Sometime in the late winter going into spring we started a bunch of seedlings of different varieties, first in the house then as the temps got a little better, in the greenhouse. Even with nighttime lows being a little too cool for plants, the greenhouse still did its job of keeping the seedlings warm enough to continue to flourish until I can get around to planting them. My plans do involve incorporating more hydroponics, specifically the Kratky method, where no pumps are used. I did manage to get a few small plantings started, using some old apparatus from last season. One planting even has a couple of lettuce plants that were started from seed in rock wool blocks that were planted in the net pots with clay pebbles in a solution of fertilizer and fish emulsion. Since I'm trying to go away from regular dirt planting, only using the dirt beds for onions, garlic and potatoes, I had a limited ability to put any of our seedlings in dirt. I had one more raised bed next to some dirt raised beds that were already planted with onions and garlic that required dirt. I also have a couple old raised beds that are about to fall in on themselves and will need to be rebuilt, but still had dirt in them. I transferred the dirt from these old beds into the one bed amongst the onion beds to set up a spot to plant a couple cucumber seedlings so I can have a couple plants that are growing in the natural way. Everything else for all intents will be hydroponic. This remaining raised bed that wasn't converted to a Kratky bed was filled with dirt from a couple old beds so I can plant a couple of cucumber plants. This bed like the other beds around it that are housing onions and garlic, are close to a micro irrigation manifold that allows me to get water to the sprinklers in each garden without running too much hose. Going back into the greenhouse, I decided to utilize some of the hydroponic apparatus, even though I have plans to redo a lot of this hardware to incorporate Kratky style planters. The double barrel PVC pipe section has eight holes for pots. Instead of using the Perlite and recycled seedling cups, I used 4" net pots with clay pebbles to hold some off the seedlings, the ones that were started in the seed starter using the peat moss balls as a medium. The whole peat moss ball with the seedling is placed in the net pot with clay pebbles placed around the ball When the pump fills the pipes, the peat will become saturated with solution to feed the plant. The obvious hope will be that the plants shoot out enough roots that they'll reach out beyond the clay pebbles and into the solution. I also took a moment to trim down several of the soda bottle planters on that section of the hydroponic setup so more of the 4" net pots can become submerged in solution when the pump is on. As with the double barrel setup, the plantings are seedlings with the peat balls so they can retain water after the pump shuts down. Since the greenhouse will end up getting unbearably hot in the summer, the plan will be to have some other apparatus set up for outside so the net pots in both hydroponic plantings can be removed with the larger plants and transplanted into the other apparatus. Everything in the greenhouse will not be there throughout the growing season. Now on a lighter note, I may be able to start plantings of greens to transplant into these hydroponic settings in the fall and going into the winter. Eventually I may look at installing one of those little diesel heaters in the greenhouse to keep the structure warm going into the worst of the winter nights. A Kratky planter made from a storage container is set up to accommodate 5" net pots which are holding a couple of bean plants with peat ball mediums and a couple of cucumber plantings, also with peat ball planting mediums. A hole is drilled on the side at the desired water level so if rains overfill the container, the excess water will run out. I did take a moment to set up the Kratky planters using old storage containers and 5" net pots with clay pebbles. I used more of the older seedlings from the seed starter tray that used the peat balls. Instead of disturbing the roots in the peat balls I just planted the entire thing in the net pot with the clay pebbles around the peat ball. I did take a moment to poke a hole in the sides of both storage containers to allow for a water level that will not flood out the net pots if it rains. Excess water will run out, allowing the planter to keep the level below what will drown the plants' roots. Now, I might add a hose nipple to each container with a hose running to a bucket to catch the excess water since it will have some nutrients within. Rather than waste this water, it can be recycled for future plant solution with extra fertilizer being added as needed. Once I get more clay pebbles and modify the raised bed Kratky planters with overflow nipples, I can get the remaining seedlings transplanted. I will have to set up more apparatus for the 4" net pots, not just the ones in the greenhouse hydroponics so I can have more options for planting. There is also the matter of setting up my shade cloth for everything so the summer sun doesn't cook everything like it did last year.
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