Planting!

      After a week of research, purchases, and trying to find nearly impossible materials, I have chosen and initiated five different methods of radish growing. I am utilizing a variety of materials and environments in an attempt to grow at least one pot correctly. These were planted on the evening of February 28 at about 7:00.
 

1) Straight-up potting soil

Following the instructions on the seed packet, the Northeastern Garden Book, the Complete Book of Houseplants and Indoor Gardening, and wikiHow, I simply planted the radish seeds in potting soil. All resources assumed that I would be planting in a garden, so this pot will be outside. This pot is the most basic way to grow radishes, and will therefore be the control group in my little experiment.

2) Pebbles

Kiddie Gardens suggests you cover the base of the pot with glass shards, pebbles, or hydroponic material (a gardening aide that retains moisture). It also describes a specific method of planting the seeds on top of wet compost and under a layer of dry compost. Unfortunately, I could not obtain compost even if I had fifty-two weeks to do the project. I still thought the pebbles were interesting and different, so I planted the same way using regular old potting soil. The directions were specifically for indoor plants, so this pot is in a sunny room in my house.

3) Plastic Wrap

For this pot, I combined the directions from gardenguides.com and eHow. It's inside because, like the pebble pot instructions, gardenguides.com and eHow assume that my pot will be indoors. Both sites told me to make another control pot and cover it in plastic wrap to create a greenhouse effect.  In a week, I will take the plastic wrap off to thin the batch and apply liquid fertilizer (this is the only one that gets fertilized). I have the highest hopes for this one because I see how it could potentially work.

4) Sawdust

If you read my first blog post, you may remember the link I posted to the GardenWeb forum in which a novice gardener asked about the effect of sprinkling sawdust on top of the soil. An experienced gardener helpfully gave instructions on how to utilize sawdust. It looked easy, so I thought, "Why not?" In addition to being outside with the control, this pot is exactly the same as the control pot with some sawdust sprinkled on top.

5) Manure

Most of my resources recommend mixing compost into the soil, but I don't have access to compost. Cornell University's gardening resource website suggest that a layered pot of twigs, leaves, manure, grass clippings, and potting soil (called the Hugel method) can provide the same effect as compost, so I decided to try it. This pot is outside because it has the highest risk of smelling bad or being attacked by bugs.

      As per my brother's suggestion, I labelled the pots with chalk. I then realized that three of the pots would be outside, where rain would wash the chalk away. Paper would have the same problem. I didn't want to mark the pots in case they could be used again. I decided to put colored marbles in the water-collecting base, but quickly found that we do not have marbles. I came up with the idea to use Monopoly pieces, which were distributed as follows:

Pebble Pot - Thimble (it looks like a pebble)
Plastic Pot - Hat (it covers the top)
Sawdust Pot - Wheelbarrow (for carrying sawdust)
Manure Pot - Dog (think about it)
Control Pot - Iron (it's a classic)

In the photos, the Monopoly pieces are sitting next to the pot, in case you want to look for them.

      If progress is as fast as my resources suggest, I should start seeing growth within a few days. If not, I have about five weeks to fix it. Wish me luck.