It is quite difficult to grow tomatoes outdoors where I live. We are about 400 feet from the Pacific Ocean in far northern California, and it really doesn't get hot enough to ripen most tomatoes outdoors before they succumb to fungal diseases (due to humidity and coolness).
Enter the greenhouse and hothouse. We call our greenhouse the structure in which we grow plants in pots and hydroponically. We call the hothouse the place we grow plants in the ground. Today was the day that I prepared this years hydroponic setup and planted the first two tomatoes.
 |
| physan scrub |
To prepare the setup, I first wash the containers and pump in Physan 20 (a hospital and greenhouse anti-fungal and anti-bacterial soap), put the whole thing together which means installing the pump, programming the timer, filling the pots with pellets, and filling the lower container with water and fertilizer. I then take a tomato plant in a pot, wash out the roots in running water, and put the plant in one of the pots with the pellets. We usually plant six tomatoes in the pots. (You can enlarge pictures by clicking on them).
 |
| timer |
 |
Pellets and pump running
|
 |
| two containers |
I did plant two tomato plants in the hydroponic setup this evening, but we will have to wait until tomorrow for pictures.
Another part of today's garden adventure was re-potting plants grown in six packs into larger containers. I did this with cauliflower, lettuces, broccoli, pac choi, and basil. I do have an excess of tomatoes to plant. We will be giving away quite a few plants after I plant tomorrow.
 |
| Tomatoes ready to plant |
No comments:
Post a Comment