Currently in the grow box I have some basil and more recently strawberries added as I was “weeding” my garden I found a bunch more starts.  Though I have seen basil do well in hydroponic systems mine is turning pretty leggy and quickly loosing lower leaves.  The strawberries on the other hand and thriving in the environment.  Probably will let them stay in there a little longer until the peppers get too big and make me move the hydroponic system outdoors. 

I also tried some peppers but unfortunately they got a little too much of a freeze from a previous machine failure and didn’t quite make it.

For those who can’t get enough of time lapse videos here is some interesting growth going on in the grow box.

Finally  I decided to use the parts to create a cold frame.  I did consider using the whole door and hinges as a cold frame but decided I could make something that looked a little better by taking it apart.

The construction was very simple, by taking measurements of the windows I made the box out of cedar with similar dimensions.  Wanting to try out my new circular saw I decided to make the cuts at 45 degrees for a more finished look.  Last I simply screwed the sides into a length of 2” by 2” I placed at each corner

I have two squares of glass and a screen of the same size so I should be able to switch these in/out to make sure I am not frying the plants when it is time to harden them from the nice warm garage.

Later I plan on making a more secure (from the wind) hinged top but wanted to see what I could create with a small budget and I could not resist the 3 pack of seedling trays which took a decent chunk of my budget from this project which was sponsored by my Lowes Gift card winning from Rob’s World.

A couple months ago we replaced a couple of bathroom light fixtures and it didn’t take too long for me to find the old ones a new home.  An old extension code couple electrical connectors and I have a completely non-code light bar.  I used the smaller fixture and replaced my light bulbs hanging from sockets using zip ties.

When I have some more time I will plan on making a reflector to redirect more light on the plants but for now the little peppers/tomatoes look very happy.

Melody D was the winner of the Hometown Seeds survival pack, though for the rest of you Hometown Seeds has provided me a code to allow 10% of any order with them by using the code “thanks”

Hometown Seeds has again graciously offered up a selection of their non-GMO non hybrid survival seeds.  These are advertised to keep in storage for 5-10 years but also are open pollinated so you can grow them this year, collect the seeds and create your own stockpile in preparation of any future catastrophic food shortage.

They include a selection of the following varieties:

• Lincoln Peas
• Detroit Dark Red Beets
• Kentucky Wonder Brown Pole Bean
• Yolo Wonder Pepper
• Champion Radish
• Lucullus Swiss Chard
• Black Beauty Zucchini
• Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
• Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
• Scarlet Nantes Carrots
• Long Green Improved Cucumber
• Rutgers Tomato
• Golden Acre Cabbage
• Romaine Paris Island Cos Lettuce
• Golden Bantem Sweet Corn
• Yellow Sweet Spanish Onion

They will be sending me the seeds to no restrictions on where these can be mailed to, so simply add a comment by 2/16/2010 2/19/2010 and I will randomly select a winner in one week.

Update – 2/16/2010

I got the seeds in the mail from Hometown Seeds and I was very surprised in the weight of these seeds.  Well over a lb of seeds in this package.  They come in a sealed lightproof wrapper as you can see below:

Though the seeds would last longer if I kept them in this packaging, though I just had to rip it open to see what was inside (winner’s package will not be opened):

As you can see there are quite a few seeds in this package so you may want to think about who you may want to share these with if you win.

In our family we are not just cheap in the garden we also keep our house pretty cool to save on heating costs.  Unfortunately since the LEDs in my grow box do not put out very much heat the inside is only about 68 F degrees even placing it on top of my refrigerator.  For most seeds 77 F degrees is a great ball bark number to shoot for to get the best germination percentage as well as  quicker germination times.  This was the number I was shooting for, so I decided to add a string of mini incandescent bulbs to help bring up the temperature.

To do this I did exactly what I did for the LEDs just drill a hundred or so holes into the side of the box just slightly smaller than the bulb.  Then had the fun job of pushing them all through.

I first tried having all the lights on but that brought the temperature up to 85 degrees, next I tried only half the lights on…70 F degrees.  Then I got the idea of adding the blinker bulbs and tada 77 F degrees on the nose (ok technically 77.1 F).

So far everything is looking good have some onions, peppers, basil, and Swiss chard already sprouted and expecting more shortly.

I know many of your probably already know about WinterSown but for those of you that have not you must check them out.  This is the first year I have requested seeds from them and I they completely blew away my expectations.  By simply sending them an self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) and an optional donation they will send back some seeds of your choosing.  I have gotten tired of my boring tomatoes I have been growing from the limited selections at local nursery and garden center so I chose the following: Husky Red Cherry, Persey Tomato, Red Brandywine, New Yorker, Mini Gold, Green Zebra, Tommy Toes, and they also sent me some Parsley which was not on my list though I was planning on growing this year.

They also included a pamphlet providing a long but not very labor intensive method of how to save your own tomato seeds which was yet another added bonus.  I will be sure to save some seeds and send many of my extras back their way at the end of the season.

I am growing much of the same as I have in past years with the addition of broccoli and Swiss chard.

For my longer fence plot here is what I am going with the following:

New in this area I am going to plan on growing some dry beans for storage as well as some green beans along with our regular cucumbers, tomatoes, and sunflowers.

I also have an area I am planning on growing herbs, though for that I am just going to wing it.

In the end it took me about 3-4 minutes to create this plan thanks to GrowVeg which I can print out and keep by the garden so I don’t have to wonder, “Now where did I plant that spinach again.”

They do have a free 30 day trial if you want to try it out this year.

In celebration of spring coming up and national seed swap day on January 30th (falls on last Saturday of January) I have setup a few tools on the site to hopefully assist with getting some new varieties of seeds this years without using a credit card.

Seed Exchange Forum, this is a forum setup as a location to let people know what seeds you have to trade and/or what seeds you are hunting for.  Once you find an interested party you can use the private messaging feature to share contact information without any worries of spammer picking up your email or address.

Seed Exchange Chat Room, sometimes a trade cab result in a large number of back and forth questions for this I have setup the chat room where you can discuss your questions/concerns in real time.  This is also a great resource to meet up with multiple parties and possible setup a larger trade with less shipping costs.  Here is a simple example of how this may unfold:

As you can see above a single trade could not make everyone happy but adding an additional person there can be a three way trade where everyone gets what they are looking for.  This is a simple example but imagine many more seeds and many more people and you can see for a couple of mailing you could have a lot of seeds coming your way. 

For anyone who has not traded/swapped seeds before I created a quick seeding trading FAQ of some of the common situations that should answer most of your questions.

I know there are many real physical seed swaps going occurring on Jan 30th but I would like to setup a virtual one at 7:00-9:00PM (Pacific time) in the CVG seed exchange chat room though I do understand that we have many visitors in various time zones around the world so please leave a comment if there are some other times that may work better, or possible have separate meet up times for US and UK.

Even though the official seed swap day is a week away feel free to check the forum and chat room to make some trades before then, I am definitely up for some more trades.

Now I am playing with hydroponics in my grow box I want to monitor the temperature of my nutrient tank.  This is important too hot it can bread disease too cold it can shock your plants.  I also want to use the data to identify how ebb/flow cycles affect ambient and solution temperature (for my own nerd curiosity)

I have been thoroughly impressed with the Dallas DS18S20 temperature sensor so decided this would be a great component to use for this project and this is how you can make your own.

Materials:

• DS18S20 temperature sensor
• 1/2 inch plastic tubing (could go smaller but had some lying around)
• Aquarium/food grade silicone
• 18 gauge solid core wire (long enough to get from arduino to what you want to measure)
• Glue gun with glue
• Soldering iron with solder

Construction

Step 1: Solder the two wires to pins 1 and 2 of the DS18S20 and apply a little dab of hot glue to all of the exposed metal.  This is not entirely necessary but a small safety precaution so you don’t discover you shorted the connection during assembly.

Step 2: Cut approximately 1 inch length of plastic tubing using a utility knife

Step 3: Apply liberal amount of silicone to one end of the tubing cut in step 2.

Step 4: Allow silicone to set for 15 minutes and do a visual inspection for leaks. You may also try blowing very gently into the tube to check for leaks, though not too hard to create a hole in the process.

