June 8, 2008

Just Like Children ...

... my plants are growing at an amazing rate.

(Click photos to enlarge)



The two plants here are the same two in the blue pails in the earlier discussion.





I took this shot just a few minutes ago and you can see how much more they've grown. The two in the back are the same two you see above in an earlier photo, and the four in front are those I just 'potted up' from the miscellaneous smaller containers.

These containers are large enough to accommodate the tomato cages (that I found free on the property!), so they won't have to be moved again.

The secret to getting nice, thick stalks is to set the plant in deeper when repotting, even going past the first leaves. New roots will form around every part of the stalk that is beneath soil, and more roots will mean a stronger plant.

I don't add dirt all the way to the top of the pot as that leaves me room to add more soil as the plants grow even taller, thereby strengthening the stalk even more.



Here are three more that I found a small spot for alongside the house.



I put rocks around it to keep the cat from using it as her potty box - so far, so good!



This is a current photo of the cucumber that you see in the earlier photo in the child's refrigerator. I think he's doing quite well!








Here are three smaller cucumber plants that I put into the ground beside the house. The little green spot in the middle of the photo is lettuce that is just sprouting, and if you look to the right by the fence, you'll see more sugar snap peas coming up. Yum!

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