The Tea Garden: August 2008

Monday, August 25, 2008

New plant, New concepts

Ok well as said in the last blog I have two new plants, and I'm going to be growing these plants seriously, therefor I am keeping a written log, so if there is any week the plant has a growth increase I will know about it, I will know how I got it, and I will be able to continue the pattern.

I also want to build a computer that will run a web camera watching the plants, which will allow me to see and share the plants live without disturbing them. I would also be able to save a picture every day, and see actual growth.

ok so I bought 2 plants from a nursery's website. I got a regular plant like my old one but it is bigger with more branches, and I got a large leaf one which has some shipping damage, and maybe a nitrogen deficiency or something, because it doesn't look happy. both are in soil, and I will be taking clones once I get them to fill out more. they are in the closet garden for now, but once I build a filtered evaporative air cooler, they will be in the cabinet I made. I made some upgrades to the closet garden, including extra compact flourescents, and a blower fan pushing around 210 cfm threw it.

I plan on making more indoor gardens, and I hope to have many tea plants soon.

Whats going on here... Read First

This blog takes place in my home, really, in my bedroom. At the age of 15 I thought about growing tea, I've always loved plants, and I started really liking to drink tea. I've attempted to grow many tea plants (which you can see in this blog) the first one I grew from seed and was in a hydroponic drip system, I was able to grow if for many months until over fertilization, and heat took its toll and eventually killed the tea plant.
I wanted to keep trying, I learned from my mistakes and gained experience growing other plants. So I then purchased 50 tea seeds of four different species (large leaf, Small leaf, Guangzhao, and Rosea) and left them in the fridge until I knew what to do with them. It came to me to use a soil-less grow medium, because of the control, the stability, and the many choices of medium. I chose Coco Peat, basically its ground up coconut shells and the outside fibers of the coconut, it is very airy and with a little tuning is perfect for the tea plants. I got one of my hydroponic flood and drain tables and filed it about 5 inches deep with the coco, and placed the seeds an inch apart in sections and with labeled Popsicle sticks. As of now a total of 29 seeds germinated and became plants. After some started getting leaves I split them up into pots, and they are now getting established in their pots, and will need repotting soon. I chose earth juice organic nutrients, they are mild and should work out fine. Everything is going well for now, but I'm out of space, so what I'm going to do next is build a bigger indoor growroom, or find a greenhouse.

The Tea Garden

Monday, August 25, 2008

New plant, New concepts

Whats going on here... Read First

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