The weekly wignat

Other things to never discard.

1) egg cartons, someone you know will need them for eggs and may trade eggs for empty cartons. These are great germination pods with soil or for seed potato sprouting etc.

2) Plastic containers, they can cover seedlings for a frost, make containers for growing, storage or used to sprout greens, mini greenhouse etc

3) Metal containers, just like your grandmother had, harder wearing than plastics.

4) Jars of any kind, not just for canning but also dry goods and condiments. Sprouts also.

5) Burlap, hessian or feed bags. Not just for carrying harvest and storage but often needed by manure sellers who again may trade product for your empty bags.

6) Old seed packets, these contain valuable information for growing temp, soil and sun requirements, time of planting and spacing. Also mark those which performed well and in time compile results and a notebook.

7) Seeds, many can be dried and eaten, sprouted or used as micro greens and are good free practice in developing skills.

How it feels when I have to interact with the public to bring everyone original, organic and meaningful content.

Just ducking down to Supercheap auto for some 12v connections for the hydroponic build...

Manutec have updated their packaging old (left) new (right)

Differences are subtle, have included that the scoop is 5 grams large side (1 gram small) and added a note for non flushing systems like Dr Kratky etc need to be flushed with fresh water to prevent salt build up.

Must be an increase of people using it for small home systems for growing leafy greens.

Subtle changes like this are solid markers that the fertiliser industry is noticing a change in its market, that's a positive response and shows the market and the people who support it are leading that change.

Transferring sprouts to sponge.

Pretty straight forward, each cube has a X cut into it which allows you to open up and drop the roots through.

I've followed my same planting configuration as I'm autistic and I have the containers already to allow me to do that, however anything you have that fits the bill is fine, even the bottom of an old milk bottle.

Using the 50% hydroponic solution I saturated the sponge after seedlings were in and then made sure there is plenty at the bottom to feed the roots as they grow.

Probably less than a week and they will be in the system.

The little milk trowel that could

Milk bottle gardens

One of the best ways I've found to grow, pack and deliver a garden is using milk crates and bottles as the modular system, there is really nothing you can't do with them which is why they are so highly prized by pragmatic people.

Here I am using a soldering iron and Stanley knife to to make the pots, first cut the bottle neck around, but leaving partially connected to allow micro green house.

I've removed (plucked) the seedlings from the jiffy coir pots for the hydroponic system already (more on that later) and will be burying the pellet in potting mix in each milk bottle.

I melt a hole in each corner for this type of grow with soldiering iron. In past I've experimented with the height of holes and even making wicking beds to allow longer gaps between watering, even growing in stacked milk crates just to see how viable it was for a crisis garden.

Total cost of this was $8 in potting mix, even made the trowel for transferring soil from an old milk bottle as I didn't bring one with me!

Mixing powdered nutrient solution to 50% for watering and acclimatisating germinated seeds.

One of the many reasons I like the manutec nutrient for beginners is that it comes in two seperate resealable and labelled bags, with a measuring scoop also.

Tonight marks day 7 of the seeds being planted and they caught me by surprise being so leggy, from not having enough hours of daylight I suspect. In a few days I will remove the unwanted sprouts (eat them) and let the best of each plug flourish.

The best way I have found for getting a good 50% mix of nutrients for developing sprouts and a good watering can is to use an old milk bottle. Peep the expiry date...

Mix is 1.2g fertilizer, 0.8 calcium nitrate to 2 litres of water, shaken and then when you invert the bottle it will run of its own accord on a light mist allowing you to target single plugs in the tray or water in a pattern.

To make the best top holes, and keep even spacing, use a corn cob holder. I chose this geometric shape for no particular reason.