EarthBox Needing a Trellis

From the San Jose Mercury News

In my traditional planter, the Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are doing well, and the stems and leaves are healthier since they are in a cage. But they aren't nearly producing as well as the plants in the EarthBox. I've got a few clusters but it might need some help with a bit of fertilizer.

In the meanwhile, It's time to wrestle those tomatoes back into shape. I'll look back to some of your wise suggestions.

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AeroGrow Announces Quarterly Revenue Guidance

From CNNMoney.com

AeroGrow Announces Quarterly Revenue Guidance

Three Months Ending June 2007: $6.1 to $6.3 Million
July 30, 2007: 09:02 PM EST

AeroGrow International, Inc. (NASDAQ: AERO) ("AeroGrow" or the "Company"), makers of the AeroGarden® kitchen garden appliance, today announced its revenue guidance for the three months ended June 30, 2007, its first fiscal quarter.

AeroGrow anticipates revenue of approximately $6.1 million to $6.3 million for the three months ended June 30, a more than 650% increase over the $822,000 in revenue in the same quarter a year ago.

"We're excited to see that we're maintaining strong sales through June, especially through the quarter that we anticipated would be most affected by the start of the outdoor gardening season," said Michael Bissonnette, Founder and CEO of AeroGrow. "We expect to see accelerated growth in the coming quarters as we look to the beginning of the sell-in at retail for the holiday season and our expansion into multiple new retailers like Sears, Macy's, Linens 'n Things and Bed, Bath & Beyond."

About AeroGrow International, Inc.

Founded in 2002 in Boulder, Colorado, AeroGrow International, Inc. is dedicated to the research, development and marketing of the AeroGarden®, the world's first kitchen garden appliance. The AeroGarden features NASA-proven, dirt-free aeroponic technology, allowing anyone to grow farmer's market fresh herbs, salad greens, tomatoes, chili peppers, strawberries and more, indoors, year-round, so simply and easily that no green thumb is required. See www.aerogarden.com.

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AeroGarden Wall

Some Flickr photo salad greens ready for the table. She blogs about it too.

And here's some swiss chard in an EarthBox.

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The Real Earthbox

My tomato grow box is one of many do-it-yourself sub-irrigation planters of its kind shown on the Internet. I will link to some of them in a future post. Only one of them is a commercial product with the brand name EarthBox. This is a video about the EarthBox and another brand called Google.

Food production using sub-irrigated planters is an enormous subject far beyond the scope of just one post. There will be many more.

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Sub-irrigation Planter Boxes

Click photos to enlarge.

These may not be as jazzy as an AeroGarden but you can grow some healthy vegetables on your deck, balcony, or apartment roof in planters like these. All you need is enough sunlight.

I made these sub-irrigation planters a couple of years ago but didn't post about them. You can see tomatoes in the left box. I never got around to planting anything in the green box.

They are easy to make. All you need is a power drill. The tomato grow box was made from two inexpensive storage containers, one sleeved inside the other. incidentally, these boxes were obviously not made for prolonged outdoor use. They broke apart after one season. You can find stronger storage boxes made from stronger, opaque plastic in many DIY stores.

For sub-irrigation, you need some type of wicking mechanism and a fill tube. There are a number of ways to do this. This is just one of them.

Using a 2” hole cutter I cut a series of holes in the bottom of the inner box. Using clear Goop, I glued a plastic party cup under each hole. Each cup has a series of small holes drilled (or hot instrument poked) around the bottom of the cup. This creates a wicking cone. You can see the wicking cones in the green box.

The fill tube is clear plastic tubing I happened to have. You could use a section of PVC pipe. Use whatever type of tubing or pipe that’s most available to you. Even ¾” flexible tubing would work. Insert a bamboo stake or a dowel to keep it straight before adding soil, which will then keep it reasonably straight.

Feel free to email a question about how to use or make these planters. I'll be glad to help.

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AeroGarden Catalog

AeroGrow International has launched its first catalog. I continue to be encouraged by the success of the AeroGarden. It gives hope that we're on a path to breaking through the clay pot and drain hole barrier.

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The YouTube Generation

From the The Tech Chronicles on the SFGate.com site. The Pew report is here.

One day in the future, a significant portion of this blog content will be YouTube how-to videos. It will only happen after I have donated the Greenscaper Consumer lab. My plan is to create a virtual lab with many physical locations connected via the web.

Almost 60 percent of Internet users have watched videos online, the Pew Internet & American Life Project said in a report Wednesday.

Among its findings on people's online video watching habits:

* Three in four young adult Internet users aged 18 to 29 watch online video.

* Roughly one in three of that same group said they do so on a typical day.

