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Post by raynebc on Apr 3, 2019 0:47:45 GMT -5
Since my previous post about a week and a half ago, the peppermint got big enough to put in a pot of soil: The electric toothbrush has been working perfectly to pollinate the jalapeno plant. It's got 7 or 8 fruits developing:  The sunflower really took off quick. It took about 3 days to sprout and in a week's time it is crowding my tomato, so I moved it to the center left pod. The cayenne pepper is growing nice and compact, as is the morning glory. The bell pepper even sprouted:  I want to plant a sugar baby watermelon seed in that unused pod, but I'm going to have to transplant that sunflower first. Supposedly, sunflowers can tolerate the cold a little bit, but it could be another month before the danger of frost is minimal. If there's no danger of frost during the daytime, is it likely safe for me to put it in a bucket of raised garden soil, have it out in the sun during the daytime and bring it into a storage shed or the garage in the evenings? |
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Shawn
Administrator
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Post by Shawn on Apr 3, 2019 2:45:39 GMT -5
These are looking great. Look at all those flowers on the pepper plant  Your peppermint seems to like its new home. All the plants in the harvest are doing well also. That sunflower has large leaves.
Some here was growing the sugar babies but I can not remember who off the top of my head. You may want to look in the member gardens.
Keep us posted on their progress  |
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vitaverde
AGA Sprout
Trying not to kill my Plants
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Post by vitaverde on Apr 4, 2019 22:45:33 GMT -5
The leaves on that mint are huge! Good job  Could you transplant the sunflower outside and just wrap the ground around it with black plastic? I also think the moving it in and out (while tedious) may be a good option. |
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Post by raynebc on Apr 5, 2019 1:17:56 GMT -5
I think it just takes a while for the leaves to get bigger. I've been pruning the spearmint that I keep on my desk at work regularly so the leaves are pretty small for now. I have an older spearmint in a DWC bucket at home and it has some pretty large leaves: I moved the sunflower into a pot under a 25 watt grow light with some cuttings from that peppermint plant that I'm propagating for some coworkers:  I'll probably move that last morning glory out of the AeroGarden soon to free up another spot. I had been trying to convince myself I was growing enough peppers already, but I just had to buy a packet of habanero seeds. AeroGarden sent me an email yesterday morning about a flash sale on the Sprout model for $50 (50% off), but it looks like that sale is over and it's just 20% off instead. It only has a 10 watt bulb though, so I'm not sure if will be better than the other grow lights I have for the sake of keeping some plants going indoors until the threat of frost has passed. I don't think I'll be able to keep the sunflower under control for that long though, I'll probably plant it in a bucket and just put it in the shed in the evenings. I bought about a dozen hardware store buckets to make sub irrigation planters out of. I'll be transplanting the tomato, peppers, watermelon into these buckets filled with soil once it's warm enough outside. I think I'm going to have to get some more buckets though as I don't want to let all these seeds go to waste. Is it expected that they'd be any good for the year after they were bought from a store? Any tricks to improving their life span such as keeping them sealed in an air tight bag, keep frozen, etc? |
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Post by raynebc on Apr 10, 2019 2:38:59 GMT -5
The cayenne and morning glory are starting to get a bit too big:
The larger plants suck up the water really quickly, so I'm hoping that the curly leaves on the tomato plant was just it getting thirsty. The AeroGarden reservoir was about half empty so I filled it up. The cayenne has also been growing into the lights and burning itself so I've pruned a couple burned leaves. It is growing nice and bushy though.
The water melon sprouted a couple days ago and the tomato plant may have to be moved too. Perhaps I should start hardening the morning glories to put them outside so I have more room under one of my grow lights. As long as it's not due to get freezing temperature again in my area, is it likely that 2-3 month old plants would tolerate some cool temperatures and rain? If so, that would free up one of my grow lights for the cayenne and tomato plants, as I'm not as willing to risk losing them to cold weather and would like to keep them inside another couple weeks.
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Post by raynebc on Apr 14, 2019 3:06:35 GMT -5
I finally got around to transplanting that last morning glory, the cayenne and tomato into pots. It's a bit cold and rainy, but I stuck the other flowers outside to live from now on. As long as the morning glories don't die, I'll give each of them some concrete reinforcing wire fence to climb on. I'll finish building my first sub irrigation bucket planter to put the sunflower in probably later today.
This leaves 4 open spots in my AeroGarden. Time to plant jalapeno, habanero and maybe another peppermint plant to eventually grow outside. After those get transplanted, I'll probably dedicate a bucket to growing scallions for my room mate.
