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Freefall posted an update 5 years, 5 months ago
Shawn James .. the quiet achiever .. a living legend (My Self Reliance) .. In the spirit of the late D!ck Proenneke .. Shawn builds HIS own world .. Enjoy!!
The Giza Forum (Legacy)
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I’ve followed him for a long time … 😉
Ha…I watch this guy…have for years along with Boss of The Swamp. I have learned a lot about homesteading and they both has saved me a ton of money with the skills I’ve learned.
It is always hard for me to watch that. I lived in the Adirondack Mountains for 30 years starting in 1986. My Wallstreet weekend warrior joined me in 1989 when the Market went to hell but he died in January 1994. I learned to cut birch off the telephone and electric lines, get trees off the drive and plow snow for two days at a time (with a bobcat skid steer). As a landscape architect, I started a design/build business (ironically I had written a chapter for the ASLA textbook on the subject) and I ran an organic garden center that I built, losing plants in February/March that we had nurtured for 3 months because the electric went out in the middle of the night (temperatures fall to -40F). I am finally selling my place there with dogs like this one buried in near the blueberries, horse in the field I cleared, and ashes of my husband in a clearing he specified. Now on a ranch in TX, it is actually the same thing, still running the chainsaw and clearing cedar, just a heck of a lot hotter in summer.
I am trying to set up an indoor veggie garden for the winter with LED lights and some organic soil especially for pots, but the seedlings keep failing. DO you have any recommendations for sources or as a result of your own experience?
There are several problems with indoor gardening. Too much or too little humidity, no wind to strengthen the stems and light not being adequate. Heat is generally the least of the problems. Because the medium is limited, overwatering is often the fail over too little. High humidity is required for germination, but as the root begins to develop with root hairs, overwatering will decrease the available air (I know that sounds counterintuitive) and essentially drowns the plant. You must make sure there is an absorptive mat or space below the pot of the seedling to allow water to run through the medium and out. This is why germination soils are highly organic and grow out soils have vermiculite and other granular materials that allow air spaces to ensure water drainage. You also need to add a fan to your system that lightly moves the plants as they start to grow. Stationary air will not allow the stem tissues to bend which increases cell growth along the outer layers which increases strength. The first movement of air in a static condition will often cause the stem to bend dramatically, cutting off the circulation (Xylem-phloem)
Hope this helps. You remind me that I need to replace one of the fans in my greenhouse (I put in one that is TOO large) but it is currently filled with house-type plants. I vowed to at least cut that in half this winter to accommodate starting FOOD.
Thanks so much. I, too, am trying to grow more food and have been having problems. The watering thing is tricky, and the knowledge that the the plants need to move — a little plant calisthenics! Wow!