* It's still a small group of people posting all those homemade clips online. About one in 12 said they have uploaded a video file online.

* Despite the flood of amateur, semi-professional and mashup videos, most viewers still like the professionally produced ones. More than 60 percent said their favorite videos are "professionally produced."

* They don't call it the YouTube generation for nothing. Nearly 30 percent said they watch video from YouTube. Of those who watch or download videos from more than one location, 29 percent said they go to YouTube most often.

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Science on the Hudson

This video about the Science Barge will be much more informative than my words. I'll just comment that based on my daily research we could use a few hundred more science barges.

Incidentally, this is where clay pot Martha would have spent her jail time if I had been the sentencing judge. It's unfortunate that she's so stuck in the past. She could be a powerful voice of change in the houseplant world.

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Volksplanters

Click photos to enlarge.

I have a house full of plastic containers collected over the past 9 years of making sub-irrigation planters. It’s turning out that of all of them the recycled plastic bottle planters may be the best yet. They certainly are from a learning standpoint. Only time will tell, but they have definitely made a very positive first impression.

It’s all right there before your eyes, ABC simple. Add a measured amount of water to the reservoir. Watch it move up by capillary action over time. Observe the soil moisture and root system growth through the crystal clear plastic.

Look at the roots formation in the bottle on the left. I’ve been amazed at how quickly they grew. It's only been a few weeks since I started making these planters.

One thing to look out for is algae. If the planter is in low light, the algae will be slow to grow. If the planter is in high light, you will probably need a decorative planter or opaque cover of some type. It appears so far that blue and green plastic bottles inhibit algae growth.

I’m very curious about the rapid root formation and if there’s any connection to the humidity chamber created by the lower (reservoir) section. It will probably be necessary to do some root pruning not too far down the road. It will be no big deal to remove the plant, prune the lower 'neck' and replace with fresh potting mix. I'll post about whatever happens.

Because they cost nothing and are so easy to make, I’m calling them ‘volksplanters.’ Have you tried them yet?

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Pruned Pachira

Click to enlarge.

This is one of the Money Trees (Pachira aquatica) from this photo posted June 24, 2006. As anticipated, this is a very difficult desktop tree to prune. That’s because of the braided trunk.

The braided trunk does not grow taller to any significant degree. The plant just sends up long thin branches that I’ve continually pruned in order to keep the shape of the plant in proportion. It may be called the Money Tree but for my money, it’s simply an awkward plant. I've found it easy to grow in high light but difficult to manage its size and proporations.

If a Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina) is a 10 and a Schefflera arboricola an 8, this plant is a 3 in my opinion.

With that said, check this floor model Money Tree. It’s a cool looking specimen tree. However, you have to buy it at this height. That's if you could find one.

Whatever size Money Tree you want, that is the size you need to buy as a finished tree. Unlike Weeping Figs, it’s difficult if not impossible to prune these Money Trees.

Sorry, but the money tree importers won’t get any more of my money.

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Cactus in IKEA Cups

Click to enlarge.

These are small cactus ($1 each on sale at Wal-Mart) sub-irrigated in sleeved 9 oz clear party cups inside IKEA pencil holders (under $2).

Ignore all the misinformation you read about sub-irrigation (aka self-watering) being for moisture loving plants only. People who either have no experience with sub-irrigation or simply don’t understand it write this stuff.

You can also read in houseplant books and on websites that you need to grow cactus in special cactus and succulent soil mixes. This is also misinformation!

Special cactus and succulent soil mixes are fast draining mixes used to correct the inherent problems with drench and drain top watering. It's a band-aid solution to fix the symptom rather than the problem.

These desert cactus plants (except for 2) are growing happily in Supersoil the same as I use for moisture loving Spathiphyllum (Peace Lilies). Two of them are growing in expanded clay pebbles (aka hydroculture). Can you tell which two?

If you doubt this, try it yourself. You'll soon discover it's true.

When I can see through the clear plastic that the soil has dried, I add 3 oz of water to the outer clear cup (the one without holes). Reinstall the cactus in the inner clear cup (it has holes poked in the bottom) into the outer clear cup. The water will flow up into the cactus cup by capillary action. You do not need a wick with this simple setup.

It takes longer to write this than actually doing it.

Never add so much water that it rises to the soil surface. If you see moist soil at the surface, know that you over watered the plant.

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Adonis Pot Award Winner

The Adonis pot above was a red dot 2000 product design award winnner. This planter posted previously was also a red dot award winner.

