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Post by lynnee on Oct 2, 2023 19:57:38 GMT -5
Today my 6 active Bounties got a Rinse and Refill. I discovered why my Merlot lettuce was growing so slowly--I didn't have the pump plugged in! Oh well, hopefully it will pick up speed now. Tomorrow I will drain the three active Farms, if time permits. Then there will be no more maintenance for 2 weeks!
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 775
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Post by slw on Oct 4, 2023 12:40:33 GMT -5
Today I cleaned out the radish experiment in the Harvest seed starter. That went "OK" but not something I'll be repeating. I didn't bother with trying to "adjust" the seedlings in the sponges; I just left them to their own devices. I'd say that I got about 7 full grown radishes and a lot of seedlings that didn't develop a full bulb.
So that is cleaned out and the radish remains have gone to compost. I started some sage and basil in that garden.
I started 6 pods of romaine lettuce (AG pods) in a Harvest Slim Elite. Only TWO of them sprouted. That's the worst lettuce results I have ever had so those pod seeds must have been too old or something. I dropped some packaged COS seeds into the dud pods and they sprouted in 2 days. I also have a petunia that never germinated so I guess I'll see if AG will send replacements.
My AG cucumbers are going gang-busters in the Farm. One vine is absolutely loaded with baby cukes and there are four that are already a good size. I'm excited about those. The other vine is doing well but not as prolific as the first one. I probably should remove it and just leave one vine in there but I want to see how this goes with two of them.
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pfunnyjoy
AGA Bounty
Made more grow room in my office!
Posts: 621
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Oct 4, 2023 14:16:56 GMT -5
All I did was look at my two gardens (one very new, one very old) and smile! OK, I did check to see if I could see any lettuce sprouts yet, but as I planted my new Harvest Slim Elite only Monday, it's a wee bit early, LOL! Even more so for my cleaned up, ancient, AG Classic 7-pod model that I planted yesterday afternoon for the first time in 14 years.
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tdse
AGA Sprout
Posts: 122
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Post by tdse on Oct 4, 2023 14:51:19 GMT -5
Not too much today...I did a lot of maintenance over the past weekend.
Filled the Harvest with basil in it with water (low water warning, yikes - my bad). Also gave it a heavy pruning and put the pruned leaves into the dehydrator.
Filled all my Kratky jars (mostly herbs and a couple flowers). As it gets drier here in the fall, I'll need to fill them more often.
Picked 3 small cukes off of my AG Cucumber plants in my Bounty. Those went into a salad for lunch.
Applied a foliar spray to my larger/fruiting plants (cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers).
My Tatsoi finally sprouted (I say finally, I planted it Sunday night, lol). Excited to watch that grow...it's a quick one.
Filled my Aerovoirs, and that's about it.
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tdse
AGA Sprout
Posts: 122
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Post by tdse on Oct 4, 2023 14:56:13 GMT -5
Today I harvested banana peppers; this is about 1 3/4 pounds. They made one quart and one pint jars of pickled peppers!
I'm so glad you posted this. One of my Bounty's has 3 AG Sweet Banana Pepper plants in it. They are loaded with peppers, but I'm thinking not quite ready to harvest - you confirmed that for me. Most of my peppers are about 3" - 4", so I'll wait a bit. How mature are your plants to get the fruit to this size? I planted mine on 7/30. But wow, are there a lot - I'd guess at 30+ peppers on the 3 plants.
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Post by scarfguy on Oct 4, 2023 17:04:36 GMT -5
Sunflower update:
This is about done. It finally filled in the center of the flower with whatever those pollen nodules are called.
It's now very heavy and droopy. It's about 10 inches in diameter.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 775
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Post by slw on Oct 4, 2023 18:15:44 GMT -5
I'm so glad you posted this. One of my Bounty's has 3 AG Sweet Banana Pepper plants in it. They are loaded with peppers, but I'm thinking not quite ready to harvest - you confirmed that for me. Most of my peppers are about 3" - 4", so I'll wait a bit. How mature are your plants to get the fruit to this size? I planted mine on 7/30. But wow, are there a lot - I'd guess at 30+ peppers on the 3 plants. I just checked and that Bounty is on day 65 today, so pretty close to yours time-wise. The smaller ones are perfectly fine to eat; I have plucked several of them to "sample" at different stages. Yesterday I wanted a couple to eat with my supper so I picked some that were about 4" and kind of slender. I was really amazed by how prolific the AG pods are.
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Post by lynnee on Oct 5, 2023 0:21:08 GMT -5
slw, your radishes came out much more shapely than mine! Mine tasted okay, but very few were globes like yours. scarfguy, that's a massive sunflower! You may know this already, but the seeds develop behind the pollen thingies. I don't know what they're called, either.
