Author Topic: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?  (Read 1896 times)

Tropicaltoba

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #25 on: January 26, 2023, 09:21:51 AM »
Tropicaltoba, i dont really feed my fish, i keep goldfish and some native species, which i want to replace with goldfish ultimately. I have bought 1 goldfish feed this summer, very small quantity and that was all i fed them the whole summer. I dont usually feed them becouse i have introduced river crustaceans,  dunno which species but are very small and have a stable poppulation of theese. I also have dragonfly larvae ,some stranje muck worms that show themselves trough the muck , and all other kinds of nasties.
My ponds are not heavily stocked with fish, so what in there naturally is sufficient at this point.
For the mosquitos i dont really know if the ponds are making a dent in the poppulation, i have never seen a flock of musquitos like flying above them. Ive seen them laying eggs on the water's surface, and i do have a substantial amount of mosquitos in the yard in spring and early summer, BUT at that time wherever i go there are awlays alot of mosquitos, forests are the worst place to go with summer outfit lol. 
Ive red there are some biological means of controlling mosquitos in ponds that do work, i just let mine run as naturally as possible, i will possibly get more goldfish this summer, this should help with their control.
Also if you make a pond u can add a strong watterfal or some kind of watter aggitation device, mosquito hate moving highly oxigenated water.
Sintetic ferts, i use whatever i get my hands on..npk ones, micronutrient ones, i found a hidroponic store where they offer some stuff that is usually hard to find here, like terra aquatica brand along others. I also use kristalon, which i think does a good job.
Here are both of them right now.





Super cool. Really jealous. Gonna have to convince the wife to allow to expand my ridiculous hobbies.

Plantinyum

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #26 on: January 26, 2023, 12:13:54 PM »
Tropicaltoba- Hahah ;D , if you have the space ,make one, it doesnt have to be huge u know, just make it deeper since your in a cold zone and fish like to have a deeper place to go to ,when its very cold.
My ponds look like nothing right now, they look spectacular in summer with all the vegetation, waterfall running and water lillies blooming. Its a little more work in the start untill the water has circulated itself, after that its on a autopilot mode.

Tropicaltoba

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #27 on: January 26, 2023, 01:24:44 PM »
Thanks for the suggestions, the ground here freezes to 6-8 feet here so I’m gonna have to start working out to get my shoveling muscles ready for the spring. I’ll probably pick your brain closer to the spring in an attempt to minimize failed pond experiments.

Plantinyum

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #28 on: January 26, 2023, 01:27:05 PM »
Thanks for the suggestions, the ground here freezes to 6-8 feet here so I’m gonna have to start working out to get my shoveling muscles ready for the spring. I’ll probably pick your brain closer to the spring in an attempt to minimize failed pond experiments.

No worries, i'll share what i know !

Daintree

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #29 on: January 26, 2023, 05:55:52 PM »
Hi Tropicaltoba!
I am not nearly as cold as you, but in Idaho I do have to have a greenhouse and all my tropicals are in pots.
I have not had great luck with organic fertilizers in pots, because there isn't any "soil" in them so to speak, and organics have to be broken down by soil microbes before being available for the plants to use. It takes a long time, so you have to be patient to see results, and adding beneficial fungi and microbes is really important.
I am lazy and impatient by nature, and just use MiracleGro mostly, although "The Bobs", aka my worm composting setup, contributes a lot.
Can we see pics of your greenhouse???

Carolyn

Tropicaltoba

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #30 on: January 26, 2023, 06:17:13 PM »
Yeah I’m not sure if organic are the way to go. Somethings seem to produce well, others not so much. I think I’ve finally figured out the climate control (sort of). Now working on pests, soil and fertilization. The problem is I don’t know any other people trying this stuff up North so I don’t know if I just suck at growing certain things or if they just take a while to produce. Be warned I have a high electricity bill but hydroelectric power here is abundant and we actually have a surplus.


Daintree

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #31 on: January 26, 2023, 07:35:00 PM »
Awesome!
I'm wondering how you move around in there! Do your pots go outside in the summer? I used to, but things are too big now.
Even down here, I have a hard time getting enough light on my citrus in the winter. And yeah, the heat can be pricey! Our natural gas in Idaho is cheap, so that is my heat source. Whenever people ask how much, I always say "it's way cheaper than showing horses!"
Here is my setup -

The seating area, a.k.a. The Laughing Impala Pub


Cacao, cinnamon, vanilla


One of my sweet Bourkes parrots that live out there


One of the two gas furnaces. I move the air around with cheap little fans


The pathway through the tropics


Tropicaltoba

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #32 on: January 26, 2023, 09:40:05 PM »
It looks really nice to have a setup with the birds and sitting space. I have too many exhaust fans so animals are a no go for me. yeah it’s pretty tight, only 225 sq ft so I pack as much in as I can. I did have to room to fit a hammock which I used during lockdown.

They all stay inside all summer, I’ve figured out how to keep the temps under 86F even when it’s 100F and sunny.

I’m still trying to figure out how to perfect the humidity for mangos (too dry mildew to wet ancathranose). I also think I need to make a mini greenhouse for rambutan, lanzone/Landsat sand mangosteen as I think they need even more consistent high humidity to grow well they look a little sad. I also use digital Controllers for the humidity and they always seem to break after 18 months which makes it hard or delicate plants.