The Adonis outer pot is a very harmoniously and aesthetically designed piece of furniture. Its form even takes account of the wellbeing of the plants it contains. The folds ensure that sufficient air always reaches the plant pot - an important aspect if the plants are to remain healthy. The advantage of the folds is furthermore that excess water can simply be poured out. The Adonis pot is made of extremely thin-walled polypropylene. This material is unbreakable and dishwasher-proof. Adonis is long-lived, easily recyclable and can therefore claim an excellent ecological balance. Opaque and translucent pots can be stacked together and can mutate from a flower pot to a utensil.

Click to enlarge. I had no idea they were design award winners when I bought mine at The Container Store. However, I thought they looked good and the price was right. It's an example of the fact that good design doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

The Creeping Fig (Ficus Pumila) is growing in clear 16 oz deli cups (with holes poked in the bottom) inside the planters. There's no need for any wicking assistance. I just add a measured amount of water inside the Adonis pots and it moves up by capillary action.

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Neem Away, Bugs Away

Having read some good things about Neem oil I decided to try it. I looked for it in the Home Depot gardening department and didn’t find it. I asked a fellow I thought worked there and he quickly found it for me.

The product is called Garden Safe Fungicide Concentrate by Schultz. You would have to have very good eyesight to find and read the very small type on the label under Ingredients that says Clarified Hydrophobic Extract of Neem Oil……70%. The other 30% is listed as Inert Ingredients. If you were looking for Neem Oil, how would you ever find this?

It turns out that the gentleman who found it for me was a sales rep for a competitor of Schultz. He definitely is a gentleman. I have wondered if anyone in the H.D. garden department could have found it.

I had also heard that Dyna-Gro carries Neem Oil. So, on to their website I went for an interesting discovery. They have it but it’s listed as Pure Neem Oil Organic Leaf Polish, a plant cleaner not a pesticide.

Ah, the complexities of pesticide law. In any case, I would agree about the cleaning quality of Neem Oil, or it’s quality of brightening up the foliage without giving it an artificial look. Who knows how much cleaning it actually does. You will note that Dyna-Gro Neem Oil is 100% natural, free of water or additives.

As mentioned previously, most of the windows in the Greenscaper Lab are west facing. These locations are occasionally heat traps and conducive to outbreaks of spider mites on Chamaedorea elegans palms and mealy bugs on Aglaonema. It would be a good idea to have small fans located on the racks in these windows but haven't gotten around to doing it.

So far, the Neem Oil is working. Overall, it seems to be good stuff and environmentally sound. I sure do like the look of the plants after spraying with Neem Oil. I’ll report more at a later date.

You can read more about Neem Oil here on the Neem Foundation website.

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Flickr Now Number Two Behind Photobucket

In June, Yahoo Photos began to close, and users are being encouraged to join Flickr. Later in the month, Yahoo began including Flickr images in Yahoo Image Search. These efforts have resulted in an increase in Flickr’s US market share of 38 percent in the past four weeks (week ending 7/7/07 vs. week ending 6/9/07).

Flickr is now the No. 2 photography Web site in the US, with 6.42 percent of category visits for the week ending 7/7/07.

Photobucket still leads with a whopping 43.5 percent share.

Via: DMNews Hitwise blog

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Lighted Room Divider

Jules at IKEAHacker posted photos of these lighted room dividers from IKEA. Unfortunately, it appears that IKEA doesn’t carry them any more. That’s too bad. There’s a need for products of this type.

I made a prototype vertical floor lamp from a Sonotube with a 4’ fluorescent fixture inside. I still have it and will photograph it when I find time.

In the past I’ve used fluorescent shop lights propped up vertically to maintain floor plant size Ficus benjamina trees. They were on timers so that the lights came on when the room was unoccupied. This technique works very well. I maintained Ficus trees in very dark rooms using these lamps with timers. All that’s needed is for someone to manufacture some well-designed fixtures.

I have several ideas for IKEA hacks to create furniture for displaying indoor plants. When I’m free of maintaining the lab, I plan to prototype them. There’s a need that no one is filling. It’s sad that there is simply no market leadership in the indoor plant market.

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Topless AeroGarden

Good drainage is crucial for whatever you decide to grow indoors, Carter said.

"Most houseplants are killed from over-watering. I use broken terra-cotta pots for my bottom layers as a drainer and then add the potting mix. Put plastic drip trays underneath to protect the windowsills."

The above is an excerpt from an Associated Press article. The accompanying photo is also from AP. It happens to be an AeroGarden (unacknowledged)...with the lamp removed.

Truth can be funnier than fiction. There's not one word of mention about the AeroGarden in the entire article. It's just more of the same old gardeners' yadda, yadda, yadda. It looks like someone has a severe case of technophobia. Hilarious!

