First we have the lettuce I was growing inside under a grow light. It did very well and we made several salads from it. I turned the light on for about 10 hours every day and kept it dark the rest of the time. The lettuce did not bolt and was very tender with no bitterness. Now i know how to grow lettuce in the summer here and get something edible.
Since my Colorado Rose potatoes did so poorly I decided to try again with some red potatoes that began sprouting from the grocery store. I cut the sprouting eyes off of them before cooking,
Then dug some holes about 10 inches deep in one of the beds. I then placed one eye in each hole and covered with about an inch or soil of soil. The last time I tries this in large pots it worked out real well.
The sweet potatoes are growing real well. They should be ready around the end of July. Last year grubs destroyed most of my sweet potatoes. This year I sprayed parasitic nematodes in all the beds to hopefully eradicate them. Now when digging in the beds I have run across very few grubs which is encouraging. This is the first time using the nematodes ans so far they seem to be working well.
Here we have the Juliet tomatoes loaded with fruit. The carrots in front of them are getting close to harvest size and will be the last until fall kicks in.
Lastly here is one of the Moon And Stars watermelons. This one weighed over 40lbs and was pretty good. It was not as sweet as the Crimson Sweet melons I have grown in the past but good none the less.
That's all for now.
Tim, what did you spend on the grow lights? Was it a lot of money? (I miss, miss my greens!)
ReplyDeleteMy sweet potatoes are kicking too, like crazy. Funny thing, I did not even plant hardly any this season, they all come by themselves from the last year's leftovers. You have to respect the nature, lol. Except I want other things in my garden, not just sweet potatoes and cowpeas. Oh, well. LOL.
The grow light is a Sunleaves Pioneer IV jr. You can find them for right at $100 and they use the T5 fluorescent lights. It works well and the greens were fantastic. I did have to rotate them though as they would tend to grow towards the center of the light.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to get excited because it's almost August and getting close to seed starting time again. Then to finish building the beds and drip system and get growing for the Fall.
Just remembered my sweets are about ready to begin harvesting.
Oh, August, August. Almost October! lol. I neglected my green amaranth, let it go to seed, so did not have a lot of greens in the garden this summer. But at least I have a lot of amaranth seeds. You are right about finishing the beds. I am going to take a week vacation and rebuild (hopefully all), but probably some of my garden into the raised beds, sort of what you have, but from landscape timbers. Crab grass is killing my beds and my back. Your setup is so neat and clean. I imagine though it took a lot of work initially.
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