Love it that they slowly turning red so I can just pick a few for snack whenever going on the balcony!
#Tomatoes #Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants
#tomatoes
Tomatoes from the balcony today. The ones on the right are from plants of last year that are growing to be really big and are full of flowers, green tomatoes and somes turning red.
The one on the left is from 3 tiny Tim tomatoes from this year and one yellow one is from one yellow cherry tomato I have.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants #Tomatoes
time to move the Dutch Bucket unit out on the balcony.
2 tomatoes doing really good, 3 died, one replaced with TinyTim and the other one is still open.
The peppers seem to be doing pretty well but very different; one is long and growing well the other one is just bushy.
The spring onions I put there just or test have not grownemuch so I may replace them with different peppers.
Have a 40L storage ready for them and to place them out on the balcony where the cucumber plant is right now.
Have to plan well because it will be hard to replocate afterwards and must make sure they are protected from scorching sun of coming aummer.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants #DutchBucket #Peppers #Tomatoes #Onions
Used 2 yellow cherry tomatoes to save the seeds for future.
Used my well tested method of using a paper towel and place the seeds 1cm from each other to dry them out and save them later in a Ziploc bag when they are completely dry..
Will label it with type and date so I can track them.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants #Tomatoes #SavingSeeds #CherryTomatoes
Another day, Another experiment trying to see what gives me the best hydroponic results growing Tiny Tim Cherry Tomatoes!
Used the last 2 water bottles I had saves. Glued their 2 caps together and made a big hole through the 2.
Painted the full 5L bottle with black paint and covered it with aluminum foil, made a hole on the side and solved in a USB water pump (from the many many items I had bought to bring to Ghana many years ago) and cut the other bottle's too 30% and screwed the 2 together.
The water pump is right now connected to power plug, and slowly pushes water up to the top that is filled with mix of 10% perlites and 90% vermiculite, covered on the top with clay balls.
The plant is one of the last surviving tiny Tim tomatoes I had and wasn't growing well inside the IKEA växer system for some reason.
So I will be testing this, and other system compare the taste, number of tomatoes produced and maybe the cost of fertilizer.
I just need my ass to sit down and write the code for ESP32 system to control all of these using solar panel or else it will be wires all over the place.
Not it's time to relax and enjoy the last beer I brought back from Sweden!
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants #TinyTim #Tomatoes #DIY #Recycle #Reuse
Mechanical part of the mission accomplished.
Finished the wooden box from discarded fruit box on the street, added 2 black plastic bags that I had since I moved, put the 2 x 5L water bottles with their Tiny Tim tomato plants in them, used a T split for the airpump and tested it to make sure the flow was enough to keep the roots hydrated preventing them from root rot and will cover the box with aluminum foil before adding the solar panels and voltage regulators into the system.
Already picked 5 cherry tomatoes from the larger plant and the smaller one has some 20+ flowers which I'm hoping to turn into juicy tomatoes soon.
Took longer than expected, but I'm happy about the results.
Next, getting the electrical parts ready.
#DIY #TinyTim #Tomatoes #CherryTomatoes #SolarPanel #AirPump #DWC
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants
My first tomatoes of 2023 are probably going to be from hydroponic!
Lost most of my Tiny Tim tomatoes to soil gnats and have (once again) only 4 plants. W in hydroponics and 2 in self watering planters.
The one in Kratky is doing very well and it's healthy and clean roots are reaching down to where the nutrient rich water is. I may have to find a slightly bigger reservoir as the plant is very thirsty with all the tomatoes growing.
Exciting to see the new season is finally starting to work after a bad start with bugs and silly mistakes.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants #Kratky #Tomatoes #TinyTim
Too many Beef tomatoes!
Don't have space for them so I have to find someone who is interested in taking thrm.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants #Tomatoes
Woke up early again and decided to finish the light fixture for Dutch bucket project.
Using wood from a pallet I found on the street, to make it possible to attach 2 large IKEA grow lights from the Krydda system.
Have to find a way to hide the wires and the transformers when putting it in the bedroom.
Will add some reflective walla around it to keep the lights concentrated on the tomatoes and peppers.
