This year I have a ton of gardening projects going on, both in my apartment and out on the balcony. There are just so many things I want to try growing and the summer is never long enough for all of them. I’ve also learned that I really can’t be cool about my gardening hobby. I make every guest to the apartment take the tour of my gardening projects while I tell elaborate tales of each plant’s path from germination through troubled youth to fruitful adulthood. My guests of course look at me like I’m a crazy cat plant lady, and they’re not wrong. Anyway, I want to feature some of my projects in later posts, so I thought I’d lay a bit of groundwork by introducing all my main projects.
1. Yamazen LED Planter
This was a birthday present last year from my husband Junpei, who knew before I did that hydroponics was an obsession waiting to happen. This system is sold by Yamazen and it’s fairly cleverly designed to combine a few ideas from non-circulating hydroponics, but more on that another time. Unlike my balcony projects and some of my window light projects, this one can be growing things year round because it has its own LED grow light.
Right now it’s almost at capacity with 7 plants: basil, lemon basil, shiso, a couple lettuce plants, a baby rosemary, and a jalapeno plant. The jalapeno plant is just growing here temporarily, its fate is to be in a larger system but I thought it could use the light boost for a week or two until it gets too tall.
At some point I’ll be writing more about this setup, including a tutorial and some tips for a friend who has the same planter.
2. The Kratky systems
Kratky hydroponic systems are a type of non-circulating hydroponic system, meaning that there are no pumps, no air stones, no flowing water, it’s all stationary. This kind of system has no moving parts and is capable of growing truly ‘off the grid’ (no electricity) if you make grow lights unnecessary by setting it up outside or by choosing plants that can survive in window light. This is my favourite kind of system to introduce people to (or to improvise myself) because as long as you have seeds, nutrients, and a little bit of some kind of grow media, you can improvise the rest. I have a total of 6 Kratky systems going right now…
Tiny Tim tomatoes:
There are two of them sharing a net cup, as an experiment to see if hydroponic plants would mind sharing space. They’ve grown so big, and they have a couple dozen closed blooms on them so I’m getting excited at the prospect of harvesting cherry tomatoes! I wasn’t sure they’d get enough sun in the window, but they’re growing great, if a touch slower than you would hope for outdoors. The upside-down tomato cage was my mom’s idea, the plants are so top heavy that they flop right over and dislodge from the container in a second without some support.
This one’s been growing quite slowly, but I’m babying it hoping for it to catch up. It’s not very tall but I can just barely see the first closed flower bud, so maybe I’ll have peppers to eat this summer after all…
Herbs:
(The herbs are looking honestly pretty sad right now, so here’s a picture from a few weeks ago.)
This one has a large basket with a half dozen herbs planted in it. Only one of them (thai basil) is doing well though. Most herbs are relatively slow to establish a robust root system, and until it gets some decent roots growing a herb in a Kratky system is particularly vulnerable to drowning or drying out. These days my position is that herbs should start out growing some roots in small decided containers whose water levels can be kept perfect.
‘Mystery chili’:
Back in December, I set out to find a tiny chili plant that would fit the Yamazen system better than the super chili (see below) that was there at the time. I ended up ordering seeds off eBay for the Prairie Fire Chili which is supposed to be bushier and very short, but when they arrived and I grew them I found myself looking at a three foot tall beast of a plant, so I know that there was a mistake and I received the wrong kind of seeds. The plants I have are definitely peppers, but I have no idea what kind they are. They have flowers that are opening now, so I’ll get to play the guessing game once the fruit starts developing.
Super chili (that’s the actual name):
This pepper plant has been with me for 8 whole months now and is a faithful producer of tiny hot peppers. It started out in the Yamazen system but it got taller and heavier than the system was designed for and I had to keep pruning it and finding creative ways to support its weight. After 8 months like that, I recently migrated it into a dedicated Kratky system so it could grow as large as it wants. Ironically its growth has slowed since then since it’s living on window light now instead of an LED grow light. Since it’s been making peppers for more than 6 months already, I think it may have decided that it’s ‘winter’ now and that it should hibernate.
Tatsoi:
This one sits on the balcony. It started out indoors, but window light just wasn’t cutting it so I modified it for outdoor use and it’s been exploding with growth ever since.
3. Climbing Beans and Peas in Soil
The outdoor project that has my attention at the moment is my beans and peas. I bought varieties that are good in containers or known for climbing or both, and I’m training them up and around the balcony railing. I’d love to see a nice chunk of the railing totally overrun with vines, and food would be good too.
4. Ginger
Last year I sprouted some ginger and grew it in a container through the summer and into the fall. The first picture is from August 2014. This year I’m repeating the experiment but in a rough soil/hydroponics hybrid system, albeit with a pretty late start in the year. Right now I’m just waiting with my fingers crossed for shoots to come up…
5. The ba(b)y tree
Did you know bay is a tree? I’m excited to try overwintering it indoors, upgrading it to larger pots, and continuing to grow it next year. So far it’s been going great, it’s made a lot of new leaves that are tender and very easy to distinguish from the old ones. I’ve been snipping lots of leaves for soups and pot roasts and so on, and I’m really liking the flavour fresh bay leaves add.
6. Microgreens
I’ve been doing some microgreen experiments out on the balcony. They’re more mature now than what most would consider microgreens since my eating actually can’t keep up with new growth, but long story short this is a nice fun project that takes so little effort! It’s also a great way to use up old seeds for lettuce, spinach, etc.
Well, that’s a brief(?) look at everything I’ve got growing right now. Not bad for an apartment, eh? How about you, are you growing anything this summer? How’s it going so far?