Inside Urban Green

Sub-irrigated Indoor Gardens for all Seasons, Climates, Locations and Ages - Part 1

Many of you have seen this photo before. As of today there have been more than 76,000 views of it in this Flickr album.

I installed this sub-irrigation planter (SIP) garden (mostly succulents) on the property of a b&b hotel as compensation for temporary storage space for my plant lab back in 2014. Unfortunately the inn closed due to declining business that was evidently triggered by the great recession. It is now apartments.

The plants are still alive but now intermingled with traditional drain hole pots. The garden as it was is no longer intact. All of their planters should have been converted into SIPs. Sad story but life moves on.

The replacement garden is below. As you can see this version is an indoor light garden. It is housed on an Inter-Metro style rolling rack (aka wire rack) from Costco ($90 - 4'x6'x1.5', 6 shelves with casters for easy mobility, chrome). These racks are also available from other stores such as Lowe's Home Depot and The Container Store (usually without casters). The light is supplied by LED shop lights, also from Costco ( 2 per shelf). These lights appear to be an exclusive Costco item ($30-35).

This as a beta-test garden in my plant lab. We will see how the plants grow in this set-up. I am creating a Flickr album with many more close-up photos of individual planters. I will post the status monthly. Stay tuned.

Note the shelf below the "desert garden." It is a "coffee plantation" shown previously in this post. Click the photo for a much larger view.

The little coffee trees below the desert garden are growing like Topsy. I keep pruning the tops to create strong trunks. I will soon have more room to let them grow taller. The next light garden theme will be tropical rainforest plants including Tillandsias (air plants).

Another shelf in the desert garden. Click on the photo for a much larger view.

There will also be another version of the "desert garden" in the future. The plants will be growing in sub-irrigated tray planters instead of individual pots. The SIP trays will simulate a desert landscape with decorative sand over the top of the artificial planter mix substrate. It will allow much more room for creativity for those whose vision includes an Arabian fantasy. Shhh...don't tell anyone there is water just below the sand. It will be your little secret.

These theme gardens will offer a new way to supplement book learning of other subjects besides STEM based plant science in public schools (geography and environmental studies for example). My vision is that there be one or more of these light gardens in every school in the U.S. and abroad.

I will seek corporate sponsorship for this worthy project. Our horticultural education system is currently dominated by ideology and outdated gardening practices (drain holes for example). We need disruptive change if we expect to feed ourselves in the future.

Indoor light gardens should be available to all teachers and students every day the year round regardless of weather or climate. Since they are highly mobile with casters they can be rolled easily from classroom to classroom. Simply plug them in and the show is on.

These are examples of the planters used in this desert garden. The rectangular planter at the top was a clearance item from Rite-Aid. They are high fired ceramic. I have found a number of bargains in Rite-Aid at the end of the season. I bought several of these for just a few dollars.

The two water and oxygen reservoirs are made from recycled 5.3 oz Dannon Greek yogurt containers. Note the clear vinyl fill tube (3/4" o.d. - 5/8" i.d. allows for insertion of a plastic funnel with a 1/2" neck). You need just one. Water will flow across the bottom of the planter into the reservoir on the right.

The reservoir for the clay pot (.78 at Home Depot) is the little plastic grow container the cactus came in. All holes in these reservoirs were made with a wood burning pen. The drain hole in the little clay pot was plugged with Goop adhesive (my favorite). It is widely available in big box and hardware stores and on-line.

The high-fired, high-quality, ceramic planter on the right is from Ikea. They were just .49 each (note that they were less than the common clay pot). I bought a bunch of these planters. What a deal! And...there was no need to plug a drain hole in these cache pots.

This photo shows how the soil wicks work. They are partially filled for illustration purposes. The potting mix surrounding the water/oxygen reservoir acts as the wick (no cloth wick required). The plants roots grow down to (and into) the reservoir while the water moves up by capillary action. This "SIP action" is actually a very simple form of hydroponics with no need for power or oxygen pumps.

Part 2 of this series of posts about SIP light gardens everywhere, any time, will explain how I use an inexpensive digital scale to measure, monitor and manage the reservoir contents and the soil moisture. The method is very accurate once you get the hang of it. There is no need for praying and you do not need a mythical green thumb. 