2x16w lamps, 10h pee day is 320w pee day, if I have them for 100 days to have a good harvest, it will be about 32kW of power at 0,25 euro per kWh, means around 8 euro for electricity, or probably double that because of the inefficient driver circuit. I'm expecting to get at least 4 to 5 kg of cherry tomatoes from it, so it is a good price for having home grown vegetables.
Have no idea how much peppers I will get. But those are very expensive here, sold at Lidl in 4 packs for 1 euro and I am sure I will get significantly more than 4 in the coming 100 days.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowYourOwn #Plants #DIY #Peppers #Tomatoes
3 Tiny Tim tomato seedlings prepared to be placed in the Dutch bucket system.
Already placed a jalapeno pepper seedling there and with these 3, it will be all done to start.
Removed the dirt and keeping them in mix of water with hydrogen peroxide to get them clean and healthy.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowOwnFood #Plants #DutchBucket #TinyTim #Tomatoes
Today's gardening work almost done!
Repotted some of the seedlings using the mix of #compst (2 parts) coco peat (2 parts) and #Perlite (one part) after the soil was microwaved to kill any soil gnats.
I have about 17 tiny Tim midget #tomatoes. 6 Armenian #cucumbers, 6 small cucumbers, 8 beef tomatoes and several #peppers and #spinach (not in these pictures).
Running out of space and soon I am hoping to be able to move everything out on the #balcony.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowOwnFood #Plants
Simple solutions to increase productivity of small scale farmers in Africa!
small scale farmers around the world have to struggle with so many issues including lack of space, pest control, lack of access to healthy and organic fertilizer not to mention water that is becoming an even bigger problem in so many parts of the world.
There are many solutions that can help increase the yield of each plant by using solutions such as trellies.
During our visits in different parts of Ghana, we never saw any farmer using trellis for their tomatoes, cucumbers or eggplants.
With bamboo being widely available in many parts of ghana at very low cost, it is possible to create efficient and low cost trellis like the ones in this image to increase the efficiency of many crops and at the same time make it easier to fight the weeds and pests.
It also creates a natural shield against heavy rain and strong sunshine while making it easier for farmers to take care of their plants and harvest their produce.
#Gardening #Farming #Tomatoes #Cucumbers #Eggplants #Trellis #VerticalFarming #OrganicFarming #Plants #Africa #Ghana #Taaluma
Went to the farmers market today and bought some tomatoes.
The guy selling them said he grows them in his small garden north of Nice and gave me his card to visit him when I am there. Stupid me, lost the card, but he is there every Sunday so I will go back.
I am going to try and germinate some of the seeds and see if they grow. Love the taste of them and would be great of I could grow them in a 50 soil sak or hydrophilic (will try both).
#Hairloom #Tomatoes
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowOwnFood #Plants
One of the type of seeds I bought is Ola Polka cherry tomato.
It is a midget plant that doesn't get bigger than half a meter, can grow well in hydroponics and delivers lots of delicious sweet tomatoes.
I will grow a couple in hydroponics and a couple in soil to compare the taste, size and how much they produce.
#Gardening #Tomatoes #ContainerGarden #Hydroponics #BalconyGarden #France #GrowOwnFood
TIL something new.
I guess all my tomatoes are of the right side image.
I am still getting tomatoes from the cherry plants from last summer.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #GrowOwnFood #Plants #Tomatoes
First TinyTim tomato seedling is planted into the 2L hydroponic unit.
Used 60% vermiculite and 40% perlite to fill the unit before i put the seedling that I started in coco block.
I covered the substrate with clay balls to prevent algae growth and to keep the heat of the sun to propagate to the roots. Going to cover it with either aluminum foil or paint it black.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowOwnFood #Plants #Tomatoes #Kratky
TinyTim cherry tomato plant thinks it's spring time!
It's almost I'm full bloom.
Plant is a survivor of last year's crops in a self watering 5L water bottle on my balcony.
I think it's time to give it a little bit of fertilizer.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowOwnFood #Plants #Tomatoes
Going to start these #tomatoes from seeds.
Excited to see how many I can get.
#Gardening #BalconyGarden #ContainerGarden #France #Hydroponics #GrowOwnFood #Plants
I made some #soup for dinner. The main ingredients were #tomatoes, #cauliflower, #celery and #GreekYogurt along with the usual #onion, #garlic and #seasoning. Not bad at all even if I do say so myself with some #bread.