MiLK_MaN's 2014 garden bed experiment

MiLK_MaN

MiLK_MaN

Howdy all,
 
Plan on doing something different this year and try growing directly into garden bed so tap root can go down as far as possible....
 
In previous years, all my seeds have been started indoors, grown in small pots until last frost and then unleashed in the garden beds. This year I've decided to see what happens when planting directly in the ground, and have thought about doing the following:
 
 1) Start seeds in jiffy pellets. Have thousands of them, and they consistently help seeds sprout for me. 
 2) Once hook emerges, immediately plant outside into final position.
 3) Use empty passata jars as mini greenhouses around each plant, putting lids on at night time to protect from frost, lids removed each morning.
 
I just invested in an Ephrem's Bottle Cutter so I can cut some empty glass jars that I've been saving, and I think the glass jars should be big enough to contain the plants until around early November before I can remove them completely.
 
Has anyone experimented with planting directly in the ground like this? My garden beds are currently growing green manure which I will be chopping down soon and allowing to break down before covering with some finished compost and sugar cane mulch.
 
Hey Milkman ... sounds like a great idea. Are you talking about standard Passata Glass bottles?? If so will they not be far too small for the plants within a month or so??
Hey did those Jalapeño HTM's ever come to anything a couple of seasons ago?
 
Gday Trippa. Yeah, glass passata jars. I know they will be a bit small after a month, but I can always chop some leaves in half or whatever to keep them at bay until November. Whatever the case is, it's an experiment, and we Melburnians don't get the explosive growth at that time of the year like you guys do with your fancy weather :) Mind you, I was up there recently for the Gold Coast Half Marathon and its gorgeous there in winter!
 
Jalapeno HTM's were great, made quite a few poppers with them wrapped in bacon, missus loved them. Not sure what I'm growing this year, most likely it will be all Chinense, but I'm sure the missus will ask for more Jalapenos to be grown.
 
MiLK_MaN said:
Gday Trippa. Yeah, glass passata jars. I know they will be a bit small after a month, but I can always chop some leaves in half or whatever to keep them at bay until November. Whatever the case is, it's an experiment, and we Melburnians don't get the explosive growth at that time of the year like you guys do with your fancy weather :) Mind you, I was up there recently for the Gold Coast Half Marathon and its gorgeous there in winter!
 
Jalapeno HTM's were great, made quite a few poppers with them wrapped in bacon, missus loved them. Not sure what I'm growing this year, most likely it will be all Chinense, but I'm sure the missus will ask for more Jalapenos to be grown.
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Good to hear they produced for you! Yeah the last few weeks its been the normal gold coast winter days (albeit a little cooler on startup and overnight then normal) fresh start followed by clear blue skies and highs in the low 20's C ... last couple of days we are officially over winter though ... meant to be hitting a high of 27 C in the coming days ... we usually get a 30 degree day by the end of August ... not looking forward to that much heat just yet
 
First hook showed up this afternoon, chucked straight into one of the glass jars.
 
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Have my water based germination chamber inside with a water heater running at 30C, should start to bring the seeds up rather quickly now. Will keep an eye on the seedlings in the glass jar and detail progress in this thread so others might have a chance to use this method in their winters.
 
Theory is that the tap root should be undamaged and should reach down as far as possible. If you grow indoors in small pots, chances are the tap root has been damaged and caused side root growth, which is still ok, but I want to see what happens when the tap root has a chance to go down as far as possible especially with our super dry summers.
 
And here's the same seedling on Sep 3:
 
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To me, this looks like its going to be a success. Currently have 12 plants in the bed in jars, all from the same method of putting in there as soon as the hook shows up in the jiffy pellet. Temperatures have been getting to 20C some days, so when I know its going to be bright and sunny I just undo the lids for the day and put back on at night.
 
Overnight temps have been around 4C - 8C most mornings, and the glass jar looks to be retaining enough heat for this not to be an issue.
 
I'm quite tempted to try this.  Mainly because my indoor grow has been a little hit and miss - good luck Milkman!
 
Karmicguide said:
You're in Melbourne? There have been some very cold mornings lately :(
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Yep, 25km north of the CBD. Has been getting cold, but this experiment seems to be succeeding from what I can tell at the moment. I think the thick layer of mulch I have is also warming up the soil underneath, which may be contributing to heat rising underneath the jiffy pellet.
 
Who knows... it's an experiment! Sometimes you don't know why things work, but if they do, might as well keep doing them!
 
looks awesome, that's for sure.
 
I'm in mont albert so have a pretty high elevation - it's been foggy a lot lately, and hovering in the 2's and 3's.
 
I have my seedlings in the study (my wife works from home, so they get lots of heat and light).
 
I've got a peach ghost up (jays) and also a lilac cayenne, as well as a pumpkin, 8 varieties of tomatoes, 4 different eggplants and some other goodies.
 
Update - 5th October
 
So putting out straight after a hook emerges is not such a great idea... I tried with Bhut Jolokia seeds and some T Scorp seeds I had from pods grown a few years back, only 4 are alive now. 
 
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The above is a Bhut Jolokia that is going ok, but not many are like that.
 
Having seen them struggling, and having a bunch of Reaper seeds that had sprouted in my water container setup, I decided to put them in my tent in the garage under artificial lighting until the first true leaves showed up and were of a decent size, but before the roots start coming out of the pellet.
 
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The above reapers have been outside for a few weeks now and are doing great. Didn't even need to introduce slowly outside and gradually get used to the light, just put them straight into and cover with glass. I think the glass is filtering the sun enough for the leaves now to get burnt. The only problem I have had so far has been a single day where the wife forgot to put the lids on the jars and some slugs had a field day, lets just say there was some choice words used that evening.
 
Also, I have a 4 year old Scoprion that looks to have survived and has some sprouts. The rest of the plant looks absolutely horrid, but yet again it's plugging along and still alive.
 
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Very nice job MilK_MaN!
Because of my lack of indoor space i'll probably try the same (indoor germination then move outdoor) with my portable greenhouse this year.
I've sowed some stuff directly in the GH in the past year but germinating with low temps is tricky.

Good luck

Datil
 
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