I recently freed up some space indoors to form a seedling station that will allow me to transfer plants out on the balcony during the growing season in my country, and for indoor pots in the off-season. It is a two-story shelf on the top of a cabinet.

However, there's no windows in this room, so I need some grow lights, and I require these lights to be controllable from Home Assistant. I had originally thought I could just use a microcontroller flashed with WLED and connect some LED-strips to this, but apparently it is only compatible with these ternary output LED-lights and not any full-spectrum LED strips.

Ideally I would be able to have control over sectors (at least two in each story) and be able to tune the red:blue ratio. However, I will be happy if I can land on a solution that allows me to control each story independently, which I guess I can achieve with a regular system connected to a Zigbee switch or something like this.

I found tons of these full-spectrum LEDs on Aliexpress for fairly cheap, but I am inherently skeptical about buying anything from here from a quality and safety perspective, and especially stuff connected to mains.

Anyone here have a sweet setup for this they'd like to share?

They are enjoying the latest rains and the spring sun, as well as the bees that visit them regularly :)

I wanna show you my this years' brain child. I already put weeks and weeks of work into it, and right now, I'm at the point where I can say that it's about 90% finished.
But I guess that's good enough for now.

Originally, I planned to put it into one big post, but now I decided to split it into multiple parts, so it becomes more digestible for you. It probably still will be way too long tho...

In this part, I just want to show you what types of planters/ setups I have, and how I get to use every single square inch on this small balcony, measuring only 4,5 (4) x 2 meters, or 14 x 7 ft in freedom units.

I'm also a cat parent, so I had to cat proof it completely. Sadly, because I had to install poles with a net fence around, I already lost quite a bit of available space.
I still tried my best to make use out of it!

Permaculture with living soil for beneficial insects

The area outside the cat net is mostly inaccessible for me most of the time. Instead of wasting this precious centimeters, I decided to give nature something back and also grow some garlic, which is toxic for my cats, but protected there :D

The pots out there are filled with wild flower seeds mostly, but I'll tell you more in the next post if you stick around :)

As a substrate, I chose to make my own soil, consisting of spent mushroom mycelium cakes (I also grow gourmet mushrooms), LECA and lava stone for aeration and drainage, as well as some plant matter (kitchen scraps, leaves, etc.), rock meal, a bit of organic fertilizer and a hand full of dirt from the park for the start.
I already created them in late autumn last year, and they were allowed to "age" over the winter, so everything gets properly decomposed.

I also built an insect hotel myself, and already have the first inhabitants!

Inside the walkable area, I also have some remaining soil pots, mostly for permaculture. I decided to stick with soil for some plants, because for example my blackberries, which I can harvest every year, it didn't make much sense to me to grow them hydroponically.

The other few pots are mostly there because I put a lot of work into them transforming the toxic, hazardous soil (it literally disintegrated earth worms!) into an oasis full of live last year. And of course, because digging in dirt is fun ;)

As a "trellis", I made a living one out of willow cuttings I sticked into the dirt a few months ago, which I then braided.
I made a post about it here and another one there, both in German, but you can guess the content good enough by the pictures alone ;)

Speaking of digging, this is a no-till, organic, living soil culture.

Mostly, I used soil there because I absolutely don't care about any deficiencies or whatever out there. There is such a big diversity of plants growing in there, that there will for sure be a few ones that cope with different levels of nutrients.

I also don't care about weeds. There are enough nutrients and water for everyone, and if they grow too big for me, I just snap them and stuff them into the dirt sometimes.

My main goal for all of this is to

1. Create a hotspot for biodiversity. I already succeeded in that, because I there are so many insects already, it's amazing! Cute jumping spiders, beetles, wild bees, etc.
2. Prevent pests in my crops (for humans). I had to fight a hard battle against aphids and other pests last year, and the slug infestation almost made me insane! By introducing natural predators, like ladybugs, I want to just let nature take its course and fight them off herself without much work from my side.
3. Pollination. I grow a few plants that need pollinating insects to fruit, and I hope that it might increase my yields.

Of course, my cats also have their own corner, including drinking bowls and grass to chew on! :D

Here's how it looked from outside a few weeks ago:

Hydroponics

I already introduced my solar powered, recirculating drip setup last year. Check out !hydroponics@slrpnk.net if you're interested :)

I made some improvements over the setup last season, and now I have 6 of those in the front row for my crops that will definitely benefit from it, including cannabis, pepino and more.

