Growing Food and Other Cool Stuff

[ShittyMike]

Hopefully this is the right board, I figure the topics are similar enough though

Anyone have experience with growing plants or raising animals? If so I'd really like to hear about your thoughts on it. But first, some of mine...

I took up gardening last summer for the shiggles of it and found what I think will be a lifetime hobby. Its just so fascinating putting seeds in the ground and months later having tasty plants you can grab a meal off of. Making and maintaining a garden is a fantastic feeling to me, and it is a great way to get an understanding for our innate need to cooperate with Mother Nature.

Not specifically food, but keeping a fish tank is another awesome hobby to have. I've kept (and bred a few) of random fish like bettas, guppies, freshwater shrimp, a piranha and way more. I've read that you can grow tilapia fairly easily and that it is edible. Another bonus to growing fish is that fishtank water is great nutrients for your plants, which leads to mentioning aquaponics, which is like hydroponics but with fish in the water. I think that idea is super neato but a lot of the equipment is pricey so I just stick to dumping fish water on my plants and they seem to really like it.

 

[Jimmy Beans]

I grew a small garden a couple years ago, it was quite nice. I spent so much time out there naked in my garden just absorbing the sun while taking a bite of a tomato, a pinch of basil and some lettuce, a carrot, peppers and so on.. just basically grabbing food that's still alive and making a little salad in my mouth. There's really nothing like vegetables that are still warm from the sun right off the plant.

I learned a lot that year, one thing I realized is plants grow big. I crowded just about everything I grew but it turned out really good regardless. I'll space more when I get a place to grow another garden. I was most impressed with tomatoes, no other plants I grew yielded the way they did. The potato vegetation grew amazing above ground and even though I tried really hard to keep a nice loose soil bed of really good soil, the potatoes that grew below were not so great in number.

Maybe I did it wrong, but all in all it just seemed like the plants took up half of one of my four raised beds and I only ended up with about 8 lbs. That's a huge amount of space to consume for something I can buy at the market for $3.00 or so. That same amount of garden space given to tomatoes yielded several dozen pounds, saving me possibly close to $100 at the market.. tomatoes just really blew up well and kept thriving.

I also noticed my squash, zucchini and melons would sprout and then the beginnings of the fruit would vanish mysteriously. I couldn't figure it out until one day I saw the dog chasing a bird out from one of the plants. It helps to put nets around certain plants, another lesson learned the hard way. All in all I was still quite happy with it, I'll grow a garden anytime I live somewhere where it's conducive to do so, which sadly is not the case where I'm at now.



I never took pics beyond the beginning stage but the tomatoes over grew the 4X6 boxes nearly twice the size and easily approaching 6 feet tall. I tried to keep it roped in with supports and such but those plants are vigorous as fuck and just did their own thing despite my efforts.

 

[Kim Chee]

Gardening and farming are awesome things to do with your time. Being self reliant (not relying on others to feed you) is something we can all benefit from.

Yep, this is how pineapples grow:

Must harvest bananas green or you'll be sharing much with rats and insects:

Doesn't hurt to have a low manintenance fertilizer producer:

 

[Odin]

Hahah that Burro's is cracking me up.
Giving stp the o'rly eye's
Looks like the islands are a great place to practice some of that self reliance, nice.

@ShittyMike I dig the aquaponics idea, tying in multiple systems to promote growth and balance. Fish do produce a lot of nutrients in their waste. I used to keep chiclids, oscars, and pleco suckerfish...syphoning the gravel bed always produces a lot of waste. Never thought of that as something to use on a garden though. Cool idea there.

 

[Tude]

I would love sometime if I had the space (and $$) to try aquaponics. Raise tilapia and also veggies. The one conspiracy site I'm on has a LOT of preppers on there and I know a couple were involved with aquaponics so I went back and looked, but the thread is in the archives and many of the links/pics don't work. Looks like some communities get involved in a big system, while others are personal use. There are several DIY aquaponics instructions out there too.

 

[Desert]

I grew a small garden a couple years ago, it was quite nice. I spent so much time out there naked in my garden just absorbing the sun while taking a bite of a tomato, a pinch of basil and some lettuce, a carrot, peppers and so on.. just basically grabbing food that's still alive and making a little salad in my mouth. There's really nothing like vegetables that are still warm from the sun right off the plant.

I learned a lot that year, one thing I realized is plants grow big. I crowded just about everything I grew but it turned out really good regardless. I'll space more when I get a place to grow another garden. I was most impressed with tomatoes, no other plants I grew yielded the way they did. The potato vegetation grew amazing above ground and even though I tried really hard to keep a nice loose soil bed of really good soil, the potatoes that grew below were not so great in number.

Maybe I did it wrong, but all in all it just seemed like the plants took up half of one of my four raised beds and I only ended up with about 8 lbs. That's a huge amount of space to consume for something I can buy at the market for $3.00 or so. That same amount of garden space given to tomatoes yielded several dozen pounds, saving me possibly close to $100 at the market.. tomatoes just really blew up well and kept thriving.

I also noticed my squash, zucchini and melons would sprout and then the beginnings of the fruit would vanish mysteriously. I couldn't figure it out until one day I saw the dog chasing a bird out from one of the plants. It helps to put nets around certain plants, another lesson learned the hard way. All in all I was still quite happy with it, I'll grow a garden anytime I live somewhere where it's conducive to do so, which sadly is not the case where I'm at now.



I never took pics beyond the beginning stage but the tomatoes over grew the 4X6 boxes nearly twice the size and easily approaching 6 feet tall. I tried to keep it roped in with supports and such but those plants are vigorous as fuck and just did their own thing despite my efforts.

Actually, depending on where you live and the intensity of the sun, close spacing of your leafy greens keeps the sun from reaching the soil. This keeps evaporation to a minimum, decreases nutrient loss and is just good for the soil. Helps maintain pH as well. Awesome garden though...

 

[Kim Chee]

@Tude, we have tilapia in above ground tanks, no pump necessary, gravity fed.

 

[Deleted member 125]

ive had a backyard garden for the past 2 years using straw bales, last year i grew a shit ton of kale in them. also had pretty good luck with using recycling bins to grow tomatoes/peppers this past year. the garbage can potato method works really well and can be supplemented with beans on the top to protect yer potatoes. i have a rather big backyard so its really just me and my partner being lazy/cheap because we could have one hell of a garden.

 

[Deleted member 2626]

just found this thread. god damn is it nice to see all of these folks pushing for more self reliance. @Kim Chee you just cut off the top of a pineapple and plant it to grow right?

 

[Kim Chee]

just found this thread. god damn is it nice to see all of these folks pushing for more self reliance. @Kim Chee you just cut off the top of a pineapple and plant it to grow right?

Essentially. A couple days drying out a bit and maybe even some rooting hormone might help, but if your soil conditions and weather are right it really isn't necessary.

I don't think you'll get pineapple to happen outdoors in PA.

 

[Deleted member 17306]

I don't think you'll get pineapple to happen outdoors in PA.

I've seen bananas growing on a mountaintop in colorado. Never know what's possible in a green house with proper care.