I wonder what the AeroGarden folks think about this.

If you're not familiar with it, there are more AeroGarden posts here.

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Recycled Bottle Art

A long time ago, I collected antique bottles by digging in abandoned trash mounds in the woods around Princeton, NJ. I also bought them at farm auctions. It was a lot of fun. These recycled bottles are reminders of those days. They're really cool art pieces. Nice work!

Note the two (top left) with inverted necks. Look familiar? These could work for sub-irrigation by lowering the height of the bottom sections.

When I was a kid, I cut bottles by tying a kerosene soaked string around the bottle, lighting it, and then plunging the bottle into cold water. That was a long time ago but I do remember that it worked. That was in my Popular Science Magazine days before basketball and girls.

Via: Inhabitat

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A Treasure from the Past

I never know what treasure from the past Google is going to uncover. This was one of them from back in the ‘70’s, a golden age of indoor plants.

While I don't share the opinions expressed, the blog Texas Triffid Ranch, does a credible job of explaining how the book Soilfree Growing & Decorating Ideas came to be.

With a little help from Google, I found a copy on the web and read it last evening while riding the LifeCycle. Even though it’s almost 30 years old, it’s as good a houseplant book as I’ve read.

Ralston Purina called them ‘Living Stones’ but you will recognize them as expanded clay pebbles. The book is about hydroculture. There’s nothing about drench and drain soil culture other than to explain accurately why hydroculture is a far better method of indoor plant care.

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Is There a Good Solution?

In the garage, shed or basement of nearly every gardener, you will find stacks of plastic pots. Then there are mulch bags, pesticide and fertilizer bottles, flat trays from six-packs of annuals. We think of our gardening as greening the world, but it generates an awful lot of plastic garbage.

Beth Botts, who writes a blog for the Chicago Tribune also wrote a thought provoking article about the problem with used plant plastics. It elicited comments from McConkey Company and Ball Horticultural, which she posted on her blog. Obviously, this problem is easier to define than to solve.

It’s a timely subject in light of recent posts about recycled plastic bottle planters. I’ve been making more of them because they make neat sub-irrigation planters. The recycling part of it is a noble idea, but isn’t likely to make a dent in our plastics disposal problem.

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Majesty Palm Question

This is a question from a column on the SFGate.com (San Franciso Chronicle) website. The answer is a particularly thorough discussion of Majesty Palms (Ravenea rivularis). If you are thinking of buying one or already have one, it's well worth reading.

Q: We recently moved into a new house by the old naval air station in Alameda. It is pretty windy. We took a palm (labeled 'majesty') that had been intended as a houseplant and planted it in a sunny spot -- our teenager thinks it would be fun to watch it grow, and so do we. But it's been in the ground about a month, and the leaves looked sunburned after two days and the new leaves it put out since look sunburned at the ends. Should I give up on it and try one sold as an outdoor plant?

Read the answer.

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Getting To The Root Of Plant Growth

The Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (CPIB)

From Science Daily.

Science Daily — A £9.2m research centre at The University of Nottingham will break new ground in our understanding of plant growth and could lead to the development of drought-resistant crops for developing countries.

The Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (CPIB) will focus on cutting-edge research into plant biology — particularly the little-studied area of root growth, function and response to environmental cues.

Clear plastic containers are one of the most valuable educational tools I’ve used over the past 9 years in my lab. I can see the root system. How can I tell what’s going on with a container plant if I don't know what's happening with the root system?

I’ve only been using them for a short time but the recycled bottle sub-irrigation planters are promising to be the best sub-irrigation design from a learning standpoint. They are as simple as ABC. Add a measured amount of water to the bottom reservoir (A). Watch it move by capillary action up through the neck (B) into the soil system (C).

Further, the plastic is clear. Everything is visible. If you follow two rules: 1. never allow the water to rise to the surface; 2. look at the soil moisture condition, you will not water too much or too little. You’ll also not propagate fungus gnats or mold.

When you look, you’ll clearly see that the most vigorous root growth is towards the bottom and not at the surface contrary to all the bad advice on houseplant websites and books. Do yourself a favor and don’t read it.

When you use the right tools it's easy to teach yourself. In a relatively short period of time you'll know more about how to maintain a plant inside a bulding than most houseplant book authors.

A greater understanding of plant roots, particularly how they respond to different levels of moisture, nutrients and salt in the soil, could pave the way for the development of new drought-resistant crops that can thrive in arid areas and coastal margins of the developing world.

Because it is difficult to study roots — as all their growth occurs below ground level — scientists will develop a 'virtual root' using the latest mathematical modelling techniques. By developing computer models of the root that exactly mimic biological processes, they will be able to observe what is happening at every stage from the molecular scale upwards.

