Anyone into gardening/growing your own food?

[sgreger1]

Hey so I am going to be scrapping my two basil plants as they have just become too large and I can't move the lights any higher up than they are, so I want to try something new. I need suggestions.

I am growing them under just 2 6400k CFL lights, which worked wonders for the basil and for my lettuce, but I want to try something else. I was thinking maybe medicinal plants, but I don't know what plants would be good to grow. Does anyone know of any actually usefull medicinal plants that would grow well in a small area (and that do not have flowers or anything that blooms, as my lights aren't set up for that)?

I have 2 5 gallon buckets, so I can either plant two large plants, or possible 2 smaller plants per bucket.

Any ideas are welcome.

[Crow]

What sort of medicine are you looking to grow?

For example, aloe vera is a great plant to treat burns and wounds, and it's good for the skin.

[voodooman]

Hey guys, is this Blossom End Rot?[/IMG]

no. it would look a bit like that, but always spread up from the bottom (blossom end) of the tomato.
think that's "sun scald". was the plant moved recently, or pruned? were these fruits in a position to get intense sun? just pick off any with the spots, and you should be just fine.

[sgreger1]

no. it would look a bit like that, but always spread up from the bottom (blossom end) of the tomato.
think that's "sun scald". was the plant moved recently, or pruned? were these fruits in a position to get intense sun? just pick off any with the spots, and you should be just fine.

After much research, it does appear to be sunscald (thank GOD!). It randomly got to 100 degrees here with no cloud cover and the only tomatoes that got this ailment were the ones that had been pruned recently so there were no leaves covering them, all the rest are fine because the canopy protected them. I am so glad this is all it was, I will discard of them and move some leaves over there to cover them up and stop pruning them.

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

Well you inspired me! I went to the local hydro store a couple weeks ago and got the PH up/down, some PH tester drops, General Hydroponics organic grow and bloom, some CalMag, and Bio-Cozyme. Mixed up 32 gal of PH set grow and bloom and have been watering my vegies with it. It certainly has been helping. Today I went back and got some rockwool cubes, net pots, an air pump, and some hydroton. Gonna set up a couple 5 gallons and a rubbermaid tub with 6 - 5 inch netpots. Want to try these aeroponic set-ups. Been sprouting various vegie seeds and just want to get really good at growing food. Once I get a good system down, I'll grow some more tobacco too.

Thanks for the motivation!

[voodooman]

that's awesome snuffleupagus. i would have advised you to start small, but sgreger seems a testament to the opposite. for what it's worth; you could be the first, to my knowledge, to do some tobacco in pure hydro. best of luck friend!

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

that's awesome snuffleupagus. i would have advised you to start small, but sgreger seems a testament to the opposite. for what it's worth; you could be the first, to my knowledge, to do some tobacco in pure hydro. best of luck friend!

It's a small start. I've been researching hydro/aero/aqua ponics for a couple years. I've grown a lot of things in soil. But yeah this is new. We shall see!

I got it all up and planted. Spray painted a couple 5 gal buckets and a 18 gal rubbermaid bin. Cut out 6 - 5 inch netcups on the bin and have 8 inch netpotbucketlidthings for the 5 gal buckets. 4 outlet airpump - teed 2 on the bin and 1 each for the 5gals. It rocks! I don't even have it maxed! Lot's of bubbles! Planted up some random seedlings for testing! Those effing raccoons might be attracted to it tho...

[Crow]

I'm going to wait til autumn to start my hydroponic medicine garden. I still need to discuss more with my doctors on what I can take on a regular basis.

One great thing about living in WA; we're the only state with a Board of Naturopathy, and it's the leading state in natural medicine.

http://www.bastyr.edu/

[squeezyjohn]

Well I hope sgreger1 reads this even if he's left off talking here because I've got an amazing recipe I invented today to use up the kind of glut of courgettes/zucchini we growers get around this time of year.

It's for a balti/curry sauce of a higher quality than you can get in jars the shops and is pretty much as simple as sticking home grown tomatoes, zucchini/courgette, onions, garlic and herbs with some standard store-cupboard ingredients and putting it in the food-processor and cooking it in the oven on a low heat for a long time. It's really easy and you can freeze it for use all-year round.

If you're interested you can read the full recipe on my tumblr blog

Cheers

Squeezy

[whalen]

Well the gardens are producing copious quantities of veggies now, I got a cast iron veggie roaster plate for the grill on my birthday, gonna take a run at grilling some of everything. This time of year everyone is giving each other whatever they can get rid of there is so much stuff. The tobacco has grown about two feet in the last week.

[Premium Parrots]

Well the gardens are producing copious quantities of veggies now, I got a cast iron veggie roaster plate for the grill on my birthday, gonna take a run at grilling some of everything. This time of year everyone is giving each other whatever they can get rid of there is so much stuff. The tobacco has grown about two feet in the last week.

pictures or it didn't happen

Lets see the tobacco.

[crullers]

Well I hope sgreger1 reads this even if he's left off talking here because I've got an amazing recipe I invented today to use up the kind of glut of courgettes/zucchini we growers get around this time of year.

It's for a balti/curry sauce of a higher quality than you can get in jars the shops and is pretty much as simple as sticking home grown tomatoes, zucchini/courgette, onions, garlic and herbs with some standard store-cupboard ingredients and putting it in the food-processor and cooking it in the oven on a low heat for a long time. It's really easy and you can freeze it for use all-year round.

If you're interested you can read the full recipe on my tumblr blog

Cheers

Squeezy

That looks great, I've bookmarked it. My in-laws keep giving us massive zucchini from their garden and I'm getting quite bored of it so I'll give this a try.

We've been fortunate here to escape a lot of the dry weather others have been suffering so our garden is doing great. Tons of tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos, celery, and gigantic eggplant. We're going to have to get busy with the canning soon. I have next week off so that will definitely be on the agenda.

My parents have a huge concord grape vine and it is totally loaded with grapes, best they've ever seen. They are not going to be able to do anything with them as they are leaving for a month's vacation so they are trying to get me to take as much as I can in order that they don't go to waste. I've read that they hold up to freezing fairly well so I will freeze a lot of them, but I'm also thinking about trying my luck at making wine out of them. I have the basic equipment for making beer - primary, carboy, hydrometer, racking cane, airlocks. Anybody try making wine out of concord grapes? I've seen some recipes on the internet but if anybody has some tips or recipes it would be much appreciated!

[sgreger1]

I just reviewed a kickass DWC system on my blog that utilizes a venturi pump instead of airstones, anyone doing hydroponics should check this out. I know the guy who owns the company and he has some really great products, but this DWC is awesome because the venturi pump keeps the dissolved oxygen content so high that you can grow outdoors even if its 80 degrees plus as extreme warm/cold doesn't ruin the plants when the oxygen level is that high. Plus it's waterproof (no air pumps) so that's great because the rain won't destroy it.

Here's the vid: http://youtu.be/oocuBknEtEA
And here's the written review with some good pictures of my lettuce: http://outdoorhydro.com/wp/fizzy-far...he-next-level/