I’m also trying to find out how to get enough chill hours near the windows to grow dwarf nectarines 800h. I can’t get low chill cultivars in canada. I get enough for feijoias 150? and did peaches (400) one year before I got ultra tropicals and had to turn the heat up a bit. I’m hoping the mini greenhouse will let me turn down the winter temps to save power and get more chill.



Plantinyum

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #33 on: January 27, 2023, 01:58:21 AM »
Nice greenhouses and plants!

Daintree, i am jealous of your cacao, bananas and the rest place that you have in there! The parot has a very nice colouring.

Tropicaltoba, supposing that you have planting space outside the greenhouse, why dont you plant the stonefruit outside? Is it too cold to grow peaches there outside, or you just have space limitations in the yard?
I have thought about a similar thing, supplying cold to my feijoa in the gh. Ive thought about enclosing it in someking of a box, and opening a small window in the policarbonate, to supply the cold needed. I think you could do a wooden or other box around the peach trees, and install small windows to supply the cold air. I dont know your setup so excuse me if this is impossible to do...
« Last Edit: January 27, 2023, 02:00:23 AM by Plantinyum »

Tropicaltoba

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #34 on: January 27, 2023, 07:23:52 AM »
Yeah it’s too cold out sometimes -40C, I’ve some some microclimates in my yard that allow me to keep some small zone 5 (paw paw seedlings) and I’ve tried doing peaches in containers (zone 4/5) and store in the garage or cold part of basement but I can’t seem to keep them alive for more and 2-3 years. Yeah I was thinking about the cold box idea too, the problem here is most winters (not this one) are extremely sunny, so anything enclosed really heats up. It’s actually why I decided to build one 7 y ago (it’s actually on the roof of my kitchen). It works so well that here on a sunny cold day it’s -30f outside and over 80f (26c) inside. The past 3 years have been much milder and cloudy so I put up grow lights as I had a lot of citrus dieback a couple of years ago. Also the beneficial insects I have can start to go dormant with <12 sun a day so it serves multiple purposes.

Talking about feijoias (the only ones I’ve ever seen/eaten are min own)I’m thinking my greenhouse runs to hot at 85F for them To taste their best. I had a friends parents visit from New Zealand, and while I was very proud to show them I could grow their favourite fruit in the middle of a cold winter, they did not think they were anything like the big juicy fruits that they had at home (they actually snickered when they saw them). What’s been your experience with taste/temp?

Also I don’t find them to be partially self fertile at all like some People on this forum have said, and getting cultivars that flower at the exact same time for cross
Pollinating has been a challenge. My nikita rarely had fruit cause the others started flowering just as it finished.

pagnr

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #35 on: January 27, 2023, 07:47:19 AM »
It works so well that here on a sunny cold day it’s -30f outside and over 80f (26c) inside.

How do you go with condensation drip or ice formation on the inside roof ? It is a problem here with frost in unheated plastic tunnels at below zero.

Tropicaltoba

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #36 on: January 27, 2023, 09:18:07 AM »
It does sometimes drip from the top. The ceiling is 45 degree so it usually rounds down the walls. I actually got a proper thermally broken frame and I run a dehumidifier in the winter (dessicant so also heats) so water only condenses at -10c outside and the frame will frost/freeze up at -25c. I have a ceiling fan that gives good flow so I don’t usually have any fungal issues at colder temps. I did have butter lettuce rot and get fungus this year as near the windows where it’s cold (55f) and 85% rh. Rocket and arugula did fine though. The only Fungus issue I have (it may be that some other growing issues are from Fungus?) is ancathranose with some mangos.

Plantinyum

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #37 on: January 27, 2023, 09:32:17 AM »
 Havent had the fruit of feijoa,
I have 3 feijoas , none of which have fruited yet, they are reasonbly big plants. The one it the greenhouse has around 20 flower buds forming right now , the other 2 that are potted havent bloomed yet. The poted ones are an unknown variety, the greenhouse one is Jemini. Last year i self pollinated the gemini, didnt form fruit. I hope they all bloom in spring at the same time so i can cross pollinate, butthis may be challenging as the greenhouse one doesnt experience any winter temps whatsoever, doesnt get below 10 c in there, and rarely does it get below 15c. The potted ones are in the basement at much colder temps.

Daintree

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Re: Homemade organic fertilizers for container plants?
« Reply #38 on: January 27, 2023, 10:24:26 AM »
It does sometimes drip from the top. The ceiling is 45 degree so it usually rounds down the walls. I actually got a proper thermally broken frame and I run a dehumidifier in the winter (dessicant so also heats) so water only condenses at -10c outside and the frame will frost/freeze up at -25c. I have a ceiling fan that gives good flow so I don’t usually have any fungal issues at colder temps. I did have butter lettuce rot and get fungus this year as near the windows where it’s cold (55f) and 85% rh. Rocket and arugula did fine though. The only Fungus issue I have (it may be that some other growing issues are from Fungus?) is ancathranose with some mangos.
Different climates sure have their own challenges! You have a DEhumidifier, and here in the high desert, I have to run a HUMIDifier!!

Carolyn