Growing Food

[sparrowhawk1]

Well I cut back all the leaves on my Swiss chard because of cabbage moth caterpillar infestation and thought it was a lost cause but it looks like some of them are coming back.



I only had a few tomatoes and noticed a lot of blossoms that dropped so I cut back and planted the cuttings in my bucket with a bubbler I use for making compost tea. ( for some reason photo went to the bottom of post)

I'm really happy with the root growth and hopefully will be able to propagate this way the seeds were $5 for 20 and only three of them actually sprouted into plants


And last but not least the sweet potatoes produce leaves pretty quickly. when ready to harvest ( when I feel like steaming some greens) I just cut the whole vine then take off the leaves

[seandepagnier]

Currently growing spring onions, garlic, tomatoes, some succulents, and a pumpkin! I want to grow the pumpkins and I'm starting to get flowers, but it's probably wiser to just cook the leaves. I put a bunch of food waste in a bucket, grabbed some charcoal from the stove and crushed it and mixed in some dirt, and it's very rich that's what the pumpkin is growing in. There are many worms living in that bucket.

Offshore when a wave hits the plants it is very bad for them. Only onions and succulents survived the crossing, they seem to be able to take some waves without dying but it makes them sick.

Biggest problem is the heat here exceeds 35C during daytime so I must put the plants in the shade!

I had a much larger garden before, more info in this thread, post #25:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...d-80130-2.html

[sparrowhawk1]

Garden update

Finally starting to really produce. It got down to 52 degrees last night so the Swiss chard and kale should start tasting sweeter. I think one of the reasons I'm having more success than other boaters is the simple fact that I have a center cockpit that's pretty high, limiting the salt spray

[Blue Crab]

I'm green with envy!

[sapient sue]

Hi

I have a hydroponics set up in which I grow herbs. Mint, coriander, basil but want to try tomatoes. My space is limited so if not tomatoes then possibly kale. I lost all but the basil while we were landbased travelling (waiting for the new engine to arrive in country) but will start afresh now we are back onboard.

Happy growing - Sue


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[sparrowhawk1]

Hi sue how about some photos of your set up. I would think one of nice things about hydroponics is you could leave it unattended for longer periods of time. There are float valves that I could install and have my pressure water system or even a gravity feed system keep my water reservoir containers filled but there are too many projects ahead for me to even think about it yet. Also how much does it cost to operate(fertiliser and any other products you need to add) and how much electricity does it use. Thanks

[sck5]

when we were cruising in the caribbean i called the stuff growing on the hull under the waterline our "garden"

[sapient sue]

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

Hi sue how about some photos of your set up. I would think one of nice things about hydroponics is you could leave it unattended for longer periods of time. There are float valves that I could install and have my pressure water system or even a gravity feed system keep my water reservoir containers filled but there are too many projects ahead for me to even think about it yet. Also how much does it cost to operate(fertiliser and any other products you need to add) and how much electricity does it use. Thanks

Sparrowhawk my setup is hardly worth a photograph as it is very low key. However it is suprising how many herbs I can grow in this small space. The planter box I purchased from Bunnings, but I used hydroponic beads instead of soil. (My captain does not like soil onboard). I was given the first bottles of nutrient 2 years ago and I have used about half so the system is very economic no matter how expensive it is to buy. The formula is called Grow Lush and comes as part A and B and I use about 5ml each time I need to make up a litre of water.

You can see I need to get some new plants now we are back from land travelling and aboard once more. Cheers Sue

[Mike OReilly]

We just got back from 80+ days on the water. We maintained a small herb garden through it all. A couple types of basil, cilantro, parsley, mint and oregano. My partner started them in a hydroponic garden, but then we transferred them to pots for our journey. It was great to have the fresh herbs, along with the sprouts.

[sparrowhawk1]

This Thread has a bunch of photos from my garden already so I'm going to continue on it. I also want to point out that I have a center cockpit boat that's over 39 ft long so I have high free board and room for plants, so I understand not everyone's going to be able to do this.
Well this solves the spray problem. The plants are currently in containers that only have about an inch of solution but I'm going to switch to individual containers so it can't slosh around.
Of course I can only use short ones to fit underneath the greenhouse. And this is all experimentation if it works I can make permanent "greenhouses" out of plexiglass and make them strong enough to stand on, on either side of the Mast and it will help me reaching my Mainsail. I also have a bunch hung from my davits which have gone through some very high winds without a problem but they are swinging so when I get them so I could sail with them I'll take more photos. those are Everglade tomatoes, chives that have been in the planter for over 10 years, some walking onions which I use the greens from, tropical oregano at the far right and I just planted radishes about a month ago they seem to go a little slower in this cool weather.

[sparrowhawk1]

This is a salad I had the other day with lettuce tomato and onion greens from my garden

[Mike OReilly]

Very impressive Sparrow. All we ever do is a pot of herbs, which gets moved down below when under way, and a constant production of sprouts.

How often do you get out sailing Sparrow? How do you manage the garden when you’re underway?

[sparrowhawk1]

I'm not currently doing much sailing that's why I have the time to rig my garden. Once I have the system setup it should take very little work to keep going. But the Planters in my cockpit had plants in them from Maryland to Florida(the photos taken in 2014 of the kale Swiss chard Etc were started in Maryland.) A lot was intercoastal but if I was offshore with spray I would cover it with a clear shower curtain. I'm working very hard to make systems that I can use while I'm sailing. And on my last boat I was sailing a lot with a planter full of lettuce mounted to the outside of the push pit. Lettuce is great because it doesn't take very long to grow so even if I lost a batch I could just rinse everything out with fresh water and start over. And growing plants to maturity is much more efficient than growing microgreens because they spend the first part of their life establishing their roots once their roots are established they really start putting out greens. Its main drawback is that you cannot grow it in the middle of the summer. Once I have enough lettuce to eat a salad everyday I'm going to start growing Swiss chard and kale again because they grow continuously for years. Little bit slow at start, but then good producers. There is a plant called sea kale which is a kale that is salt tolerant I might try that next. I'm also going to work on a 4-point hanging system and I have tubes going across my davits that I'm going to hang Planters from. Hopefully they'll be protected from the spray and not swing too much.
PS when I was sailing I wouldn't have the reservoir full on the Planters in the cockpit, I would just water first thing in the morning everyday and sometimes once at night! But it really wasn't a problem.

[sparrowhawk1]

Wow time flies. It was exactly one year ago that I started getting ready to do the kratky system in 1 gallon jugs! For discussion and photos of my garden last year and links to videos on hydroponics go to thread labeled "Anyone try Hydro or aeroponics on board ?"

[sparrowhawk1]

Just a quick update the greens are growing like crazy. It's so simple anyone can do it. The hardest part is just getting the seeds to the point where there's roots coming out of the net cup. I think partly because I'm trimming the lettuce as it grows and also that it's in the Wind it's using a lot more water, I have to add a quart maybe every other day to the plants in the one gallon containers.

My tomatoes are growing like crazy. And I think each planter takes about a gallon a day. the tomatoes come in Cycles as you can see right now I have a lot! If you're in a protected area with a water maker or easy access to water I can't see how this is not worth it I have fresh tomatoes that taste 10 times better than anything you can buy in a store and no pesticides. And the lettuce in the big container is virtually maintenance-free after you get the seeds going. Just about every day I've been having a big salad and I still have more than I can eat. And a lot of what I'm growing is dark greens I saute for a couple minutes and everyone knows how much spinach cooks down, it's the same thing with with my greens.