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Ok, Not exactly a greenhouse, but a poor man’s propagation chamber or a cold frame. what ever you want to call it. Its been sitting there for a while at my home since the day I got it done. I remember my school days when I was asked to write an essay on “My house” and several years later here I am writing a post on “My Greenhouse”.

I use it for seed starting and propagation. Believe me, I have had 100% results in propagation from cuttings. Seed starting I got mixed results. Sometime back I happen to get some Croton cuttings from one of my relatives. They were pencil thick cuttings and were very healthy too. So I just planted them in the media after rubbing them with rooting hormone ( IBA). Media used is peat + perlite.

Here is how it looked. You can also see a coleus cutting next to the bunch of croton sticks.

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With in two weeks, I was able to see small green shoots poking through that thick stems. The surprise was on almost all of those cuttings had signs of growth. So I just kept watering them and leaving them happy in the greenhouse. After 2 months, you get this.

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Look how fresh and healthy they are. Their internodal distance is so long that I sometimes worry if they will just snap off. The root system is also very good.

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Looking at the results, It is very clear that for success in propagation, humidity is a very important and a crucial factor, although there are several other things that decide the result. Here is the view with the door open. The expense incurred for this was around INR 1000. It has the top and the front covered with Fibre glass(acrylic) and all the other sides by plywood. The grey sticker thingy you see is actually duct-tape. I had put it to seal the gaps to preserve humidity. I actually had to bring the carpenter home and make him sit in front of the computer and showed him the picture of a Coldframe. I was very happy with the end result and my plants were too ;).

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more later

gg

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19 Responses

  1. Hi gg,
    My heartiest congratulations to you on your marriage. For my introduction: Am someone who last time did bit of gardening in my school & college days but i want to be back at it again.Recently i bought an apartment and have been lucky enough to bag one with a private lawn. Right now i have red (loamy??) soil in my lawn and 2/3rd of the lawn gets decent amount of sunlight. For a start i have planted few seeds (bought by mom from our hometown) 2 days back. After reading all your posts, i realize that i have missed to do app. type of soil mix. Do you think i still have a chance or should i redo it after mixing the soil with app amount of compost etc… ?? Please let me know if I can be lucky enough for you to help me over mail?
    Regards
    KG (Kitchen Garden)

    • Hello Kg,
      Thanks for your wishes. I must say you are very lucky to have a private lawn. Good for you. I feel the soil you have is just fine. when ever you plant anything, remember to add generous amount of compost so that it improves the texture of your soil and prevents it from becoming hard. The soil mix I use is for some pots is, redsoil+sand+compost. But this mix is more suitable for containers since drainage is very important for the container and the nutrients keep leaching away. For your lawn, you can continue to use the red soil and keep adding compost when you plant. and every month around the plants.

      BTW, where are you located. Feel free to post your questions anytime . Its a pleasure to answer what i know and learn something in return 🙂
      gg

  2. Hi gg,
    I am located at Kudlu Gate, that’s behind HSR layout. Where do you suggest i get the compost from? I was almost set to arrange for my own compost production :), but that would have surely taken time. Right now i have sown seeds of 5 different veg. (ridge gourd,bitter gourd,cucumber,dhania & ladiesfinger), all bought from my native in Orissa and of little different variety than what we get here in B’lore. Hope the best for them. I must say your knowledge on gardening topic is really good and may it keep growing 🙂
    My mail id rajpanda at gmail.com.

    • Hello KG,
      That was a quick reply. Very few get to make their own compost. Great. There are many place where you can get compost. If you can travel all the way to Hulimavu in Bannerghatta Road. You can also get it from Department Of Horticulture. You can check my other posts on how to reach there. They sell compost at a very cheap price Rs 3/kg. Its available in Lalbagh as well.
      Nice to hear about your recent plantings.. You can also try out some local cultivars as they are more tolerant to Bangalore’s weather. But nothing comes close to the taste of what you grew up eating… isnt it!!?

      Happy gardening and good luck to your plants
      gg

  3. Will plan to visit DoH one of these days. Read all your posts 🙂
    Couldn’t stop reading once i started, specially the fate of potatoes, tomatoes, chillies and egg plant…

  4. Hi gg,

    Can you tell me how will the DoH be from say IIM and what hours are they open on saturday’s ??

    KG

    • KG,

      From IIM keep going straight towards B’ghatta and on the right you will see AECS magnolia and little further on the opposite side, there is DoH and Coconut Dev board. They are closed on 2nd and 4th saturdays.

      gg

  5. GG,

    Thanks for that piece of valuable information. Else i was planning to go this saturday only (2nd Saturday).

    KG

  6. Hi GG,

    I came across this company called daily dump (http://www.dailydump.org/) . They help in composting and am pretty impressed by the product range they have to offer. Take a look!! Probably this will end the problem of compost buying and also be environment friendly.

    Regards
    KG

    • Hi,

      I had a look at it few months back and I liked their stackable design (i think it was Kamba) . Might go for it sometime later… It is indeed a neat way to make compost.

      gg

  7. Great to see you back after long… That was a great buy, GG. Worth the investment, I see. So, how’s your married life? Does your wife have a green thumb too?

    • Thanks. It does get light but not direct sunlight. That way it doesnt get too hot in there and at the same time humidity is well preserved. You know, there is not a single cutting so far I stuck inside had failed to root ..

      gg

  8. Hi GG,

    Need some help vey urgent. Inspired by your blog, I went to Varsha enterprises and got seed germination tray. I have sown bitter guard, Gazania, Nastartium. I sowed it on 6th of this month. I can proper leaves in bitter guard. I could see Gazania has germinate and even Nastartium. But gazania is drooping down. After I sowed them in tray I had covered it with plastic sheet. Should I still cover it with plastic sheet?

    I am really worried. Please guide me. I went to Indame seeds and got these seeds, which i feel are really costly. Please guide me.

    • Hi Sahana,

      Looks like you had a good start. How does the gazania look? Did the seedling fall off or just looks droopy? Is the drainage proper? Once they germinate the plastic sheet should be removed. Make sure they dont have too much water in their tray. If the seedling has fallen off.. it could be damping off.. let me know..
      gg

  9. Hi GG,
    Few seedling fell off and some look droopy. They are still in seed germination trays. You mean even each groove in the seed germination tray needs a drainage outlet? If so, I have not done:( Now I have removed them and still they are under the shade. What needs to be done?

    • Sahana,

      I suspect damping off. Esp those that fell off. When you say seedling tray, is it something like cavity trays that have small cup shaped cavities. If so, they already have holes in them. Do they have true leaves?

      gg

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