Short attention spans were always part of their plan.

I'm in my 3rd year gardening from my balcony and living room. Here's a quick overview of my experiences to help newbie apartment gardeners navigate the many options available.

Note: I am comparing my results with other 'traditional' gardeners' who I share seeds with. So I've seen how more soil directly translates to larger growth.

Here's a link to another thread where people already gave me some valuable feedback and advice. https://lemmy.ca/post/69259614

Soil Based

1. Grow Bags

I find these to only be good for sweet potatoesm flowers and herbs. You have to fill them too full for larger plants which causes the bags to bulge. I tried Tomatoes/Zuccini but both got blossom end rot and didn't produce viable fruit.

Main issue is not enough soil for plants to grow their roots out.

1. Hanging Plastic Bottles.

So I tried these with a dwarf bell pepper variety and the fruit were smaller than the ones that got planted in the ground. I also had significant problems getting the right amount of drainage leading to blossom end rot.

I never tried the "upside down" versions with the plants growing downward as that is counter to the plant biology of most plants.

Overall I would only recommend this if you have zero space and zero access to alternatives. Could be more viable for herbs, strawberries, and climbing plants.

1. Wall Planters

So I only tried these this year and I made several mistakes. First off, I put it in an area with too much sun. Second, I direct seeded my greens into it because I didn't want to do any more seedlings this year. 3rd, I did not water it 'correctly'. Because of the small soil space, the sun expose, and my climate it require red more frequent small waterings. Everything that sprouted either dried up or drowned.

Next year I will start them as seedlings and transplant them, use dripping irrigation or some other form of water management.

1. Railing Planters

So these are pretty consistent, their main limiting factor is of course shallow soil. Great for herbs and flowers, strawberries are okay. Grew a sunflower out of one but it was much smaller than the others.

Definitely a good place to start. Just make sure they have drainage holes.

Hydroponic Based

1. Tower Garden

So these are legit, but they're also over priced. This was my first hydroponic grow system and while it worked well for some things, the "one size fits all" has it's limitations.

The main strength of these are the vertical aspect and the aeration. Which I will discuss more in other methods.

1. KRATKY

So KRATKY is essentially growing in water with nutrients. The biggest drawback is there is no aeration. As such you need to refill only to 2/3 leaving 1/3 of the roots above water to absorb oxygen from the air.

Size of container limits root potential and thus overall plant growth. I've used 5gal jugs and gotten much larger plants simply from the size increase.

I do NOT recommend the coloured pots in the picture. They are too small. Might be viable for non-edible plants but for anything you wanna eat the smaller harvest is a drawback.

1. Aero-Garden / iDoo / ETC

So I highly recommend these type of systems in general. They have drawbacks and can be overpriced but they are easy to use and produce. They all have water circulation pumps that provide aeration, so you can fill them fuller and you get much larger harvests. This is the primary advantage over KRATKY. I highly recommend adding an air stone to any existing KRATKY to massively improve growth.

Downsides are they tend to be smaller so roots can only grow so big. They also tend to use switches whose timer resets when it loses power, so you have to turn them on at the correct time for them to turn off when you want them to.

1. Aquaponic w/ Aquarium

So this is by far the most complicated option. BUT fish water is amazing garden fertilizer, so it's a viable part of any growing system.

Main consideration is tropical fish want warm water that doesn't hold oxygen, meaning you need airstones and will always have stunted growth.

Secondary is algae, which grows from light entering the aquarium. The challenge is getting light on your plants while minimizing the light hitting the water.

I've done strawberries, sweet potatoes, and spider plants. I would suggest going with non-edible plants like the spider plant or pothos.

I'm in my 3rd year gardening from my balcony and living room. Here's a quick overview of my experiences to help newbie apartment gardeners navigate the many options available.

Note: I am comparing my results with other 'traditional' gardeners' who I share seeds with. So I've seen how more soil directly translates to larger growth.

Soil Based

1. Grow Bags

I find these to only be good for sweet potatoesm flowers and herbs. You have to fill them too full for larger plants which causes the bags to bulge. I tried Tomatoes/Zuccini but both got blossom end rot and didn't produce viable fruit.

Main issue is not enough soil for plants to grow their roots out.

1. Hanging Plastic Bottles.

So I tried these with a dwarf bell pepper variety and the fruit were smaller than the ones that got planted in the ground. I also had significant problems getting the right amount of drainage leading to blossom end rot.

I never tried the "upside down" versions with the plants growing downward as that is counter to the plant biology of most plants.

Overall I would only recommend this if you have zero space and zero access to alternatives. Could be more viable for herbs, strawberries, and climbing plants.

1. Wall Planters

So I only tried these this year and I made several mistakes. First off, I put it in an area with too much sun. Second, I direct seeded my greens into it because I didn't want to do any more seedlings this year. 3rd, I did not water it 'correctly'. Because of the small soil space, the sun expose, and my climate it require red more frequent small waterings. Everything that sprouted either dried up or drowned.

Next year I will start them as seedlings and transplant them, use dripping irrigation or some other form of water management.

1. Railing Planters

So these are pretty consistent, their main limiting factor is of course shallow soil. Great for herbs and flowers, strawberries are okay. Grew a sunflower out of one but it was much smaller than the others.

Definitely a good place to start. Just make sure they have drainage holes.

Hydroponic Based

1. Tower Garden

So these are legit, but they're also over priced. This was my first hydroponic grow system and while it worked well for some things, the "one size fits all" has it's limitations.

The main strength of these are the vertical aspect and the aeration. Which I will discuss more in other methods.

