Inside Urban Green

CuGreen Plant Lab » Indoor Plant Season is Here Again

These are some of the plants growing in the CuGreen plant lab. All are either sub-irrigated or growing in expanded clay pebble hydroculture. There is no drainage. They are watered on a fixed schedule. All soil based plants are growing in the same artificial soil media. There is no need for "special soil" based on the species of plant. Any terrestrial plant (with roots), including cactus, can be grown and maintained using these methods.

I am writing a how-to guide for what you see here. It will be a free download. Stay tuned.

Recycling Plastic Bottles » A Roof or Growing Fresh Food?

via www.telegraph.co.uk

The Growing Gardens Project Community Garden was created by volunteers on a patch of disused land at Deen City Farm, Colliers Wood, and is well-known for its quirky features. It has a turf maze, an eco-building created out of more than 5000 plastic bottles (pictured), and organises regular workshops on horticultural subjects such as bee-keeping.

This is a creative way to recycle plastic bottles but there is an even better way to upcylce them. Learn how after the jump.

Little Mother Spider in a SIP

See the hydroponic "water roots"

Recycled Glass Bottle SIP Update

One month after planting unrooted Spider plant offsets

New Tool to Measure Indoor Air Pollutants

Will a new instrument that measures indoor air pollutants help to convert a popular field of junk science into real science?

Junk science says that all indoor plants clean the air, including those managing to survive in top-watered clay pots. A logical mind would know that this could not be true.

Unfortunately, legions of garden writers with shallow science education have helped to spread this propaganda.

The widespread urban myth that all houseplants have air-cleaning power started back in the 1980’s when retired NASA scientist Dr. Bill Wolverton partnered with an interior plantscaping industry marketing campaign called “Plants for Clean Air”.

The most important fact always omitted by the media is that Wolverton based his conclusions on the use of sub-irrigated soil media or clay pebble hydroculture. He clearly states this in his 1997 book How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office.  

London » FARM:shop Progress Video

The video was shot this past December. The FARM:shop is now open and apparently thriving.

It appears that there may be lighting issues regarding the nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponics wall system and the indoor plant vertical garden in the stairwell. Time will tell as it always does when growing plants inside buildings. Light is the limiting factor. The best thing to do is to measure the light with a light meter before planting.

Also note that there are no solid media (artificial soil) based sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). In my view that is a significant omission in what I view as a very progressive urban food production project.

There is also a comprehensive Flickr photo set by AlexandraMPayne a New Yorker who worked at the FARM:shop as a volunteer.

via www.youtube.com

Glass Joins the Recycled Bottle SIP Parade

This is the first effort at cutting glass bottles to make sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) or hydroculture planters. I believe it is the start of something big. Wine, champagne, liquor, water bottle planters to come. Who knows what else.

I pulled these small beer bottles out of the trash. The planter on the right is the same configuration as the plastic soda bottle SIPs.

The inverted neck portion of the bottle forms the planter. The bottom section forms the water and air reservoir.

There is a fabric wick/retainer at the end of the neck that holds the soil mix in the neck of the bottle and feeds water up by capillary action.

The planter to the left is hydroculture, which is a very simple form of hydroponics. There is no need for the neck. The bottom is filled with expanded clay pebbles. There is a ½” clear plastic tube going all the way to the bottom of the bottle planter. You can insert a piece of ¼” clear plastic tubing (or a straw) and oxygenate the water by blowing air. You do not need an electric pump or air stone.

Almost 27,000 Views and Counting!

This is clearly the rock star of the urban greenscaper photo collection. There is no close second. People from all over the world have viewed it 26,738 times as of today.

There is good reason for calling it the Rosetta Stone of container plant growing.  Whether growing houseplants, herbs or vegetable starters it makes plant growing so much easier. You do not need a mythical green thumb to grow healthy plants. 

Even with almost 40 years of horticultural experience, I continue to learn new things about plants using these recycled (or upcycled) soda bottle sub-irrigated planters.

They are not only better for plants than drain hole planters, they are free and you are helping the environment by using them. They are clearly (pun intended) better than what you can buy.

You can use them to propagate cuttings or seeds. Grow vegetable starter plants in them and then move them into raised bed, utility bucket, tote box or EarthBox portable micro gardens (aka sub-irrigated planters, SIPs).

Stay tuned for recycled glass wine and beer bottle versions of these planters. A YouTube instructional video is also in the works.

Indoor Plant Industry Going Green

Antonio Torres lays down a flat of small pots filled with soil while working on a potting plant at Delray Plants in Venus on Tuesday. Delray Plants, which sells wholesale to retail outlets like Kroger, Wal-Mart and Home Depot, makes up a large part of Highlands County's ornamental plant industry.

Will someone please explain to me what is "green" about this photo from the article linked below?

If the indoor plant industry really wants to be green, they should provide consumers with information that will keep their so-called green plants alive. Instead of dumb drain hole, finger poking nonsense they should provide consumers with information about the benefits of modern sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs).

Green should be to make "houseplants" more user friendly, long lived and sustainable. Now that's a green word!

Instead of sustainable, this industry wants to market its products as a consumable health aid. They simply don't get the present day meaning of green.

Read this comment by Clem Cirelli, a well-respected professional interior plantscaper.

via www2.highlandstoday.com

SEBRING - Be nice to that yellow, underwatered ivy. It's improving your air quality. And it might even make you happier.

Ficus Tree Dumbness From A Designer

99% of writers who write about indoor plants on the web shouldn't. The vast majority of them simply don't know what they're talking about.

This is one of them. The writer's comments about Ficus trees are amusing, but totally inaccurate. Given adequate light they are one of the toughest plants on the planet.

It would also help if people better understood the benefits of sub-irrigated planters (SIPs aka"self-watering"). They make a major difference in the health of whatever plants you grow, whether decorative or edible.

One of the significant benefits of SIPs for indoor plants is that when watering stress is removed, plants are better able to tolerate lower light conditions.

This was one of the most significant discoveries when we converted to SIPs in my interior plantscaping company back in the '70s. Plants don't like stress any more than we do.

A good way to grow Ficus trees.

via www.paramuspost.com

Q: Unfashionable plants?

A: If you think Mother Nature is always in vogue, think again. Plants have long come in and out of style, depending on the times. The Victorians, for example, adored exotics like iron plants (Aspidistra elatior) and ferns of all kinds — these were the first things to go when decorator Elsie de Wolfe threw over all things Victorian and invented clean, modern interior design in the late 1800s.

Anyone who remembers the 1970s also remembers the notoriously finicky Ficus tree (died if you looked at it). African violets also had their day in the sunlamp, and we're just edging past the age of "Lucky Bamboo."