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Post by scarfguy on Oct 5, 2023 5:29:11 GMT -5
lynnee, do you know, does a sunflower require pollination
(or pollination from a different plant) to produce seeds?
If I get seeds next, I'll put the flower out in the bird feeder.
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Post by lynnee on Oct 5, 2023 10:32:58 GMT -5
scarfguy, My experience with growing sunflowers is mostly limited to the dwarf "Bambino" that did well in a Bounty. I think that sunflowers are mostly self-pollinating, but you can help them along with hand-pollinating. I terminated Bambino when it had some green seeds, and never got any edible ones. Alas, Sue the Sunflower was damaged by a high wind event, so that the flower stopped getting water before it fully developed and was ready for pollination.
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Post by scarfguy on Oct 5, 2023 10:51:56 GMT -5
That's a good video. Thanks, lynnee. Now I know what to look for. I'll try brushing some pollen from the center to the edges when I see a change in the little thingies on the edges.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 775
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Post by slw on Oct 5, 2023 13:24:38 GMT -5
Makes you go, "hmmmmm." I mentioned my bad luck with the romaine lettuce pods from AG. I went online to request replacements and they asked for the lot number or something, so I took a picture of the label on the box because I have no idea which of these numbers is what they want.
If you look closely you can see another label under this one! Apparently the box was relabeled with more updated expiration/sell by dates. A little shady if this is in fact the case.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 775
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Post by slw on Oct 5, 2023 17:19:23 GMT -5
Looks like I have some fajita peppers ready to harvest. I was expecting these to be about the size of bell peppers but they are smaller. I'd say between a golf ball and a tennis ball in size.
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pfunnyjoy
AGA Bounty
Made more grow room in my office!
Posts: 621
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Oct 5, 2023 20:04:19 GMT -5
Where to even start! Now that I know that 7 pods of Tatsoi is about 5 pods too many, I thought maybe the solution was to set up another garden and move some pods before they had a chance to really get going. It seemed like a good plan.... So, first thing, I dusted and cleaned the exterior of an AG 6 Elite+, then, although I'm pretty sure I'd left it sanitized and ready to go, re-sanitized the bowl, because ya know, dust accumulates over 14 years! Planted and airstone bubbling! But I read the directions on my GH Flora nutrients before filling the 6 Elite+ ... and realized that I hadn't mixed my previous batch of GH Flora nutrients properly for the Classic 7. BIG OOPS!So the next thing on the agenda was a total rinse and refill of the Classic 7. Once the Classic 7 was refilled, I took a couple pods to the 6 Elite+ and more dumb realization hit. TOO SHORT! The 6 Elite+/Veggie Pros use the long baskets. There's no pump dripping water, just the airstone. The sponges must touch the water! And the sponge was already cut short. And germination had already happened, HECK, after only TWO DAYS, I have a couple Tatsoi sprouts poking up! I didn't feel up to the delicate job of transferring sprouts to new sponges and baskets, and wasn't sure about just dropping the short sponges into a tall basket, so I just planted brand new seeds in long sponges/baskets and put two into the 6 Elite+. Plus spacers. I've got sprouts in 6 of the 7 pods in the Classic, I'll let them get just a little bigger, keep the nicest three, discard the rest, and call it a learning experience. I feel like having three gardens running is QUITE enough for the moment. I have spine issues, I want to see how things grow first. The cats are still an unknown factor, so far, they've not bothered anything other than one attempt by Zippers to paw at a dangling power cord, now taped down. Zippers was voted most likely in his litter of 2022 to be a plant killer as he notices everything, investigates everything. Shown in front of the box the Harvest Slim Elite arrived in. He was investigating that prior to the snap. As for the Harvest Slim Elite salad kit, I've got germination in 5 of 6 pods at 3 days, maybe all, just can't see well enough into the Black-Seeded Simpson lettuce. And here are the two kitchen gardens, very new (10/2/2023) and very old (circa 2009), back to back! That's it, I'm bushed! Ready to kick back, watch stuff grow for a bit. Hope the pictures work, they did in the preview!
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Post by scarfguy on Oct 5, 2023 20:24:08 GMT -5
Nice to see your "antique" AG. You took care of it. It looks brand new.
I can't count how many times I put the wrong nutes in the wrong bowl. You know, S*** happens!
Lovely young fellow that Zippers. He looks like he's in charge in your house.
I have 1 indoor cat, 1 indoor/outdoor cat, 2 outdoor feral cats, and about a half dozen daily "visitors".
I always have a harvest dedicated to catnip production.
