My favorite edible container plants are perennials (as dealing with spent soil from annual plants every season is such a pain)

I’m the exact opposite lol 🙃

You could check out !hydroponics@slrpnk.net.

My perennial plants (berries, saffron, etc.) are in soil, and the annual “throwaway” ones in hydro.

With the soil plants I have to keep the dirt (microbes, worms, etc.) happy in order to keep the plants happy, water regularly, and more. Lots of work.

The herbs are just sowing, refilling the nutrient solution sometimes, and harvesting. Because I don’t use soil, I don’t have to throw away anything.

I will make a post soon to give you guys some inspiration

That’s the spirit! You got it!

Basically Kintsugi, but made by someone 13-year-old mentally 😂 Exactly what I imagined too

Just make sure you don’t inhale any fumes from the plastic

If nothing else works, maybe make the best out of it, grab a lighter (or soldering iron) and just burn a cool pattern on it?

I’ve never seen real world use of those flying turbines. What are their pros and cons compared to classic ones on the ground? What happens when it’s stormy?

How do you use clay balls?

I made this post a while ago about “Semi-Hydro”, a very simple, yet extremely effective technique.

Not sure I understand how the roots are in water yet get aerated?

In S/H and the Kratky method for example, which are both passive, only a part of the roots is submerged, while the rest is only kept moist, but freely in the air. This allows for extreme well gas exchange.

Other techniques often require air stones with pumps and electricity, but even those have their own strengths and weaknesses.

How do you test for nutrient strength?

I do that by measuring the electric conductivity (EC). Fertilizer = salts; more salts = higher EC. The device itself costs less than 20 bucks.

There are charts available for pretty much every type of crop.

You can even notice if a plant will suffer from a deficiency soon, because the EC will then drop, or if it will get nutrient burn when the EC rises to a certain level. That’s super useful, especially when growing outdoors, because sometimes the transpiration is much higher than the nutrient demand.

You can even measure the pH, which will tell you a lot about the nutrient absorption and availability.
For example, I noticed the pH drifting upwards when the plant is in bloom, because of the high phosphorus demands.

All of that is pretty much impossible with soil based methods of growing

I guess the difference is the very controlled and shielded environment of hydroponics vs the open environment of balcony plants in soil?

Hydroponics only means that I don’t use soil, only nutrient solution and maybe a medium like clay balls.

Many pests (e.g. fungus gnats, thrips, etc.) are soilborne and can’t complete their reproductive cycle in “hostile” media like mine.

Also, I have more control. I can always check the nutrient strength and pH for example in seconds, and then adjust it or flush the media.
That way, I can often see problems arising before they show, which allows for better growth and more robust plants.

And then, the growing conditions are pretty much constantly perfect. I don’t have to worry about waterlogged soil for example, because the roots are constantly moist, but still perfectly aerated.
If you did hydro once, you’ll understand how much aeration matters, in soil just as much, if not even more!

I wonder if there is one week of the year when they start turning aggressive - I remember leaving their nests alone because they would be peaceful during the spring months, and then at some point in summer I’d get stung.

Is it possible that they are photoperiodic and sense that winter is coming?

I’m a real fan of undesired non-humans, so figuring out how to co-inhabit spaces with wasps, ants, rats, mice etc. without resorting to genocide is one of my favourite topics!

Same! That’s why I did this balcony project. Everything around me is dead. Concrete, pesticides, monocultures, and so on.

My grandma visited me a while ago and said that this is one of the most living places she has seen since years.

I even arranged myself with the ants. They were super annoying in the beginning, but now, we respect each others boundaries. They are actually useful by being my personal cleaning crew, who dispose all dead bodies.
My only annoyance is that they’ve learnt how to exploid the aphids tho…

If you want saccharine sweet ego fluffing responses, go prompt an AI. Being earnest and being honest are more important to me.

That’s why I made this post. Because maybe I needed some feedback from real people, with hands on experience, who either tried but failed, or did something a bit different and succeeded.

I didn’t criticise what you said, it’s how you said it.
I’m highly glad for your input, but I personally think that you could have said it a bit more friendly while being just as honest at the same time.

There must be a word in German for this kind of hubris.

Sure, there’s always a german word for something :D

Right now, I can think of “Schreibtischexperte” (desktop expert), but maybe “Praxisversager” (a loser in hands-on-experience), or Theorieprofessor.

2 out if the 3 were made up by myself just at the moment, lol.

So what is stable about your current system? Take the moment for some introspection. Is it stable? Or maybe are you assumptions about stability wrong? Are you expecting to permaculture on a balcony garden? Are you expecting too much because you have some misconceptions?

Stable means for me, that there aren’t zero pests, but also no overabundance.

I think I may have overreacted a bit yesterday.
I was already pissed about having itchy bugs everywhere on my skin, and then the wasp attack was the final nail in the coffin…

I planted the willow there on purpose, because last year, when I went for a walk, I noticed mainly the willow trees being swarmed by pests.

They act not only as a trellis for me, but also as a bait, so the pests are only sucking the sap of the willow and not the stuff around. And then, they attract predators, which will ward off any critters that might attack my crops.

