Green Stalk Vertical Garden

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@DeniseM made me aware of their Mother's Day sale and I placed am order for a five tier. I ordered it on Friday and it arrived today. So just under a week all the way to Hawaii. I can't complain about that.

We just started adding potting soil and I have two tiers filled. We have to run into town to get another bag and some Miracle-Gro.

We got some starters at a farmers market to give us a head start. We have beans, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes and Green and Banana Peppers. Kim found a few Strawberries to add also.

We'll see how it goes. I'm glad I went with the five tier. The Seven would be pretty tall, especially, with the wheeled swivel base.

It will be nice to get it filled today so the lanai gets cleared off and organized again.

 

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It took a few hours but I got all my starters planted. I am going to wait a bit and plant some seeds also. I still have about 10 open spaces left too.

All in all, very simple and it saves a ton of space. Plus I have so much more planted. So far I am very happy with it.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

Hi Jeff,
How many hour of direct sunlight do you get? (BTW, I've been doing hydroponics for about 15 years).

 

[slip]

Hi Jeff,
How many hour of direct sunlight do you get? (BTW, I've been doing hydroponics for about 15 years).

About seven hours.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

About seven hours.

I think that your system will do great. The only (minor) challenge with your system is that all of the plants will get the same nutrients. Some plants like lower pH, or less/more nutrients.

I typically grow lettuce, romaine, some strawberries, and spinach. Sometimes tomatoes. But I give them all the same nutrients and try to keep the pH around 6.

 

[slip]

Yes, I was worried about that a bit and I will have to rotate them into the sun. We'll see how it goes.

 

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My plants are doing well and soaking up the sun this morning.

 

[DeniseM]

[I just moved this post to this Green Stalk thread, which is a better place for it.] We are back in Northern CA where the garden is in full-swing, along with a few aphids and Cabbage Loopers, (aka Inch Worms) which I'm dealing with organically. The strawberry tower has a few tiny strawberries on it:

Upon returning from Hyatt High Sierra, I also found a bunch of Devil's Horn mushrooms growing in one of my raised beds - the spores must have come in with the mulch. They look like alien eggs hatching! Creepy!

Here is a picture from Wikipedia of a fully intact specimen - it's Latin name is "Phallus Rubicundus."

 

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Everything is coming in strong so far. We even have a couple Cherry Tomatoes coming in.

 

[Brett]

that's impressive for growing tomatoes in a small space
My pepper plants are now producing, the tomatoes will need a few more weeks

 

[slip]

that's impressive for growing tomatoes in a small space
My pepper plants are now producing, the tomatoes will need a few more weeks

I bought the plant support and I just got it so I will add that today since the tomatoes are doing so well.

My pepper starters were really small so they will take a while yet but they have tripled in size already.

 

[DeniseM]

My first strawberry is getting ripe!

 

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My first strawberry is getting ripe!

View attachment 93672

Hopefully they will come in bunches now. We have to pickup a few more strawberry plants.

 

[DeniseM]

It has gotten hot here and they have stopped blooming. I gave them a little strawberry fertilizer and increased their water. If they still aren't blooming in a week, I'm going to move them to an area that only gets morning sun.

 

[Passepartout]

My first strawberry is getting ripe!

Boy, That's quick! It's only been about 3 weeks since your first post when the 'garden' was just a stack of plastic pots!

I'm AMAZED!

 

[DeniseM]

It only seems like 3 weeks, but the bare root starts were planted on March 22nd. As advised, I pinched the blooms off for the first couple of months to encourage the plants to grow first.

 

[DeniseM]

Today we moved the Green Stalk to a cooler area, because it hasn't been blooming since it got hotter. Now it gets sun until 2:00 and then it's in the shade for the rest of the day - during the hottest part of the day. We needed a longer runoff hose in the new location, but Rod was able to pick up a longer hose at Lowe's that is the same size, so it's good to know that it's a standard size. Now it sits in front of my garden window behind the kitchen sink, and I like seeing it there while I'm working in the kitchen. (The half a bag of cement is weighing down the new hose, because it came in a coil, and we want it to straighten out.)

 

[slip]

Today we moved the Green Stalk to a cooler area, because it hasn't been blooming since it got hotter. Now it gets sun until 2:00 and then it's in the shade for the rest of the day - during the hottest part of the day. We needed a longer runoff hose in the new location, but Rod was able to pick up a longer hose at Lowe's that is the same size, so it's good to know that it's a standard size. Now it sits in front of my garden window behind the kitchen sink, and I like seeing it there while I'm working in the kitchen. (The half a bag of cement is weighing down the new hose, because it came in a coil, and we want it to straighten out.)

View attachment 93930View attachment 93931

Looks great. They are coming along nicely. I was wondering if our 7 to 8 hours of sun would be enough. Our two strawberry plants are about as big as yours. We don't have a lot of runners on them. When we return from the mainland, we are going to get a few more.

A few more pictures from today. Happy so far.