Tomato, Cape Gooseberry, Mouse Melons indoors

[Nader]

I germinated OP dwarf tomato seeds (Tasmanian Chocolate), some of my own cape gooseberry seeds, and some mouse melon seeds (Melothria scabra) on Jan. 25th. Here they are in the tent under an Inda-gro 420 w and a mostly deep red 150W led panel under 11.5 hours of light (i have flowering cannabis in the same tent, hence the short day). Even when P. peruviana flowers so soon, it never seems to stop growing! the heart-shaped leaf vines are the mouse melons.. there's about 6-7 of those vines in the tent, trellising up some chicken wire.

Look at how beautifully compact and happy the dwarf tomatoes are. I highly recommend the Tasmanian Chocolate variety for indoor tomato growing -- is supposed to be the most productive and bushy of the new OP dwarves (it's listed as semi-determinate). I'll be transplanting them all to their own pot soon.

I germinated a bunch more seeds, and a few more will be staying in the tent including: winged bean and winged pea, okra, cherry bell pimento style mini pepper plants, more lovely tomato varieties (stay tuned), and as soon as I can turn up the humidity (i.e., when the cannabis is harvested) I can plant some iceberg lettuce (reine des glaces) also up the light hours.

 

[GP73LPC]

i'm in...

looking good

 

[Nader]

More mouse melon vines.. they're destined to produce a crazy amount of little cukes!

 

[SeaMaiden]

I currently have no hope whatsoever of starting ANY seeds indoors. The basement is a MESS, I can't get to any of my growing equipment, and if I say anything I'll receive a scowl and a sigh in return. But we're approaching mid-March and if I plan on growing anything of my own, I *must* start them now.

GAH! ^^^ This is called envy.

And, seriously, we had better have a summer this year. One month of tomatoes was nowhere near enough.

 

[Nader]

Oh man, I'm cluttered as shit right now too. I've got so much going on and nobody to help me. I can attest to last year's summer being awful.... Coastal BC here, and the nights can get damn cold. My fence broke last summer (mind you, i've got a lot to learn at building stuff) and the deer made a salad bar out the months of hard work and in one night everything was destroyed.

I am so unequipped with workable land where I live that I might just stick to this tiny tent for all my needs. If only I could find someone who would build a half-decent greenhouse and a totally decent fence in exchange for my bud.

 

[Nader]

The one op dwarf tomato that I transplanted into one of my smart pots that was meant for flowering cannabis (hermie problem made the pots available) is one of the nicest plants that I've ever grown! Wider than it is tall, which is nice.

Tight nodes, the bit of stretch was due to a 40+ hour power outage.

All of the seeds were started Jan. 25th, transplanted a couple weeks later, and the cotyledons of this one are still like the first day.

Cape Gooseberry setting fruit!

Mouse melons training on the chicken wire

Also planted a mexican single flower tuberose bulb in most of the pots, now that the cannabis is nearing completion, I can get these flowers going! The scent attracts a lot of pests indoors I've noticed, but that's because the scent is so fucking incredibly & beautifully attractive.

 

[dill786]

thanks for the pics... i am growing the cape goosberry, seeds are really tiny still not germinated only been a week or so..

 

[Nader]

thanks for the pics... i am growing the cape goosberry, seeds are really tiny still not germinated only been a week or so..

I found that cold nights help tons with popping cape gooseberry seeds quickly... I'll take some pics tonight of my cape gooseberry plants. The main one is flowering and fruiting so profusely that the plant needs to be supported by yo-yos -- maybe sticking it in a tent with an 11on/13off schedule so early in its life wasn't such a great idea

 

[fungzyme]

I just spent the last hour reading about mouse melons - why have I never heard of these before?! Thanks

Off to order seeds...

 

[Nader]

I just spent the last hour reading about mouse melons - why have I never heard of these before?! Thanks

Off to order seeds...

That's precisely how I felt! I am noticing how constantly thirsty for water these babies are now that theyre setting fruit. It's hard to keep up... I should've stuck a blumat in the pot, but oh well! I am excited to try pickling them, as they're supposed to really kick ass that way.

As for the cape gooseberries, I am noticing that they are best left in their own pots. They do very well in poor soil, and now they are dropping their fruits unripe because the soil is well-fertile. They are taking all of the nutrients (that they don't need) because of how virgorous they are in nature-- and the mouse melons that are in the same pot, as a result, are stunted and looking deprived.

 

[Nader]

This particular cape gooseberry plant is becoming a crazy uncontrollable mess... too many blooms, not enough sturdy stemmage... Not sure where I go from here... I'm gonna need so many yoyo sky-hooks just to keep it from snapping once the fruits set. If you grow these indoors, I recommend doing whatever you can to produce a sturdy as fuck stem (silica rocks + fulvic acid, careful supercropping, strong wind?). Even outdoors I have to multi-stake these extra-vigorous examples.

One of the Dwarf Tomatoes, approx. 11 weeks old. So damn squat... I wouldn't mind if they stretched some more...

Maus Melons, I hardly knew ye. These plants are fuckin way more vigorous than I imagined. There were three in this 5 gallon pot, two right now, but it's becoming clear to me that ther should only be one in a 5 gallon pot. The root system is pretty crazy on these vines! Quite a few of the cukes that were forming died/dried off, and more blooms are forming now. The temperatures have been reduced a bit,the lights are all the way at the top of the tent (still no damn stretch) and the humidity brought up so hopefully the fruit will form properly this time around. Very agressive feeder too, dear god... You can also see a much less vigorous cape gooseberry plant in the corner. It's nowhere near as big as the one in the first pic.

 

[GP73LPC]

nice