For those, I have the typical hydroponics benefits, such as:

• Faster growth and higher yields
• Way less pests
• Less water usage
• More control and insight on what's going on there, thanks to EC and pH-meters in particular!

I still have to wait a few more weeks until I will plant the stuff outside, because it can still be too cold at night right now.

The other corner is mainly for smaller, fast growing stuff.
There are quite a few Kratky and semi-hydro setups that don't need much maintenance.

I also gave coco coir a chance this time

Bog pot

The pots where the poles are placed in are filled with concrete and were pretty much wasted space last year. I also had to pump out the rain water all the time to prevent mosquitoes from spreading.

This year, it's completely different.
I covered the surface with lava and LECA, and planted some different moss and succulent species there.

Now, if it rains, they don't stand in a puddle, and always have moisture from below to wick up.
There will hopefully also sprout some carnivorous plants I try to grow from seed.

Water collecting and shading

The balcony doesn't have a roof, so I have to shield myself and the plants from too much heat (south facing) and rain (especially bud rot with weed).

I've hung the awning that way that I can collect rain water, which I darely need for my hydro stuff.

If peak afternoon from sideways becomes too hot, I can unfold the sides to get more protection.

Wastewater recycling (aka feeding my "pond")

I don't have a huge amount of used up hydroponic nutrient solution, even though I have about 70-100 houseplants and a crammed up balcony.

Still, I don't want to burden the water treatment facility, and every bit counts. So I pour most of my fertilizer water in the "pond".

Also, this "waste"water isn't waste, but still full of delicious fertilizer.

So, I went into the forest and foraged some duckweed.
It's one of the fastest growing plants out there (I started with not even 5 small flakes, and it grows exponentially), extremely resilient, doesn't have any needs and has some great uses.

It protects the puddle from the sun, so it doesn't grow too many algae in the summer.
Duckweed is one of the most nutrient dense plants out there, and one of the few rare sources of plant based vitamin B12, protein, and much much more.

I plan to grow it, and then I can just scoop it off the surface and put it into my smoothie or whatever.

And if it tastes like shit, I can still make organic fertilizer out of it ;)

Obvious mosquito protection and debris filter included. Check.

That's it! Thanks for reading! See you soon, when I cover every plant I grow!

My balcony renaturation program is hitting like a truck. Going outside there is like visiting a conservation camp, and the sheer diversity of different insects and stuff is just amazing.

The only "problem" is, that my fellow ants think the same, and also started inhabiting said oasis.

They are everywhere.
I highly suspect that there might be a hive somewhere, because they are forming literal highways.

Right now, they basically just exist and aren't getting much in my way.

Some of them already found a way to get inside my apartment, and those few sadly needed to die (I feed my carnivorous plant with them).
It would be a horror if they find the pet bowl with food in there, or the trash can.

But outside? I don't care much, as long as they don't attack or harm me or my crops in any way.

Others would already have poisoned all of them, because it really looks like an infestation. My neighbours for example already did...

But realising that literally everywhere in nature it looks like this made me think that this is healthy and normal.

So, my question is:

• Can there be a TOO much? When is the point reached? When should I intervene, and how? I don't wanna kill all of them, just control the population if it really is needed.
• How about aphids? From what I know, they farm them like cattle to get the sap, and also protect them against predators like ladybugs. One of my reasons I chose to create this ecosystem is the natural regulation of pests, including aphids. Do I have to worry about that? How is it balanced in nature?
• What do they feed on? I saw them attacking an earth worm today. Do I have to worry about them killing beneficial organisms?

My biodiversity program seems to work.
The balcony is already flooded with insects!

Also, my cat was totally uninterested in it :D

I'm planning to do both hydroponics (check out !hydroponics@slrpnk.net if you haven't already!) AND living soil.

The hydro is mainly there for efficient use of space, to maximize the growth of what plants I plan to consume, mainly chilis and cannabis.
I really like that it's "clean", so I don't have to worry about shipping dirt and worry that much about pests. What's also great is that I can perfectly control the conditions, for example, if weed goes into flowering stage, it will take up much more P and K, and in general, will just flourish better in hydro in my experience.

Here's my improved setup from last year, which I made a post about a few months ago. I'm already passively cleaning and soaking the LECA thanks to rain, and will plant my crops as soon as frost is over, probably mid of April.

The seedlings are also already growing

And now, my dirt :)

I also planted A LOT of beneficial co-plants, especially flowering ones that occour in nature, to help the wild insects.
Not only pollinators, but also predatory insects, that will hunt any lice and other pests, so I don't have to use (as much) pesticide like neem oil.

