5L Water Bottle as "Goldilocks" Size Terrarium?

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3 years ago

Not too big, not too small; not too high, not too low - just the perfect size!

I possible might have finally found "Goldilocks principle" size of a terrarium for limited space urban gardening for vegetables , especially for those who stay in a unit with to limited sunlight.


If you have read my previous posts before I have been doing within my ability to keep the one less junk on earth awareness keep going, so after a few experiments, I chose a 5L used water bottle that no longer is needed my office had during water cut 2 weeks ago.


Don't forget to make 2 small holes at the bottom

Light weight, medium size; but it took me a few mistakes to find the perfect height cut for the bottom in order for just enough soil to plant enough Brazilian Spinach, easy to harvest and not too heavy if hanging is needed.


I used PVC pipe seal tape around it not only it serves as a firmer hold at the bottom, it avoids too much sunlight into the soil causing moss growth that could potentially suffocate the roots.


Wait... you mentioned hanging earlier... With what?

I'll try to show you later.

After a few tries I have found out you actually do not need a lot of soil if bi-weekly harvesting is done, and the soil around 2 inches thick would suffice for quite a bit of Brazilian Spinach cuttings.

The bottom part would be fish meal and organic soil; or if you have old soil from an unused pot, filtering it through a sift to make the soil softer without clunks then mixing with fish meal fertilizer would work too. Then cover the rest with organic soil if possible, because they are usually pre-mixed with compose.

You can also opt for pittmoss it would also be ideal because cuttings can produce roots much easier, but because it's soft soil more soil might be needed a little more.

I took some of my 1.5L bottle sized terrarium Brazilian Spinach over to plant here when I was harvesting its leaves as salad; and once those are stick into, much water is needed to keep the soil thoroughly moist for the first time.

Just like the 1.5L bottle size terrarium, the upper body of the bottle requires some side cuttings in order for it to fasten unto the bottom part of the bottle where the Brazilian Spinach cuttings were planted.

The bottle will remain concealed in this manner with 2 tiny holes at the top so that its little atmosphere will be least interrupted except harvesting, and if watering is needed, the top bottle's cap (the blue one) is opened for watering.

What's the best water for the plants?

For Malaysian environment, the tap waters are highly chlorinated; therefore either rain water from the thunderstorm or overnight rice water would be the best and it doesn't need daily watering unless the surrounding is too dry.

The whole bottle can be fasten with string so that it doesn't get detached easily. If fastened well enough, because it is relatively light, it can be hung by the window that has more sunlight or move to areas that has better sun for the season.

So what happens next?

Behold.... 2 weeks later...

Notice the way how the blue string fastens the bottle?

This bottle was hung outside the window ledge for optimum sunlight as Brazilian Spinach loves a lot of sun, and I only added rice water once every 2-3 days. You noticed that because of the terrarium method, the bottle itself has its own little atmosphere with its own microbes helping it to grow on its own. You can see that there's actually water moisture in the bottle itself; therefore if it's fair weather and good sunlight and occasional rain, the bottle doesn't really need much watering.

After 2 weeks, is it ready for harvest?

This definitely is enough for 3 person's portion as sandwich greens!

Otherwise it is enough for 1 person's salad matching with a hard boiled egg.

Don't sue me. I love a balanced diet. 😅

Besides the Bread and Cheese, the patty was home made and the salad green was perfectly yummy for an open sandwich!

What about you?

If you have any watered bottle used, would you turn it into something worth bringing zero carbon footprint, healthy, still full packed with nutrients food for your own?

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3 years ago

Comments

I loved your idea and your article was well written! I'm going to try this with my kiwi seeds. Thank you for sharing this with us.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Oh I have never seen kiwi seeds grown before, maybe it will serve as a really good climate control "green house" for kiwi seedlings. Do let me know on your progress here and I'll visit your post!

Thank you for your support tip too!

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3 years ago

I've grown Malabar spinach (Basella alba) and New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides) and "regular" temperate-climate spinach (Spinacia oleracea) but I had never heard of Brazilian spinach. I looked it up, and it's Alternanthera sissoo. It's not in the same genus as any of the ones I'm familiar with, though it's in the same family Amaranthaceae as two of them (Malabar spinach is in Basellaceae).

Nice job with the planter! and thanks for sharing this tidbit about your local garden veggies.

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3 years ago

Oh I too was first introduced with Brazillian Spinach in 2020 and it is surprisingly packed with cancer fighting nutrients. Having a dad who had cancer history (now declared cancer free) was quite a life saver when we changed our diets to having this as salad together with him.

Malabar spinach is uncommon for Malaysia, and it seems to be like a crippling plant?

Thanks so much for sharing your choice of Spinach too! I haven't really seen a full grown one here in Malaysia including New Zealand Spinach but I think I have seen it in the stores before "flown in", which is highly expensive and it is only the leaf that was in the pack.

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3 years ago

Great idea for growing some vegetables at home.I also like a healthy food ,in the sore we can only buy vegetables full of chemicals.

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3 years ago

That's sad isn't it? The in Store vegetables are actually dead ones they moment they were cut off, and the longer they are not consumed, the worse it gets. However, I do hope you will get a chance to try, even with store bought cuttings, to see perennial greens can regrow. That would be really cool!

Right now, I am trying to find ways to make this friendly for limited sun as well.

Do tag me when you give this a try! I'll come visit your post :D

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3 years ago