struggling the most with something like 4 egg carton pods that each consisted of a chunk of tomato guts and whatever seeds that included. The pot on the back with tomato plants and several blooms is only two pods. The black plastic pot is an anomaly. I also had planted a couple of egg carton pods of habanero peppers that never sprouted. Somehow I had a single tomato seed make its way inside and I just went with it. It sprouted later than the rest, and appears to be doing the best. I'm sure someone will be like 'duh, everyone knows to grow single plants in pots' but have you ever really tried it.

Here in SoCal, I have a little green caterpillars plague to contend with. I find leaves half chewed and the culprits underneath nearly daily. I could spray them, but the routine of hunting them ensures I get out and water the lot of them.

You can't really see it, but there is aluminium foil with a paper towel and a bunch of green beans drying outside of their pods. These are for a future experiment between those that were dried in pods versus dried out of pods versus fresh de-/pods and likely a mix of larger and smaller beans too just to get an intuitive understanding of how each option seems to grow.

The green onions were a series of three bunches over the last 6 months that went unused and appeared ruined and ready for the trash bin. I planted them anyways and they are by-far the easiest, most useful, and productive thing I have grown. If there is one thing to have on a window seal for food use and a little color in a drab pad, this is it, do green onions.

Tasty to snack on

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12204713

I saw the need for a community dedicated to hydroponics, and there hasn't been one on the fediverse from what I've seen.
So, I just created one 🤷

In my opinion, it fits perfectly to Solarpunk. Why?

• It's very ecologically sustainable. Compared to soil, it barely needs water and fertilizer
• It's as simple, or high-tech as you want. There's everything between just a simple reused wine bottle on your window top with the Kratky technique and a high tech aeroponic tower with smart home integration and grow lights.
• It's great for the plants and the people. In hydroponics, you get way less pests and therefore need barely any pesticides, and plants grow faster. You can grow them on your balcony or very small spaces like I do and can even enable city farming with that, making locally sourced fresh veggies very simple.
• It's perfect for people who don't have a green thumb. It's a completely different approach to growing plants.
• It's a lot of fun
• And much more

There are many different types of hydroponics, like:

• "Classic" hydroponics, like deep water culture, nutrient film technique, etc.
• Semi-hydroponics with hydroton or other inert media
• Aeroponics, which sprays the nutrient solution on the roots, which are growing into the air
• Aquaponics, where the plants grow basically on fish poop
• And many more

Every technique is welcome!

Come over at !hydroponics@slrpnk.net and feel free to subscribe and post!

I have quite a lot of herbs and stuff, mostly hydroponic, but can't find a lot of inspiration what I wanna grow next year.

I'm looking for some sweet, delicious fruit, maybe even exotic ones that you can't find in the supermarket.

Preferably they should have those checkboxes, but don't have to fullfil all requirements:

• Be annual. If they require overwintering inside, then they must check next mark
• Be non-toxic/ only mildly toxic to cats
• Grow well in a hydroponic environment. Shouldn't be a problem I guess?
• Shouldn't grow too large, especially on the floor (for example like melons)
• Have a good yield
• Should be growable from seed, or preferably cuttings

My ideas/ experiences:

• Melons (watermelon or cantaloupe) -> already tried, but didn't survive due to inconvenient circumstances
• Strawberries (sadly, bad ratio between size and yield)
• Lemons or citrus fruits (already growing, are in seedling stage)

Do you have any suggestions or experiences? What are your favourites?

My mornong glory's leaves on my balcony has some problems. I'm not sure what could be the issue, some other plants show similar symthoms (celery's leaves for example)

Can I ask for help from someone more experienced? I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I live in central EU, my balcony can get really hot, like 30-35 celsius. It gets direct sunlight from around 1-2 afternoon to 6-7. I water my plants daily, because of the heat, the soil dires quickly

Backside of the leaves:

This one isn't for balconies, but it is for apartments, so I hope it makes sense that I am posting this here.

