New Ebucket thread (we continue) PART III

Great looking garden!

Thanks! It's so nice to get some positive feedback on the garden here. :>)

I've learned a lot from all of you!

I love your patio set-up, too, VitaVeggieMan!

That patio is "Duh Bomb!" You've got so much growing on!

Hey everybody - bumping this thread. Finally got my stuff growing. I'm sort of ashamed that my spring crop has become my fall crop. Heh.

I wonder if it's the heat, not enough water, not enough food, too much of any of the above . . .

The fingerling eggplant is doing the best of anything. When do they turn purple?

Tomatoes just starting to bear ripe fruit.

Butternut - the first 2 plants planted in 1 bucket together. Each plant has one squash - one is about 5" long, the other only about 2". The flowers bust open very prettily, but I am having blossom rot, methinks. So many flowers - only 1 fruit on each plant. I read other threads - have not planted in buckets before, but I assume same holds true - not enough water and/or not enough nutrients? They did suffer a little when they were set out in the sun initially. I am watering from the top in this heat till water runs from the drain hole to make sure there's enough water. Have added additional granule food. Have "mulched" with dead grass/weed clippings (hey! on a poverty budget here!). Wonder if that will improve things? Have also seen the yellowish/orangey beetlebugs with black stripes. Have stink bugs also hanging out on these plants.

Watermelon had a tiny fruit which fell off. :/
Have kept it watered and added more granules to combat this. Having a bloom every other day-ish now. See tiny fruits, will see what happens.

Cucumbers - too soon to tell. :)

Trionfono purple pole beans - just getting 'em trained onto the teepee.

Pretty lame, eh?

Any help with these issues above which may or may not have Ebucket remedies will be appreciated!

A.

p.s. I will not use insecticide. Please only natural remedies if you have any to suggest. Thanks!

Beans.

Eggplant.

The first squash.

These photos were all taken last week.

Almost forgot the watermelon!

(it's gone now but have at least 2 that have taken it's place).

O well. While I'm at it here's the trellis I made for the mandevilla. This pic is for Gym_girl. I learned how to tie the Japanese ibo knot for this project. May be a future in there for me?! ;)

A.

The ibo knot.

The teepee and teepee trellis were fairly haphazard. No fancy knots there, but I am going to put up some more cross posts on each side of the "pyramid" to hold the weight of what I expect to be a giant harvest of butternut and sugar baby watermelon. ;)

A.

Amanda: Those plants look so healthy and I love your trellis.
joy

Great job on the trellis! I like it!

Your plants are looking wonderful and may do better now as the season starts cooling down. Some of my veggies got fried by the heat this year! I look forward to seeing and hearing about your progress as they mature and produce edibles!

Great job. Sharon

This BUMP is for Amanda!

Girl, I need a knot tying tutorial I can follow!!!! You're a professional now. I went back and reviewed your pics, and you tied a LOT of knots, so I know you have mastered it!

How's your eBucket garden faring? Post some updated pics, please.

I FINALLY scheduled this weekend for my Hurricane IKE (2008) replacement fence to go up, and, my weatherman has predicted 60%%% chance of rain Friday. First day of more than 1" of rain in 218 days!!!! And, I was gonna have the fence guy build my first raised bed while he was here.

Who'd a thought I'd be praying for it NOT to rain in Houston???!!!

Oh, well, looks like I'll be doing that eBucket garden after all. Good thing I held on to the buckets!

P.S. eBucket news flash!!!!

I'm about to embark on a gardening project at two different schools. Each 4th grader will build and monitor their own eBucket, and grow one veggie! The selection will include: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, or Brussels Sprouts. I'm providing the seedlings! There will be 30 eBuckets going on the school garden site! And, my co-worker parent who's coordinating between me and the school, came up with the idea of letting each child decorate his/her eBucket! How cool is that???

They'll also start several community flats of spinach and lettuce (since these will produce a faster harvest for the kids). They can have a living salad garden and harvest microgreens, and learn to thin them out toharvest mature plants, too. Making them wait 60-90 days for a cabbage or broccoli to mature might prove a bit much to ask of them, so we'll give them some nice greens in the meanwhile.

Ya'll pray for me, hear?

Linda:

Ha Ha Ha - yes it's a super cool project, but you will need the prayers for sure. :)

If you need to see any of the knot tying sources I looked at let me know. I ended up having to go nautical to get the basics in order to go back to the traditional Japanese knot tying. Once you get the hang of it it's fairly easy, depending on what you are building. Since I was building a trellis I wanted it to look a little more tidy than the teepee trellis which was very haphazard. :D

I let my squash plants go - they were for sure the only plants infected. I put the sugar snap peas in there last week and will wait for them to show themselves.

