Gardening

Lighting Bo D.
If you don't have a good/large south facing window, consider adding some grow lights. Think of spindly as the seedling starving and reaching for light. Word of warning, when it comes to indoor lights, there are a million options. If all your looking for is start your seeds, just get some T5s. T5s are also strong enough that if you really wanted to you could grow some vegetative greens like herbs, lettuce year round. After that, humidity. If you don't have a dome for them, consider adding.

I'm starting my seeds now. Have 3 trays started, will get some more going soon. The top shelf with the 3 seed trays are under two 36in T5s. Excuse the wiring mess, was moving stuff around yesterday to make room for a new quantum led board that arrive's today. Just look at the top shelf, thats two T5s
https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189335964-2.jpg
https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189335964-2.jpg

https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189335813-2.jpg


https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189335964-5.jpg

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Originally Posted by MikePal

Maybe Fox will pipe in...he's doing that now...

I did it all about 20 years back, a little of everything then gradually found effort and time wasn't worth it comparatively to what I could buy some stuff for. ie: I stopped growing potatoes...at $2.99 for a 10lb bag ..silly to waste the space in the garden and time.

Also found a few local people (neighbours) who were into self-sufficiency/sustenance farming that sold their surplus farm goods at the road side. Fresh produce for next to nothing and the money went to them, not a chain Grocery store.

After the kids left we eventually ended up just growing raised bed tomatoes and peppers. You can't buy them cheaper than growing those yourself.

There are phases to 'Grow Your Own' stuff, much like hunting. You go at it gangbusters at the beginning then taper off as the years progress.

Now were into Beekeeping...if your doing Fruit trees you might look into that..get the benefits of pollination and the by product of fresh Honey.

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Yep, 4800 sq ft garden that we use to grow veggies for the preserves that we sell at the market. We have more than a dozen fruit trees on the property, most are older, we planted 1 pear and 2 plum trees, the cherry trees died and the peach tree too. I tried a sour cherry bush last year, dug a big hole, 5 times larger that I needed and mixed rabbit manure with peat moss into the hole before planting the bush, we have a lot of sand and I needed to bulk up the water holding. We planted 4 grape vines that will run along the page wire fences in a couple years. The plan is to add orchard trees around the pasture with fencing around them to protect them from the animals.

Figure out what your soil is like and go from there, carrots and beets do not do well here, I may try starting some inside and then planting them but for some reason they do not germinate. Our fertilizer is goat, sheep, rabbit, chicken, quail and duck manure, rabbit can be spread on right out of the animal but the bird manure needs 6 months at least to settle and not burn the plants. Garlic did really well here but have not planted it in a couple years as it is never ready when we need it. Hot peppers love this property, last year I had bushels of jalapenos, cayennes, habaneros, ghost and serrano peppers. Tomatoes I plant a fence to tie the cages too, anything else I have found allows the plants to fall. These tomato plants are Lebanese Marzano tomatoes, they grow 6ft if you let them and I plant an 80 ft row of them every year for salsa and sauce.

Thanks John, I believe that could be the issue.. where I have been starting them is on an east facing window, I don't have a south facing one. May have to invest in some lighting... Very impressive set up there John...

better look at T5s
https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189447494-2.jpg

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Originally Posted by MikePal

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Thanks for the reminder Smitty....needs to be done this later this week...

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Mike I don't know if you've had problems with tent caterpillars recently on your apple trees as the swarm moves around the province it seems. It was real bad around here 6-7 years ago where I was literally killing thousands every day here with a strong dawn dish soap spray. I now do this trick every year to protect my apple trees even though they are gone around here now. Wrap some duct tape around the trunk of your fruit tree a foot or so up the trunk and smear it with vaseline, the caterpillars will not cross it. It works great. Also I look for their nests on thin branches before the trees leaf out and destroy them. Here's what they look like.
Attachment 41513

Message me if you want Bo D. Indoor lights there are millions of options, most are expensive. Overkill is easy, or cheap knockoffs leaving you disappointed.
This arrived for me today :)
https://www.viparspectra.com/collections/xs-series

Do you need anything like that ( and there are hundreds). Nope. If you dont want to grow anything that flowers aka Peppers, Tomato, weed.
For seeds and things like herbs get a couple T5s. You can set them up near anywhere, and if you get a dome for your trays, just hang them about 6-10inches above the canopy or a couple above the dome ( for your humidity)

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Originally Posted by greatwhite

This year my Garden will be like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDh7wO2C8y0

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Interesting, I never say anyone growing them like that before.
I actually have 2 bales in the shed I was going to use and I see that the guy in your video talks about the mushrooms being beneficial... I was thinking 1 bale for a strawberry bed and another for mushrooms then later in the garden as a mulch covering or some more strawberries. Maybe I will combine some tomatoes or other with the mushrooms. She talks about the bale, logs and growing on wood mulch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_qmXTeSysE

The next one continues onto the types of beds and in the yard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jovIxInkRs

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Originally Posted by JBen

Lighting Bo D.
If you don't have a good/large south facing window, consider adding some grow lights. Think of spindly as the seedling starving and reaching for light. Word of warning, when it comes to indoor lights, there are a million options. If all your looking for is start your seeds, just get some T5s. T5s are also strong enough that if you really wanted to you could grow some vegetative greens like herbs, lettuce year round. After that, humidity. If you don't have a dome for them, consider adding.

I'm starting my seeds now. Have 3 trays started, will get some more going soon. The top shelf with the 3 seed trays are under two 36in T5s. Excuse the wiring mess, was moving stuff around yesterday to make room for a new quantum led board that arrive's today. Just look at the top shelf, thats two T5s
https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189335964-2.jpg
https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189335964-2.jpg

https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189335813-2.jpg


https://jbenphotography.ca/img/s/v-10/p2189335964-5.jpg

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woah! this is impressive and real cool looking. reminds me of my buddies weed tent LOL

One of my gardening friends is about 80% no dig (hay). She swears by it. Hubby does some of his "crop" in it. Had one tree last year that was far bigger than any Christmas tree :)

Lol Bo D. That's what it is. I picked the brain of a good friend that grows. The big thing is par, so for veggies like Peppers/Tomatoes don't need quite as much. For me mainly LED, just not what he uses, with a couple t5s. Beyond that it's basically the same. Lights, Humidity and ducting/inline fan for CO2 exchange.