My balcony gardening experiences

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Oh, I will be out of town for a few days! Who is gonna take care of my plants? Let's make self-watering device green!

There are a lot of commercial self-watering devices available online. I provided a few that I found:

Water globes

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/watering-globe-and-plant-nanny-stake

http://www.orchidlight.com/l108.html

http://www.gardeners.com/Glass-Watering-Bulb/36-191,default,pd.html

Self-watering planters

http://www.gardeners.com/Self-Watering-Planters/PotsPlanters_SelfWateringPlanters,default,sc.html?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_term=self_watering&utm_campaign=[Adl][Non-Brand][Google][Search][US]-potsplanters-%28Broad%29&SC=XNET8019&kwid=b5f49426786246c99e101135cf6ca15c

However, these devices do not seem to meet my demands, apart from the fact that they are not cheap neither. My plants require more water than these devices can offer. Considering that I will be away for almost one week, I will need something that can store more water, which can be drip at a rate that will supply enough but not too water daily so that my plants won't get dehydrated a few days.

Out of desperation, I started looking for ways I can make my own self-watering gadgets.
In the end, I came out with many that gave me a peace of mind while I was out of town.

Let me demonstrate how mine were made:

Things you need: plastic bottles of different sizes that suit your need, candle, needle, and a clamp

Using the clamp to hold needle while it is being heated

While the needle is hot, gently pierce it through the cap of the bottle. Repeat this process to get a few holes.

Make more self-watering bottles with different numbers of holes. This will allow water to drip at different rates and last for more days while you are traveling.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Growing yellow squash in containers

April 9th, 2013 Seeding for germination

May 3rd, 2013 Signs of successful germination

May 8th, 2013 Continue to observe their growth

May 20th, 2013 Exponential growth rate starts

May 31st, 2013 Squash plants are getting bigger and bigger as days go by

June 8th, 2013 First sign that the plants are ready to set fruit

June 10th, 2013 The plants are becoming monstrously large. More baby squashes have been produced.

Female flower carries an ovary that looks like baby squash, while male flower has skinny stalk.

Twin male flowers sharing the same stalk

June 14th, 2013 The color of flowers begin to turn yellowish.

June 16th, 2013 Blossoms of male flowers

A close-up look of male flower

June 22nd, 2013 Finally there is a female for pollination

Female flower has a very beautiful star-like structure

Hand-pollinate by gently brushing the male flowers for some pollens

and then gently tap the pollens on the female blossom

Blossom closes up within a day, so pollination has to be performed as soon as possible.

June 23rd, 2013 More female blossoms

June 26th, 2013 Fruit begins to set

July 8th, 2013 More fruit on the way

Note: Unfortunately, my problem with growing squash began after the fruit started to set. I had hard time judging how much water they needed daily. I probably watered too much and all of them got rotten before becoming large enough for consumption.

Growing cherry tomatoes in containers

May 8th, 2013 Seeding of cherry tomato seeds

May 20th, 2013 Signs of successful germination

July 1st, 2013 Flowering process about to start

July 3rd, 2013 Yellow flowers

July 9th, 2013 Clusters of yellow flowers in full blossom with petals turned back and flowers turned down. This is a sign flowers are ready for pollination.
Tomato flowers have both male and female parts. I helped pollination by gently tapping the stems to cause vibration. One helpful website to check out how to pollinate tomato blossoms is as shown below:
http://insightfulnana.com/home-garden/gardening-home-garden/tomato-pollination-how-to-pollinate-your-tomatoes/html