Transplanting greens

My nemesis is transplanting. I sow the plants, I thin the plants. They grow well and then I don't transplant in time! They become root bound, with overlong leaves, and suffer in their modules or small pots! However, over the weekend, I did manage to transplant some lettuces, some pak choi, some endive.

The greenhouse is yielding some nice thinnings of greens, some nice plum tomatoes and some chillis.

Temperatures 26th Sep 2010, 17:22

Greenhouse temps:
Current Out 15.1        Current In 17.5
Max Out 22.5             Max In 26.4
Min Out 3.2                Min In 4.2

Winter planting

I think that the best thing about a greenhouse is that I can try growing winter salads.

Planted on Friday 3rd Sep 2010, with Roisin as a little helper :-)

• Corn Salad Louviers (5 small pots)
• Endive Pancalieri (6 modules)
• Endive Cornet de Bordeaux (6 modules)
• Lettuce Winter Density (4 small pots)
• Clatonia Winter Purslane (15 modules)
• Pak Choi Red (15 modules)

Last week, 30 August, I cut open a bag of multipurpose compost and sowed three broad rows:

• Spinach Campania
• Lettuce Little Gem
• Rocket

Also, I sowed four pots of broad leaf parsley and Lettuce Butterhead Winter Wonder in modules. These have already germinated and are coming up well.

Basil in the Autopot...

So I have a plan:

• Tomatoes in the NFT, in the house, and in grow bags in the greenhouse.
• Pepper plants in the Solargrow in the greenhouse.
• Basil in the Autopot in the greenhouse.

Yesterday, May 13th, I set up the Basil in the Autopot. The instructions recommend combining soil and perlite so replanted the basil again today, increasing the amount of perlite.

Tomatoes look happy in the greenhouse but I think the peppers are finding the evenings a little cold. Some of them are looking a bit sad first thing in the morning. They perk up during the day so hopefully they will be OK.

Yesterday, I ordered a thermometer so that will help tell me more about what is happening in the greenhouse.

All good - all exciting. :-)

Greenhouse is up!

It took a while but the greenhouse is up. It looks great and a picture will follow soon. I took a bit of time off work last Monday and with the help of the guy from Quality Buildings, we got the whole thing finished. Chris Pepper helped the previous weekend and finally it has plants growing in it and it looks great. All very exciting!

Eat your thinnings...

I have read recently about micro leaves and seen a little film on them. It seems to me (and my wife) that it's just eating the thinnings which we've been doing for ages. This picture shows a salad of 'micro-leaves', herbs and weeds (hairy bittercress) that I had for lunch today along side a lovely savory tart made my wife. This salad had at least ten different components and was very tasty!

An extra Holiday Watering Kit

I was quite surprised by the five boxes that awaited me from Greenhouse Sensation. Confused during ordering, I ordered the Solargrow... then I added the Holiday Watering Kit thinking that I would probably be away for a week or so over the summer. Then I decided to add the frame too so changed my order. I failed to notice that there was a Holiday Watering Kit included in the Solargrow that included the frame so now I have two Holiday Watering Kits!!! Strangely the two Kits don't seem to have quite the same pieces but I will have to check through carefully to see the differences.

N.B. Greenhouse Sensation say on their website that "(* Please note that Holiday Watering must be ordered along side your growing kit as it can not be added at a later date)". However, having checked the pieces I can't see why this is really the case. Adding the Holiday Watering Kit afterwards might be a little awkward - you might even have to drill a hole but it's NOT impossible and I would think CAN be added a later date! Don't be bullied into ordering it just by their warning. I emailed them about this just now.

Windowgrow seems to work....

So the Windowgrow system seems to work. The seedlings are growing. I had to top up last night because the watering indicator was resting on the bottom rather than floating up and telling me it was full. A liter of water (with 6ml of each of the two nutrient solutions) was sufficient to have the indicator read 'Full'. I also turned it around on the window to stop the seedlings growing permanently at a tilt. Looking forward to some nice salads in a few weeks....

More hyrdoponics kit arrives...

My order from Greenhouse Sensations arrived last Friday. Five boxes of kit. A bit too much I suspect. I set up the Windowbox, on the south facing bedroom window, over the weekend and transplanted some salad seedlings.

NFT Tomatoes

Tomatoes started off in my hydroponics unit, yesterday. They already seem to be growing.

Salad Table Month one

Over the weekend, I set up my first salad table of 2010. Using the principles of interplanting, I planted the crops very close together. I will harvest these as baby leaves and as cut-and-come again leaves. N.B. All this is a container that is about 18 inches by 36 inches (I will measure it later!) I placed six markers to orient myself and here's what I planted:

At each marker:
* 6 rows of Radish Saxa 2, ready in 3 to 6 weeks

Between markers
* 4 rows of Lettuce Salad Bowl, ready in 6-8 weeks
* 3 rows of rocket, ready in 5.5 weeks

In the radish rows, because the radishes will be removed before these get large...