With window hydroponics, you take:

• used water bottles
• a pump kit (with tubing and joints)
• a bucket of water
• growing substrate
• a hanging anchor kit
• silicone steel tube
• chain (for hanging)
• tools (electric drill, plier, hole punch)

... and convert them into a tiny food garden that hangs by your window. This gives food options for those who live in apartment’s that might not have had the choice before.

You'll of course need plants that do not get too big (such as dwarf tomato plants instead of full-sized). If your window does not get enough sunlight, you may also have to supplement that with grow lights and a plug timer.

You do not need to buy an expensive kit. There are DIY sources everywhere, including this video explaining to use a pool noodle to create a growing substrate(an option to save an old pool noodle from the trash) instead of rockwool or pebbles.

I have not tried this myself, but thought I would share it in case it helps someone.

More Info:

• https://youtu.be/igWJ_8uq_y4
• https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Vertical-Window-Garden/

If you are using larger planter boxes, what material and size did you choose? I have a basically rectangular balcony and would like to put a planter box across each of the short ends, perhaps wooden or even concrete. Any wisdom from experience out there?

I repotted my sugar snap peas into a larger upcycled kitty litter container that I found in a dumpster. There was plenty of space, so I added radishes that only take 23 days to mature to maximize my use of space. What are your favourite companion plants?

I have had earwigs eating my balcony garden crops, so I decided to try a solution I found online: add 50/50 soy sauce and oil to a container and leave it overnight. It was filled with earwigs the next morning! So I am setting up another trap with an empty tofu dessert container.

That being said, earwigs aren't universally bad. They help decompose plant material in a compost pile. However on my balcony, they were doing more harm than good. The ladybugs can stay :P

I just harvested the compost box on my balcony, the little helpers are very happy:

I started it 4 years ago and use the humus for a little balcony chaos:

You can build one for yourself or buy the kit on the internet.

Either way, it's fun playing in dirt, even for a grown person. You should try!

Noticed that some bees climb in at the bottom of my planters and dig themselves in. They go in and out multiple times a day, sometimes seem to carry some cut leaves. It seems like its the same bee, never seen more than one at the same spot, but multiple planters have these bees and holes.

What are they doing? Could they mean harm to my plants? Should I worry about my cat trying to catch them, and they stinging?

I also change the soil and the plant every year. Will I ruin their homes this way?

Zone 8b

Varieties: Russian blue, white

Grown in potato planting bags for good drainage. They are in the process of flowering, and some have produced a fruit (very poisonous - do not eat it). Hoping for lots of potatoes this year 🙂

The floppy plants to the left are garlic (soft and hardneck Italian). They are fine; they got too tall and fell over.

Alt: Photo of young green cherry tomatoes on a tomato plant on a balcony. The photo mostly shows green tomato plant foliage. There are some yellow tomato flowers in the top left corner of the frame.

I had filled a pot with seedlings, so the nursery pots I found at the side of the road came in handy today. I split them into their own pots which I will give away to friends and family once they grow larger.

My goal is to grow marigolds from seed for the first time to enjoy their summer blooms and repel pests from my veggies.

I got quite a large Bedroom Window that I like to keep open during the Night and I thought it would lend itself super nicely for some Strong and Nicely smelling aromatic plants just outside it, so that by proxy the room itself always has that lovely plant flavour.

The Window itself is on the Sunside and thusly is always flooded with Sun light. If possible, I'd also prefer something colourful so I got something lovely to look at as I wake up!

Any suggestions?

I do not have a balcony, but I thought I would share the videos I have collected in the past just in case they ended up helping someone. I just joined, so I am not sure how/if they can be embeded, so I will just put links.

• Easiest Way to Make Organic Fertilizer for Your Balcony Garden | Bokashi Compost: https://youtu.be/F1i2KOKITmI
• How to Grow Vegetable in Plastic Bottles: https://youtu.be/ww6v-2jZKRo
• 4 Steps to Start a SMALL Balcony Vegetable Garden: https://youtu.be/QAg-eq8FN5M
• Couple Growing a Surprising Amount of Food on Their Balcony: https://youtu.be/l77rCHTtSnI

Also, here is a website that might help.

