Jacksonville, FL – The rounds of rain over the last couple of days may have been a nuisance to your commute or outside plans, but the plants are loving it.
Everything is so lush and green. Thanks to the beneficial rainfall, yards and turf have been well watered as container plant roots are flourishing in their hydrated homes.
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Our little container garden is growing well. It’s amazing at the overnight spurts of growth from all of my plant projects, even in the confines of a plastic tub.
Cyndi, aka Luvbug and I are trying our green-thumb luck with a new style of gardening while experimenting in the soil with some plants we have not grown.
Outside of the screen enclosure, we have 4 containers growing tomatoes, a bell pepper plant and potatoes. We would have had bell pepper plants, but a hungry caterpillar stopped by for a snack.
We have never tried growing potatoes in a 20-gallon container and figured we would give them a try. We have one pot with a single russet potato and the other is a sweet potato.
The sweet potato is growing vine-like leaves and stems while the russet is just beginning to sprout leaves. We started these with grocery store potatoes that sat in the veggie bowl a little too long.
That is also where most of the tomatoes came from. We had some Cherry tomatoes and Campari tomatoes that had also passed their prime, so we put those in the soil too.
A few months ago, I was inspired by my friend David Bane and his tower garden cultivation at 5 Points Farm. The produce I was buying from David is like none other. The lettuce lasts well beyond store-bought and the flavor is amazing.
I have ventured down the path of tower gardening with the help of the University of YouTube and David’s aeroponic tutelage. The difference is incredible. In the early stages, the tomato growth difference was around 4 to 1. Then it increased to around 6 - 1.
Yes, the tallest tomato in the container, at just over a foot tall, sprouted from seed at the same time as the over 6 feet tall tomatoes in the tower garden. I guess getting nutrient-rich water over your roots every 3 minutes in a 12-minute cycle is an advantage when compared to soil-grown.
The real test will be in the flavor, but that is still a few weeks away. I’ll make sure to keep you posted.
Speaking of weeks, it has been more than six-weeks now that we have been eating or own varieties of lettuce and making amazing homemade pesto and other basil creations.
I hope this rain has your garden growing and your flowers blooming. If you are interested in Tower Gardens, buying beyond organic produce or growing your own, check out https://5pointsfarmjax.com/ locally or the Agrotonomy channel on YouTube.