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Kitchen Herb Garden

I can’t tell for sure but the “self-watering” (sub-irrigation) planters in the photo look like Eva Solo planters. They have a nice look, but it isn’t necessary to pay so much for sub-irrigation herb planters. Use recycled plastic bottle planters. They cost nothing and will work as well or better. You could put them inside decorative containers if you like.

You may not have this much room for growing herbs in your kitchen so work with what you have. You can tuck an array of plastic bottle planters in small spaces as long as there’s enough light. Or, experiment with a CFL desk lamp as primary or supplemental light.

Via: LivingEtc

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Recycled Plastic Bottle Planters

Click to enlarge. Here is a great way to teach yourself, kids, grandkids, nieces, or nephews about growing plants using modern sub-irrigation methods. You can probably tell that these plants are living in recycled soda bottles. So, the cost is zero and you’ll be demonstrating recycling along with how to grow a plant inside a building.

There’s no finger poking and guessing involved. You can see what’s happening—leaves, stems and roots. What you’ll also see is that your plants are as happy as clams at high tide.

These sub-irrigation planters will work using either potting soil mix or expanded clay pebbles.

Linda at Topper’s Place has an excellent tutorial on how to make them. That’s how I got started after finding her from a web search. I've used her basic instructions to make bottle planters that look good enough to use inside your home.

The first thing I do is remove the label and adhesive residue. Fill the bottle with hot water. In most cases, the label will then peal off easily and it's a lot easier to remove the label adhesive residue when it's full of water. Save the water for your plants.

You can remove the adhesive residue with peanut butter believe it or not. It works on most bottles. If that doesn’t work, I use Goo Gone. I’ve also used Goof Off which is stronger, but it clouds the surface of some clear plastics, so test it out first.

You can vary the height of the planter dependent on where you cut the bottle. To start I used a 14 oz soup can to mark a cutting line with a Sharpie marker.

Working on a flat surface, lay the marker pen across the top of the can. Holding the pen with one hand move the bottle in contact with the tip and rotate the bottle. Using this method, you will mark a perfectly straight line to follow when you cut the bottle. You can vary the location of the cut by using spacers from items typically found in kitchens such as lids, caps, etc.

I start the cut using a box cutter heated on my gas stove. This makes it easy to create a starter slit precisely on the marked line. Then I use a pair of flat scissors to cut the bottle carefully following the line. You’ll get the hang of it after you do one or two bottles.

You may have to do some trimming after you cut the bottle so that the neck of the bottle (with the cap on) touches the bottom of the lower (reservoir) half. Doing this will create a perfect wicking mechanism.

Poke a series of holes around the neck of the bottle. I use a heated skewer. Any pointed steel instrument will work. Also, poke holes in the bottle cap or use a power drill.

Install the plant in either soil mix or expanded clay pebbles. Add a measured amount of water and watch it move up by capillary action into the root system. This will likely take a few days.

Very important! Never add so much water that it rises all the way to the soil surface. Doing so will most likely lead to over watering and the propagation of fungus gnats.

This is as good a way as I know to learn and demonstrate how capillary action (sub-irrigation) works to produce healthy indoor plants .

I'll post photos of more recycled plastic planters in the near future so check back.

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Green Light Go

This do-it-yourself ‘green’ hanging lamp is a creative idea from Twan Verdonck in The Netherlands. The ivy is growing in a recycled plastic bottle. It’s not a sub-irrigation planter but it could be. You can download (pdf) instructions for making the lamp on his website. If I were to make one of these lamps, I'd experiment with Ficus pumila (Creeping Fig) and Pothos rather than Ivy (Hedera).

His lamp idea triggered memories of seeing recycled plastic bottle planters on the web. A quick search revealed information about making them, which I’ve done. Check back...pictures to follow soon.

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Dumb as a Houseplant

This is a cartoon houseplant available from illustrator Brad Fitzpatrick. Note that he drew it in a terracotta pot a cliché of the houseplant world. How appropriate.

Many outdoor gardeners think these are better for indoor plants because they ‘breathe’. That’s just urban legend stuff triggered by the tricky nature of drench and drain watering. Their objective typically is to avoid over watering and prevent fungus gnat infestations.

Terracotta pots and overly fast draining soil mixes just treat the symptoms instead of the cause which is the top watering method. All they do is create more of a need to be a plant nanny, poking and pouring ever more frequently.

There’s a phrase “dumb as a houseplant” that I see frequently on the web. I wonder what the plants are saying.

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e-mail Bob Hyland
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