I'm propagating a cutting of the orange mint plant I bought, I might see how well it transfers to the AeroGarden once it gets roots. I want it to grow big more quickly than it will if I just stick it in soil to begin with. Then I can bring it to work.
My use of potting soil introduced a little population of gnats, but I've been using a weak solution of hydrogen peroxide in water (1 part peroxide to 4 parts water) as a soil spray. These are slow flies so I'm assuming they're not fruit flies, which I read are quick flyers. Is there a good non-pesticide means to get rid of them more quickly, such as a sticky trap?
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Shawn
Administrator
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Post by Shawn on Apr 14, 2019 4:10:51 GMT -5
You are doing well with all your transplants. Wishing them success now 
As for your bug problem, do a search for Bug juice on the forum. That may help if for gnats and fruit flies. If the while flies, then search for that.
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Post by raynebc on Apr 14, 2019 11:10:28 GMT -5
Does the bug juice have to be apple cider vinegar, or could I use the white vinegar that I already have? The grow lights I'm using don't clamp hard enough to hold itself upright on a vertical service, so I had to get a little workaround with a wooden stake and a clamp: The morning glory didn't seem to miss a beat:  The cayenne pepper is a bit droopy but seems mostly OK: The tomato was a bit wilted but I gave it some weaker lighting to see if it recovers: |
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Post by raynebc on Apr 15, 2019 13:06:32 GMT -5
I properly re-hung the LED lighting in my plant shelf yesterday, it looks much better now. It was time to replace the reservoir solution for the jalapeno bucket so I took the opportunity to give it a hair cut so it is shorter than the light instead of pushing the light up. It's doing very well: The scallion was suffering because all the other plants were choking it and it didn't even have space to grow up straight so I put it out of its misery. I also removed the tootheache plant since it was taking up lots of space but wasn't really flowering properly. That leaves more space for the spearmint and basil. The recent soil transplants are doing well, even the tomato plant looks like it's perking up a bit. The morning glories that I put outside and left there seem a bit sad since it's been cold and raining all weekend, but the sunflower doesn't seem bothered.
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Post by raynebc on Apr 17, 2019 12:42:28 GMT -5
The sunflower is still doing well outside, but the morning glories are looking like they're going to kick the bucket. It must have just been too cold and wet for them. I can grow some fresh ones when I get more space in my AeroGarden. That will be a while longer though, as all 6 sites are accounted for. The watermelon and bell pepper are still growing, and I planted habanero, jalapeno and peppermint the other day. The sixth site I'm leaving open for my orange mint cutting when it sprouts roots. I'm going to get a grow anything pod moist, but it in half from top to bottom and carefully insert the cutting so I can put it in the Aerogarden to grow more quickly. I've read about people transplanting seedlings or cuttings this way so I'm hoping it will work well for me.
When I transplant the watermelon and bell pepper I can grow replacement morning glories in their old spaces.
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Post by raynebc on Apr 18, 2019 2:24:34 GMT -5
The tomato plant is still looking pretty sick, and the cayenne pepper plant's leaves aren't perky either. I'll see if they get any better within the next week or so. The morning glories outside are still on their death beds, but they each have a few strong leaves left and could make a comeback. The sunflower finally got transplanted to the first sub irrigation planter I made:  This is a pretty common design where you take a 5 gallon bucket, drill a hole in the center (ie. for a net cup), a hole toward the side (for a 2 foot, 0.75" PVC pipe) and several drainage holes everywhere else. This bucket is nested inside another 5 gallon bucket. The space between the two buckets is used as a water reservoir, and the outer bucket has a drainage hole at the top of the reservoir area to prevent the bucket from flooding if there is rain. I put a circle of hot glue around that drainage hole and stuck on a piece of landscaping fabric to keep bugs from going into the drainage hole. The large hole in the inner bucket has a net cup packed with potting soil and nested within a knotted off section of drainage sock to keep the soil from washing out into the reservoir. The soil and drainage sock wick water into the soil in the inner bucket. The pipe has some notches filed off at the bottom end, which goes into the medium sized hole in the inner bucket, and it's used as a means to fill the reservoir with water. Lastly, I cut a section of landscaping fabric with holes to accommodate the net cup and pipe, and lay it at the bottom of the inner bucket, insert the drainage sock (with net cup inside) and the pipe section and filled the bucket with raised garden soil and slow release fertilizer. After all this I moved the sunflower and filled it in with more of the raised garden soil, filled the reservoir via the pipe (and a funnel), attached a pipe plug to keep bugs from entering the reservoir via the pipe and then saturated the soil with water. Soon after, the drainage hole allowed the excess water to leak out so it looks like it's a success. Now I have to make several more of these buckets for the other plants I'm going to grow outside, but I think I've got the hang of it. It still takes a while to make one because of all the holes being drilled, and having to file and pull off the jagged plastic bits left behind.