My cats have always been well behaved. None of them mess with stuff.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 775
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Post by slw on Oct 5, 2023 22:03:53 GMT -5
Now that I know that 7 pods of Tatsoi is about 5 pods too many, I thought maybe the solution was to set up another garden and move some pods before they had a chance to really get going. It seemed like a good plan.... pfunnyjoy--I'm certainly no authority on Tatsoi, but I have 4 pods in a Harvest Slim Elite and they are doing great. This is at 34 days (top shelf) and they have been harvested once (outside leaves only) for stirfry. They aren't nearly as large as the bok choy in the garden on the shelf under them. I'm sure yours will do great!
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pfunnyjoy
AGA Bounty
Made more grow room in my office!
Posts: 621
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Oct 5, 2023 23:17:34 GMT -5
Nice to see your "antique" AG. You took care of it. It looks brand new.
I can't count how many times I put the wrong nutes in the wrong bowl. You know, S*** happens!
Lovely young fellow that Zippers. He looks like he's in charge in your house.
I have 1 indoor cat, 1 indoor/outdoor cat, 2 outdoor feral cats, and about a half dozen daily "visitors".
I always have a harvest dedicated to catnip production.
My cats have always been well behaved. None of them mess with stuff.
The classic had an hour session in a citric acid bath before I planted it! Helped a LOT with the mineral crusty buildup. The underside of the grow deck and the grow bowl are still not very nice looking. I'm going to do an overnight soak when the Tatsoi garden is done, see if I can get more of the crusty crud deposits off. I didn't learn about citric acid until recently, but I think it's going to become my go to for mineral deposits. We have somewhat hard water. Zippers nearly was feral! His mom abandoned a litter of 5 feral kittens at twelve weeks of age, so out of the optimal socialization range. After trekking her kittens here and there in the neighborhood, she picked our yard to leave them starving. I couldn't stand it, so I socialized them all outdoors and then got three adopted. We kept the last two, who were also the least socialized. But they are lovely boys and very sweet now! Mostly indoor, but I do let them out for a couple hours each day and they seem content with that. Tim (Zipper's bonded brother) was just up on the counter taking a sniff at the garden. I was ready for "No!" if he did anything, but he just took a look and a sniff. It may be a different story when there are actual greens growing.
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pfunnyjoy
AGA Bounty
Made more grow room in my office!
Posts: 621
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Oct 5, 2023 23:24:42 GMT -5
Now that I know that 7 pods of Tatsoi is about 5 pods too many, I thought maybe the solution was to set up another garden and move some pods before they had a chance to really get going. It seemed like a good plan.... pfunnyjoy --I'm certainly no authority on Tatsoi, but I have 4 pods in a Harvest Slim Elite and they are doing great. This is at 34 days (top shelf) and they have been harvested once (outside leaves only) for stirfry. They aren't nearly as large as the bok choy in the garden on the shelf under them. I'm sure yours will do great!
Good to see! Your gardens are beautiful!
Yeah, I planted the Tatsoi thinking that if I harvested enough, they might be manageable. And if not, I thought I might get away with three in the garden, one front center, then the two back holes. I'll see how it goes!
I'm a little concerned they won't do well. Long ago, I tried growing a mini bok choy and I never had much luck with that. Never figured out why either. Hoping for the best with the Tatsoi. Which I've never tasted, but I tend to like most greens, so I won't worry over that!
I went with the general recommendation for the GH Flora nutrients. Which was a teaspoon of each per gallon. I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do or not, as the recommendation for seedlings/cuttings was less. However, in two weeks, these may be past that stage and needing the nutrients! I'm still shocked that they are up and visible on day 2!
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 775
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Post by slw on Oct 7, 2023 13:19:42 GMT -5
Just general puttering today. I did manage to somehow break my Iznik cucumber vine just below the grow tip; it wilted at that point so I cut it off. Hoping it will develop an "alternate route" but if not, at least maybe it will finish the current crop of little cukes.
My AG cukes are looking great; I have 2 or 3 cukes that could be harvested but I'm going to give them a little longer.
I noticed a couple of small tomatoes on the AG Mega Cherry Tomato plant have blossom end rot so I added cal-mag to that garden. The plant looks very healthy and sturdy, and it has a lot of small tomatoes without any signs of rot. This is my first time to experience the blossom end rot thing. Hope everyone is having a great Saturday. We are finally feeling a bit of Fall in the Houston area and it is wonderful after the summer we had.
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Post by lynnee on Oct 7, 2023 13:32:02 GMT -5
slw, for blossom end rot, you might want to give the plant an extra shot of nutrients--to tide it over until the next regular feeding. I think that CalMag helps more with leaves, but I could be wrong. I got blossom end rot on a green pepper once, and that may have been caused by letting the water level go too low.
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