Step 5: Attach the DS18S20 to the tube using a drop of hot glue.  This is not entirely necessary but when trying to get a perfect watertight seal the less moving parts the better.

Step 6: Again apply a liberal amount of silicone to seal the top paying special attention to the area around the wires

Step 7: Give the silicone at least 24 hours to completely set.

Step 8: Testing.  First off the sensor may be buoyant, if this is the case carefully attach a 1/2 hose clamp or something else to help tether it down.  Next suspend in a glass of water (preferably clear) and watch for a few minutes for leaks and or bubbles. If you see bubbles try to get an much water as you can out and apply a more silicone and let set for another 24 hours

Hooking it up

This part is pretty straightforward.  Pin 1 is your ground and pin 2 is your DQ which for most people doesn’t make much sense but it is a combination power source and bus output.  To get this to work you hook up your ground (black wire) to your ground on your arduino and the red wire to digital in and 5v with 4.7K resistor between.  Sure that is very confusing so hopefully the breadboard visual below is much more helpful.

Writing the Code

Since I am planning on using this with my grow box controller, I will show how to use this with arduino to get some numbers.  You could look at my arduino code in the grow box controller post to get the values but in my case I need to get values from two DS18S20 temperature sensors so I found a great OneWire library which helps make your arduino code very simply.  Simple extract the two folders in the zip archive to [ArduinoPath]\hardware\libraries and enter the following code into the arduino UI:

#include <OneWire.h> #include <DallasTemperature.h>
OneWire oneWire(8); // on pin 8 DallasTemperature sensors(&oneWire);

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  // Initialize sensors
  sensors.begin();
}

void loop()
{
    sensors.requestTemperatures();
    Serial.print(“Sensor #0: “);
    Serial.println(sensors.getTempCByIndex(0));

    Serial.print(“Sensor #1: “);
    Serial.println(sensors.getTempCByIndex(1))

    delay(100);  // wait a little time
}

If all goes well you should see output similar to the following (values in Celsius):

 Sensor #0: 20.3
 Sensor #1: 30.4
 Sensor #0: 20.3
 Sensor #1: 30.4
 Sensor #0: 20.3
 Sensor #1: 30.4

For those of you who unfortunately did not win, I have setup a CVG Seed Exchange Chat Room.  I would like to setup a time for people to meet up and get some seeds trade, though with the many geographies and time zones it may be hard for me to simply pick a date/time, so head over there and make some recommendations (or say hello to whoever is in the chat room and possibly setup a trade)

UPDATE:
I have setup a private forum where we can setup some trades without having to be concerned about spammers picking up our email addresses.  If you were interested in my seeds in this contest, I have many of the same ones up for trade in the forum.

I took a look at the major nutrient manufacturers and determined using their recommended feeding schedule what it would cost per gallon to complete a 4 week vegetation cycle and a 8 week vegetable and bloom cycle.

To be fair I only included products that provided the primary/secondary macronutrients and micronutrients.  Though I am not discounting the effectiveness of various supplements that these companies provide and I wanted to stick with the basics and have a close to an apples to apples comparison as possible.

	Avg, Price	Size	Nutrients Used over 4 weeks (Veg Only)	Cost per Gallon of mixed nutrients	Nutrients Used over 8 weeks (Veg/Bloom)	Cost per Gallon of mixed nutrients
General Hydroponics				$ 1.08		$ 2.80
FloraGrow	$ 12.50	qt	8.08 tsp	$ 0.53	12.12 tsp	$ 0.79
FloraBloom	$ 12.50	qt	2.02 tsp	$ 0.13	14.14 tsp	$ 0.92
FloraMicro	$ 15.95	qt	5.05 tsp	$ 0.42	13.13 tsp	$ 1.09
Dutch Nutrient Formula				$ 0.82		$ 2.30
Advance Grow A	$ 7.50	L	11 tsp	$ 0.41	11 tsp	$ 0.41
Advance Grow B	$ 7.50	L	11 tsp	$ 0.41	11 tsp	$ 0.41
Advance Flower A	$ 7.50	L	0 tsp	$ -	20 tsp	$ 0.74
Advance Flower B	$ 7.50	L	0 tsp	$ -	20 tsp	$ 0.74
Dyna-Gro				$ 0.66		$ 2.03
Liquid Grow	$ 15.00	qt	3.5 tsp	$ 0.27	3.5 tsp	$ 0.27
Liquid Bloom	$ 18.95	qt	0 tsp	$ -	7 tsp	$ 0.69
Mag-Pro	$ 17.95	qt	0.875 tsp	$ 0.08	3.875 tsp	$ 0.36
Pro-TeKt	$ 13.90	qt	4.25 tsp	$ 0.31	9.75 tsp	$ 0.71

At first glance these numbers look pretty promising, until you remember the fact that this is the cost per gallon.  So if you had a 40 gallon reservoir this can make your cost obvious jump up significantly.  Fortunately in my case I only fill my tank up to 9 gallons so a 4 week cycle would cost me on average $7.68 for a 4 week vegetative cycle or $21.39 for a 8 week vegetative and bloom cycle.

Now given I am planning on growing some legal herbs in my hydroponic system (basil/oregano/cilantro) and maybe a little lettuce.  This would result in some pretty expensive produce.  For this reason and that fact I love chemistry and don’t get to play with it much these days I am planning on going for the less expensive homemade nutrient route, which I will provide more details once I get some more conclusive results of success or failure…

Now when it comes to hydroponics this is entirely different.  My tap water has a pH of around 7.5 and the fluctuation of plant using nutrients and transpiration can cause great havoc on the pH on your hydroponic system.  Now this creates a challenge but also an opportunity to have control with great precision your pH and keep your plants growing in the sweet spot for the healthiest plants and the greatest yields.

So whether you are growing hydroponically, or simply trying to figure out why your Fennel didn’t do so well last year take a look at the table below, hopefully for some hints of what happened.

Recommended pH Ranges of Vegetables/Herbs

I am still doing some clean up so please bear with the mess for a little while.

The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

• Must be inexpensive: Hey this is the cheap vegetable gardener site
• Must be small: I have a limited space to grow and nutrients can be expensive and given what I am growing is legal don’t really need $20 basil
• Must be safe from flooding: Though this is running in my garage, I really don’t want to come in with 10/20 gallons of water/nutrients on my floor.
• Could be adapted for alternate hydroponic system.

Given these requirements, this is what I came up with and how I built it:

Materials

• 18 gallon opaque Rubbermaid container (happened to have one of these around
• 5 gallon basin – SLUGIS box from Ikea ($5.99)
• vinyl tape (plumbers tape)
• 1 inch hole saw
• 1 inch threaded (diameter) to 3/4 PVC adapter
• 3/4 inch threaded (diameter) to 1/2 in hose adapter
• 2 3/4 inch PVC caps
• Cheap pond/fountain pump (100 GPH)
• 1 foot of 1/2 inch plastic tubing
• 2 foot 3/4 inch PVC pipe (only need couple inches but smallest length I could buy)
• aquarium/food grade silicon (optional I used this to ensure very watertight seal but found not necessary)

Construction

Take the 5 gallon basin and drill two 1 inch holes in the middle of each side.  One whole should be drilled from the top and the other should be drilled from the bottom.�

Take both threaded adapters and apply liberal amount of vinyl tape.

Screw in the 1/2 inch hose adapter from the bottom with just barely enough clearance to pop through.  When the pump stops the water will drain through this same hole.

For the overflow pipe, screw in the 3/4 inch PVC adapter in from the top until hand tight.

Take both caps and drill in a bunch of holes slightly smaller than your media.  The basic idea is you don’t want some Hydroton clay balls falling into your pump or reservoir. 

Cut about 2 inches of 3/4 PVC pipe and attach to overflow and top with PVC cap with dozen or so holes in it.

Lastly attach the 1/2 plastic tube to your pump and place everything on top of your 18 gallon Rubbermaid tub (which fits perfectly and is very sturdy)  Fill with water nutrients and hook up your water pump to a 24 hour timer (or grow box controller)

Here is the Ebb & Flow system in action, as you can see very simple but very cheap and versatile.

