slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840 
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Post by slw on Aug 18, 2023 14:07:40 GMT -5
Today I did some maintenance on an herb garden; finally trimmed that unruly dill plant and changed the water in the bowl. I also tossed a basil plant and trimmed the parsley.
Happy to report that I harvested (and we ate) the first Iznik grown in the dining room. It was a very tasty little cuke and I hope we get several more of 'em.
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Post by swimmom500 on Aug 18, 2023 14:24:37 GMT -5
I ended the last of my mighty minis that I would not recommend. Planted several kinds of peppers in its place. Tangerine Dream, Poblano, another California wonder to move to my Earthbox once it cools down and Parks Anaheim.
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Post by scarfguy on Aug 18, 2023 15:56:04 GMT -5
Today I did some maintenance on an herb garden; finally trimmed that unruly dill plant and changed the water in the bowl. I also tossed a basil plant and trimmed the parsley.
Happy to report that I harvested (and we ate) the first Iznik grown in the dining room. It was a very tasty little cuke and I hope we get several more of 'em.
Glad you liked the Izniks. I found them to be very tasty cucumbers. I hope your plant becomes productive. I ended up with so many cukes I had to make pickles and give a bunch away to all of my relatives.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840
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Post by slw on Aug 18, 2023 16:27:08 GMT -5
Glad you liked the Izniks. I found them to be very tasty cucumbers. I hope your plant becomes productive. I ended up with so many cukes I had to make pickles and give a bunch away to all of my relatives.
I'm hoping that removing the largest 2 will allow some of the others some growth. The vine has a baby cuke at every single nodule (or whatever the joints are called) so hopefully I should see at least a few more. The vine has circled the Bounty trellis once and will be moving up to the higher level in a day or so, so it seems to be doing well.
I'm keeping the yellowing babies clipped off and also removed the worst looking leaves from the bottom. I also have removed every side-branch as soon as they appeared so I just have one main vine. Next time I will try a different setup, probably in the Farm.
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Post by scarfguy on Aug 18, 2023 17:04:06 GMT -5
FWIW, I never pruned off the side shoots except for managing the plant within the confines of it's allocated space.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840
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Post by slw on Aug 18, 2023 20:23:50 GMT -5
I decided to prune the side shoots since I'm using the Bounty trellises and I want the vine to go around the trellises. If the vine was in a Farm I'd not prune them. It doesn't seem to bother the vine that the side shoots are removed; it is growing and has tons of baby cukes on it. I think I will up the nutes a bit and see what happens.
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Post by lynnee on Aug 18, 2023 22:58:54 GMT -5
I usually prune cucumber side shoots in a Farm as well as a Bounty. My unpruned Mini Munch put a heck of a lot of energy into vines rather than cukes, until I cut back all the "extra" vines. It was a job clearing those out!  |
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840
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Post by slw on Aug 18, 2023 23:48:21 GMT -5
I usually prune cucumber side shoots in a Farm as well as a Bounty. My unpruned Mini Munch put a heck of a lot of energy into vines rather than cukes, until I cut back all the "extra" vines. It was a job clearing those out!  I think one fun thing about AGs is to just experiment and see what happens. I noticed that the "Aerogarden Experiments" guy on Youtube cut the grow tip off one of his cucumber vines to give more energy to cuke production. I might try that once my vine goes around the 2nd tier of my Bounty trellis. (I've got plenty of seeds!!) |
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Post by lynnee on Aug 19, 2023 12:25:46 GMT -5
Agreed about experimentation, slw! However, I would strongly advise against cutting off the growing tip of a cuke that you've trained as a single vine on a Bounty trellis. I did that by mistake, after the vine had gone around 3 or more times, and everything went sideways. The plant put a lot of energy into new side shoots, and never produced as well again.  |
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840
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Post by slw on Aug 19, 2023 13:26:12 GMT -5
I figure that by the time it has circled the Bounty 2 or 3 times I'll be ready to move on to something else anyway. (Unless it is loaded with cukes!!)
