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What an interesting thread. I must be growing more mature to call a thread on gardening interesting, but it really is. I hate actual gardening, I just like harvesting what dad's planted, haha. But I am inspired to have a herb tray, I think I could manage that, rather then having to put boots on and watch for spiders every time I go outside to grab some fresh parsley, rocket or mint.

Lately we've been planting aloe vera and aloe arborescens. Their leaves are so medicinal it's like having a cure-all in the backyard. (We follow a traditional Brazilian recipe that calls for 300grams of arborescens leaves, some 500g of pure honey and about 40ml of whiskey as a distillate. It is clearing up my sister's acne, among other more serious health concerns in my family!).

I am wondering if anyone here has any experience or tips on how to grow vegetables hydroponically. It seems ideal for a number of reasons, but I especially like the space saving idea. Any tips on how to get started?

I would love to have an herb tray too!

Yeah, I am not a big gardener, mostly because I don't want to deal with the bugs and pests.

Does having an Aloe Vera plant in a pot in my room count as gardening? No? Oh......

I don't claim to have a green thumb, but I've got permission to start a couple of tomato plants starting this weekend.

Question: So I don't have to buy separate starters, can I start like 3 seeds in the same 6in pot and just pull two if all three sprout? Also, any recommendations on types of tomatoes? I'm leaning towards druzba or maybe Early Girl or Heatwave II. Getting the tomato names from burpee.com

Kat wrote:Question: So I don't have to buy separate starters, can I start like 3 seeds in the same 6in pot and just pull two if all three sprout? Also, any recommendations on types of tomatoes? I'm leaning towards druzba or maybe Early Girl or Heatwave II. Getting the tomato names from burpee.com

Planting multiple seeds in one flat sounds like a fine idea. If more than one of them sprouts, I'd let each of them grow for a week or so, and then pull the smaller ones.

Early Girls are good all-around tomatoes, but I've never had much luck with them due to the fact that your growing season starts earlier than ours. I'm a big fan of Roma's, Beefsteak, and Brandywine tomatoes.

StudyMate wrote:I am wondering if anyone here has any experience or tips on how to grow vegetables hydroponically.

I do not, and it's on my to-do list to learn in the very near future. I've been saving my cat litter containers because they are the PERFECT size and shape for hydroponic growing. But I need to figure out a pumping system as well as what kind of nutrients to buy and where to buy them at.

mm1991 wrote:Yeah, I am not a big gardener, mostly because I don't want to deal with the bugs and pests.

A gardener's best friend (seriously). I have spoilered the pic for the squeamish.


And yes, that is my hand next to her for scale reference.

starkat wrote:So I don't have to buy separate starters, can I start like 3 seeds in the same 6in pot and just pull two if all three sprout?

Absolutely. This is referred to as 'thinning' in gardening terms.

starkat wrote:Also, any recommendations on types of tomatoes?

DiGs wrote:Early Girls are good all-around tomatoes, but I've never had much luck with them due to the fact that your growing season starts earlier than ours. I'm a big fan of Roma's, Beefsteak, and Brandywine tomatoes.

As I've talked with you outside of NarniaWeb, I think I know a little more specifically what you want.
Make sure you look to see that the tomato says "indeterminate". I don't think Early Girls are, but I'll need to check to make sure.
Romas are an excellent sauce tomato and medium sized. I'm not sure what all you want to do with the tomatoes you grow, but if you're interested in making sauce, go with Romas.
Beefsteak and Brandywine tomatoes are huge. I think you said you want a medium sized tomato? so probably steer away from those two (though they are both quite tasty).
I have no experience with either Druzba or Heatwave so I can't say anything there but they both look good.
Since you're checking out Burpee's site, take a look at the Fourth of July tomatoes. I've never purchased this one either, but every year in their magazines, these are one of their top-rated customer favorites. That one may be on the small side though.

So, I think I've finally got everything planted. Every time I think I'm done, another one of my husband's co-workers sends me a list of plants they want. So I planted another four peppers and 11 tomatoes on Sunday... yeah, think I'm done now.
None of my second round of peppers/tomatoes/eggplants have started to come up yet, but it's only been a week and a half, so I should start to see something soon.
I'm also running into the issue of my greenhouse getting waaay too hot during the day. My sister pointed out to me that my cold weather plants (broccoli and cauliflower) probably won't like that very much, so I may need to repot those already and keep them inside, because she's right, they're looking a little sick. Oops!

