Here's what happens when you don't give plants enough light when you're growing them, also when you don't harden them off before planting outside. It's OK though, these were just extra and for fun. I might try a couple more straight in the ground.
January 24, 2009
Started Irish Red.
Should have made starter a couple days ahead per instructions. Used WYEAST 1056 Propagator. Did make starter, used for ~2 hours.
Used a ~5 gallon pot. Didn't have any problems with over foaming.
Cooled the wort by placing pot inside fermenter and adding ice to sides and inside while stirring. Only two applications were required.
The stirrer did an excellent job of cooling and aerating the wort. Angled at ~45 deg did a great job of getting air into wort. SG = 1.05 @ 78° F.
All ingredients smell great.
Made up water with 4lbs ice to cool and half gallonish for volume. boiled 4 gallons of filtered water for wort.
February 1, 2009
Specific Gravity = 1.012@ 65° F
Huge yeast colony on bottom of primary. 1-2 inches thick. Topped off with 1-2 quarts of filtered water.
February 13, 2009
SG = 1.011 @ 68° F
Using the starting and ending SGs a value of 5.3% alcohol/volume was found.
Roughly 47 bottles were made.
Had enough beer for at least two more bottles.
Beer tasting day. This beer tastes quite good, enjoyed by all.
I have noticed recently in a couple applications the effects of not enough light on plant growth. With a normally healthy plant when faced with poor light it will cauase the plant to become thin and leggy, often with long stretches between leaves. The stems are often weak as a result. This makes for poor plants for transplanting outdoors. When growing plants indoors, it is essential to provide adequate lighting.
Whenever you are preparing to do any digging in your yard you should always call to have utility lines marked. When beginning my lawn work I called my local utility and set up an appointment to have my lines marked. The call was simple and I was able to make an appointment for the next day. It's a free service which can save you hassle and serious injury.
When my lines were marked I found that my electrical service goes all the way around the back of the house to get to the panel. If I had only been working in the backyard I might not have had the lines marked, and this would have lead to trouble. Even if you think you know where your utilities are buried, stay safe and dial 811 before digging.
Practice Smart Digging.
The seed tray has worked out very well for me. My attempts with using uncovered cups did not. I purchased another 25 spot tray, with a package of refills.
The beans and corn quickly grew to three times the height of the cover and I had to remove them. Also, I didn't keep careful record of it and now I don't know which beans are Cranberry and which are the Blackeyed.
I drew more detailed versions of each garden plot so now I have a better idea of how many seeds to plant. It appears that I might have some room for broccoli. Looking over the layout, I'm going to have a busy season.
While I was doing some yard work this weekend a good friend of mine called to inform me that he found a good sized grape vine growing in his garden. Oddly enough I spent a good portion of that day preparing a place to put a grape vine if I were to get one. I rushed over to dig it out and I'm very pleased with it. It's about a half an inch thick at the base. Given what we know about where it was growing it's probably one to one and a half years old. We were able to save good portions of all four tap roots. The various branches are roughly 8 feet long.
When I got it home I dug a shallow hole the size of the root area. Then, inside, I dug three deeper holes with the post hole digger to extened the tap roots into. I filled back in with a mixture of top soil and dirt from the hole and water it all in. I threaded some of the branches through the lattice.
Quick update on the tobacco. I few of the seeds have germinated and are showing leaves. It looks like I'll need to plant some more in order to have a full crop.
Ok, I haven't really grown up gardening but, I have continued to come back to it.
When I was about 5 years old my parents helped me grow a garden in the back yard. We purchased the book Kid's Gardening
When I was 18 I worked for Morning Glory Farm. Morning Glory was run by a couple that lived in Union county. The farm was located on roughly 50 acres. The Raibles ran a strictly organic farm. I learned a lot from them and most of my opinions on gardening came from what they taught me while I working there. There were two sections of planted area, one in the front almost strictly of flowers and one in the back, fenced in, mostly of vegetables. Also near the vegetable plot they had a greenhouse and a bee hive. The greenhouse was of simple design, a long room with a semi-circle shape made from PVC pipe and covered with plastic sheeting. The bee hive served two purposes, first to pollinate the plants so that the vegetables could grow well and secondly, to get delicious honey. I worked there for about 2 years before school and an internship took up too much of my time.
Now, at 25 I own a home and am trying to garden again. You've seen the website where I try to keep an updated record of what's happening and obviously you are reading this where I'm keeping track of my progress.
I hope my future remains in farming. I would like to have a dozen or two acres with room for some grain crops along with a garden, some livestock and of course a beehive of my own.
I purchased a planting tray to start my seeds in. This tray has 72 cells for starting seeds in. The cells are open to the main tray in the bottom so that water can flow freely throughout. As you can see, when water is added the pods expand. I have seeded several plants. I am following the directions for the tray (which includes a clear plastic cover) and am placing it in a warm place, out of direct sunlight.
I labeled each column and row so that I can keep track of what is growing where. For instance:
A1, A2, B1 Bell Pepper
C1,C2, B2, D1 Cranberry Bean
B3-B6 Black-eye Peas
A3-A6 Black Mexican Corn
C3-C6 Lemon Balm
D2-D6 Greek Oregano
E1-E6 Celery
F1-F6 Chives
G1-G6 Spinach
H3-H6 Sugar Snaps
H1, H2, I1-I4 Old German Tomato
I5, I6, J6 Sweet Pepper
J1-J5, K6 Carrot
K1-K5 Tennessee Red Corn
L4-L6 Cayenne Pepper
Driving around my area lately I've seen many wild Redbud trees growing in nearby wooded areas. The bright pink flowers are a stark contrast to the the brown and green that usually surrounds them. I'm going to try and get one to grow in my yard. Obviously I could try to buy one, but they seem so plentiful it almost seems like a waste.
I am going to try to grow one from a cutting a few different ways to see what will work. I cut a large branch from a wild tree. The cutting is about 4 feet long with the base trunk about 1 inch in diameter. I cut the end of the branch at an angle to increase the surface area. The branch is placed in a 5 gallon bucket with three gallons of water with a root stimulator mixed in at the prescribed ratio.
From this branch I have cut three smaller twigs, each cut in the 'mallet' style. Two will be placed in seed starter soil, one will be watered with water that has been mixed with the root stimulator and the other with just water. A third, a control, will be placed only in water.
Each of these methods I am keeping near a westernly facing window, upstairs. This will provide the indirect sunlight and the warmth. I will remove all of the flowers from all cuttings to save energy and encourage root growth.
From the little bit of reading that I've done it sounds like I will most likely get the best result from a cutting placed in the soil.