If you can’t find anyone to talk with here another option is to use our secure seed exchange forum where only registered users can read/edit posts so your email and personal information will be mush more secure than displaying in public.

Christmas LED Grow Box

Basically take a old Rubbermaid container and drill some holes and insert lights and you have your own Christmas light LED grow box.  This worked great last year to hold my seedlings until they were ready to move into the bigger grow box in the garage.  Here are some posts on construction and updates:

Cheap LED Light and Grow Box
Christmas light LED grow box – Update #1
Christmas light LED grow box – Update #2

Supplemental Christmas LED Light

Similar idea to the LED grow box, though used in addition to your normal grow lights for a little additional red wavelength light, see posts below for complete construction directions:

Make your own supplemental LED grow light

Heating row tunnels (or grow box) with non-LED lights

Replacing your old Christmas lights with LEDs to save on your electricity bill?  You can use your old regular old Christmas lights to heat your row tunnels to increase the temperature by about 10 degrees to help get your plants out a ahead of schedule.  I have been using some of mine in my grow box to help during some of our colder nights this winter.

Heating row tunnels and grow box with Christmas lights

Cilantro (at least that is what we call the plant in the United States) and the seed coriander as it is know to the rest of the world is the first plant I ever collected seeds from. 

What I like about cilantro/coriander is that its flowers actually grow great and the bees seem to like them.  As an added bonus the collection of seeds really couldn’t be easier.  Like other plants I collect seeds on I let them mature as much as possible outdoors on their own and bring them indoors when the heavy rains come.

I give them a little extra time to dry by hanging the bunches upside down in my garage until I get around to the harvest.

To harvest simply find these flower shaped clusters of seeds and pull down to release the seeds and add to your awaiting container.  If you don’t care as much how clean your seed collection is you can also run run hands down the whole plant from bottom to top.  While this will drop many leaves in your collection, this is definitely the way to quickly harvest a large number of seeds.

Harvesting radish seeds is a little more labor intensive than some other seeds but still pretty easy to accumulate a decent number of seeds in a short period of time.

If you let your radishes be they will grow little flowers and pods like you see below.  I like to let mother nature take care of this process as long as possible pulling them only after temperatures start to dip and heavy rains start coming.  At that time I will pick the plants and hang them in the garage to dry a little longer.

Once the pods are dry, they should resemble those of the ones below.

All that is left to do is use your finger nail to split the pod open and with a quick swipe of your finger pop the seeds out into an awaiting container.  One other option is to simply leave them in the pod and open them up during planting.  Now they will take a significantly more space though if you only need a few seeds, definitely a viable option.

Ok there is a little catch, you have to plant the seeds and grow the produce yourself and have perfect weather and unlimited space to do it.  Over the past season I have intentionally harvested more seeds than I needed just for the purpose of sharing them so here is your first chance to get some of CVG’s seed stash.  This should be a good addition to your current selection of seeds or great for a person just starting out next year.

The harvest values were calculated using my most profitable vegetables in your garden post, so numbers are estimated but I tried to be as accurate as possible.  Below are also links to my harvesting techniques of most of the “Self” seeds below (just realized I never wrote up cilantro and radish seed harvesting so expect to see these soon).

CVG’s Seed Stash (Variety Pack)

As always just enter a comment and a winner will be randomly selected using my patented “CVG’s Contest Winner Pickorama” on Jan 1st, 2010.  This contest is open to everyone inside/outside the United States pending any export/import of regulations of sending seeds, which I am still doing some research on.

I explained the problems I have with pests in my indoor growing and they suggested “Garden Insect Killer” Their documentation states, “Kills and repels garden insects and mites. Kills exposed eggs, larvae and adult stages.”  This seemed to be exactly what I was looking for so once the first onset of pests arrived I applied liberally to tops and bottoms of leaves and so far the results are great.  Not only were this effective on the little buggers, given the selection of Rosemary, Peppermint, Thyme, Clove oils it actually makes the garage smell pretty nice as an added bonus.

Want to try this out for yourself the great people at EcoSmart have offered to give away a bottle of any of their products.  So under normal rules, enter a comment and a winner will randomly be selected and sent a bottle of their choice.  Comment must be submitted by Friday, December 18th 2009 at midnight (Pacific) to be considered for the drawing.  Good luck.

Currently it is 16 degrees outside and given my grow box containing jalapeno peppers is in my unheated detached garage, which can bring some challenges.  Like most plants, peppers will continue to grow in the range of 60 to 90 degrees, but thrive in 70 to 90 degrees.  With the lights on the grow box gets to about 60 degrees but drips to the 50’s at night.  This will result in plants having stunted growth and begin dropping blossoms before they can start bearing fruit.

My solution, a string of green mini Christmas lights.  Just to clarify these are your typical small bulb Christmas lights not LEDs, given the efficiency of LEDs they do not product much extra heat which is what I am going for here. I also chose green Christmas lights because plants do not absorb this wavelength very well so they can be left on at night to keep heating while still letting the plants “sleep”. 

Of course results will vary depending on the size of your grow box or outside row tunnel, insulation, and exterior temperature, but I am seeing 8-10 degree increase in temperature with a single string (50 bulbs)

I am always open to new ideas to safely, cheaply and efficiently heat my grow box or row tunnel so if anyone has any other suggestions please add a comment.

Along with gardening, I also have a passion for cooking/baking.  I have had many adventures I wanted to share but didn’t exactly fit under “The Cheap Vegetable Gardener” so I have started Going Homemade. 

Though I have been spending much of my life eating most of my meals from bags and boxes, I am making a commitment to bravely try homemade versions of my personal favorites as well as teach my daughters that not all meals come from Costco/Trader Joe’s.  So far, everything tastes much better, healthier, and I am even saving a little money according to my calculations.

Recently I was approached by Hometown seeds if I would be interested in receiving a variety pack of their top selling seeds, my first instinct was “woohoo free stuff.”  Though instead I decided it would offer the seeds to my awesome readers.  Well that and with all the seed saving I have been doing this year I have more seeds than I know what to do with.

Hometown Seeds loved the idea so much that they have graciously increased the offering to three sets of garden seeds variety pack, so in normal fashion enter a comment and after a week I will somehow randomly pick three winners and the seeds will be sent out to you.

The variety pack includes (1) packet of each of the following:

• Slow Bolt Cilantro
• Alaska Shasta Daisy
• Giant Tetra Snapdragon
• Elite Mix Wildflower
• Marvel of Peru Four O’clock
• Yellow Pear Tomato
• Purple Haze Carrot
• Waltham Broccoli
• Casaba Mellon
• Gourmet Mix Lettuce

The total value of this package is $19.80 so good luck everyone!

Winner will be chosen at Midnight 12/9/2009 (Pacific)

It shouldn’t be a surprise that kids these days are not as patient as previous generations.  Personally I feel this is less on a change of parenting but a result of children’s expectations created because of the advance of technology.  For example, When my daughter asks to watch a particular show “On Demand” and then 5 minutes later asks me to “pause it” so she can go potty.  This makes me think back to the days of having a single TV station we could pick up with our antenna, which seemed to play reruns of MASH 24/7.

The great thing about gardening is with the exception of seed hybridization, synthetic fertilizers, and maybe techniques like hydroponics the hobby hasn’t changed too much in the past few hundred years.  It still takes 1-3 weeks for seeds to germinate not matter what technology you throw at them.  This is why I feel gardening is a great activity to share with the young ones in your life to help offset the instant gratification they see on a daily basis.

Here are a couple of ideas how to do this any time of year:

Cup of Dirt: Give your young one a cup of dirt and some seeds.  To keep them interested give them a spray bottle to water everyday to keep them coming back every day to check how their plant is doing.  The spray bottle will provide just enough water on the surface to allow the seeds to germinate and what kid doesn’t like to play with a spray bottle.

Sprouting in a Jar: I have a complete post on this topic, but the process is pretty simple.  Get a mason jar and add some seeds.  Rinse, drain and repeat.  In just a few weeks you will have tasty and healthy sprouts you can add to your salads, sandwiches, stir-frys, etc.