“If it is a South or West-facing balcony, you’ll have sunshine almost all day, which means you can grow anything. An East facing balcony receives sunlight in the morning, which is sufficient for most greens, herbs, and root vegetables. On the contrary, a North-facing balcony usually remains shady throughout the year, and it isn’t easy to grow vegetables in the shade. However, you can still try lettuce, parsley, peas, cilantro, fenugreek, green onions, bok choy, and mustard greens.” BalconyGardenWeb

The image used was also sourced from that website.

Here's my green balcony :)

I just started with hydroponics. Some of my plants are already in hydro, but most are still soil based.

I plan to convert future plants to hydro in the future, but right now, I wanna see how it goes.

Also, I will of course post an update in a few months, when the plants are bigger. Right now, they are all pretty young and some might not surive due to the transfer stress from soil to hydro.

What do I grow?

• Weed (CBD, THC, autoflower and photoperiodic strains), some young ones in hydro, most in soil for now
• Symbiotic plants, e.g. dill (mite repelling) or soy (nitrogen fixing)
• Herbs (sage, parsley, basil, thai basil, etc.)
• Strawberries
• Cantaloupe
• Berries
• Chillies
• Catnip
• and more

They've been surprisingly easy. These Yukon gold potatoes grow fast!

Only 1 week ago:

My SO and I have been planning to start a mushroom garden for awhile now. You can buy these kits with mushroom spawn in peg form, and you just drill holes in a log and hammer them in. I'd had big dreams of going along the bike path, adding them to all the dead logs there, until I learned how important it is to properly and thoroughly inoculate freshly-cut logs in order to make sure your fungus of choice is properly established and safe from the competition. This was a bit of a problem as we live in an apartment and the circumstances where I'd cut down a healthy tree are seriously slim, and don't include providing food for mushrooms.

But one of the perks of having a big family is that one of them is always doing yard work, and when one of their birch trees bought it in a recent snowstorm, I was ready to jump in and claim a few pieces. They were happy to get rid of it; they feel grey birch burns poorly - and I was happy to take some because it supposedly turns beautifully on the lathe and it's a suitable medium for shiitake mushrooms.

As an aside, I prepped one thinner piece for use on the lathe. I clamped it to the table and used a draw knife (and a regular carving knife) to strip off the bark, before painting the ends with wax. This helps prevent cracking and checking due to uneven drying from the ends, and spalting/mold/rot from moisture under the bark. Assuming it does as well as the maple and oak I've done previously, it'll be ready to use in a year or two.

Okay, back on to the mushrooms! We bought our kit from a company called Northspore who provided pretty thorough guidance. Their instructions said that logs 4-6" thick and 3-4' long would be good, and one of ours fit that nicely. The instructions also said our log had been cut at about the worst time, after the buds on the branches had begun to swell. So... sorry, mushrooms! Hopefully you'll figure out how to make that work.

They provided a drill bit, instructions on how deep to drill (1") and where (in staggered rows, each hole 4" apart, 2" from their neighboring rows, so it makes diamond patterns). I grabbed a drill and measuring tape and set about drilling all the holes.

(I also cut a couple risers out of a dead log to keep the mushroom log off the ground)

Once all the holes were drilled, we started hammering in the pegs with a rubber mallet.

I don't have great photos of this step (it was a lot of fun) but here's one of the log after we got them all driven in.

The last step was to seal all the pegs in place with melted wax. The kit provided powdered wax and a little fuzzball on a wire handle for applying it. We set up a double boiler on a hotplate and melted the wax while we added the pegs.

We hid our mushroom log in a shady forested spot near the apartment fence. If all goes well, I'll be back with mushroom pictures sometime next year.