At some time in the near future (this year hopefully) there will be an app for it.

Related articles

A Sub-irrigated "Bubble SIP" Water Conservation Test Garden

African Violets in Bubble SIPs Growing Under LED Shop Lights

Moving From One SIP to Another

Salad Bars for Eating Plants, Light Stands for Growing Them

Del Monte and discount grocer Marc’s teamed up to provide self-serve salad bars to three Cleveland-area schools, increasing the fresh produce options for more than 3,500 students.

Though I've not eaten from one, salad bars in schools seem like a good idea to me. A year ago I changed my diet and became a fan of whole foods only. I am thoroughly enjoying it and have lost about 45 pounds. Daily walks in Balboa Park have improved my aerobic fitness and this is the best condition I’ve been in for many years. New knees have helped. They are miraculous.

What if there was a salad bar in all public schools? Would they put a dent in our national obesity problem? I believe they would. I would also like to see "salad grow bars" working in tandem with salad bars in every school.

I'm referring to the type of indoor light stands that I have been using in my lab for the past 17 years. I can grow anything with roots from coffee trees to lettuce along with lots of decorative plants to soothe the soul.

See Flickr album

I am moving back to the east coast and plan to beta test a program to put a STEM-based plant light stand in all public schools. The types I use are far more affordable and functional then those currently on the market for school use. Results since 1998 are powerful evidence of their educational value

The first step is to find one or more high school beta test partners. High school students can become a cadre of mentors for children in lower grades who have the potential to be the generation that stems the obesity problem.

My prior experience in Brooklyn revealed that lower grades science teachers know little or nothing about modern STEM-based plant growing methods like sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). They also demonstrated a lot of interest when I had one-to-one sessions with them.

Most of them were truly amazed and appreciated the program. I believe it is vital that our public education system teach a new generation of young people about “STEM before stems.”

via producenews.com

October 13, 2015

Discount grocer Marc’s has teamed up with Del Monte Fresh Produce to provide self-serve salad bars to three schools in Mentor, OH, as part of the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative.

The donations were celebrated Oct. 8 with a ribbon-cutting at Mentor High School in front of the school’s new salad bar. The event brought together school administrators, students and produce and retail grocery executives to celebrate the donations and observe students as they used the salad bar to fill up their lunch trays with fresh fruit and vegetables. Del Monte and discount grocer Marc’s teamed up to provide self-serve salad bars to three Cleveland-area schools, increasing the fresh produce options for more than 3,500 students.

“As part of our commitment to the community, we take great pride in promoting healthy eating habits and increasing students’ access to fruits and vegetables in school lunchrooms,” Marc Glassman, founder of Marc’s, said in a press release. “We’re pleased to come together with our partners at Del Monte Fresh to make this positive, healthy change possible.” Read more...

The Makings of a SIP Coffee Plantation

It was good to encounter some creativity in the houseplant business recently. These are coffee trees (probably Coffea arabica) growing in 4" pots inside simulated burlap coffee bean sacks. They are lined with sheet plastic so you can bottom water them with a measured amount of water poured into the sacks. But, there's a far better way to grow them. Read on.

The orange juice bottle is the makings of a recycled plastic bottle sub-irrigated planter (SIP). I like the fact that they are square with clean lines. There are no wavy-curvy parts in the mold like there are in many soda bottles.

The downside is that these are not kid-friendly bottles to cut. Rather than scissors, I used a wood-burning pen with a knife blade tip. Even doing it this way I had to go slow to cut through the tough plastic. The finished result was worth it. To me they look like "science lab" planters, which is what they are.

The original plants were overloaded with cuttings so I carefully took them apart and planted 3 stems per bottle SIP. I bought 10 plants. Eight of them became 27 plants in the bottle SIPs. I still have the other 2 plants in the photo and will split them also to make 5 more SIP planters. So the 10 4" plants will make a total of 32 SIP planter trees.

I paid $5 ea. ($50) for them. Using the purchase price they are now "worth" $160, not counting the added value of the SIPs. Some day some kids are going to own some 6' coffee trees like the ones I donated to Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The coffee tree plantation is growing under new style LED shop lights from Costco. The plants are very healthy and developing new root systems that are very easy to see through the clear walls of the SIPs. It has been a fun science project for this old kid.