Then, I also prepared new soil already a few months ago, because it was pretty much all organic waste products, which had to decompose over the winter, so the nutrients get broken up until I plant my first stuff.
It's composed of mushroom waste (mycelium blocks made out of wood, soy hulls, gypsum and grain), chalk, some dirt from outside (mainly forest and marshland) to catalyze microbial life, kitchen scraps, and a few other things.

Some of the dirt is already used from last year, some of it is fresh.

It's currently February, but my balcony is ALREADY blooming with life!
I'm SO hyped up how it will look like in a few months!

I also made a bog pot with carnivorous plants and succulents, because I had no other use for those concrete filled pots I have to use for my cat net.
I found a few very nice looking mosses and also planted them in there, let's see how they will perform over time!

What are you doing?

I cat proofed my balcony last year, and for achieving that, I had to fill those big pots with concrete to create the fundament for the rods, that hold the net.

I covered the surface with decorative white stones, and it looked fine.
... for 5 minutes.

Over the summer, it filled up with algae, and probably quite a lot of mosquitoes too, because there was no drainage.

So, I decided to make the best out of it, and turn it into a bog garden!

I replaced the stones with leftover lava rock and LECA/ pon, so I get a airy, but well wicking substrate that plants love, while covering it fully, so no mosquito larvae can live there.

I let it soak in the rain water for a few months now to get rid of any salts or fertilizer left, and also transfered a Sarracenia (carnivorous plant) to the new substrate. The roots looked like this today while repotting it to the big container:

Today, because the weather was great, I also walked around my neighbourhood and collected some different moss types from different environments.

They mainly serve as water purifier and filter, so when organic stuff (flying seeds, insects, etc.) lands in there, it doesn't rot, but gets decomposed and eaten by the moss. Also, it hopefully prevents the salt crust build up I usually get with hydroponic media, and also prevents it from drying out or algae growth.

I'm also trying to grow other cold resistant carnivorous plants, like a few different other Sarracenia types, sundews and the obligatory venus fly trap, a few of which are native in my area.

They hopefully will get rid of some insects I had to fight with last summer, like wasps, flies or other annoying critters.

I currently have 5 of those containers, and besides the one I already showed you, one other is also treated similarly, but kept dry. I try to turn it into a stone garden, with mainly succulents growing there.

The bog garden will only very rarely get drained, if at all, and the other one more regularly. Hopefully, some other native hardy species will come there and colonize the pot.

If it works out well, I will turn the other 4 "decorative" ones into similar environments.

It's freezing cold outside, but my oyster mushrooms don't care.

Quite the opposite, they are thriving! They tasted way better than when I grew the same genetics indoors. They built up more melanin due to sun exposure, and also were packed full of vitamin D!

I've had some kind of illness with tomato plants and it spread in a way that is pathogenic where a 3rd plant was kept separate but upon leaving in closer proximity it become infected. I thought the first two were due to some circumstantial factors like using some soil from another plant that died, or pots with poor drainage, but the third plant did not have these factors. So am I forced to clean surfaces, toss the soil and start over, or can I reclaim the soil?

This is me slowly dialing in an intuitive understanding of planting and growing from absolutely no money spent. There are Jalapeños, three tomatoes in pots - experiments, and a pot of green onions.

These were just quick and dirty affairs of tossing the refuse from some Pico de Gallo in an empty egg carton and watering it daily. I transferred the individual egg carton pods into the most lazy of mulch and dirt from another dead plant. I didn't even remove the plants from the cardboard carton because the roots were breaking through and embedded when I tried with one.

So I was curious how the tomatoes might battle it out in a plant-diator death match style, or at least that is what it has turned into. The right most pot is struggling the most with something like 4 egg carton pods that each consisted of a chunk of tomato guts and whatever seeds that included. The pot on the back with tomato plants and several blooms is only two pods. The black plastic pot is an anomaly. I also had planted a couple of egg carton pods of habanero peppers that never sprouted. Somehow I had a single tomato seed make its way inside and I just went with it. It sprouted later than the rest, and appears to be doing the best. I'm sure someone will be like 'duh, everyone knows to grow single plants in pots' but have you ever really tried it.

Here in SoCal, I have a little green caterpillars plague to contend with. I find leaves half chewed and the culprits underneath nearly daily. I could spray them, but the routine of hunting them ensures I get out and water the lot of them.

