Coconut Coir vs Peat Moss

I've been reading up on the latest fads in gardening, and it seems that everyone is buzzing about coconut coir as a germination medium since it is more renewable than peat moss (which is renewable, but takes a long time to grow). So I thought I'd give it a whirl. All I have to lose is money, right?

I bought two types of coir - bricks, which should be soaked in a tub of water, and pellets, which are meant to replace the jiffy disks in germination trays. The bricks remain to be opened, as only one flat of seedlings was planted today, they were $2.50 for ~8 quarts.

For about $5, a box of 72 pellets were plunked into the tray, and warm water added to make them expand and get damp. Be sure to place them in the tray oriented vertically, with the circular sides of the cylinder on top & bottom. Horizontal pellets will expand into the sides of the cell, and remain rather dense (a small screwdriver helped break up the clumps), one cracked the cell wall of a recycled tray. Vertical pellets will expand upwards, looking a little too much like Canadian goose poop, but pouring water over the top helps them settle flat. They expanded quickly - within a few minutes, much faster than peat pellets.

I found the pellets to be a bit small for the cells (perhaps they'll expand more overnight), and didn't fill the cavities completely. But for ease of use and rapid expansion they get high marks. I'm not thrilled at the cost, especially compared to the bricks of coir. Perhaps I can find a different supplier that sells them bulk.

So what did I start you ask?

Garlic Chives

Regular Chives

Sage
Spicy Globe Basil

Dark Opal Basil

Marjoram

Creeping Thyme

Stevia

Lemon Balm

Sweet Basil

Flat Parsley

Curled Parsley

Radish Germination in the Root View Box

Those radish seeds germinated in three days, roots are visible in the photo above. Today they have leaves, but I don't have a photo yet.

Photo of seed leaves - 2-21-2010:

Photo of root view box 3-22 or so...you can see the radishes and the beets are growing nicely!

Building a Root View Box

Ever want to know just what is happening beneath the soil surface? What your seeds are actually doing in there?

A root-view box is simply a planter with a window to the dirt, so you can observe what is happening below the soil surface. By planting the seeds against an angled window, the roots will grow against it. However, roots avoid light, so the window needs a covering.

Like other projects that will be encountering water, this is built mostly of cedar, with some scraps of other wood as trim pieces (holding in the window). It was built to fit the planter drip trays I found at the local hardware store, so anyone building one will want to come up with their own dimensions.

Materials:
1x6 lumber
trim pieces (in this case 1/2" square stock and some triangles cut from scraps lying around)
1/8" clear polycarbonate for the window
plastic drip tray from a windowbox planter
1" galvanized hinges
2" latch (could use a hook & eye or many other things to secure the window, but these were on the clearance rack for a quarter each)
wood screws
nails
wood glue
sandpaper
drill
screw gun
hammer


Mount the window at an angle, so the roots have to encounter it while growing down (geotropism, if I recall primary school biology correctly)
Drill some drainage holes in the bottom.
Add a trim piece that covers the edge of the window across the top, this will block incoming light, since the roots will avoid any light.

If you are wanting to use acrylic to save money on the window, I understand that Lowe's will cut it to size for you - do this - acrylic is not easy to cut without shattering. If you must cut it yourself, use a metal straight-edge and a blade to score it, then repeat the same cut deeper and deeper until you can snap it over a straight corner. Polycarbonate (sold under the brand name Lexan) is a bit stronger and less likely to shatter. Polycarb. can be cut easily on a band saw, or with a fine-tooth jigsaw or circle saw.

Plant the root-view box as you would any other container. This is a mixture of potting soil with a slow-release fertilizer and worm castings, the same mix I'm using for starting seeds this year. I filled a 1.25 gallon ice cream bucket halfway with potting mix and added 5 or 6 cups of water, letting it sit for a few hours to soak in. Then, dump it into the planter box, plant the seeds, and add labels.

Seeds that would be good to try include carrots, beets, radishes, bunching onions, parsnips, and chard (it has multi-colored roots). Science project topics can include obstacle avoidance by the roots (put stones or sticks into the box), different light filters for the roots, different soil mixes (sandy, loam, clay).

I hope to add photos every few days as we watch the seeds germinate and grow. We should see something from the radishes within a few days.

