Road Trip 2011: CA or bust - Weekly Update

Good news everyone..... 

Well, I have a taker for the first two legs of the journey. Mr. Iacopelli is going to join me from Jacksonville to Austin, with an overnight stop in New Orleans.  His application was selected for two reasons.  One he submitted it!  Two, his answer to the questions.

From where to where do you want to go? His answer: College towns and roadside strip clubs.
In 50 words or less, what makes you awesome? His answer: Andrew. Iacopelli.

We are tentatively leaving on the 15th of January.  Plan on arriving in New Orleans that evening, and leaving New Orleans when I can legally drive again.  Date TBD.  From NO to Austin is about 8 hours.

So the legs from Austin to Oakland are still open.

Also, if you live on the way and want me to stop by and say hi, let me know.

Counting down to the big move

Well folks, it seems like the big move in imminent.  Went through and ran a rough budget last night and I should be leaving Florida between January 10th to 15th.  Currently I plan to take 3.5 days to complete the journey from Fernandina to Oakland, stopping around Houston, Phoenix, maybe Vegas, then Oakland.

Now, if anyone is interested in joining me for a leg of the trip, I can extend the trip to hit points of interest and such.  You may apply by clicking on the following link:

Road Trip Application

Please allow up to two weeks for review and confirmation. Applications must be submitted by January 5th, 2011.

And remember folks, gas cards make awesome Christmas presents! 

Sure to Grow trial - Initial Post

Sure to Grow plug

SURE TO GROW

Today I received 24 Sure to Grow Clipper 2" media plugs.  The idea is that these are the perfect size for putting into my Deep Water Culture lettuce and herb system.  The plugs are made out of the same material that is used for batting/stuffing in pillows and sleeping bags.  It is very loose and squishy, supposedly making it great to maintain a perfect air/solution ratio.  We shall see.

 The back two rows in the above picture are my six week old bib lettuces.  They have been through hell and yet continue to press on.  Here is the list of things that I have done to these poor plants:

• Used water of horrible quality. High in iron, salts, and carbonates.  That is why they took so long to grow in the first place (see below).
• When I transplanted them into the DWC system above, I was still using the bad water and they developed a root fungus which nearly wiped them out. Out of the original 22 I was only able to save 11. However, now that they are in good water they are thriving, at six weeks they are where they should have been at two weeks.
• Too hot of temperatures.  When I first started around Halloween, the temperatures were in the mid 90s for awhile and the poor little guys didn't like that at all, especially combined with the bad water.

So hopefully this new batch will be able to do much better and actually produce a crop in 5 to 7 weeks like they are suppose to.  This is good news because I am suppose to be leaving Florida in 5 weeks. I doubt that they would survive the trip across country, not that I would attempt it!

10/29/10 - Bib Lettuce 5 days old

11/17/10 -Bib Lettuce 3 weeks old

11/21/10 - Bib Lettuce 4 weeks old 

12/6/10 - Bib Lettuce 6 weeks old

As you can see, the lettuce hasn't done so well.  Hopefully that is all behind me now!

Broccoli!!

The broccoli has been growing like a weed in summer since changing the water to distilled water.  Check out these pictures.  The broccoli seems to do really well in a NFT system. 

Broccoli - 11/17/2010

Broccoli 11/21/10

Broccoli Roots - 11/21/10

Broccoli - 12/6/10

Broccoli 12/11/10

Broccoli Roots - 12/11/10

How to start your own Hydroponic hobby

I undertook this hydroponic project for a few reasons.  First and foremost I like growing things but I am exceedingly lazy and hate getting dirty.  Two, Florida has a ridiculous amount of diseases, bugs, and critters whose sole purpose in life is to destroy your crops. Three, I figured it would be fun to do and allowed me to placate my need to be creative and to build things.  The whole thing was from the get go a learning experience.  I knew I was going to make mistakes, and I honestly didn't expect anything to survive.  I was half right!

I started with a Jiffy Greenhouse I have lost nearly all of my lettuce through a variety of problems and diseases.  It turns out that our well water is very high in iron and carbonates which forces out other nutrients from the hydroponic solution.  This results in slow growing, sickly plants that are prone to disease.

Jiffy Greenhouse

On the other hand, my broccoli has done quite well.  It is very hardy and while it didn't do much at first, it did keep living and now that I have everything dialed in it is blowing up!

I did read everything I could about hydroponics, but I learn best by doing, so that is what I have done.  For anyone that is interested, hydroponics is really easy and cheap to set up, I just went big.  So here is the how to based on what I have learned thus far:

6 Easy Steps to starting your hydroponic hobby

1. Start Simple! Do not start with a complicated and expensive NFT or Aeroponics system.  The more complicated it is, the more things that can go wrong. Learn the basics with a cheap and easy to build DIY setup, there are tons of plans and ideas online that use plastic totes and can be done for less than $50. Plans for a simple starter system. Use a tote instead of an aquarium.
2. Buy Local, buy only what you need. Buy the correct nutrients for what you are actually doing, not what you hope to do in the future. If you have a hydroponics shop in town buy from them and make friends with them.  Don't be cheap and buy online (I always went local), these people are a huge source of info when everything goes to hell.
3. Use Distilled Water. Do not use tap water or well water.  For your first system get distilled water - Walmart for $0.88 a gallon.  Well worth having a pure and sterile water source and not having to deal with all the issues I have had to.
4. Get the correct measurement tools. You don't need to go out and buy the greatest Conductivity and pH meters in the world, but you do need a way of checking your nutrient solution quality.  A pet shop with aquarium supplies will sell pH test kits for around $5-$10 that test down to 6.0 pH.  If you change your water weekly or every two weeks, you can get buy without a conductivity meter for awhile, but you will eventually want to get one.  Makes life much easier.  No matter what you do, check the water if not daily, at least twice a week for pH. 
5. Don't get crazy with your plants. Go to your local garden center and pick up something that you would be interested in growing, but is very simple. Lettuces and herbs are easy, amazingly hardy, and fast growing.  They don't take up a lot of space so you can grow them fairly dense. 
6. Have fun!

Further Reading

Maximum Yield - Indoor Gardening
Urban Garden Magazine | Hydroponic Systems
UrbanFarmOnline.com - Sustainable city living at your fingertips
Rosebud Magazine Hydroponics Lifestyle Growing And Entertainment!
The Growing Edge — Sustainable garden news, media, links and commentary for growers that are growing on the cutting edge.
The Hydroponics Blog