Things have been crazy busy on and around Little Farm. Each day I was tending the plants, I told myself, "When you get in the house, post on the website." Every day I have said this to myself for the past two months. But Whenever I got in the house, something else demanded my attention.
So I am here NOW to make a post as to the State of Little Farm.
First thing, I have finished the floors in the greenhouses/high tunnels. The large high tunnels is in place and in use. The small greenhouse is not constructed yet.
The above image is to show the floors finished for both greenhouse/high tunnel. I am still designing the small greenhouse/high tunnel. I have a lot of ideas for it but I am trying to build what would be the most efficient structure to grow leafy greens in a 10' x 16' space. Every time I think I have a good design, I see another design online and I think of taking some part of its design and incorporating it into my own.
Carrots
I have grown a few experiments over the past 6 months. One of which was carrots in a container feed hydroponic nutrient.
As I mentioned before this was an experiment. I wasn't sure if I could do this in this environment. The heat, the humidity, the intense sunshine. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Yes, the carrots are small but there were a lot in one container. I overplanted to ensure one of them germinated. To my surprise, 90% of them germinated! My plane was to thin down the amount in the container, but I didn't have any more containers and the store I get the containers from didn't have any either. So the carrots had to grow in the one container. I pulled out over 25 carrots with an average length of 4.5 inches. Clearly had I not put so many in the container or thinned the amount in the container, these would have grown a lot larger.
Systems
Grow rail system has been doing quite well. I have been very pleased with it's performance. I know it needs improving. It's me again with the designing an efficient way of doing it and having the right ideas.
The improvement needed here is a snap on-and-off connector to the float valve. I have not been able to find a fitting as such here in this country. The fittings I did find are outdated and I hacked them together to get them to work. So if I what to change one rail or clean a single rail, I have to turn them ALL off and disconnect two of them to get to one.
What I have has been working quite well albeit maintenance is a chord, it functions as it is expected. In the above photo on the first rail from left to right, are Jalapeño plants with a Guava tree and a Pomegranate tree. In the middle rail a all Cayenne pepper plants. The in the last rail is a mixture of plants, as I was in the process of moving plants around. But in that rail is cayenne pepper plants, cilantro plants, a purple pepper plant whose name I know not, and three pineapple plants.
Leafy Greens
My leafy green production has taken a huge hit due to pests and my ability to build a structure fast enough for them to be placed. I started a few plants in hopes that I would have a structure in place to house them, but alas I was not able to. Thus they have had to endure the openness of the large structure.
In the above photo in the tote is baby bok choy, kale, and a container holding large leaf basil. In the tote in the back there are leafy mustard greens. The tray on the floor has fifteen banana pepper plants and an Armenian cucumber plant. The banana peppers and the Armenian cucumber plant will be added to a rail system as soon as I can get it done(find connectors).
More update later.