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Post by raynebc on Jun 11, 2019 0:22:31 GMT -5
Since it's been doing really well, I moved my habanero plant to my shade table outside. The projected low temperature tonight is 55 degrees, but I'm reasonably sure it will be OK.
I gave the jalapeno and tomato plants a good 3-4 hours of full sun (shaded with cheesecloth) a couple days ago, then gave them a day of recovery and they both seem fine enough, so I'll give them more sun tomorrow, maybe a shot of fertilizer when I get home from work. As long as the pepper plant survives I'll build a sub irrigation planter for it. I'm not sure the tomato plant will grow enough to be fruitful.
I think the seed starter is a bust. Nothing sprouted in 3.5 weeks and at least one of the seeds (bean?) looked like it may just be rotting. I'm not sure the exact reason it didn't work out when the standard grow decks have been more or less fully successful (planting 2 or more seeds per sponge and thinning sprouts). Maybe soaking the sponges for 24 hours did more harm than good and kept everything too wet or something. I don't know if I want to try that again or I should return my regular Harvest deck and use it to propagate more mint or something. A bit disappointing considering it was about $8 in grow sponges. Should I try to remove the seeds and sterilize the sponges in peroxide to re-use them or do they just need to be thrown away?
I bought some sweet heat seeds on Amazon since it seemed to be a favorite of yours. I could try growing a habanero and a sweet heat plant in the Ultra to go with the jalapeno plant in my 5 gallon bucket and have a pepper garden in my room.
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Post by raynebc on Jun 11, 2019 20:10:26 GMT -5
AeroGarden support indicated that the lack of nutrient in the reservoir may be why my seeds didn't sprout. I'm willing to retry some seeds with a fresh batch of water and nutes, they even said I should be able to just remove the old seeds and rinse the sponges with water before re-using them.
The jalapeno and tomato did well in full sun, the tomato plant even looked like it perked up. The habanero plant is doing well also, I can try to make space on that table and start hardening it for full sunlight.
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Post by raynebc on Jun 13, 2019 0:06:42 GMT -5
The old sponges were so soft and wet that they fell apart upon trying to remove them so I just threw them away. As per my usual method with the normal grow decks, I loaded seeds into dry sponges, then used an eye dropper to drop several drops of water into each sponge's hole to wet the seeds. I added 8mL of the liquid plant food and added RO water until it reached the fill line. I left the spout disconnected from the water pump, but left the pump connected to power so it circulates water. This time I'll see if it works out. If not, I probably won't try the seed starter deck again. Here's a picture of the bugs that have been plaguing my indoor mint plants: I'm pretty sure they're either aphids or thrips based on pictures I've seen. Either way, the alcohol spray is working, as they're getting fewer in number on my scotch spearmint plant. My mint plants at work have aphids too, so it could be the potting soil's fault or perhaps they're just that easy to transfer from one plant to the next. I'll do a daily diluted alcohol spray and spot treat with 90% isopropyl soaked qtips. Those bugs are gonna die. I think I'll leave the scotch spearmint cutting in the AG Ultra for now, it grows so much faster hydoponically than in soil. Since my picture from a week ago, it's grown another 50% or so: The habanero plant seems to be doing fine so far: At a local farm/garden store this weekend, I saw an interesting flower for sale. I was tempted, but it was pretty expensive: Maybe later. Or I could look for seeds if I can find out what this flower was called.
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Shawn
Administrator
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Post by Shawn on Jun 13, 2019 6:15:39 GMT -5
What sponges do you use? I ask because I only use Park Seed ones and I always soak before planting seeds and I never have an issue of them falling apart.
I can not assist with the bugs sorry. But I am glad that the spray is working for you.
The flower is nice. There is no sticker on it or the bottom to tell you what it was? What about the receipt?
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Post by raynebc on Jun 13, 2019 21:10:56 GMT -5
I just use the first party AeroGarden sponges. The old ones had been soaking in water for almost a month with no roots to hold the sponge together, that's presumably why they fell apart. I didn't note what that flower was called, if I happen to go back to that store I'll check. My sweet heat pepper seeds arrived, I'll probably plant one of those this weekend. The basil plant is crowding my AG Ultra at the moment, so I might have to transplant it.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2019 13:21:01 GMT -5
That flower at the garden center is VERY interesting! As for the bugs..I would be so afraid a few stray ones would find a new home in another machine and start a colony! It seems you love to grow and experiment. I like that! I have a few Garden Starters for my SS6 , tall machines and Sprout, and have had some success. I do get the plants to come up. But here are the cons: The styrofoam Starter for my Classic SS6 tends to develop green algae both on the sponges and the white styrofoam, and I hate that.. The plants have to be buried at the bottom of a pot when transplanted in soil because the grow sponges swell their way to the top of the potting soil after a while. The squirrels think they have found another critter's stash and tend to dig up the plants and leave them on top of the raised garden beds. (I abhor squirrels..last week after a big fat one was running in circles around my feet...they are BOLD. I think he was trying to scare me away from what he was foraging in my garden bed! A life interrupted!)  |
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Post by raynebc on Jun 16, 2019 15:05:23 GMT -5
I found that kind of flower is called a "chenille": The current seed starter deck they sell is made of white plastic. I'm having much better luck with it this time. 4 days after sowing and I already have some sprouts: 3 scallions, 2 tomatoes, 1 tongue tickler, 1 watermelon, 1 green bean: The scotch spearmint cutting I put in soil is flowering: |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2019 19:51:47 GMT -5
the only styrofoam one I have is for the SS6 classic..the others are plastic. But I still have them on my not -my-favorite-method list.