The precursors to this project were the two 4" pot size coffee plants that I grew into 6' trees in my Brooklyn apartment lab. I grew them in an east facing window with the aid of a common T12 fluorescent shop light. They got too large and I donated them to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for use in their children's garden. They were the first coffee trees in the garden.

These cool LED shop light fixtures are from Costco for $35 each. The fixture over the coffee trees is at an angle because I bought the plants and potted them up in two batches. So, the plants are in order of age; oldest and tallest to the right.

Using LED fixtures you need not worry about heat scorching the plant leaves. You can lower the fixtures close to the foliage and optimize the available light. These are the palms in the back row.

Notice that I cut off the neck of the bottle (the part with the threading for the cap). That leaves a hole about 1 3/4" in diameter. The white cloth wick covering the hole is Pellon polyester batting. I also lay a strip of the material in the bottom section. It interfaces with the pad in the bottle. New white "hydroponic" roots grow into and fasten the wick strip in the bottom to the pad in the top.

I no longer leave the neck on a bottle SIP of any type or size or use the original cap with holes drilled in it. You know the common expression "bottle neck". There's a good reason for it. Over time, a healthy plant will clog up the neck of the bottle and cap with white "hydro" roots. Not good.

The plants are loving it and doing a great job of creating a healthy new root system in preparation for a surge of new stem and leaf growth above.

Click on the photo below for a macro view of the new white "hydro" roots. My new mantra is "STEM before stems." In my opinion our consumer gardening and horticulture education is largely STEMless. That's the basic subject of the book I'm writing.

Click on the photo for a macro view of the new white "hydro" roots. All children should have the opportunity to see this happening at an early age. Dumb clay pots and dirt hide it from their curious eyes and brains.

Related articles

Grow Microgreens for Fresh Food and Profit

Central America's Slow Recovery from Coffee-Ravaging Epidemic

Growing Your Own Cup Of Coffee

Closing the organic loop one cup at a time

Meet Bob Hochmuth, U of Florda Extension Agent Par Excellence

Bob Hochmuth is a U of Florida, Extension Agent and a very savvy guy. He is director of the Suwannee Valley Agricultural Extension Center, Live Oak, Fl (roughly 75 miles west of Jacksonville).

Mr. Hochmuth and his associates are right on top of the art and science of growing food, the hydroponics way. In the video below, Bob talks about a very easy way of growing microgreens at home.

Everyone with a south-facing window can do this. If you have not experienced growing some fresh food indoors, this is a simple way to start. What a good way to introduce children to fresh greens. A light garden and sub-irrigation would be a good next step.

Also, his center is conducting a 3-hour evening workshop on hydroponics titled "Veggies: Made in the Shade."  It's on Thursday July 23, 2015, 5:00 pm – 8:30 pm. Sorry I didn't catch this sooner. 

Here Bob and Mike discuss various type of hydroponic growing methods.

Related articles

Meet Another California MBA. This One Grows Lettuce

Moving From One SIP to Another

WW2 Buzz-bomb Shelters To Create Some Buzz About Underground Urban Agriculture

From Finland » ZENGROW™ Hydroponic Tabletop Garden

Watch this table top garden grow lettuce in 25 days. Widespread use of kitchen appliances like this will surely be part of urban life in the future. This is CFL lighting. Even more energy efficient LED lighting is just around the corner.

From Finland, the same country that brought Nokia cell phones to much of the world, we now have a tabletop hydroponic garden. It is similar to the very popular AeroGarden in the U.S.

You can buy the ZENGROW tabletop garden online. The 2 grow pocket, 1 lamp model is 99 Euro (about $138 U.S.) and the 6 grow pocket, 2 lamp model (in the video above) is 199 Euro (about $278 U.S.). It will be interesting to see if they develop U.S. retail distribution. With wider distribution the price will surely come down.

via www.zengrow.com

ZENGROW™ tabletop garden

EarthBox Plus A Fluorescent Light Equals Cucumbers In Winter

Beth from the EarthBox forum shows how an EarthBox and fluorescent lights equals cucumbers in the winter. Critiquing the cost of these cucumbers would miss the point. Beth has learned something valuable about urban food production and has enjoyed the reward of eating fresh cukes in the winter while doing it.