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Post by raynebc on Apr 23, 2019 0:46:07 GMT -5
The watermelon plant was already taking half of the space of the surface of the Aerogarden tray, so I moved it to a pot of soil: As long as it doesn't go into major shock it will find its new home outside soon. Then when it's a little bigger I'll transplant it into a 5 gallon bucket and work on building a trellis. Any suggestions on how big the trellis should be? I am moving a rooted orange mint cutting into a grow anything sponge, hopefully it takes root so it will grow quickly so I can move it outdoors.
I also bought a chocolate mint plant at the store several days ago and just moved it to a bigger pot. I'll probably end up putting it on my desk, which already has spearmint, peppermint and orange mint.
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nick
AGA Bounty
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Post by nick on Apr 23, 2019 6:46:00 GMT -5
The tomato plant is still looking pretty sick, and the cayenne pepper plant's leaves aren't perky either. I'll see if they get any better within the next week or so. The morning glories outside are still on their death beds, but they each have a few strong leaves left and could make a comeback. The sunflower finally got transplanted to the first sub irrigation planter I made: This is a pretty common design where you take a 5 gallon bucket, drill a hole in the center (ie. for a net cup), a hole toward the side (for a 2 foot, 0.75" PVC pipe) and several drainage holes everywhere else. This bucket is nested inside another 5 gallon bucket. The space between the two buckets is used as a water reservoir, and the outer bucket has a drainage hole at the top of the reservoir area to prevent the bucket from flooding if there is rain. I put a circle of hot glue around that drainage hole and stuck on a piece of landscaping fabric to keep bugs from going into the drainage hole. The large hole in the inner bucket has a net cup packed with potting soil and nested within a knotted off section of drainage sock to keep the soil from washing out into the reservoir. The soil and drainage sock wick water into the soil in the inner bucket. The pipe has some notches filed off at the bottom end, which goes into the medium sized hole in the inner bucket, and it's used as a means to fill the reservoir with water. Lastly, I cut a section of landscaping fabric with holes to accommodate the net cup and pipe, and lay it at the bottom of the inner bucket, insert the drainage sock (with net cup inside) and the pipe section and filled the bucket with raised garden soil and slow release fertilizer. After all this I moved the sunflower and filled it in with more of the raised garden soil, filled the reservoir via the pipe (and a funnel), attached a pipe plug to keep bugs from entering the reservoir via the pipe and then saturated the soil with water. Soon after, the drainage hole allowed the excess water to leak out so it looks like it's a success. Now I have to make several more of these buckets for the other plants I'm going to grow outside, but I think I've got the hang of it. It still takes a while to make one because of all the holes being drilled, and having to file and pull off the jagged plastic bits left behind.
This design is pretty much how the Earthbox folks designed their planters. I only found out about them over the weekend and now I see your DIY version (which I like a lot). Very cool. |
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MaryL
AGA Farmer
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Post by MaryL on Apr 25, 2019 9:35:28 GMT -5
I love all your plants and ideas! And I love your DIY wicking buckets. Very cool. I hope your morning glory, pepper and tomato survive. Maybe they need a nutrient boost?
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Post by raynebc on Apr 25, 2019 11:31:21 GMT -5
The tomato plant was toast so I threw it away a couple days ago. I'm going to sow a replacement when I transplant the bell pepper from my AeroGarden to potting soil this evening. The cayenne pepper is doing pretty well, it had some transplant shock but continued with new growth and has survived being outside for several days now. When I get time I have to move it to a 5 gallon bucket, right now it's in a 1 gallon or so sized pot. The two older morning glories are having a rough go (lots of sun-schorched leaves) but are surviving. The newer morning glory is doing pretty well.
The watermelon that I transplanted is looking pretty sick, I might have been too rough with it. I might have to replace it as well. I'll just have to be very careful with the bell pepper and hope it survives. I've had a tendency to let plants get too big before removing them from the AeroGarden.