You can't really see it, but there is aluminium foil with a paper towel and a bunch of green beans drying outside of their pods. These are for a future experiment between those that were dried in pods versus dried out of pods versus fresh de-/pods and likely a mix of larger and smaller beans too just to get an intuitive understanding of how each option seems to grow.

The green onions were a series of three bunches over the last 6 months that went unused and appeared ruined and ready for the trash bin. I planted them anyways and they are by-far the easiest, most useful, and productive thing I have grown. If there is one thing to have on a window seal for food use and a little color in a drab pad, this is it, do green onions.

Tasty to snack on

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/12204713

I saw the need for a community dedicated to hydroponics, and there hasn't been one on the fediverse from what I've seen.
So, I just created one 🤷

In my opinion, it fits perfectly to Solarpunk. Why?

• It's very ecologically sustainable. Compared to soil, it barely needs water and fertilizer
• It's as simple, or high-tech as you want. There's everything between just a simple reused wine bottle on your window top with the Kratky technique and a high tech aeroponic tower with smart home integration and grow lights.
• It's great for the plants and the people. In hydroponics, you get way less pests and therefore need barely any pesticides, and plants grow faster. You can grow them on your balcony or very small spaces like I do and can even enable city farming with that, making locally sourced fresh veggies very simple.
• It's perfect for people who don't have a green thumb. It's a completely different approach to growing plants.
• It's a lot of fun
• And much more

There are many different types of hydroponics, like:

• "Classic" hydroponics, like deep water culture, nutrient film technique, etc.
• Semi-hydroponics with hydroton or other inert media
• Aeroponics, which sprays the nutrient solution on the roots, which are growing into the air
• Aquaponics, where the plants grow basically on fish poop
• And many more

Every technique is welcome!

Come over at !hydroponics@slrpnk.net and feel free to subscribe and post!

I have quite a lot of herbs and stuff, mostly hydroponic, but can't find a lot of inspiration what I wanna grow next year.

I'm looking for some sweet, delicious fruit, maybe even exotic ones that you can't find in the supermarket.

Preferably they should have those checkboxes, but don't have to fullfil all requirements:

• Be annual. If they require overwintering inside, then they must check next mark
• Be non-toxic/ only mildly toxic to cats
• Grow well in a hydroponic environment. Shouldn't be a problem I guess?
• Shouldn't grow too large, especially on the floor (for example like melons)
• Have a good yield
• Should be growable from seed, or preferably cuttings

My ideas/ experiences:

• Melons (watermelon or cantaloupe) -> already tried, but didn't survive due to inconvenient circumstances
• Strawberries (sadly, bad ratio between size and yield)
• Lemons or citrus fruits (already growing, are in seedling stage)

Do you have any suggestions or experiences? What are your favourites?

My mornong glory's leaves on my balcony has some problems. I'm not sure what could be the issue, some other plants show similar symthoms (celery's leaves for example)

Can I ask for help from someone more experienced? I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I live in central EU, my balcony can get really hot, like 30-35 celsius. It gets direct sunlight from around 1-2 afternoon to 6-7. I water my plants daily, because of the heat, the soil dires quickly

Backside of the leaves:

This one isn't for balconies, but it is for apartments, so I hope it makes sense that I am posting this here.

With window hydroponics, you take:

• used water bottles
• a pump kit (with tubing and joints)
• a bucket of water
• growing substrate
• a hanging anchor kit
• silicone steel tube
• chain (for hanging)
• tools (electric drill, plier, hole punch)

... and convert them into a tiny food garden that hangs by your window. This gives food options for those who live in apartment’s that might not have had the choice before.

You'll of course need plants that do not get too big (such as dwarf tomato plants instead of full-sized). If your window does not get enough sunlight, you may also have to supplement that with grow lights and a plug timer.

You do not need to buy an expensive kit. There are DIY sources everywhere, including this video explaining to use a pool noodle to create a growing substrate(an option to save an old pool noodle from the trash) instead of rockwool or pebbles.

I have not tried this myself, but thought I would share it in case it helps someone.

More Info:

• https://youtu.be/igWJ_8uq_y4
• https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Vertical-Window-Garden/

If you are using larger planter boxes, what material and size did you choose? I have a basically rectangular balcony and would like to put a planter box across each of the short ends, perhaps wooden or even concrete. Any wisdom from experience out there?

I repotted my sugar snap peas into a larger upcycled kitty litter container that I found in a dumpster. There was plenty of space, so I added radishes that only take 23 days to mature to maximize my use of space. What are your favourite companion plants?