The two mega cherry tomatoes (AG pods) that I started in the Farm several days ago are not showing any signs of life, but the "grow anything" pod with a patio tomato started the same day has sprouted. I am hoping that the patio will provide small slicers so I'm excited about that.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840
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Post by slw on Aug 20, 2023 14:33:30 GMT -5
Today was mainly a watering day; not much to do other than that. I need to get a light set up for the Kratky jar pepper plant; it has been sharing the light from a Harvest XL but it's getting big now and needs more light.
My Iznik looks happy today so I guess it was glad that I harvested the two large cukes. Seems to me that the other small cukes are looking a bit larger today so hopefully they will mature.
I have a poblano plant in a flowerbed next to my patio. For the second time this season, something has stripped EVERY SINGLE PEPPER off that plant. I guess the same varmint who ate my Iznik cucumber vine is now dining on poblanos.  That little pepper plant was totally loaded with peppers, too. |
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Post by lynnee on Aug 20, 2023 14:45:41 GMT -5
slw, For some reason, the thought of that varmint stripping your peppers set off a fit of giggles! Hopefully it had a major tummyache afterwards, so that maybe it won't do it again. 
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Post by scarfguy on Aug 20, 2023 14:48:31 GMT -5
ARGHHH... I don't do outside. Too many nasty creatures out there to eat your veggies.
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When I was a kid, we had an old Italian guy living next door. Being from the old country, he, of course, had a large garden. Every year about this time, he started bringing my grandmother a bag of tomatoes every day.
My grandmother graciously accepted them and, as soon as he left, she threw them in the trash. They were full of tomato worms! He said, "they're all good, just cut out the part the worm ate!"
Being an immigrant from Italy, he brought to this country, not only a rich knowledge of vegetable production, but the frugality of those that grew up during the depression.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840
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Post by slw on Aug 20, 2023 15:39:51 GMT -5
I had a great spring garden outside in raised beds this year. Tons of pickling cukes, tomatoes, radishes, chives, onions, and bell peppers. I put up lots of pickles and tomatoes in jars, fermented veggies, etc. I absolutely love gardening when it's nice outside... but this unrelenting HEAT has me staying inside for the rest of the summer. Not sure I'll get my fall garden in, either.  |
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Post by lynnee on Aug 20, 2023 20:37:04 GMT -5
scarfguy, my parents were farm kids, so my family used all kinds of "cosmetically challenged" veggies. Whenever my brother and I (city kids) would scream after finding a worm in something, my dad would grin and say, "It's protein!" 
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Post by scarfguy on Aug 20, 2023 21:24:49 GMT -5
He-He...
What's worse than biting into an apple and seeing a worm?
...biting into an apple and seeing half a worm!  |
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840
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Post by slw on Aug 21, 2023 13:16:58 GMT -5
scarfguy--you need some new material before you take the show on the road!! 
As for my AGs, nothing much to report. I have tomato seedlings in the Farm and FINALLY a flower bud on the petunia. I swear, it took forever for that petunia to grow.
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Post by scarfguy on Aug 23, 2023 8:41:34 GMT -5
Ya can't "fill to here" if you don't see "fill to here" !
I think I've reached the limit for growing a 5 foot indeterminate san marzano tomato plant in a bounty.
My bowl is full of roots. It really needs a farm or a 5 gallon bucket.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 840
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Post by slw on Aug 23, 2023 13:25:18 GMT -5
Today's updates. Iznik cucumber at 49 days; I have kept it pruned to a single grow-tip vine and has 10-12 finger size cucumbers under the canopy. I have harvested 2 so far and they were very good.
And the long-awaited Petunia blossom!!! 
I thinned the mega cherry tomato seedlings and the patio tomato that are in the Farm. I couldn't bear to throw away the patio cull so I moved it to a Kratky jar. I am anxious to see how large the patio plants and fruit get.
Also have a fresh crop of bok choy about 2" tall already. Bok choy and lettuces always do so well that they make up for the slow growers!!
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Post by scarfguy on Aug 23, 2023 13:42:38 GMT -5
slw, well done on the Iznik cucumber!
Don't forget cucumbers need lots of potassium and phosphorus. Add some Kool-Bloom (0-10-10) (3-5ml) when you feed it. |
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That little pepper plant was totally loaded with peppers, too. 