Growing plants in water:  Now this can be as complicated as setting up a hydroponic environment or as simple as taking a spider plant start and placing it in some water and letting your young one watch as the roots develop and transplant and care for it as a new plant.

If you head over to Campbell’s Help Grow Your Soup site you can get some free tomato seeds and while you are at it vote for a barn which Campbell’s will give $250,000 to restore.  So free seeds for you and one dollar for a barn restoration.

My original version of my moisture sensor has worked great for me but it did have a couple flaws.  The first issue was construction, though I had great luck on my first attempt though after trying to recreate additional sensors given the small amount of gypsum between the sensor and the probes were so thin it was extremely easy to crack the sensor and I normally have about a 25% success rate on later creations (must have had beginners luck on the first one.

The second issue was durability.  Given we are playing with gypsum and as it is suspended in water it will eventually breakdown and there is very little we can do about it.  Though with my latest changes to my automated grow box which includes automated watering based on moisture content I want to ensure my measurements stay accurate throughout the season.  To help with this I have decided to increase the sensors size and also am using galvanized nails to prevent rusting.  After a few attempts I have come up what I feel is a pretty foolproof method of creating a moisture sensor.

How it works:

There were many questions in the comments in the previous post so hopefully I can clear this up a little here.

Technically a gypsum block measures soil water tension.  When the gypsum block is dry it is not possible for electricity to pass between the probes, essentially making the probe an insulator with infinite resistance. 

As water is added to the problem more electrons can pass between the probes effectively reducing the amount of resistance between the problem to the point when it is fully saturated where the probe has virtually zero resistance.  By using this range of values you can determine the amount of water than exists in your soil.

Parts:

• Plaster of Paris
• 2 Galvanized Finish Nails
• 1/2 inch plastic tubing
• utility knife

Construction:

Take your utility knife and cut the tubing slightly longer than your galvanized finishing nails.  Try to make the cut as straight as possible though it doesn’t have to be completely perfect.

Use your utility knife to cut the smaller plastic tube lengthwise, this will allow easier removal of your soil sensor after the mold cures.

Optional: Make the cut diagonally to prevent a potential vertical fracture line.

If you were very careful on you vertical cuts you can avoid this step, but to completely avoid spilling plaster onto my workbench I drilled four holes slightly larger than your tubing.  I used these holes for support but also to catch any of the plaster in the gaps from you less than accurate vertical cuts.

Being careful that the tubing fits together where you split the tubing vertically, insert the tubes into the holes (or carefully on a flat surface)  Mix Plaster of Paris and carefully fill with to the top.  The friction between the tubing should keep a water tight seal where you made the cut, though if the plaster is a little thin and it appears to be leaking through wait a couple minute for the plaster to setup some and try again, at that time it should not have the viscosity to seep through the very small gap that may be causing the leak.

Take your two galvanized nails and push them through a small piece of wax paper.  You may also allow the plaster to setup for a few minutes and then float the nails in the the plaster.  I like the first method since gravity will help ensure they fall straight down and parallel to each other.  As for spacing, I have done some experimentation with the gaps between the probes and my conclusion was, it doesn’t make much difference.  As long as there is a gap (they are not touching) you should get reliable results.

After allowing the sensor to cure for about and hour remove it from the holes you drilled in the wood.

Gently pull back the plastic tubing and you have a nice clean soil sensor.

Lay them out to dry for 24 hours to cure completely and their construction is complete.

For attaching the wires there are a couple options.  The best would be to solder them to the probes though to do this you need to heat up the nail hot enough to enable a strong solder connection.  My little 15W soldering iron just can’t produce the heat for this so I am option for the wire wrap method.  I take about an inch of wire and strip off about an inch of insulation and tightly wrap around the probe.  Given copper will rust and could be a point of failure you will want to insulate this connection and the probes from the moisture.  A few dabs of hot glue works pretty well.  I am planning on trying liquid plastic, though I am currently out and when I have some on hand I will update with how it went.

How to use it

You can simply hook up a multi-meter and check the resistance though if you want to create anything automated you would need to use an integrated circuit (IC) or a electronics prototyping platform such as Arduino.  By applying voltage to one side of the sensor and using a voltage splitting circuit connected to ground and an analog input you can then measure the voltage making it through the probe.  The higher the voltage, the higher the moisture content of the soil.

Conclusion

The above should give you everything you need to know to create your own soil sensor and how to use it.  This can be used as a soil sensor for watering your indoor plants like I am using it.  This same sensor could be for monitoring your outside soil moisture content to trigger (or preempt your irrigation system) to save some money on your water bill and/or maintain consistent moisture levels in your plants which could drastically improve water sensitive crops such as tomatoes.

Kill your weeds early: The sooner you pull your weeds the easier it is to keep up with them.  In addition, if you pick the weeds before the mature and flower and drop seeds you will save a ton of time pulling weeds for every one of those seeds that drop.  Call me old fashioned but I normally skip the whole herbicide method and just pull the weeds by hand.  Not only does your lawn or garden immediately look better, there is no coming back to see if the weeds need another dose of spray and the whole environmental part of keeping some chemicals out of our water system.

Mulch: This is one I didn’t completely understand until I had been gardening for a while.  I for one never have found “beauty bark” beautiful and have always preferred the more natural look and benefits of fertile soil.  But that is entirely why you want to use a mulch such as ground bark, straw, pine needles, leaves, newspaper, rubber bark, or even some old carpet.  This helps prevent weeds in twp ways.  First, it blocks light from the potential little weed seedlings to make their way to the surface.  Second, they are not fertile mediums to grow seeds, which is exactly what you are looking for for your large flower beds which like to create good crops of weeds.  As a final benefit they help insulate and hold water down for the plants you want to thrive having great growth and eventually shading out those “poor” weed seedlings.  just 3-4 inches during the fall and your back should be bending over much less next spring.

If you are thinking, “What about my vegetable garden?  I want seeds to be able to grow in there next year.”  For your vegetable garden I highly recommend chopped leaves and a vegetable garden mulch.  If you happen to have a leaf blower/vacuum that will chop them up all you need to do is empty those bags in a thin 1-2 inch layer across your garden.  I used to have one of these though accidentally sucked up a rock which didn’t “chop” well and broke it so the alternate method I use is the following.  Bag your leaves throughout the fall and once the leaves stop falling dump them out in a long row in your yard.  Then use you lawnmower with bagger attachment and run them over until they are all chopped up.  You can also do this more frequently during the fall but I find this a good time to use all the gas in the lawnmower before the end of winter feeling more like I am doing something more meaning other than just letting the mower sit there until it burns off the remaining fuel.  With these leaves on the surface you smother any weed seeds and also block out all light to the soil.  When spring time comes you simply work in the decomposed leaves into the soil and your garden has a head start with some good organic matter.

Pre-emergent weed control: For some parts of your yard like your lawn mulching is not really an options so to protect against pesky weeds like one of my personally loathing weed, annual bluegrass.  Which grows and seeds so close to the ground it is nearly impossible to pull the plants to prevent the spreading.  Pre-emergent herbicides is the solution to this problem.  Pre-emergent herbicides work by preventing weed seeds from germination by inhibiting cell division in their tiny root system.  Given these plants are annuals a successful application can rid you yard of these weeds until they eventually blower over from a neighbors.  Pre-emergent herbicides can be purchased as a chemical or the organic method is applying glutton corn meal which normally can be purchased from your local feed store.  One thing to remember is that this also will prevent you normal grass seed from germinating as well so be sure to time your application after with with enough lead time to allow the pre-emergent from wearing off.

Grow a cover crop:  Growing a cover crop has two major benefits to your garden.  Various legumes, grasses, and buckwheat make good options for for cover crops to plants while you garden is empty.  First it creates a natural shade from the sun making it hard (or impossible) for seedlings are the surface to survive under their great shadows.  Second it provides organic mater as “green manure” to add nutrients to your soil.  One recommendation is to make sure you do a little research on the plant you choose as a cover crop, if you accidentally wait too long to “harvest” your cover crop it could go to seed and you may have an entirely new weed problem on your hands.