However, I didn’t think about the relationship between the ants and those bastards.

If you have a small area to work with, you are creating the exact kind of environment for the kinds of pest issues you’ve created by doing exactly what you are doing

You are trying to do too much with too little. Fewer plants and more spacing between them will both result in individually healthier plants and fewer disease issues because the diseases have a harder time moving through the system.

I think you are absolutely right. I think some of the plants are stressed because they are overcrowded, and there isn’t sufficient light and airflow.

I tried to experiment this year and see how much I can grow per m².
Even though it sucks right now, I would call this experiment successful.

I think I have learned something: More isn’t better.

My balcony will be less crowded next year.

Also, your garden looks cool af! 😁 Thanks for sharing the video!

And again, thank you for all the advice :)

But do you want to fight against nature or reproduce it?

If I want to fight nature, I can pretty much only loose. So, I tried to recreate it a bit to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects to give them a small place to live.

Plants will look sickly if I can’t arrange containers big enough to contain their roots. Some just don’t like the shape of their pot and don’t grow no matter what.

For my productive crops, I use !hydroponics@slrpnk.net. Huge yield for the volumes I use

I’ve never found copper to be effective against slugs. They didn’t even mind one bit :D

But do you know what works? Right, my jet flame lighter. Brutal, but effective.

That’s why I included the pics of the ladybug larvae. I think most of them are dead by now, because the ants are no joke and kill everything they see.

When I saw them I was super thrilled, but the aphids spread more and more, and I barely see any ladybugs or other beneficial insects around 🥲

I already own a similar product to yours, but I only use it for indoor stuff atm.

My thought was following: I can’t fight against nature outside, the pests will always find a way.

So, instead I fight fire with fire and just let nature take its course, so I get a stable balanced system where no pest is overly abundant and where I don’t have to intervene.

With “organic” I basically mean I try to reproduce nature. No pesticides, no intervention, healthy living soil, and stuff like that.

Hey. Thanks for taking the time to write all of this.

But I just wanna say that your comment comes off pretty hostile in my eyes. The world is already a shitty place sometimes, and I think some of your statements were just unnecessary provocative tbh.

Regarding why I chose this kind of system: stability.

It’s basically impossible to prevent pests outdoors, and I thought that if I just let nature take its course, it will be self regulating and I don’t have to intervene.

Second, your “mites” aren’t mites, they are aphids. I can’t believe I have to explain this to a weed grower.

I also said that I have both. There is lots of white, flaky stuff (probably white flies) and some mites (small webs) as well as the aphids that are more prominently pictured.

Also, why should I be a more competent gardener only because I grow weed?
I find it basically impossible to kill this stuff. I find melons and chilis way harder tbh.

I already have lots of knowledge, but I lack a bit behind in terms of experience. I find zero shame in that, and maybe others face the same problem right now, but are afraid to ask because of rude comments like yours 😬

Alright, I just went to my local zoo and got this anteater.

My only problem right now is that it discovered my cannabis plant and is now acting a bit weird. Is that normal? What should I do?

(/s)

For mushrooms I use champignouf.com, which works quite well too. It only works for macroscopic ones and their fruiting bodies of course.

Yeah, right. Soil decomposes, a polyester wick or expanded clay won’t. Fill the baskets with it, and it will draw moisture from below, without any risk of rot.
If the reservoir is filled completely, the soil still should be way above the water level.

Still, keep an eye out for the moisture grade. Soil and any other organic media aren’t allowed to be soaked constantly and usually need some drying in between. Damp is fine, but not wet.

Soil being constantly wet is exactly the conditions anaerobic bacteria need to rot everything thats submerged.

The solution is pretty obvious: don’t put soil direct under water.

There are many possible ways to achieve that:

• Add a drainage layer made out of LECA, pumice, or whatever inert material you can get. Then, add a polyester cloth or whatever synthetic fabric you can get, and sandwitch it between, and then add your soil. This prevents it from washing out. LECA and similar substrates can also wick water, but don’t get soaked and can’t rot.
• Or, you can use a polyester cloth or a proper self watering wick and put them in the holes, or fill them completely with it. They can wick way stronger, but shouldn’t be submerged completely, because then the soil gets too wet again. Or,
• Ignore the self watering capabilities and just water regularly, but use it sparingly, e.g. when you go out of town for a week, and then let it dry again
• Or, don’t use soil, and visit !hydroponics@slrpnk.net, where we use different substrates and techniques and also make use of those self watering pots. I use something very similar, but with mineralic substrates (I personally love LECA), where self watering works exactly like that, and the media can be reused indefinitely, without soil borne pests and much more!

Thanks!

That would probably have not much effect. Citric acid is super rapidly decomposed by microorganisms, and the sugar in it would make my ants go crazy

Out of curiosity. I want to see how decomposed and compacted the soil is in particular, because I don’t know if it can be considered “spent” someday.

I’m already collecting rainwater, but that doesn’t even suffice for my hydro stuff, which has way lower water demands.
Also, I have a reverse osmosis filter, which creates almost 10 parts tap water for 1 part pure water, and I use the “waste” water for watering my soil plants