Thanks guys. I think I've about decided on Roma and Druzba. I may take on cherry tomatoes too. I tend to like to munch on those like they are grapes. I'm going to go after the pots and potting soil this weekend. After I get the total, I'm going to order the seeds and them started. I'm hoping by starting them in large enough pots, that the root system and the plants themselves will be strong enough to handle the heat by the time it's time to put them in the ground. I think that was part of my problem last year. I started late and it wasn't mature enough of a plant to handle the extreme heat.

If the Roma plant makes it, I may experiment with making sauce. I'll have to find the right recipe though. Would definitely be interesting if that comes off.

Kat wrote:I started late and it wasn't mature enough of a plant to handle the extreme heat.

Last summer was a very hot dry summer, and a lot of gardens suffered. However, tomatoes need a lot of water. I would water my twelve tomato plants about twice a day if I could. It's hard to overwater a tomato plant .

Roma's make excellent sauces. We like to make homemade salsa with ours.

My tomatoes are coming up fast and furious this morning. When I first counted there were about seven up and a couple hours later I noticed a couple more peeking through. The vast majority are Honeybunch, but there are a lot of others as well. I'm excited.

I'm also really excited about the peppers I started last month. They're looking excellent. Probably the best I've ever had peppers look at the beginning. I hate to say this but I'm probably going to have to start thinking about repotting soon. Eeep!

Well, lesson learned. Never, ever, ever plant broccoli and cauliflower in the same starting tray as peppers. The first two like it cool, the latter likes it hot. I think I'm going to be doing some repotting today which is a bit annoying because I'd like my peppers to be bigger before I move them, but oh well.

In the meantime, everything is coming along nicely. Except for the watermelons. Those haven't come up yet which is a bit worrisome as they should have by now.

I ordered my tomato seeds! I've ordered druzba, roma, and honeybunch cherry seeds. I'm hoping to plant them as soon as they come in. I'm guessing I can fit 4 in one pot until they come up. Then I'll cull three if all 4 come up. I haven't made up my mind about going to a bigger pot or figuring out where to plant them in the ground when they outgrow the pots. Let's see if they survive this time.

Well, 6 out of 7 of my Carolina Cross watermelon plants are up as of this morning.... which makes me happy because I didn't think I was gonna get any. The back of the seed card said they'd be up in 7-10 days. HAHAHA... yeah, closer to seven weeks maybe. I've been trying to do a lot of research on how to grow these things and it looks like I'm going to have to be really diligent on watering and such if I plan to get anywhere near a 200lb watermelon.

Yesterday, my cat Murky made his greatest attempt at destroying one of my pepper plants. He took a flying leap from the counter to the top shelf, missed, and snagged a plant on his way down. (Don't worry, he's fine ) I'm still trying to figure out how he managed to bend it about 100 degrees over and not snap it off. Anyways, it's a little worse for the wear having lost a few leaves and being poked full of holes, and now it's a sort of z-shape, but IT SURVIVED!!

Watch it produce some mutant hybrid peppers now. . . that would be awesome

I still want pictures of your watermelon sprouts, FK

If it doesn't stop raining, I'll never get my garden started over spring break. . . unless I want to grow rice

Well, I have a new issue to deal with. Two of my pepper plants that I dug from last year, my jalapeno and habanero, have become infested with ant colonies. My husband noticed a few weeks ago when I brought them in on a particularly cold night that a few ants were crawling around. I took a mental note of the problem, but being so busy, I didn't try to deal with it immediately and now whenever I water those peppers, ants just swarm.

So I have stashed my greenhouse lots of sugar water mixed with Borax (boric acid) in the hopes that the colonies will be wiped out. But it takes two weeks to a month to potentially wipe out a whole colony, and I'm hoping they don't kill my plants by then. If they do I'm going to be most displeased.

In other much more exciting news, here are my watermelons.

I've been doing a lot of reading and research on how to produce 200lb watermelons out of these little guys, and I'm admittedly a bit intimidated, but I'm up for the challenge as well. (Lots of consistent watering and pruning and fertilizing involved )

One thing you might try, is a fertilizer spike, FK. It shouldn't hurt the plant (in fact, it'll probably help it), and the chemicals inside of it should also irritate the ant colony to the point where it may want to evacuate. The only downside to this is that your plants will no longer be considered "organic."

Your idea of Boric Acid mixed with sugar water is also a good idea.

My seeds arrived in the mail today! I've planted several seeds in three pots. Guess we'll see what comes up. I need to water any time it feels dry right?

kat wrote:I need to water any time it feels dry right?

*nods authoritatively*

I hope these work out for you, Kat! I know that you've had a lot of trouble just getting the seeds