Cook the soil:  When all else fails apply some black plastic (thicker the better) covering to your planting beds and let them “cook” throughout the fall/winter.  Like mulch this will prevent any light and most water from entering the areas covered.  This will essentially cook the soil killing any weeds, seeds, fungi, or anything else living in that area.  Though this is very effective in eliminating weeds and disease from your soil it also kills everything else including good bacteria that your friendly worms like to visit your garden, so you soil may take sometime to recover and return to becoming living soil.  I would recommend this method as a last result when the previous methods have proven to be completely unsuccessful.

Just for some positive outlook, you can also think of weeds as green manure assuming you are adding these to your compost, so even out of control they still can decompose and help your garden…

The kids and I carved several pumpkins this year but we waited carve the three pumpkins we grew in our backyard until Halloween since these were the seeds I wanted to save for planting next year.  First, I know exactly how these pumpkins were grow, organically and free of any pesticides.  Second, I was able to let these pumpkins grow undisturbed until the day I picked the seeds, so the seeds should definitely be mature.

The process is very simple, while getting the “goo” as my 5-year-old would say out of the pumpkin set the seeds aside and add to a colander.  Give them a good rinse and remove any orange “goo” that may have snuck in.  Pat dry with a towel and let the seeds dry on wax or parchment paper for a couple days.  Once they are dry to touch put them layered on a paper sack and let them dry for a few weeks until putting them in homemade seed packets until the are ready for next year.

If you have way too many seeds than you need (I know I do) you can also use the great recipe to roast some of you extra seeds as a snack:

CVG’s Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

• Extra pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 tsp oil
• 1/2 tsp of Worchester sauce
• 1/4 tsp of seasoning salt

Directions: Add ingredients to bowl and mix well.  Lay on a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 325 for about 25 minutes being sure to flip the seeds after about 10 minutes.  Eat as soon as you can without burning your mouth.

Corn is one of those crops I really don’t have space to grow but still like to try every year.  This past year I only had one ear that made it to maturity, in the plants defense we have a very hot summer and I didn’t have the most consistent watering schedule so I am to blame for most of their demise.  Given I used the last of my corn seed this year and wanting to make the best out a bad situation, I decided to use this ear for seeds for next year. 

I decided to go the natural route and simply let the corn stay on the stalk until I was ready to pull up my corn stalks my wife got tired of looking at our dead corn stalks in the backyard which turned out to be yesterday (October 31st)  As you can see from the picture above the corn kernels have dried out pretty well, though still contain a little moisture.

To remove the kernels I started by braking the cob in half and then starting where I split the cob pushing the loose kernels off with my thumb starting from one end to the other.  Once I have this first row off it should be pretty easy to attack these kernels at any angle. 

Lastly I layered the kernels in a single row in an open ended brown lunch bag to allow air flow to allow the remaining moisture to be removed.  I put the bag on top of our cabinets in the kitchen and will add them to a homemade paper seed packet after a few weeks or drying (or when I remember they are up there more like a few months late) then store in the refrigerator until time for planting next year.

Now I have more seeds than I probably will ever need for a few years and hopefully will have better luck (or at least remember to water them better) next year.

We have seen MIT students making robots to tend on their plants.  Now Fuji Heavy Industries has created a robot that can completely take care of your fruits and vegetables in your fields (or greenhouse) for a modest fee of only $100,000.  You can pick up your own by the next fiscal year.

It uses lasers with reflective panels to orient itself and is 6.5 feet long, unfortunately there are not too many additional geeky details which probably would be helpful before putting down the $100K for this bad boy.

Given this is the cheap vegetable gardener, I will be sticking with my hands and trowel next fiscal year though can’t wait to see a video if this in action.

Well this is pretty much clichéd nerdiness but given it only required a couple of lines of C# I couldn’t resist.  I have updated my grow box software to “tweet” some sort of semi-humorous and not really witty comment appropriate to its current state and share its current temperature and moisture content every 2.5 hours.

For those who want to do something similar, this is how I did it.  I one of the many twitter C# libraries and for no specific reason I chose tweetsharp and after adding a reference to their DLL and just the few lines of code (below) you can be programmatically making updates via twitter.

private void UpdateStatus(string message)

{

    IFluentTwitter twitter = FluentTwitter.CreateRequest();

    twitter.AuthenticateAs("user_name", "password");

    twitter.Statuses().Update(message);

    twitter.AsUrl();

    string response = twitter.Request();

}

If you want to see it in action go to http://twitter.com/computergrowbox. 

Right now I only have a handful of not so witty comments, so if you have some good zingers add them to the comments and if I like them I will add them to the list.

UPDATE: Grow box shares its own pictures

I get busy these days and sometimes can’t make it out to keep a close eye on my plants in the grow box.  Given I have everything automated the box basically takes care of them, though I thought it would be nice if I could see how they are doing so added photo sharing to the grow box’s twittering software.

I already have the software taking pictures every so often so all I really needed to do what send out the most recent file to twitter.  After a little looking I found that tweetsharp already supported this so yet again this was just a few lines of code to implement.

First I needed the logic to determine the last photo I have taken, fortunately I was carefully about my naming using a timestamp based name similar to “Photo_2008_10_01_090130.jpg”, so alphabetical sorting would work just fine.  I removed the error handling to keep things brief but here is the code to complete this logic:

string[] files = Directory.GetFiles(photoDirectory, "*.jpg");
Array.Sort<string>(files);
string fileToUpload = files[files.Length - 1];

Now you have your photo to upload just signup for one of the photo TwitPic using your twitter account and run the following code using your credentials.

IFluentTwitter twitter = FluentTwitter.CreateRequest();
twitter.AuthenticateAs("user_name", "password");
twitter.Photos().PostPhoto(fileToUpload,
                      SendPhotoServiceProvider.TwitPic);
twitter.Statuses().Update("My Picture").AsJson().Request();

Hopefully this, you too can make you own grow box (or other inanimate object) share its feelings on twitter.

When selecting a blueberry bush, unless you are very patient spend about $10 a plant and get some more established ones (about 1/2 inch stem) You can get the two for $10 plants from your local Home Depot but you won’t be eating blueberries for a couple years.  With the larger plants you should pinch off the blossoms to get better growth for the first couple years but I opt to getting my reward now instead of later and enjoy the handful of berries the young plants can produce.

When it comes to plant selection there are a large number of species to choose from with varying fruit size and harvest timing.  I would recommend getting varieties that have varying maturity dates so you can enjoy those blueberries for a longer period of time.  When I got my first two plants I went with Toro and Berkeley.  The Berkeley is a very popular bush given it produces average size berries great for muffins/pancakes/cereal or the occasional snack with a mid-late harvest.  The Toro on the other hand produces large (almost grape size) berries which are great for jams and snacks though bit of a mouthful for muffins.  If you are curious of other varieties here is a great resource.

I have heard differing opinions on whether you need to have different species to successfully produce fruit after a little research I found this article which explains that blueberries are capable of pollinating with a single species, though studies have shown that having more varieties can produce larger and earlier fruits.  So if you have a favorite variety you can go crazy with the single plant though a little diversity seems to always be a good thing.

When it comes to pest control the biggest pest is birds.  You can control them by laying some netting on the plants, though in my personal opinion that just gets in the way of me getting my snacks so I opt for the lazy approach and just plant more plants and share with “neighbors”.  Worse case I end up with a backyard with some bushes that look much nicer than my current evergreens, and I always can take up bird watching.

One of the most important parts to being successful with your little blueberry plants is soil preparation.  The plants need to have an acidic soil and their roots like to remain moist, but not drowning in water.  Given my area has an abundance of clay in my backyard, I naturally do not have either of these requirements.  To give the plants a head start I dug a 1 foot wide/deep hole and filled it with peat moss and mixed with a few handfuls of compost.  Not only will this retain water well, but the peat moss is also naturally acidic and will be a nice haven for a large family of worms in the next few years to add some awesome natural fertilizer (worm castings)  Last I purchased I box of organic blueberry fertilizer which provides the primary and trace minerals as well as help keep the acidity of the soil up.  I simply followed the directions on the box and watered the plants when there was a couple of days without rain.

