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GeorgeJ's 2013 Tokyo-a-grow-grow - finishing off this season

Hey all.

First time growing from seed.
Thought I would start off with the grow box I built.

My apartment is so cold that I've built this box to sit in the closet and using a heat mat To keep things warm throughout. Not enough space or money to do everything separate.

So I built this box from Styrofoam and aluminium insulation sheeting. Managed to get everything from the 100 yen shop (japans version of the dollar store).

Here's it from the outside, in the closet (no gay jokes please) :
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On the inside there's a 50w fluorescent strip light I got for free with my axolotl tank. It's suspended from bamboo canes on wires, so I can adjust the height of the light as well as hopefully flexing in an earthquake.
To the left hand side, a small fan (also from an aquarium) which is pretty gentle to help toughen up the seedlings and prevent damping off.

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It was alot brighter before putting the heat mat in, so I may put some thin aluminum foil over it. Thoughts?

I'm gonna prep the seeds and pots, so that's it for now.
 
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Yep. I'll try get a picture of the windows on my place when the sun comes up to explain the following better.

Basically there's bars go up about a ft or so on my huge window space, and I found some cages that can hook onto them that are meant to be for planters. I can fit a couple of pots in each. And perhaps 6 cages on the windows, 3 or 4 on the balcony.
Windows face dead south, as I found out early summer when my apartment was 37c indoors and only 27c outside.

So on top of the plants outside, my mother in law built me this bench table for my chillies in 2012.

TiTgHG7.jpg


You should see the garden she has, only about 8x12 ft on the roof in central tokyo - its like walking into a botanical gardens!

Growing plants with limited space is difficult, but I have the best sensei as an in law! :)
 
Initially just had plastic wrap draped over the cups and felt they had dried out more than wanted the first night.

Went and covered the top with thin clear plastic (cling film is too annoying with the static etc) and rubber bands to keep the moisture in and gave them a call little bottom watering.
Happy with the result today. And that soil temp seems to finally have got where I want it with the heat mat. (I guess it's so gentle heat it takes a while - also, it's a 120v mat plugged into 100v system we have here in Japan, so it may be extra sluggish.)

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So far, so good.
Sadly the shinto Buddhists forgot to create a chilli shrine, otherwise I'd go and pray to it ;)
 
Yup. My wife often lays watching it (tank is right next to our bed) and I have to wake her up cause she's fallen asleep fully dressed.

Feeding them is most fun, they gulp and their mouth opens up bigger than their head. They are real life pokemon :)

Bearded dragons are awesome. They don't have the cute factor so much as the 'hey, you guys wanna go mosh out to some black metal?' look ;)
 
georgej said:
I have two actually!


The other one is black and impossible to get a decent photo of.

They used to be extremely popular ten years ago or so.
Anything that looks cute sells fast, they are also easy to look after.
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Something about that photo gives the little guy a very Studio Ghibli vibe. Definitely some cuteness factor there. In my youth I was really into herpetology, Ambystoma are my favorite genus of salamander and Japan's probably my favorite country I've never been to, I've always wondered what the reptile and amphibian scene is like over there.
 
Reptiles, I dunno.. I searched so hard for reptile heat mat that I could use for my peppers. Couldn't find anything! Turtles are popular but people toss them in the river when they get big.

Had to search hard for an axolotl, found alot very expensive as adults. Bought ours as babies for cheap.

There's a lot of people who say 'I'd love to go to Japan, but few do. Do it man! :)

The white one is called 'hime' which means princess (Yeh my wife named her). When hime eats it always reminds me of calcifer - the fire demon in ghiblis howls moving castle
 
If your seed cups are in a tray add water to the bottom. I'd also mist the underside of the plastic with water...(drip irrigation), you want to keep in the humidity or the medium will dry out.
Good luck
 
georgej said:
You should see the garden she has, only about 8x12 ft on the roof in central tokyo - its like walking into a botanical gardens!

Growing plants with limited space is difficult, but I have the best sensei as an in law! :)
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Sounds like you've got a good setup and the best advice for growing in your situation. There's a lot of folks here who do balcony grows with good results... I'll be looking forward to seeing yours. Cheers
 
Very nice setup, great luck in 13 and love da shot of the Mexican salamander, does it speak spanish ;)
`&middot;`&middot;}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;...}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;...}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;...}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;...}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;...((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;...}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;...}><((((&ordm;>.,..&middot;`&middot;..}><((((&ordm;>
 
Cheers.
I'm near a river too, which means a light breeze in summer (not much breeze elsewhere in summer!). The river runs from Tokyo bay up to the mountains about 140km in all.

Avg temp is 35 ish in daytime and not dropping far below 30 in summer, so need to keep an eye on watering! Will put lots of vermiculite in once they are in big containers for summer.
Definitely better off growing peppers here than back home in the UK Hehe.

Happy with the solos right now. Heat mat alone is holding soil about 28/29°c and they are moist enough. Just need to be patient now!

WalkGood said:
Very nice setup, great luck in 13 and love da shot of the Mexican salamander, does it speak spanish ;)
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She doesn't say alot ;)
Although she does make alot of noise at night cause she plays with the rocks in her tank moving them around.
 
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