* 2 rows of Pak Choi Red, ready in about 6.5 weeks
* 2 rows of Chinese Cabbage Spectrum, ready in about 10 weeks
* 2 rows of Swiss Chard Bright Lights, ready in about 12 weeks (baby leaves earlier)

So six different seeds planted in the same small space. Should be fun watching it grow.

Sowing seeds... at what price?

Easter weekend - a great opportunity to sow some seeds and do some reading about growing vegetables. Lots of fun. Over the last three weeks, I have planted 21 different types of seed. I was surprised when I added up the list last night. I am most excited about my first adventure growing peppers: three different types, including a cultivar of chili called Demon Red!

One thing that surprises me is the price of seed and how much it varies from place to place. I bought some at Pugh's Garden Centre - mostly supplied by Thompson & Morgan but the cheapest place by some margin was Lidl - at 29p for a packet of lettuce seed, this represents the GREAT value. Those Demon Red seeds, however, were £3.29 - that was supposed to be for 8 seeds although there was only four in the packet. I am going to email Thompson & Morgan right now! On the positive side all the seeds seem to be growing.... :-)

Easy2Grow Kit

So last night, I spent a little while looking at the Easy2Grow kit that I ordered from the Centre for Alternative Technology. It's an interesting product which looks easy to use. The plant pots, the base and the other bits and pieces look nicely engineered and fit well together. There are some useful bits supplied like the inline filter and some root control membrane. The instructions look as if they are just a photocopy but seem easy to follow. There is a nice animation on the web site of the producers which tells you about the product and how to set it up. Right now it looks like good value for £20.

The key piece of enabling technology is the AQUAvalve. Basically, it's a plastic float valve which controls the entry of water from the tank into the tray into which the pots work. However, it is a little more complex than that as you can see from the website if you want to check it out.

I have two concerns/disappointments. Firstly, the instructions don't seem to suggest any particular type of compost although the website does suggest using 30-50% perlite.

Secondly, the technology doesn't seem appropriate for new seedlings but rather for larger plants. Again, a piece of information lacking in the instructions. It looks to me as if the plants should have a root ball that you can place at or close to the water supplied through the base. This suggests more mature plants than I expected.

Great Service from Centre for Alternative Technology...

Wow, at 7am this morning the postman arrived with my parcel from the Centre for Alternative Technology. Only ordered at 10:10am yesterday and arrived within 24 hours. That is GREAT service. I unpacked the parcel to check out the Easy2Grow Kit. Looks interesting. I will write more soon.

Buying some hydroponic kit...

So with the promise of a new greenhouse and some seeds planted on Sunday, I decided I would order some hydroponic kit. I have no power in greenhouse so I have decided to order two different things to help me grow my vegetables.

My first purchase was from Greenhouse Sensation which I read about in the Kitchen Garden magazine. I bought a Solargrow with Solar Panel, Holiday Watering Kit and Frame. Not cheap at £99.95 but I hope it will return the cost over the long term. Hopefully, when it arrives and yields lots of lovely food, I will update here. I also bought a Holiday Watering Kit which I hope will keep the plants going while I am away.

On the same website, my eye was caught by their Windowgrow product which looks very interesting and might look well on the window sill of the kitchen. It's a passive hydroponic system for herbs and lettuces and the like. It was more cost effective at just £26.90. My wife likes to buy herbs from the supermarket so hopefully I can keep these alive better or even grow them myself so I might cover my cost in about six months or so :-) We'll see....

I also purchased and Easy2Grow Kit (GGR90130) from the Centre for Alternative Technology. This was a special offer and represented very good value at just £20.00. Again it's a passive hydroponic system, I think.

Right now, I am a little concerned that my enthusiasm is getting the better of me so I best not buy or write any more.

The choice of greenhouse...

The range and different types of greenhouse are just amazing. As well as the greenhouses, you could also choose from poly-tunnels and other structures. My wife forbade me from the poly tunnel option so it had to be a greenhouse. Then there was the discussion about how she would have to look out the window at it so it better look nice!!! :-)

The decision was made: a nice cedar wood greenhouse. This meant an increase in cost and required hard standing. Would you believe if I told you I starting digging the foundations over three years ago. A bit slow going, I think you will agree but we did have a baby girl to take care of in the meantime as well as a very busy job.

So finally last week I ordered an 8X8 Amateur Greenhouse from Alton at Quality Buildings in Morganstown, near Cardiff.

Very soon, I will be growing exciting crops inside my new greenhouse. How exciting is that!

2010 - The Year of the Greenhouse...

After many years of planning, lusting and wishing, I have finally ordered my greenhouse. I am excited about all the potential plants I can grow:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Chillies
• Lemongrass
• Ginger
• the potential is making my imagination run riot....

So last week I ordered it and yesterday Alton Greenhouses wrote to me to tell me that it will be delivered the week of the 23rd of April. More of a delay than I hoped but hey. Pictures will follow...