Meanwhile, dedicated dirt huggers are probably reading seed catalogs and dreaming about summer or they're on the web lobbying for a dirt garden at their kid's school. 

When affordable LED lighting is here in the future we will look back with amusement, much like we do now when seeing old photos of kerosene lamps. I well remember them from summer vacations in the country.

via forum.earthbox.com

Hi All,  Thought you'd like to know that I was able to harvest 22 snack size 5" (Persian) Cucino cucumbers from 2 plants grown in an eb in the basement under fluorescent lights.  I'll do this again!  Fresh cucs in December and January! Come on spring!Beth

Lettuce Into Your Living Quarters!

Visitors look at the hydroculture lettuce and herbs grown only by LED lamps at a booth of Japanese company Synergytec during the Eco-Products 2009, Eco Style Fair, in Tokyo, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama) Editorial note: I searched but could not find a website for Synergytec and this system.

This setup is so cool. AP captioned the system as hydroculture (a passive method) when in fact it is more accurately a hydroponic system. However, that's beside the point. The significance of this photo for me is that it is set up on an InterMetro type rack just like the racks in the CuGreen plant lab.

A big difference is that the lighting is LED while mine is ordinary fluorescent. Fluorescent lighting is adequate for growing and maintaining most indoor plants (i.e. houseplants) but not for growing vegetables. This is a peek into the future of urban greenscaping in city apartments and homes. Bravo!

via armoks.com

Visitors look at the hydroculture lettuce and herbs grown only by LED lamps at a booth of Japanese company Synergytec during the Eco-Products 2009, Eco Style Fair, in Tokyo,

Ficus Trees Multiplied

As you can probably tell, these Ficus trees are not on the floor of a greenhouse. Look below after the jump.

There are now more than 50 of them growing in the CuGreen plant lab. It is rather amazing to know that these desktop trees were propagated from four small bags of cuttings starting about a year and a half ago. Read the back story here.

There is no special equipment here. The light gardens are Inter-Metro type storage racks from Costco and the artificial lighting is supplied from inexpensive shop lights (4’) using ordinary 40-watt fluorescent tubes. The racks are located in east facing windows so they also receive natural light during the day.

The planters are made from recycled pop/soda bottles. To encourage rooting they are covered with clear plastic deli containers to start. It typically takes 3-4 weeks to root the cuttings and the deli containers are then removed.

These seven Sansevieria plants were propagated using the same system. Who knows how many new plants will be propagated from these plants over the next year or so. I will post the progress.

SIP Salad Makers

These are the next steps for the recycled pop/soda bottle “SIP salad makers” shown in the portable potting tray. The seeds sprout under fluorescent shop lights hung on one of the shelves of a light garden rack. The clear plastic covers are 16-ounce deli containers that just happen to fit perfectly on top of the 2-liter soda bottle SIPS.

The light garden is an InterMetro style rolling rack from Costco (6’h x 4’w x 1 ½’ deep). InterMetro racks and copies are widely available. They are easy to move around and the shelves are adjustable in one-inch increments. The ordinary daylight fluorescent lights are on daily for 16 hours.

The next temporary home for the SIP salads is on my fire escape. Some of them will go into 5-gallon utility bucket SIPs. Others, containing basil and other leafy greens will grow on windowsills in the neighborhood including PS 102.   

Step Right Up to the Salad Bar

Photos by Richard Webb, London, UK

Richard Webb, in London, sent me these photos. He is obviously a creative and handy Brit and I thank him for sharing his work so openly. He calls his growing cabinet a "salad bar". Good name! 

I might have written the caption as "Belly Right Up to the Salad Bar" but what many of us are trying to do is reduce our bellies. So, maybe we should say "Step Right Up to the Belly-Shrinking Salad Bar". 

Note that there are sub-irrigation plastic bottle planters inside the cabinet. There will be a separate post about them. 

There are hundreds of thousands (or millions) of city dwellers that could use something like this in the dead of winter (or all year round for that matter). 

Potential sources of plant cabinets are IKEA, thrift and second hand stores. Consider armoires, wardrobes and other cabinets. There is much room for creativity here with great potential for a healthy reward. 

Has anyone else done something like this?