I am so happy with my little lettuce experiment. I have been able to pick a small salad four days this past week. The lettuce leaves are about 1 1/2" long now and are doing very well with my simple (and cheap) shop light set up in the basement. I am also growing the mung and adzuki bean sprouts for added flavor and nutrients in the salads. The celery from the cut off end is now a couple inches tall and I can cut off a little piece every couple days to add to my salads. I also have some golden beets growing and a few radishes to see if I can at least get some greens to add to the salads. In very early March, I also plan on starting lots of pots with lettuce, radish, beets, spinach, 7 top turnips and just about anything else that I can pick leaves from for salads. These will be moved outside as soon as the temperature stays above freezing. I hope to purchase some PVC pipe to make a small hoop house to keep all the plants in.
At work I found some nice rectangular, plastic containers that get thrown away in large numbers. They will fit nicely on my only south facing window sill. I am going to start some more lettuce, spinach, radish and beets in them to grow some more salad greens. I will rotate with the other plants growing under my shop light in an attempt at keeping them from getting too leggy. I hope to be able to pick more leaves to add to my salads in a few weeks.
I found this neat Utube video on one of Patti's websites that shows one person's experiment growing potatoes in pots. Basically, a piece of potato was planted into 1 gallon pots and 90 days later it was harvested. She had a really good yield for the amount of space provided. I have a couple spuds in a brown paper bag to see if I can get some of them to sprout so I can grow potatoes in pots. I'm not sure if the light from my east facing window will be enough, but I am going to give it a try anyway. I figure I have nothing to lose except the opportunity to grow a couple fresh potatoes for the table.
I'll keep you all updated as I can...I've been picking up all the over-time I can and find myself pretty tired at the end of the day. You know the old saying, gotta may hay while the sun is shining. In my case, gotta get the work while the work is available. See you next time. Kim
1 comment:
Ha! I didn't know you could cut and come again with celery! What a great little set up you have there in your basement. I'll have to check through more posts to see if you explain how you set that up inexpensively. Too cool!
Blessings,
Angela
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