That chenille flower is the perfect name. I wonder if it is related to the Cockscomb ..
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Post by raynebc on Jun 19, 2019 23:22:20 GMT -5
By now, more than half of the sponges in the seed starter deck have sprouted. I got a 1020 tray and a bunch of small plastic pots to transplant them into. Is it safe to transplant them when they're REALLY young (ie. after first set of true leaves appear) or should I give them longer? It took a while, but I think my former hydroponic spearmint is thriving in sun and soil:  The orange mint is doing well: And I finally built a sub irrigation planter for my peppermint plant: When it has a near endless supply of sun and water I'm sure it will take off.
I still have to build planters for: Scotch spearmint, chocolate mint, jalapeno. The tomato plant is still making a comeback, so it's not big enough to need a 5 gallon container yet. The stunted cayenne pepper is responding well to the hot sun and is starting to grow a bit, so I should probably make a planter for it also.
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Post by raynebc on Jun 21, 2019 12:24:12 GMT -5
I must have not had enough air flow on the seed starter deck, there's white mold on the sponges. One of the tongue tickler plants that had sprouted appears that it may be being killed off by the mold. I wonder if it will prevent the rest of the seeds from germinating. Should I leave it alone or try to kill that mold with hydrogen peroxide or something?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2019 13:35:25 GMT -5
try the peroxide. At times I get mold if there is plenty of air. The oxygenation is for the benefit of the roots. I believe the mold comes from spores in the air that just happen to find a good home on the top of a sponge. Gentle peroxide worked for me ..I only tried it once though.
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Post by raynebc on Jun 24, 2019 15:29:29 GMT -5
I wanted to free up space in my Ultra LED, so I could grow a new Jalapeno plant (which I can keep better pruned and in a 10" netpot lid instead of 6") and a sweet heat pepper plant. So last night I transplanted the Ultra's contents to pots. The scotch spearmint (which I was growing from a cutting for a co-worker, to trade for a strawberry mint plant) and genevese basil (a cutting from my original basil pod that came with my AeroGarden Harvest back in Winter) had gotten to the point where the roots had become a mess: The mint plant's foliage was thin enough I could feed it through the top of the grow deck: After fitting the top of the plant through, the roots were still tangled. I had to cut the root mass in half with a pair of kitchen shears just so I could take the plant out. But no such luck with the basil. I had to pull the roots up through the deck as gently as I could, but the roots were too thick and about 2/3 of them were shorn off. Next time I run into this problem I'll probably have to take a more creative approach like cutting a quarter of the roots from the sides so that the center of the root mass will fit through better and ultimately sacrifice fewer of them. I gave them both a good dose of the Mycorrhizal water solution when I put them in soil, and put them under some LED plant lighting. They're both alive and seem well this morning at least. In the meantime, the seed starter was notably more successful than last time:  The survivors this time were 5 scallions, 2 jalapeno, 2 bell pepper, 1 cayenne, 2 tomato and 1 watermelon. Before I try the seed starter again, I'll have to clean the reservoir more thoroughly and this time I'll keep a small fan blowing at it from the front to see if that helps prevent so much mold. Presumably, these are about big enough to transplant into tiny pots. I don't want to wait too long and add root trauma to the list of complications.
The basil roots had begun to invade the pump, as they got through filter. I've seen some people mention pruning roots of such aggressive plants, is that something I should concern myself with if I'm going to grow some peppers long-term in this AeroGarden?
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Shawn
Administrator
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Post by Shawn on Jun 25, 2019 5:57:57 GMT -5
I am happy to hear your seed starter was much more successful. I do have a question or maybe more of a suggestion. To help hinder mold, not only the use of a fan, but try placing/laying covers over the top like the AG pod labels. This will let light in but also help stop the mold possibly. Roots, do you do the monthly Rinse and Refills? If so at that time you can always assess and de-tangle/trim if needed. For ALL my plants, I turn them a quarter to half a turn every few days. This helps form a soft root ball. It aids in the severe mass of tangled roots. If needed they can still be trimmed. Also during these R&R's I always look for the filter that may have been eaten up by the roots to replace it. Lastly I if the roots are really bad and in the pump, during the R&R I will remove it and clean it out so it will not burn out. As for Pepper plant roots, not only can they get big, I (as stated above) turn my plants to form root balls. I will not cut or trim any roots unless they are bad. Here are the root balls of my Jalapenos . Three months of roots, none are strangled or suffocated. Excuse the horribly dirty deck, it is well beyond needed to be done  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2019 8:27:15 GMT -5
AeroGarden support indicated that the lack of nutrient in the reservoir may be why my seeds didn't sprout.