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Post by raynebc on Apr 26, 2019 2:55:30 GMT -5
The watermelon wasn't recovering so I had to throw it away. I paid more attention to the soil and it looked like it was far too dense for a hydroponic transplant so I mixed in plenty of perlite and VERY carefully transplanted the bell pepper from the AeroGarden: I did notice something unusual on a couple of the bell pepper plant's leaves: They seemed like they were covered in a granular residue as if somebody coated it with a sugar water paste: I tried to gently wipe it off with water, but it didn't seem loose enough to remove that way. Is this something I should worry about, and if so, what should I use to remove it (ie. a mild soap solution and qtips)?
This freed up enough space for me to start a replacement tomato plant and move my chocolate mint cutting. This is my second cutting transplant into an AeroGarden and it seems to work fine. I need to remember to give the sponges more time to soak before I cut them open though. They don't close as well after stuffing a plant stem in them, so I've been using twist ties to hold them closed when I put them in the plastic baskets and put them into the AeroGarden. I haven't had enough time to set up my AeroGarden Ultra LED unit that I bought when it was on sale recently. When I do, I should probably start on the rest of the outdoor plants I mean to have this season. This will probably include another try at the toothache plant, a replacement watermelon and several scallions that I'll grow in a bucket for my roommate to use. Is it likely that having support stakes for the scallions would be helpful? |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2019 9:06:48 GMT -5
When I transplant, the plants go into shock for a few days. I clip off sickly looking leaves, and eventually the plants spring back after the roots get used to their new environment. I also do not feed them like I did with the hydro. The soil I use usually has enough nutrients for a while ..If you think it is a fungus or something, try Neem Oil Spray. I always have that on hand for any fuzz or 'stuff' that i see from very damp weather. Rarely have to use it though, but it does work and is harmless. I love your DIY setups.
FWIW
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Post by raynebc on Apr 30, 2019 12:42:33 GMT -5
The bell pepper plant's oldest leaves all remained wilted and some were falling off so I went ahead and removed them. The newer leaves are still wilted/curled, but in a Khang Starr video he mentioned the same thing happening to him when he transferred hydro peppers to soil, so I'll keep the soil moist and keep giving it indirect plant lighting for a while to see if any new leaves grow.
The old morning glories that were near dead both have new growth on them. They're surprisingly resilient.
My habanero and replacement tomato plants have sprouted. I'm hoping my next transplant is less shocking to them. I haven't been wetting the potting mix before transplanting, I have just been filling in the dry mix and then saturating until the water drains out of the bottom of the pots. Is it better that I wet the mix first? Would putting wet potting mix on the roots while I'm filling it in make it easier to damage them? Are there any other precautions I can take such as coating the roots in rooting hormone (or a product with a similar effect like ground cinnamon), spraying the roots with water, etc. before putting the roots in the potting mix? Is it worth spraying the leaves with a weak liquid plant food solution after transplanting since the roots won't be as ready to absorb nutrients?
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Shawn
Administrator
Posts: 16,265
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Post by Shawn on May 1, 2019 13:12:55 GMT -5
I wish I could help you but this will be the first year I transplant young plants to a pot. I only transplanted one pepper plant that had two full harvests outside for a third one and pansy flowers. Both were well established.
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Post by raynebc on May 8, 2019 1:56:33 GMT -5
The bell pepper never survived, which is a shame because it was such a good looking plant. As with my dead tomato and watermelon plants, I'm pretty sure it's a combination of bad choices (too dense potting soil, too large of a pot, transplanting into dry soil). I'm going to be using moisture control Miracle Grow potting soil now to see how well that fares. I also have some mycorrhizal powder to give the roots an extra kick during transplant.
The mint cuttings grew very well after putting them into the AeroGarden for a couple weeks. I potted them into soil a day ago and they're just fine so far. Next week I'll start hardening them so I can plant them in buckets outside. The peppermint plants in the AeroGarden are about 1.5 inches tall now.
I orered a seed starter tray for my AeroGarden Harvest, so I'll use it to plant some scallion plants for outdoors, and maybe some spare pepper and tomato plants in case my current ones fail to survive transplanting again. This time around I'm going to try to transplant them into small containers first instead of putting them in a 10" pot. If it's better to let the plant get bigger before transplanting to soil, I might move the jalapeno plant into my AeroGarden Ultra LED for some more powerful lighting when I bother to finish getting that set up.
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Your peppermint seems to like its new home. All the plants in the harvest are doing well also. That sunflower has large leaves.
