The Grow Room

Carolyn

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Mar 22, 2017
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Share help and advice on growing your own food at home!!

Heres some handy vids to get started!!



Definitely check out this guys channel, the music with it is quite hilarious cause its just not the kinda thing youd expect but this guy grows some amazing stuff and for next to nothing and hes quite entertaining too so definitely check him out, even if your not planning on growing anything his vids are so whacky and weird but very informative too.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zdi4KM3ewwfYMNo_KnU0A
 

Thunderian

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Mar 13, 2017
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Growing up, we always had a big garden, and vegetables don't taste the same to me now. I wish we had room for a garden now, but we have to make do with a lot of fresh herbs and our blueberry, raspberry and strawberry bushes in planters.

Our pastor's dad lives on a big piece of property and brings us rhubarb and root vegetables now and then, but it's never enough. :(
 

Carolyn

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Mar 22, 2017
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get sticks, those long skinny ones attatch at various points on the stems to hold them up, also bigger pots probably will help, as the roots grow if the pot is full with roots the plants are more likely to grow up rather than bushing out, so giving the roots more room to expands prevents it from growing too tall, you can also clip the top part to stop them growing up more on whatever stems are too long.
 

JoChris

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Mar 15, 2017
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get sticks, those long skinny ones attatch at various points on the stems to hold them up, also bigger pots probably will help, as the roots grow if the pot is full with roots the plants are more likely to grow up rather than bushing out, so giving the roots more room to expands prevents it from growing too tall, you can also clip the top part to stop them growing up more on whatever stems are too long.
I had a few in the pot but discovered that I didn't have enough.
They were tall like this.

 

Lurker

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Mar 14, 2017
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I cut my okra plants back today. It's a tall plant to begin with, but even the side branches had gotten leggy. I'll let you know how it works out.
 

JoChris

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I also discovered the hard way a couple of years ago that citrus trees don't like clorinated water very much because they prefer lower pH water. If they get too much all the flowers fall off.
After we got a small water tank we only watered our orange tree, lemon tree and mandarin with that water and they all did much better, especially the mandarin one.
So if any of you get more regular rain than we do, if you get a few buckets around the garden to store the water that might help your trees. Just make sure they're covered after rain stops if you get mosquitoes in your area.
 

polymoog

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Jun 17, 2017
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I have a what not to do story from today:
Be careful when moving tomato plants in pots that have grown extremely tall.
The stems are not firm AT ALL and will snap if not supported. I was moving the pot which had a few large green tomatoes too. :(
plant the tomatoes when they are small very deep, or plant them sideways. it will help create a stronger root system.
its definitely worthwhile to get a tomato cage for support.

thundarian:
add plenty of azomite (rock powder) into the soil. besides the ORMUS factor, it adds a great deal of trace minerals that the soil is lacking. azomite means "a to z of minerals + elements". it will help raise the BRIX level in your garden foods.
 

Carolyn

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Mar 22, 2017
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So about two weeks ago I planted some seeds, put some in root riot cubes and some in small pots with biobizz lite mix soil, every single one of them sprouted in about a week, best method is put them in the pots or the cubes, you can also use rockwool cubes I think they are called too, wee bit of water to keep them moist, put them in a cupboard or somewhere dark, this is the perfect environment for seed germination, 3 days in there and they all started to sproud little seedlings, put the ones in the root riot cubes into small pots with some of the biobiizz soil.

So now I have anaheim chillis, jalapenos, hanaberos, anaheim, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes and san marzano tomatoes, its really got me buzzing again, then I found out we have to move so am not starting anymore right now, just keep these wee ones going till Ive moved then hopefully start some more but so far so good!! They are all coming up strong and healthy and my huge pot of basil, chives and parsley is like a minature jungle ,really gonna have to snip the top of the basil, my sticks still havent arrived and its way too tall, have used some of them, its great just having fresh herbs to hand, cant wait to be able to use my tomatoes, chillis and sweet peppers :)
 

Carolyn

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Mar 22, 2017
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Id definitley recommend this biobizz light mix soil. I got it here in UK for £18 free prime delivery, 50 litres, think you can buy smaller bags but its definitely worth getting a bigger bag if you are going to do a few plants or having to repot into bigger pots, if you have a large plant it could be in a 10 litre pot so thats a 5th of your 50 litres gone already. Its brilliant though Ive noticed huge difference and its perfect for seedlings too, no nutrient burn or anything and it doesnt go all compact so its great for the roots too!!

Hope its ok to post this link here its not commision based or anything just a recommendation for a great product!!

https://www.amazon.com/BioBizz-BBLM50L-50-Liter-Light-Mix-Substrates/dp/B004OOU3TG/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1503197490&sr=8-11&keywords=biobizz+mix

Will try and get some pics soon although not much to look at yet as they are all seedlings but you can see how healthy they are and how well they are growing.
 

JoChris

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Mar 15, 2017
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I had a few in the pot but discovered that I didn't have enough.
They were tall like this.

Update:
I must have given enough support and water. The half-snapped branch I hadn't pruned back has recovered and all the tomatoes are still growing. :)
 

JoChris

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Mar 15, 2017
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It looks brilliant i hope mine grow so well :)
That was a Google image but it is almost as big as that now.
I am half-expecting one of these critters to come as steal them though.
The red King parrot is the male, the green is the female.


Or this: heard them on my balcony in the middle of the night. The mother and baby steal the bird seed, passionfruit from the vine and tomatoes.


Thankfully we've got most of the passionfruit so far. It is great with fruit salad/ peach and apricot yogurt or icecream. If you can't get it fresh, a good brand can of it might be worth a try.
 
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JoChris

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Mar 15, 2017
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Id definitley recommend this biobizz light mix soil. I got it here in UK for £18 free prime delivery, 50 litres, think you can buy smaller bags but its definitely worth getting a bigger bag if you are going to do a few plants or having to repot into bigger pots, if you have a large plant it could be in a 10 litre pot so thats a 5th of your 50 litres gone already. Its brilliant though Ive noticed huge difference and its perfect for seedlings too, no nutrient burn or anything and it doesnt go all compact so its great for the roots too!!

Hope its ok to post this link here its not commision based or anything just a recommendation for a great product!!

https://www.amazon.com/BioBizz-BBLM50L-50-Liter-Light-Mix-Substrates/dp/B004OOU3TG/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1503197490&sr=8-11&keywords=biobizz+mix

Will try and get some pics soon although not much to look at yet as they are all seedlings but you can see how healthy they are and how well they are growing.
Do you have trouble growing plants outside because of short daylight hours in Winter where you live? Or are you going to just move them all indoors when it gets too cold?
 

Carolyn

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Mar 22, 2017
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prob indoors if its really cold but hard to say right now cause we have to move so no more conservatory for us :(
 
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