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Hanging Tomato Plants – Part 2

Filed under: diy, gardening, how to

While you are waiting for the seedling or seed to root, you should inspect your hanging brackets if you already have them up or be putting your brackets up if you have not done so already.  Remember that the buckets will be heavy when wet.

Once the seedling is ready, take the bucket to the hanger.  Flip the bucket again.  Remove the cardboard or paper you added under the lid to keep the soil in.  Hang the tomato plant.  Water the plant through the hole in the lid that is now facing up.

Now you wait and care for the plant.  Eventually you will get some tomatoes.  This is the same process you will use for peppers.  I have not tried peas or cucumbers.  But I suspect that you would have no troubles with those and many other types of plants.

Notes:

I found the first summer I planted these that I never watered them enough.  I was also constantly running back in the house to refill the watering can as I watered them infrequently enough that I needed to give a gallon or more to each plant.  The next summer I added an automatic drip line to each plant.  You can see that line in most of the photos here.  That system combined with a $40 digital water timer has allowed me to experiment with the proper amount of water this year.  I water 2 times daily for about 5 or 10 minutes each time.  I think it is probably too much.  Next year I will cut that down by half.  The trick with watering these is to experiment to find the right amount.  Remember that if it is hot and if the plants get direct sun, you will need more water.  Use your judgement.

I think that these would be ideal if you lived in an apartment and wanted some fresh tomatoes occasionally.  It would leave you room for some other container gardening on your deck as well.

I have had very few problems with bugs with these hanging off the ground.

And no more problems with bored dogs playing in the garden.

I know its lazy but I have always used seedling plants.  I could probably grow from seed then transplant myself, but have always found a surprising lack of planning gets in the way of this.  I always get my seedlings from the local True Value.  You may get yours elsewhere, but I prefer them to the wally-world for stuff like this.  Always buy from locally owned stores if you can help it.

Part 1

Tags: gardening, hanging, tomatos

Hanging Tomato Plants – Part 1

Filed under: diy, gardening, how to

Hanging tomato plants

My wife loves tomatos.  We have a large yard.  The first year I planted a garden thinking that everything would be right with the world.  Tomatos, some watermellon, a few giant pumpkins, some corn and some eat-in-the-shell peas.  Did I mention that we have two siberian huskies?  Two bored Siberian Huskie puppies made short work of the garden.

I still have not found a solution for growing mellons, pumpkins, or corn.  Hanging gardens are a great solution for peas and tomatos.

To plant hanging tomatoes you will need the following:

Seeds or seedling tomatoes
1 five gallon bucket with lid and handle.
Plant hanger brackets.
Drill and hole saw or a way to cut two holes in the bucket.
Soil

There are some optional bits that I will discuss later.

You will want to be sure the bucket is clean. If it held industrial waste, i wouldn’t use it.

First take your bucket.  Turn it upside down and cut a 2 or 3 inch hole in the center of the bottom of the bucket.  This is where the plant will be planted into the pot.

Cut an identical hole in the lid of the bucket.

Fill the bucket with soil.  I have found that it helps to put a bit of paper or thin cardboard over the hole in the bottom of the bucket.  It should be easily removable when you flip the bucket over when the plant has taken root.  Once the bucket is filled with soil.  Put the lid on it.  You might put another piece of paper or cardboard on the soil where the hole in the lid will be.  Flip the bucket.  With the bucket sitting on its lid, some of the soil will compact further.  Remove the cardboard you put over the hole before you put the soil in and add some more soil.  Once you are happy with the amount of soil you have in the bucket, add your seed or your seedling.  I have always used seedlings.  Water and give it some sun.  I typically give the plants about 7 to 10 days to root out before I flip them.  There probably isn’t a right amount of time here, as long as the plant is somewhat firmly attached to the soil when you gently pull on it.

Part 2

Tags: gardening, hanging, tomatos

Foam Rockets – Part 4

Filed under: diy, how to, kids toys, rockets

15.  Wrap the ends of your colored tape with more colored tape.  This keeps it from unraveling.

16.  Cut off the corners of the foam nose cone

17.  End result.

Notes – they fly remarkably like the ones that came with the launcher.

You could probably use less tape.  I think that the extra tape used in the ones I built allow the rocket to fly further.

I built a bunch of yellow tipped ones and a bunch of red tipped ones.  So the kids (ie, me) know who’s is whose.

I tried one on the air compressor at about 50 psi.  The pipe foam insulation has a pre cut down one side of the foam to allow you to put the foam on over existing pipe.  The rocket split down the seam when the 50 psi air hit it.  To make it work, I would expect that you would have to tape the entire rocket from tip to end.  I’m afraid that it might get too heavy.  And anyway, not sure one should be shooting rockets with an air compressor at anyone, especially kids.

Tags: diy, duct tape, foam, how to, kids toys, rockets

Foam Rockets – Part 3

Filed under: diy, how to, kids toys

11.  Take 3 or 4 inches of your colored tape

12.  Split the tape if it is 2 or 3 inch wide in half.  If you are using colored electrical tape, there probably is no need to split it.

13.   Take some left over pipe foam.  Cut a 1 or 2 inch piece from the foam.  Split it in half so you have two c shaped sections.  Take 1 piece of foam and use the colored tape to tape it to the end of the foam you have already sealed with duct tape.

14.  Add the 2nd piece of colored tape.

More in part 4

Tags: diy, duct tape, foam, how to, kids toys, rockets

Foam Rockets – Part 2

Filed under: diy, how to, kids toys

7.   Place a 2nd piece of 3 or 4 inch duct tape over the first, rotated 90 degrees so it would form a cross if both were place flat.

8.  As you did in step 4, fold the edges of the tape over the end of the foam.

9.  Smooth the overlapping tape over the end of the foam and first layer of tape.

10.  The end result of the duct tape should look like photo 11.

More to come.

Part 3

Tags: diy, duct tape, foam, how to, kids toys, rockets

Foam Rockets – Part 1

Filed under: diy, how to, kids toys, rockets

My kids and I picked up a couple of pop rocket sets at the dollar store.  We had some fun launching them at each other.  I came home from work the other day and had to climb the tree and get on the roof to get the rockets down.  It kinda sucks to be a kid waiting on dad to come home to get your rockets down.  So I did what any dad would do.  I made some more.  Here’s how.
Supplies –

1 inch foam pipe insulation
duct tape

knife or scissors
1.  Cut about 1 foot of the 1 inch foam pipe insulation.

2.  Cut a 3 or 4 inch piece of duct tape.

3.  Place duct tape over the end of the foam.  Try to center the tape.

4.  Fold the edges of the tape over the end of the foam.

5.  Smooth the tape that has been folded over.  It should look like this.

6.  Smooth the remaining overlap to the contour of the foam.

Next steps in the next post.

Part 2

Tags: diy, duct tape, foam, how to, kids toys, rockets

Borken Schwag

Filed under: Links

Get your Borken Schwag!  Paintball t-shirts and other stuff.

www.rubberchickentshirts.com

Tags: Links

About tehborken dot com

Filed under: Uncategorized

tehborken is just another how to site.  This site will focus on how to and diy articles.  Many of them will be building props for a charity haunted house that is run yearly benefiting Sertoma and the Crete Sokol organizations.  But my interests range rather widely and I will also be touching on science, technology, engineering, robotics, pneumatics, electronics, gardening and whatever other shiny objects that grab my attention.

Tags: about, how to