Now some of you might be thinking, “hey it is fall why are you talking about growing blueberries”  Well this is the “Cheap Vegetable Gardener, right now is a great time to visit your local nursery to pick up some of their “old overgrown” blueberry plants at bargain prices which you can plant now and enjoy some delicious berries next spring/summer.

My jalapeno peppers did great this year.  So good I didn’t really know what to do with all of them.  After making some salsa and having several mature red ones as snacks in the garden, I still have about two pounds that I didn’t want to go to waste.  After a little thought I decided to make some pickled jalapeno peppers.

CVG Picked jalapeno pepper recipe

Directions:  Mix ingredients and bring brine to boil.  Either slice or leave the pepper whole.  If you choose to do whole peppers, be sure to poke them with a toothpick so they won’t collapse.  Fill jars with jalapeno peppers and then fill with hot brine up to 1/2 in from the top of jar.  Boil for 10 minutes and feel free to pick some pickled peppers as fast and as many times as you want this summer.

Though I have made some significant changes to the grow box controller, the actual grow box has undergone some minor but important changes over the past few months.

Automated watering

Now I must say this one is pretty darn simple.  Though I will be planning on a slightly more complicated hydroponic setup later I decided to start with a very easy bottom watering technique.  Just take a regular old fountain pump (I went with the cheapest I could find) drop it in a 5 gallon bucket of water and attach a hose long enough to reach your planting tray and plug in the power to the pump to your grow box controller and that’s about it.

To prevent evaporation and algae and little bugs making a home in my nice bucket of water, I added a lid with two holes for the water output and power input.  The power input required me to make a straight cut with a utility knife to ensure a snug fit while not requiring me to cur the AC line to feed the wire through.

I also cut a hole of the same size as the water output on the bucket lid to the grow box to allow the line to enter while still keeping the box closed.

Exhaust fan control

Air circulation is important for plants to be healthy but when the box gets warmer than expected I installed two controlled CPU fans to help regulate temperate as well as one static fan that constantly pushes air from the top to bottom.

I added a 12 volt exhaust fan to the top of the box (pictured above) to help push hot air out of the grow box with another (pictured below) at the lower part of the grow box to push in cold air as needed.  Both of these fans are powered by a 12 volt power wall adapter plugged into the grow box controller.

Heating

Though the computer and lights allow the box to create a comfortable internal temperature, sometimes it needs a little help.  For this I installed a regular old seedling heater to hopefully take a little sting out of the cold floor the seed tray is sitting one.  Like other components this was simply plugged into the grow box controller.

Putting it all together

My previous version was a little sloppily put together with duct/packing tape (lets just call it prototyping).  Though this added some hackiness appear it wasn’t too functional so I added a little strip of wood to support a couple hinges which I created a top which holds the LCD panel.

Upon opening the top you can see the grow box controller and the state of the art 600 MHz PC in all their glory.

As you can see I have still have some cleaning up to do with compress air and maybe a few more zip ties but all in all everything seems to have come together nicely.

Last February my 7-year-old daughter and I attended the Northwest Flower and Garden show for the first time, which is back on next year if you haven’t yet heard the good news.  During our visit my daughter purchased a single dahlia tuber from Swan Island Dahlias. 

We carefully followed the detailed planting instructions and it grew to about 5 feet by the end of the summer, though there were no blooms emerging.  With Fall coming upon us we both were getting a little worried we wouldn’t see anything this year.  Fortunately the plant finally started sharing some late blooms while the rest of our garden is more in the dying off state.

The process is very simple, I believe I did the same thing in second grade during our plant section.  Though that was to observe how a seed sprouts/roots the concept is exactly the same.

Take a wet paper towel and place 10 seeds on it and place the wet paper towel in a Ziploc bag.  After a few days (or weeks depending on the normal germination rate) check back on your seeds and count how many sprouted. 

In my case six out of ten of the jalapeno seeds sprouted.  So just do the simple math using the following formula:

Germination rate = (# seeds sprouted/# total seeds sprouted) X 100

So in my case:

(6 seeds sprouted/10 seeds total) X 100 = 60% germination rate

Of course the more seeds you use in your “trial” the more accurate the results will be for my purposes the error rate is good enough for me.

If I was a seed seller this would be disastrous since most distributors have germination limits (90-95%), but given these are for my own use and I have about 300 more seeds that I will use no major loss.  Though I will need to remember when I plant these out I will want to plant 2 seeds per cell to have good odds one of the seeds will germinate.

Another option is to give your 4 year old a handful of seeds and a pot full of dirt and see if most of them sprout.  Much less scientific but my daughter didn’t seem to notice.

Joining the sprouts is a mature pepper plant which has been flowering and daisy seedling my 7 year old planted hoping it will flower as well.

Though the advice on the back of a seed packet gives some great information, they are recommendations and their advice may not exactly apply to your garden.

First is row spacing, many times you read something like “plant seeds 3 inches apart in rows 1 foot apart”  This brings up some immediate logic of why can the plants be 3 inches apart one way but 12 inches in another.  This sort of thinking the premise for intensive gardening techniques such as square foot gardening.  This is where instead of growing your plants in rows you plant them in a grid pattern making best use of your growing space.

Now even these spacing requirements are actually optional.  All plants compete for resources to survive.  This can be sunlight (or even shade from sunlight), nutrients, water, airflow, etc.  Depending on the quality of your soil and frequency of watering you can push the limits of your growing space.  Assuming you add some fresh compost easy season and possibly do some side dressing with an organic fertilizer like fish emulsion or alfalfa pellets you can easily reduce this space and still have high yields.  I did just that with my cherry tomato plants whose seed packet is above.  I planted these about a foot apart and got great growth and yields.

One other factor is how you grow.  If I was growing my tomatoes in cages my foot space probably wouldn’t even be technically possible but since I grew them on a netting this allowed for spread out much more naturally and provide adequate sunlight and airflow.  Keep this in mind when growing sprawling plants such as cucumbers and squash using some vertical space can free up the valuable growing space on the ground.

The last factor depends on when you are going to pick them.  If you are growing onions to simply pick as green onions you don’t have to give then the 3-4 inches needed for their bulbs to grow.  You could easily plant an inch apart since you are going to pick them before they are competing for resources.  A similar idea is growing for micro greens, plant picked when just a few inches tall.

Though I wouldn’t say to completely ignore the back of your seed packets, just make sure to use it as a guide not a requirement.

Some UW researchers have determined that if you add a couple of similar metals in a tree it produces electricity.  Though only 200 mV so we won’t be moving to tree power anytime soon.  Though the articles mentions some applications such as detecting environmental conditions or forest fires.

To me the most interesting part is they don’t exactly know the cause of this voltage, though they theorize that “there seems to be some signaling in trees, similar to what happens in the human body but with slower speed.”

Via HackADay via UWNews

• I needed to add more automated external controls (heater, fans, water pump) with my existing design this was entirely possible though was starting to get a little clunky. 
• The existing controller (PS2 Controller, parallel port with various wires to control relays) worked but was not exactly compact. 
• Wanted a modular design so if I needed to debug some issue I could simply unplug the USB and power and bring it out of the box in the garage for needed work
• Ability for others to create so I can share my software without forcing people to hack PS2 controllers to get to work
• Ability to use components like 1Wire temperature sensors (others to come) and Arduino
• Just for the fun of it

Well now I have attempted to justify my reasons this is what I used to put the whole thing together:

Parts List

• Black plastic project case (8”X6”X3”) 
• Breadboard or multipurpose PC board
• soldering iron and solder (optional if using breadboard)
• Arduino
• 4 – solid state relays
• 4 – 1K resistor
• 4 – 2N2222 transistor
• 4 – 1N4004 diode
• DS18S20 (1Wire temperature sensor)
• 4.7K resistor
• (10K resistor and homemade soil sensor) or Vegetronix soil sensor
• 20 gauge solid copper wire (recommend multiple colors)
• Heavy duty extension cord
• 2 – outlet sockets
• 2 – socket faceplate (optional)
• hot glue gun and glue

If we had lawyers, they probably would want us to say this:
WARNING: I am not an electrician and do not pretend to be one.  I do not know the specific building electrical codes of your area, so please be sure your wiring is completed under the proper safety code for your area. As always, using high voltage electricity can result in self-electrocution or burn down your house if not done safely so if you are not comfortable doing this wiring please contact a qualified professional.