1. KRATKY

So KRATKY is essentially growing in water with nutrients. The biggest drawback is there is no aeration. As such you need to refill only to 2/3 leaving 1/3 of the roots above water to absorb oxygen from the air.

Size of container limits root potential and thus overall plant growth. I've used 5gal jugs and gotten much larger plants simply from the size increase.

I do NOT recommend the coloured pots in the picture. They are too small. Might be viable for non-edible plants but for anything you wanna eat the smaller harvest is a drawback.

1. Aero-Garden / iDoo / ETC

So I highly recommend these type of systems in general. They have drawbacks and can be overpriced but they are easy to use and produce. They all have water circulation pumps that provide aeration, so you can fill them fuller and you get much larger harvests. This is the primary advantage over KRATKY. I highly recommend adding an air stone to any existing KRATKY to massively improve growth.

Downsides are they tend to be smaller so roots can only grow so big. They also tend to use switches whose timer resets when it loses power, so you have to turn them on at the correct time for them to turn off when you want them to.

1. Aquaponic w/ Aquarium

So this is by far the most complicated option. BUT fish water is amazing garden fertilizer, so it's a viable part of any growing system.

Main consideration is tropical fish want warm water that doesn't hold oxygen, meaning you need airstones and will always have stunted growth.

Secondary is algae, which grows from light entering the aquarium. The challenge is getting light on your plants while minimizing the light hitting the water.

I've done strawberries, sweet potatoes, and spider plants. I would suggest going with non-edible plants like the spider plant or pothos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_(Canadian_band)

Beast was a Canadian electronic music duo based out of Montreal. Its members were vocalist and lyricist Béatrice Bonifassi and composer/producer Jean-Philippe Goncalves. Bonifassi was the main songwriter for the band and the music was composed and produced by Goncalves.

Some fuck_ai vibes far ahead of their time.

Page 15: https://go.boarddocs.com/oh/wecs/Board.nsf/files/D27S55707796/$file/Flock%20Safety%20Cameras.pdf

Another manual https://www.cehrp.org/dissection-of-flock-safety-camera/

Yea so I have some aquariums / hydroponics that I'd like to measure the energy use as well as control individually with timers. Probably looking for a combination power bar with a wall outlet meter.

I see lots of power bars that have 1 timer for 4 outlets, but none that let me control outlets individually.

Meanwhile all the outlet meters I'm seeing have apps and give me spyware vibes.

Not categorically against "smart" stuff, but I'm hesitant to use anything with wifi connectivity that isn't "privacy community approved."

I already have mechanical timers Looking for upgrade suggestions.

https://gosun.co/

Basically its a roof rack solar panel with a battery inside (includes AC outlet), extra fold out panels that cover the length of the car, and a charge cable for the car. They're about $5000 USD and are shipping the first ones out in Q3 this year.

As someone who lives in an appt and commutes, this would make an electric vehicle much more viable as there is no charging stations in my building or at my work. I saw this and immediately began researching what vehicle models would be coming to Canada in 2028.

TLDR Health Canada > CDC+FDA. Don't eat American produce if you don't wanna poop your pants.

By February 2026, USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service had lost 913 staff, while the Food and Nutrition Service lost 564. The agency’s National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection was also axed. All told, more than 20,000 workers left USDA last year.

Cyclosporiasis is caused by Cyclospora cayetanensis, a single-celled parasite that lives exclusively in humans and causes particularly violent and long-lasting diarrhea. Infection is almost always through ingesting food or water contaminated with feces containing cyclospora oocysts; these take many days to become infectious, so person-to-person transmission is very unlikely.

In an American context, cyclosporiasis outbreaks are almost always caused by improper sanitation at farms or food processing facilities. Farmers around the world routinely refuse to provide adequate toilet or handwashing facilities for their workers if they think they can get away with it, to save money.

PS:

IMO we're going to see quality control issues in every single American export. I would be extremely wary of using medications or medical devices produced in the USA. With no government entities enforcing regulations we have to assume corners will be cut at the expense of quality and safety.

The other day I had an idea that could reduce a lot of waste and save people money.

Retailers/Manufacturers of consumable products like hand soaps/household cleaners should be required to sell/produce larger size refills for smaller size bottles.

I would like to compile a list of smaller ideas like this to send to Avi and my local NDP candidate.

Anyone got ideas?

The List so far:

• Retailers/Manufacturers of consumable products like hand soaps/household cleaners should be required to sell/produce larger size refills for smaller size bottles. (Canaconda)

• standardizing the size, shape, volume of these prepackaged goods (GodofLies)

• reusable container system at a higher governmental level (GodofLies)

• Add Repurposing program to municipal recycling and expand where successful

• Incorporate retirees into child support / education on a volunteer basis.

To keep things organized I'm going to put each platform section as it's own top level comment for people to discuss underneath. This is copy & paste from the website linked but I'm highlighting all the measurable promises. Feel free to comment anything I've missed.

Voter turnout skyrocketed by 129%

FAIFO MF'ers

Elect. More. Women.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/addressing-questions-surrounding-hawaiis-bold-move-to-undo-citizens-united/

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/addressing-questions-surrounding-hawaiis-bold-move-to-undo-citizens-united/

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/addressing-questions-surrounding-hawaiis-bold-move-to-undo-citizens-united/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYSEGhzgHKv/

CONTACT YOUR STATE LEVEL REPRESENTATIVE NOW!!

https://www.ncsl.org/legislative-leaders/state-legislative-leaders

courtesy of c/dougs_[email protected]

Ukrainian Forces Captured A Russian Position Using ONLY Unmanned Ground Robotic Systems