Groupies?

Since there was such great interest in the Garden Planner spreadsheet last year, I've decided to add a Google Group to facilitate downloads of the spreadsheet as it develops. You can find us at http://groups.google.com/group/wi-garden

The original garden planner spreadsheet is located there, you're welcome to join us and download a copy.

Improvements I'm currently working on include a list of herbs, some bug fixes, and a custom font for the calendar (icons instead of the current abbreviations)

Starting to think about seeds again

Seed catalogs are filling up my mailbox again, it must be January!

I tend to get excited thinking about all the new varieties of plants I'll grow each summer, and make a list that is twice as long as possible and four times longer than practical. Then, after much agony, I pare down the list to a few dozen plants and order those seeds I still need.

In my efforts to make a more scientific approach to this garden stuff, I'm expanding the garden planner spreadsheet that I wrote about last winter and many of you have (and hopefully are using). I hope, before too long, to have the small spreadsheet available on a host site for public downloading.

What should we start first? I expect by mid-February to be starting some herbs, some flowers, and a select few vegetables. If all goes well, I'll have a few more projects completed prior to the big seed-starting months of March and April:

• root-view grow box (for the kids - see what your carrots are doing under the soil surface)
• improved design of the garden hod - I have learned a few things from this first attempt that I should change before I make them as gifts. I still have several to make and send out to gardeners this May, so the kinks need to be worked through
• cold frame - I've wanted a cold frame for ages, and I think this may be the year to build it, a small one, 2 feet by 4 feet, but that should be large enough for experimenting
• row cover frames - haven't quite figured out how these will look, but I want something that is collapsible but will hold row cover material over a 30" x 4 foot section, give or take. The first experiment will be for broccoli and cole crops, which are forever becoming a smorgasbord for the local cabbage butterfly population. Perhaps it would make a good cold blanket for tender plants during the late frosts (June! :|)
  
• more seed tapes, with a very busy year planned, I want to have easy to seed carrots, lettuce, and the like. I hardly ever get succession planting correct, so this year I hope to improve my chances.

New tools this year?
I have some money to spend on my garden, so I'm going to buy a digital heat mat thermostat, since my basement room is hardly ever the right temperature.

Garden Harvest Basket / Garden Hod - completed

I'd posted in September about a harvest basket / garden hod that I was planning to build. Now that the holidays have settled down and cedar lumber has been acquired, I have gotten down to building it.

Materials:
1x10 - (about 2 feet needed)
1x2 - (about 5 1/2 feet needed)
pvc-coated wire mesh (1/2 inch grid, 18" x 22" or thereabouts)
exterior screws 1 1/2" & 2 1/2" (bigger or smaller will work with adaptations)
staple gun and 1/2" or 5/8" staples

Cut three 18" lengths of 1x2 (handle and rails)
Cut two 7 1/2" lengths of 1x2 (feet)
Cut two 7 3/4" lengths of 1x10 (ends), taper upper corners, notch sides for rails, and trim points off lower corners.

When attaching wood, pre-drill the holes for the screws to combat splitting of the wood. I glued any place where wood met wood, but that is up to you. I used long screws (2 1/2") for the handle and foot attachment, as these will be load-bearing points in the basket. The rails are mostly for keeping everything square and holding the mesh in place.

Assemble in this order:
Attach handle to two end pieces
Find center of wire mesh and temporarily staple to the bottom of the basket, attach feet such that the screws hold the mesh in place.
Bend mesh up sides of the basket, trimming as necessary to fit. Wrap around the interior of the rails and staple in place. Use a hammer if the staples didn't seat all the way.
Attach rails to end pieces.





I'll be sanding the handle some, as I don't like the rough side of the cedar, and I want to soften the corners when I carry it around.

Custom Seed Packets

Why not make your own seed packets?

Now that I'm saving seeds that (hopefully) will grow next year, I needed some way to box them up as nice little packets. So I created my own seed packet template. Feel free to use it, just paste or draw a photo of the plant on the back, and fill in the information on the front. Circle the water and sunlight requirements and record the height, depth, spacing, year and variety.

Click on the thumbnail to view full-sized image and print it out or copy it. Photos of the finished product finally here!