I was so thrilled this morning - literally - to see tiny beans on my damned bean pole. They are only an inch long, but you know - I have to take the joys of gardening where I can get them.

Thanks for asking. The stuff is sort of slow growing, but it's progress and I will post a pic or two this week since you asked. :)

A.

Gymgirl - what a wonderful school project. I hope more schools across the country start these types of projects, it's so important that children learn how to grow their own food. I wish I could live long enough to see the day when growing vegetables in your own backyard was as common as it was when I was a child growing up in England.

AmandaEsq,

Gymgirl - or you could check with a local craft store for a book on knots, and photograph the page with your cell 'phone!

(I've never done this, and it's probably not legal)

A book on tying knots. Thanks, Bee!

BTW, My sister sends everyone in the family drugstore b'day cards that she's photographed on her cellphone. Some of them even play music! I was shocked and appalled, and told her I'd come visit her in jail, but I wouldn't be sending her a card!

Actually, the camera phone trick comes in handy, just when you least expect it. I was in the supermarket shopping for ingredients to make Rice Krispie treats and I couldn't remember something. I looked on the back of the box I was buying, and it WASN'T there!!!! But, the Rice Krispie treats recipe is ALWAYS on the box!!! Not!

It was the Christmas Holidays and, of course, they knew everyone would be making those desserts. So, they shifted the recipe to the LARGE box of Rice Krispies (which I didn't need). But, I needed the recipe. So, I whipped out my trusty cellphone camera, and, Snap! Crackle! and Popped! that recipe right off that large box...

I don't pirate videotaped movies, either. I detest that practice with all my heart...

Linda

O my goodness. Glad my cell phone does not have a camera.

Ready for the islands, Linda. Just say the word - the yacht washed ashore during the hurricane. Will have to stow away. ;)

A.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I don't have a cell phone that takes photos (it's a Jitterbug) - but my daughter does. It comes in handy when we are on our walks and see an insect we can't identify.

My watermelon collapsed this week. I harvested a cute melon about the size of a large cantaloupe. We are going to open it today. Poor thing . . .. :/

Luvcats,
I've grown the following of each in my eBuckets:

- Cabbage (1)
- Collard greens
- Kale (never grown before)
- Broccoli (1)
- Cauliflower (1)
- Sugar Snap Peas (never grown before)

- Carrots. Have only grown them in a small raised bed. This time, I'm using a free draining (no reservoir), clear plastic Rubbermaid tub to grow my carrots in. You can also grow them in the green rubbermaid tubs, too. Just drill plenty drain holes in the bottom and some on the sides about 1/4" up. Here's a pic of the tubs.

- Parsnips probably grow the same as carrots, in tubs.

Hey Guys,
I can't find Al, and need to know how many cubic feet of potting mix a standard 5-gallon bucket holds. The 4th grader teacher is waiting to purchase the potting medium. They'll most likely be using Tapla's 5:1:1 container mix for the project.

Thanks!

Linda

There are 0.6684 cubic feet in five gallons. I looked it up on Google.

Yer so smart. :D

So,
TWENTY-FIVE, five-gallon eBuckets x 0.6684 cf = 16.71 cf divided by 2.0 cf per large bag of MG potting mix = 8.355 bags to fill the 25 eBuckets, right?

And, a patented Earthbox takes 2 cups Dolomite lime, 2 cups of fertilizer, and 2.0 cf of potting mix.

A 5-gallon eBucket holds roughly 1/3 the total of the Earthbox.

So, each eBucket would take approximately
5.3 ounces Dolomite lime
5.3 ounces 10-10-10 fertilizer

Yes?





This message was edited Sep 13, 2011 10:04 AM

My brain hurts....

Ow. Now my eyes hurt.

My brain hurts, too - do they have an APP for that? LOL

:D

Come on, ya'll. I need help, please...?

O hon, I'm sorry I sort of thought that was a rhetorical question up there. Not only am I math challenged, I couldn't find my calculator if it was tied to my neck.


Where the hell is Sharon when you need her magnificent brain?!

I thought ya'll were math wizards! Numbers elude me -- but WORDS? AHA!

Just found this thread and looks like I'll have another project with those e-buckets . Linda , now I know why Bubba was saving all those buckets for you .HA ! I hope he has some for me when we see him in early Nov . I'm gonna try that .

Digger,
He's got PLENTY buckets!!!

Good , good , good ! I can use a bunch . My places , my sons place and left overs to shovel oyster shell in for my walks and drive .I can't carry but 10 buckets at the time .
Do you find the e-bucket gives superior planting and harvest than the conventional ?And how about ease of care ?