DFB's Greenthumb Project

**Rallye Sport** · 01-05-2021, 07:08 PM

The garden looks great DFB. I'm a little jealous of the plants, we are pushing the barrow uphill to grow things like that over here with our alkaline, lime sands. I've just planted up a new aquarium, the co2 and lights are turned up and its growing fast so I'll post some pics soon.

CB, in regards to the crabgrass we use a selective called Fusilade, it goes under the name Kerb aswell. Bare in mind selectives are usually a higher schedule and can be expensive. In bare areas you could try Roundup, using a shroud to keep it off the other plants. A two litre bottle with the bottom cut off then gaffer taped to the wand works a treat.

Blueoval, a good edible one to try is Pineapples. Next time you get one twist off the top, pluck the bottom leaves until you see some roots, they'll be growing already and stick it in a pot or the ground.
They take a couple of years to clump and fruit but after that you should get two crops a year.
We've got some fruiting at the moment.

blueoval · 03-05-2021, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rallye Sport

Blueoval, a good edible one to try is Pineapples. Next time you get one twist off the top, pluck the bottom leaves until you see some roots, they'll be growing already and stick it in a pot or the ground.
They take a couple of years to clump and fruit but after that you should get two crops a year.
We've got some fruiting at the moment.
image

Thats amazing. Thanks for the tip. What are the plants like to grow in cooler climates? Im in SA and plan to grow some in Victor Harbor when I move down there eventually. Its cooler than Adelaide most of the year so it makes me wonder if the sweetness will still be in the fruit due to the climate.

**Rallye Sport** · 05-05-2021, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueoval

Thats amazing. Thanks for the tip. What are the plants like to grow in cooler climates? Im in SA and plan to grow some in Victor Harbor when I move down there eventually. Its cooler than Adelaide most of the year so it makes me wonder if the sweetness will still be in the fruit due to the climate.

Just had a quick look at the average temps, Perth at 24 and Victor Harbor, 20 so its a bit cooler than my conditions.
Not sure how thats going to affect the fruit. We're finding ours are alot tastier than shop brought, could be that they're fresher. They certainly smell better, we usually leave them in the house for a few days and enjoy the aroma.

**DFB FGXR6** · 17-05-2021, 06:48 PM

This Cyclamen I gave to my neighbor as a gift last year. These plants tend to hibernate over the summer and reinvigorate for the colder months. Its absolutely smothered in flowers this year.

**Rallye Sport** · 21-05-2021, 07:01 PM

The Cyclamen looks great, I only just saw some the other day growing in a beaut sandstone pot under a standard Azalea at a s****y golf course. Quite striking.

Heres a project I've been working on. I started over with one of my planted tanks after a couple of fish I introduced systematically destroyed the previous planting.

I'm a few weeks in now and have just gone through the first nitrogen cycle and algal bloom. A couple of weeks back it looked like green soup. Its all cleared up now though, the bio filter is starting to kick in and I've just added some peaceful albino Pleco's (algae eaters)
Its growing rapidly and from here I need to fine tune the co2 to slow it down and add a bit more red and blue light spectrum to get the plants to colour up, there a red foliage and a pink/ white/ green variegated one in there.

**DFB FGXR6** · 21-05-2021, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rallye Sport

The Cyclamen looks great, I only just saw some the other day growing in a beaut sandstone pot under a standard Azalea at a s****y golf course. Quite striking.

Heres a project I've been working on. I started over with one of my planted tanks after a couple of fish I introduced systematically destroyed the previous planting.
image

I'm a few weeks in now and have just gone through the first nitrogen cycle and algal bloom. A couple of weeks back it looked like green soup. Its all cleared up now though, the bio filter is starting to kick in and I've just added some peaceful albino Pleco's (algae eaters)
Its growing rapidly and from here I need to fine tune the co2 to slow it down and add a bit more red and blue light spectrum to get the plants to colour up, there a red foliage and a pink/ white/ green variegated one in there.

image

That looks amazing!

**Rallye Sport** · 22-05-2021, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

That looks amazing!

Thanks, I can stare at it for hours. Better than the TV any day.
I added the last touch today, some glass shrimp came up on gumtree. They're the perfect clean up crew taking care of excess algae and fallen plant matter. No sooner than I had introduced them they settled in and started eating.

The terrarium has had some love too.

I picked up some glass pots, they've made a big difference to the Tillandsia air plants. They do grow in thin air but add a little sphagnum moss and some moisture and watch them go! Ones even developed a flower spike.