Putting it all together

On the electronics side overall the circuits are actually pretty simple and if using a breadboard definitely something that could be tackled by a beginner.  Though on the other side since this project is dealing with AC current I definitely would recommend caution (no hands unless power is unplugged) or have someone a little more comfortable with 120/220V help you out.

The Brains

I will be the first to admit that using an Arduino for this application is complete overkill for this application but it gives plenty of room for additions in the future.  For all intensive purposes you could have your grow box completely controlled from the Arduino own processing power though on my case the software and UI is more interesting part to me.  For this reason the Arduino code is actually very “dumb” basically just taking commands via the build in serial through USB and setting digital outputs to HIGH/LOW or reading analog inputs.
Here is the code for your grow box controller:

   1: /*

   2:  * GrowBox Arduino Interface

   3:  *

   4:  * Descriptions: Simple interface to digital and analog controls by passing serial inputs

   5:  *               For example: 

   6:  *                  "A1" to read analog value on pin 1

   7:  *                  "D1H" to set digital pin 1 to HIGH

   8:  */

   9: #include <OneWire.h>

  10:  

  11: //1-wire

  12: OneWire  ds(8);  // on pin 8

  13: #define BADTEMP -1000

  14:  

  15: //define unique sensor serial code

  16: byte temperature[8];

  17:  

  19: #define PIN_VALUE 1          // numeric pin value (0 through 9) for digital output or analog input

  18: #define ACTION_TYPE 0        // 'D' for digtal write, 'A' for analog read

  20: #define DIGITAL_SET_VALUE 2  // Value to write (only used for digital, ignored for analog)

  21:  

  22: int NUM_OF_ANALOG_READS = 2;

  23: char commandString[20];

  24:  

  25: void setup()

  26: {

  27:   Serial.begin(9600);

  28:   

  29:   setOneWireHex();

  30:  

  31:   // Power control

  32:   for(int i=0; i<=7; i++)

  33:   {

  34:     pinMode(i, OUTPUT);        // sets the digital pins as output

  35:     digitalWrite(i, LOW);      // turn everything off

  36:   }

  37: }

  38:  

  39: void loop()

  40: {

  41:   readStringFromSerial();

  42:  

  43:   if (commandString[ACTION_TYPE] != 0)   {

  44:     int pinValue = commandString[PIN_VALUE] - '0';  // Convert char to int

  45:  

  46:     if(commandString[ACTION_TYPE] == 'A')

  47:       Serial.println(analogRead(pinValue));

  48:     else if(commandString[ACTION_TYPE] == 'D') {

  49:       if(commandString[DIGITAL_SET_VALUE] == 'H') 

  50:         digitalWrite(pinValue, HIGH);

  51:       else if(commandString[DIGITAL_SET_VALUE] == 'L') 

  52:         digitalWrite(pinValue, LOW);

  53:  

  54:       Serial.println("OK");

  55:     }

  56:     else if(commandString[ACTION_TYPE] == 'T') {       

  57:       float temp = get_temp(temperature);      

  58:            

  59:       Serial.print(temp);     

  60:       Serial.println("C");     

  61:     }

  62:     else if(commandString[ACTION_TYPE] == '1') {

  63:       printOneWireHex();

  64:     }    

  65:     else if(commandString[ACTION_TYPE] == 'V')   {

  66:       Serial.println("VERSION_1_0_0_0");

  67:     }

  68:     else if(commandString[ACTION_TYPE] == 'P') {

  69:       Serial.println("PONG");

  70:     }

  71:  

  72:     // Clean Array

  73:     for (int i=0; i <= 20; i++)

  74:       commandString[i]=0;

  75:   }

  76:  

  77:   delay(100);  // wait a little time

  78: }

  79:  

  80:  

  81: void readStringFromSerial() {

  82:   int i = 0;

  83:   if(Serial.available()) {    

  84:     while (Serial.available()) {            

  85:       commandString[i] = Serial.read();

  86:       i++;

  87:     }

  88:   }      

  89: }

  90:  

  91: void setOneWireHex() {

  92:     ds.reset_search();

  93:     ds.search(temperature);

  94: }

  95:  

  96: void printOneWireHex() {

  97:   ds.reset_search();

  98:   if ( !ds.search(temperature)) {

  99:     Serial.print("NONE\n");

 100:   }

 101:   else {      

 102:     ds.reset_search();

 103:       

 104:     int sensor = 0;

 105:     while(ds.search(temperature))

 106:     {

 107:       Serial.print("S");

 108:       Serial.print(sensor);

 109:       Serial.print("=");

 110:       for(int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {

 111:         Serial.print(temperature[i], HEX);

 112:         Serial.print(".");

 113:       }

 114:       Serial.println();

 115:     }

 116:   }

 117:  

 118:   ds.reset_search();

 119: }

 120:  

 121: float get_temp(byte* addr)

 122: {

 123:   byte present = 0;

 124:   byte i;

 125:   byte data[12];

 126:  

 127:   ds.reset();

 128:   ds.select(addr);

 129:   ds.write(0x44,1);         // start conversion, with parasite power on at the end

 130:  

 131:   delay(1000);     // maybe 750ms is enough, maybe not

 132:   // we might do a ds.depower() here, but the reset will take care of it.

 133:  

 134:   present = ds.reset();

 135:   ds.select(addr);    

 136:   ds.write(0xBE);         // Read Scratchpad

 137:  

 138:   for ( i = 0; i < 9; i++) { // we need 9 bytes

 139:     data[i] = ds.read();

 140:   }

 141:  

 142:   int temp;

 143:   float ftemp;

 144:   temp = data[0];      // load all 8 bits of the LSB

 145:  

 146:   if (data[1] > 0x80){  // sign bit set, temp is negative

 147:     temp = !temp + 1; //two's complement adjustment

 148:     temp = temp * -1; //flip value negative.

 149:   }

 150:  

 151:   //get hi-rez data

 152:   int cpc;

 153:   int cr = data[6];

 154:   cpc = data[7]; 

 155:  

 156:   if (cpc == 0)

 157:     return BADTEMP;

 158:  

 159:   temp = temp >> 1;  // Truncate by dropping bit zero for hi-rez forumua

 160:   ftemp = temp - (float)0.25 + (cpc - cr)/(float)cpc;

 161:   //end hi-rez data

 162: //  ftemp = ((ftemp * 9) / 5.0) + 32; //C -> F

 163:   

 164:   return ftemp;

 165: }

Copy and paste the above code into your Arduino software.   For the code above I used the OneHire.h library which is free to use and can be downloaded from here. To be able to use this library simply copy the contents to C:\arduino\hardware\libraries\OneWire. Now you should be able to Compile (CTRL+R) and upload the code to the board (CTRL+U)
Now with the software uploaded you can send some simple serial commands via its built in USB to serial adapter to interact with it.  The interface is are broken up into 1 to 4 character commands, which I will detail below

Using the build in serial monitor tool in Arduino.exe, my application, or you should be able to control your Arduino with this very simple command based interface
Now you can hook up some LEDs and watch them blink which is fun for a little while but if you want to add some grow box components read on….

Temperature Sensor

As you can see I have fully embraced the circuit schema on the back of a napkin idea.  These are the actual diagrams I crumpled up and stuffed in my pocket with several trips to the garage for some final soldering of various joints until everything was solid.
Below is the simple circuit required to get your 1Wire temperature sensor working.  I would recommend checking your documentation (if not labels on the chip) for the orientation to have 1 and 3 correct, if you have it wrong you should get some complete unrealistic number.  Hook ground up to pin1 on the DS18S20 and pin 2 hooked up to the digital input pin 8 on the Arduino with 5V with a 4.7K resister in between to step down the voltage.
If everything is hooked up correctly you should get the current room temperature in Celsius by sending command “T” to your Arduino.  If you prefer Fahrenheit uncomment line 162 and recompile and upload your changes, though if using my software I support both degree types and do the conversion in the the software.  To make sure everything working (or just to play with your new toy) put your fingers on the chip for a couple seconds and take another measurement unless you keep your house very warm the temperature should go up a couple of degrees

Turning things on and off (Relays)

If you were smart enough to check the current requirements of your Solid State Relays (SSR) before you bought them you may be able to skip this whole circuit and simply hook the digital outputs to the 5V positive side and ground to the negative side of the SSR.
Unfortunately if you are like me and bought some SSRs that require more current draw than the Arduino (or any other IC chip) of 40mA then you will need to create the simple circuit below.

