Growing Food

[sparrowhawk1]

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Forgot to add the close up.
And there's a lot more than there appears to be! I also want to add I don't think most people know how much nutrition is lost in the vegetables that we can currently Buy in the US. they're picked before they're ripe and have a long period of time between when they're picked and when they're sold.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

I don't think most people know how much nutrition is lost in the vegetables that we can currently Buy in the US. they're picked before they're ripe

Are you confusing fruit with vegetables?

Many fruit are only palatable or edible when ripe. Edible seeds, including grains and nuts, similarly are usually eaten when mature. Some fruit ripen after picking, allowing them to be picked and transported and stored until ripe.

Vegetables, such as edible leaves, tubers, stems, and rhizomes, are different things. The concept of 'ripe' is not usually applied to such.

[sparrowhawk1]

Well technically tomatoes are fruit. But most consider them a vegetable and they are commonly picked before they're ripe. And leafy greens(picked at maturity) quickly lose their nutrition especially certain vitamins. Some vegetables like yams, sweet potatoes, onions actually improve with age, I had a friend that worked in the shipping department for bananas and they had a chart that showed the nutrition levels of bananas picked green compared to the nutrition level of bananas that were allowed to ripen on the tree and I don't remember what it was but I remember that it was significant, bottom line, most fruits and vegetables suffer from aging and/or being picked before they're ripe. Also our soil is being depleted.

[sparrowhawk1]

Heheh. Alen I just realized the vegetables I was thinking of like bell peppers, cucumbers and squash are technically fruit!
And microgreens which may be considered immature are more nutritious.....

[sparrowhawk1]

It's been in the 80s with very high humidity and I've never been able to grow sprouts in these conditions until now. I made a simple self watering container. I cut a juice container in half and inverted the top into the bottom, a piece of cloth goes up into the dirt that is peat and perlite the bottom of the cloth goes into about an inch of water. It's important that the soil is able to Wick up the water. . Bugs(inch worms) destroyed my tomato plants but thankfully they self sowed and I have new plants coming up, kale got eaten. I'm trying different natural sprays. Swiss Chard is struggling.

[sparrowhawk1]

I let my best lettuce plants go to seed and collected them. one self sowed. My Swiss chard I might have to start again because the rain filled up my bucket drowning the air roots, so now I have a hole halfway and I stuck in some floss to keep mosquitoes out. And this is the beauty of the Everglades tomato these are all self sowed. This time I'm going to weed it down to two plants per container. The Swiss chard that you see to the right of the lettuce is doing fine it's in a separate one gallon jug. And if you zoom in to the left you can see my mint plant in a 5 gallon bucket covered with reflective tape.

[sparrowhawk1]

And I finally got my basil to root. This time I'm going with foam holding the main plant ,the roots are in the hydroponic solution instead of planting it in a net cup with peat and perlite.
I just figured out why my photos were always doubled. At the bottom of the screen where I want them to be it shows a little picture but Midway through there's the words attachments so I just erased the attachments and the photos at the bottom still come through.

[Blue Crab]

Looks like you've moved from Miami?

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

Looks like you've moved from Miami?

No. N Miami now. Moved for hurricane decided to stay.

[Blue Crab]

Yeah. My stress level goes way up all summer.

[sparrowhawk1]

Where are you located?

[Blue Crab]

Beaufort, NC. There are many hidey-holes in the area but we've got lots of boats to cram in. The yards are generally prebooked. I've been lucky. Plus whenever I get too whiny, I think about the folks in Tornado Alley.

[danielamartindm]

Grape tomatoes do produce, although the salt air scorches the leaves and you have to limit the photoperiod that they sit in tropical sun. Peppers do well, as do chives and bok choy. I also suspect that you could grow mushrooms in most bilges

[sparrowhawk1]

Yes mushrooms are definitely in my future. These self-watering containers for microgreens are a life changer. I spray them every morning until they are established and then the only care I have to do is if the water needs topping I'll wash out the container and put new water in. I'm going to experiment with using hydroponic solution but so far they're doing fine with just water. From left to right this is how I put a piece of clean old t-shirt so that it Wicks water up around the edges then I'll cover it with some soil put some seeds in and then a light layer of soil. And by soil I mean I recycle the peat and perlite put it in my solar oven for day to sterilize it and then I add about a handful of fresh peat. The fresh beat is very important for wicking and it has to be moist. Next is broccoli seeds that are about 2 days going and they've been in a vacuum sealed jar since 2014! Then fenugreek which is a very fast grower but these are old seeds again not getting great germination. And the last is broccoli seeds that I showed you in a photo before that I've harvested twice already so I'm going to harvest these for lunch and put my soil in a coffee can and be ready for new batch tomorrow. I found that they like to get sun but not midday Sun. Under a table is perfect.

[sparrowhawk1]

I soak the seeds overnight and then rinse them thoroughly. Here's a mixture of alfalfa, broccoli and radish