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2020 - Hydroponics self-supporting balcony

13.08.20 Preserving time - balcony garden harvest utilization and conservation

It is midsummer and we are harvesting more than we can eat, especially on our hydroponic balcony garden - the right time to think about autumn and winter. For example, we make delicious tarragon and tarragon/rosemary vinegar from herbs, add an aromatic sage grappa, lemon balm schnapps and herbal bitters.

Tomatoes, chili and peppers are cooked with a few spices to Pili Pili, a delicious, spicy flavoring, not only for the cold days. Cucumbers we preserve to sweet and sour pickles and zucchini we grilled and put in oil with herbs and garlic. This way we can enjoy our summer harvest later on.

12.08.20 First experiences with CANNA Boost

 After we have so far only heard about the good harvest successes with the CANNA BOOST Accelerator, we are now testing it ourselves on our balcony garden. We have prepared a spraying solution with 2 mL CANNA Boost to 1 L of water and sprayed our plants with it several times. CANNA Boost is a plant aid using plant substances and should strengthen the plants' defences by improving their metabolism and also lead to higher and better harvest results through better flower formation.

Our impression is indeed that our plants actually develop even better since we spray them. Our zucchinis seem to explode and produce many fruits at the same time. They have done this before, but not in the way they do now. Also, only some of the fruits have developed well. Now they all grow super.

Our tomatoes have also made a big push again, they are flowering and forming strong fruits for the second big harvest phase. Direct comparison test, with and without CANNA Boost, we have not carried out. But our impression is quite positive, so that we continue to test here.

20.07.20 Summer vegetables from the hydroponics balcony garden

18.07.20 Harvesting, replanting and plant care in hydroponics

Because of the good supply of the plants during hydroponic cultivation, tomatoes, lettuce, nasturtium, etc. have grown very well. Now it was important to take care of the jungle - i.e. to harvest lettuce in time and cut back tomatoes.

With the NFT system it is also always important to make sure that the roots are not too big and clog the system. This was the case with the nasturtium, we cut the roots and transferred them to another system. 

In addition to the regular removal of lateral shoots from tomatoes, we also cut out leaves to allow the tomatoes to get some sun.  The cords on which they grow upwards were retightened and the tomatoes attached to them.

We harvested the lettuce in the NFT vertical garden and shortened the roots of the remaining plants, such as strawberry and parsley. So that there are still lettuces to harvest, we added oak leaf lettuce, endive, romana lettuce and kohlrabi.

18.06.20 After 6 days of vacation - everything OK thanks to automatic irrigation

After our short vacation everything had grown well. A little bit of plant care is now necessary again. But thanks to our central nutrient tank, which automatically refills all hydroponic plant systems, all plants have survived and we can harvest.

 

28.05.20 Where usually flowers grow, kohlrabi and salads are growing

 ... this remark comes from a friend who has admired our balcony garden. Many herbs, like the nasturtium, have beautiful flowers and enliven the herb and vegetable garden.Further information also on: DIY - Balcony railing hydroponicsSince mid of May we have been able to harvest not only herbs, but also salads and cucumbers - the first zucchinis are soon ready for harvest. Although we didn't want to grow any cabbage varieties this year except kohlrabi we started a new "garden tower project" with coconut substrate and different cabbage varieties. We report on this separately.