Hi everybody!
So last week, right before we got a big dump of snow, I noticed some strawberries still growing in my strawberry patch outside. They were even starting to flower, so I thought, why not try transplant them?
One week later, and they are still alive!
I noticed some brown spots on some leaves though, so I wanted to see if I could optimize my Tower to be a little nicer to my strawberries. When reviewing the resource I used last week on transplanting strawberries, they mentioned I should have my water pH between 5.5 and 6.5, preferably closer to 5.5. This made me realized I hadn’t even checked the pH since I first got to the Tower filled with water over a month ago. So I looked up some resources on how to check and adjust the pH!
I found this website called Keep It Watered that had some useful information on it not only for checking/adjusting the pH, but also on weekly maintenance (that I will do starting now!). I liked this website. The explanation was a short and sweet explanation with links to further information on how pH affects your plants. The website suggested to “Use the pH test kit to test the pH of the water in the tub. Put 5 ml of water from the Tower Garden into the vial. Drip 5 drops of the solution into the vial and compare the color with the test strip.”
So I grabbed 5ml in my little vial, added the drops and waited a few seconds. I was close to 7.5, so pretty far from 5.5. Luckily I can adjust!
I added 10ml of the acid that comes with the Tower Garden set up. I wanted to do as suggested by the Keep It Watered website and start with 10 ml and measure the pH again before adding more.
I’ll let that mix overnight and check it again in the morning!
Cheers,
Jerome
I think it has been a couple of weeks since I looked at your plant process and looks like it is going well still! Doing something different by transplanting another plant inside and keeping it alive I think shows you are becoming more and more skilled with your green thumb. Good job!
Thanks Carlos! My plants have come a long way, I’m really happy with how they turned out.
That’s crazy that your strawberry plants were able to survive so well in the cold! This looks like such a fun and complicated process. I totally didn’t know that the ph of water affected the plants in this way! I have some plants at home and may need to start researching this.
Thanks, I was blown away that the strawberry survived that long into November too! Checking pH is actually a really easy process, you can get a digital one or the pH paper strips on Amazon for about 15 bucks!
Hey Jerome! I think it has been a while since I first commented on your learning project post! It is so crazy to see how the plants have grown. It is interesting to see how the transplanted strawberries from outside will turn out!
Hi Jules,
Thanks! My lettuce has really sprung up. I’m really hopefully I will get a berry to grow on the strawberry plant!