Well this is the first I have heard of nutrients and sprouting! I I always believed that seeds only need dampness to germinate and that once they sprouted, the nutrients inside the seed took care of the plant for a bit of time. I can get seeds to sprout in damp paper towels!. Anyone else hear that the seeds need nutes to sprout?! 
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Shawn
Administrator
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Post by Shawn on Jun 25, 2019 11:17:53 GMT -5
I never did @cornne. How true this is I have no clue but that is not to say it is not true.
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Post by raynebc on Jun 25, 2019 11:59:42 GMT -5
They claimed they determined that through testing. All I can say at this point is that using no nutes and pre-soaking the sponges results in 0% success rate whereas using nutes and not pre-soaking resulted in about 60% success, with the failed sponges this time around probably being my fault (for blocking air flow and allowing mold to kill off the seeds). It could be that they sprouted but for whatever reason weren't strong enough to grow out of the sponge with plain water.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2019 12:04:33 GMT -5
thanks for posting this info
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Post by raynebc on Jun 27, 2019 13:00:16 GMT -5
The evening before last, I went ahead and transplanted all the surviving plants from the seed starter deck to pots: Not pictured here is the watermelon. It grew much more quickly than everything else and I had to put it in a larger pot. For now, these guys are chilling under the Ultra LED light hood: The evening low temperatures seem like they're going to be mild enough (mid 50s) that I can probably start hardening these guys outdoors in the next day or two. Then I'll have it ready for a longer term pepper project (I'm leaning toward a sweet heat and a habanero). This will be a good way for me to put the AeroVoir to use, and I also bought a longer length of air tubing so I can give the Ultra an airstone or two powered by the air pump I use for the DWC bucket.
I left one jalapeno seedling in the Harvest. I want to replace the deep water culture bucket Jalapeno plant in my room, as it hasn't been kept well pruned and it's too heavy for the 6 inch net pot lid. I will put the new one in a 10 inch net pot lid, so hopefully there will be enough hydroton to keep it anchored. I might also build a short pepper cage for it using concrete reinforcing wire, so it can be well supported when I have to move it (ie. for reservoir water replacement). In regards to refills, I wonder if I should insert a bit of pipe into the net pot lid, so I can easily top it off with fresh water. The way it is now, I have to lift the net pot lid and move it a couple inches over so I can pour more water in, and that disturbs the plant at least a little. After I free up the Harvest I'll probably keep it available to grow mint clones or other odds and ends. Some of my mint plants at my desk have been plagued by bugs lately (seems like spider mites, as well as some kind of gnats and either juvenile gnats or aphids). The alcohol seems to have some success in killing the gnats/aphids, but the spider mites on my chocolate mint seem less deterred. I think that particular mint plant went a little too thirsty one weekend and became an easy target as it's being hit much harder than the other plants. I think the orange mint is the most resistant among them as I don't really see any bugs on it. Perhaps the bugs don't like its scent, which is pretty strong. I've decided I've had enough though, and at the advice of a coworker I ordered some AzaMax, which is derived from neem oil. Those bugs' days are numbered now. The sunflower finally started blooming: I was worried for a bit that it wouldn't. This was the first sub irrigation planter I made and it seems like it has a couple problems: 1. The raised garden soil (Kellogg brand, is very bark heavy) I used isn't very suitable for this as it doesn't seem to wick water very well. Since I made this one, I've been mixing this Kellogg soil in equal parts with Miracle Grow moisture control potting soil. It seems to strike a good balance and will give me a way to use up the Kellogg stuff and not have it go to waste. 2. I didn't keep extra length on the drainage sock that holds the net pot with soil. It was a wasted opportunity. Many sub irrigation plants use cotton or some kind of cloth running from the reservoir up into the soil bucket and it helps wick water up. Due to these issues, the reservoir generally hasn't been wetting the soil, so I have been watering this plant the old fashioned water (from above). The former hydroponic spearmint is hitting a growth spurt and before long it will be hard to find the PVC pipe used to refill the reservoir: |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2019 14:55:14 GMT -5
That neem oil derivative will do the job! I love that sunflower, and that mint is great for some iced tea! It spreads like wildfire! Love it! You have some fantastic projects going on!
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Happy
AGA Bounty
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Post by Happy on Jun 30, 2019 15:03:21 GMT -5
AeroGarden support indicated that the lack of nutrient in the reservoir may be why my seeds didn't sprout.
Well this is the first I have heard of nutrients and sprouting! I I always believed that seeds only need dampness to germinate and that once they sprouted, the nutrients inside the seed took care of the plant for a bit of time. I can get seeds to sprout in damp paper towels!. Anyone else hear that the seeds need nutes to sprout?! 
I've never heard that, either. Just like sometimes our doctors give us inaccurate advice  , it's possible that the AG support person was misinformed. I like germinating my seeds this way: aerogardenaddicts.com/thread/892/head-start-custom-seeds |
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, it's possible that the AG support person was misinformed.