Basic idea is pretty simple, you are using the output from the digital pins to switch of the transistor which then allows the ground to complete the circuit with the thus turning on the relay.  As you can see there is a 1K resistor between the base (middle pin) of the transistor.  If you are not using a SSR relay (though recommend you do) you should add a 1N4004 diode between the positive/negative which protects the transistor from being damaged in case of a high voltage spike which can occur for a fraction of a second when the transistor switched off, this is also known as a back-EMF diode or fly back diode.
Now here you have a couple options.  If you are confident of our wiring skills you can do like I did and take a couple of sockets and hook up the neutral and ground in parallel.  Two save space and since I really didn’t need two separate plug-ins (nor its own plug) for each relay I removed the little metal bar between the two sockets so they could be switched on independently.  Now simply hook up hot to the left side of all your relays in parallel and then connect a wire from the right side of the relay to its own plug on the two sockets.
Now a less wiring intensive method is to simply take a 6 foot (small if you can find them) and cut the hot wire (usually the one with non-smooth wire) and attach each end of the wire to both sides of the relay.

Moisture Sensor

When it comes to a moisture sensor there are a few options.  First is the classic two galvanized nails, second is the cheap gypsum soil moisture sensor which I have written up in the provided link.  Lastly if my personal favorite the Vegetronix soil sensor.
If you use the Vegetronix hookup is simple no circuit needed simply hook up the 5V to red, bare wire to ground, and black to analog pin 1.
If you are using the other options you will need the simple circuit below.  Technically it is a voltage divider, but that doesn’t really matter.  Just hook up one end of your sensor to 5V and other sensor to ground with 10K resistor and also connected to analog pin 0.

Cheap soldered solution

If I could do it over I probably should have just bought a small breadboard.  I did most of my prototyping with my larger breadboard but got cheap when I was at Radio Shack The Shack and just got this prototype board for half the price.

Virtual breadboard layout

If you are new to soldering or have no interest in learning I would definitely recommend this option.  Simply place the components in the holes and make connections with 18 gauge solid copper wire.  You should be able to pick a small breadboard for less than $7.

Various applications

Of course for my application, I am using this to integrate with my custom software solution to control my grow box (will be having private/public beta soon).  Specifically soil sensor, temperature measurement, heater, lights, exhaust fan, and water pump. 

Though there is definitely no reason you can use this same setup for other application.
A couple of ideas:

• Home automation (turn on/off lights, turn on coffee machine)
• Attic fan
• Hydroponic system

Going Forward

I would like to convert this into an Arduino shield.  For those new to Arduino I will go with Arduino’s description, “Shields are boards to be mounted on top of the Arduino board and that extend the functionality of Arduino to control different devices, acquire data, etc” 
So basic idea is you just plug it into the top the Arduino and hook up a couple wires to some terminal blocks and you have a nice clean solution.  Creating these printed circuit boards get much cheaper the higher the quantity.  I am considering doing a run of these if I get enough interest so if you may be interested in one of these send me a mail in “Contact” in the header.

When I am storing seeds for months at a time my homemade paper seed packets work great, but for seeds I seem to use many times throughout the year I was looking for a new option. 

My solution was small plastic/metal resealable containers.  They are small and do not take up too much extra space and securely close so now worries of reaching into my pocket do find it full of seeds (had this happen more than once)  They are also water resistant (if not waterproof) so now worries about setting these down on some moist soil soaking the seeds.

You probably have many of these containers lying around your house from other products (prescription, OTC drugs, food containers, etc) 

Unfortunately (I guess fortunately) I do not need prescription drugs too often and wasn’t smart enough to save any of my past containers so I opted to get some from an online supplier.  This particular one many options for specifically for seed saving containers at very reasonable prices.  I am also considering using these when I share seeds with others as gifts.

What sort of creative options have you used to store your saved seeds?

I am attempting to grow the best pepper plants I can indoors (grow box) so I started with jalapeno peppers.  They grow relatively small 2-3 feet and require 2-3 gallon container for growing.  While this is fine for an outdoor garden, though indoors I can only sacrifice 1 gallon container.  This summer I grew several jalapeno plants which spent half of their life in the grow box and spent our warm summer outdoors.  All of the plants produced but there was definitely a clear winner which had incredible early yields even with its small growing quarters.

I used several immature peppers (green) for salsa this year but allowed several peppers to mature (red) which I will be saving the seeds for planting this winter and next summer for future plants.  By hand selecting the best parent plants should be good old natural selection at work.

The process to collect pepper seeds is pretty simple though I must first provide this warning:

WARNING: Peppers are hot, especially the veins.  When handling peppers use caution and wash your hands well with dish soap.  Under no conditions do not rub your eyes or pick rub your nose before washing your hands or you will be regretting it for a couple hours.  Using gloves is also recommended.

That being said slice the peppers lengthwise with a sharp knife.

Use a fork or spoon to gently dislodge the seeds into a small bowl.

If you are lucky enough to have hot sunny weather still (week of rain here) lay they out in the sun for a couple days and store them in a cool dry place until you are ready to plant them.  If you are sun challenged like me set them on a windowsill for a few days.

As I have said before saving you own seeds is very easy and free and as an added bonus you can personally pick the best plant to be the donors of seeds for your future plantings.  In my case I also have the benefit of a plants that is genetically grown to following my sporadic watering and care patterns.

Last year I did origami seed packets last year which worked out pretty good though I only got two per sheet of paper and didn’t hold too many seeds (especially large seeds like peas) with the many types of seeds I am collecting this year I decided to try another option. 

I looked online and found many templates, though I couldn’t find any with standard seed package sizes.  Eventually I gave up and created my own and thought I would share.

Basic idea is pretty simple, just print them out and glue the flaps on the inside.  I used a plain old grade school glue stick which worked out great.  Not only does this work great for new seeds collected, but I also used them to reduce much of the space my large seed packets were taking for a small number of very small seeds.

Though I have been happy with my homemade gypsum soil sensors I decided to try out a commercial option hoping for better accuracy and longer life.  This is important with my current plans to include automatic watering to the latest version of my grow box.  Don’t want to wake up to a flood in the garage due to a broken sensor.  After some looking I came across the Vegetronix VG400 which measures the dielectric constant of the soil using transmission line techniques.  Which I have no idea what that means but sounds impressive.

The hookup couldn’t be simpler, red wire to 3V, bare wire to ground, and black wire to an analog input.  As you can see below in my completely not to scale diagram below.

From here it all comes down to some simple code to write on the Arduino to get some values.

Upload the code to the Arduino and now I can get a moisture value from the analog input between 0 and 614 (0-3 volts) depending on the degree of water saturation. 

Though not as hacky as my PS2 controller moisture sensor solution definitely more elegant and reliable.  Stay tuned for more details of other improvements to the computer controlled grow box.

I love to pick blackberries, they grow literally like weeds in my area and very easy to find a trail with more berries than I ever could pick.  The fresh air is nice I am always looking for new ways to pick berries in less time.  This tip from my brother-in-law will be sure to help step your berry picking up a notch. 

Simply take an old milk carton and cut a hole in the top.

Then take your belt and loop it through the handle and now you have both hands free to pick those berries even faster.  Of course this would work for anything else that could be beneficial to have both hands free.

I also cut a small notch lower than the top and used the same container to rinse the berries are allow easy separation of stems, leaves and/or insects that decided to join my bucket during my rapid picking.

As always if you have a gardening tip you would like to share please feel free to
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