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Post by kanewai on Jan 30, 2021 19:01:41 GMT -5
It's hard to get a good shot - they're tiny! Both peppers seem less robust than a few weeks ago - the leaves aren't as deep a green, and they're more droopy than before. I have four days until my next feeding; maybe that will help. I checked the filters, and they look clean. It also looks like one of the new peppers split open! Male flowers, perhaps? A healthy young pepper: And a maybe not-so-healthy young pepper:
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Post by kanewai on Jan 29, 2021 0:25:03 GMT -5
I'm not sure what is going on here. The mirasol pepper has a lot of these tiny gnarled buds. Sometimes I think I see really tiny flowers, but they're hard too make out. Many have since fallen off. Last week I had actual flowers, and these now have tiny fruits going. I don't know if these are male and female flowers (in which case, I need more females!) or if this is a disease. Either way, I hope it flowers again! I've been reading through the how-to guides to see what I can do.
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Post by kanewai on Jan 25, 2021 15:14:13 GMT -5
Not a sign of life. I wonder if I got a bad batch of seeds - other peppers are growing, but this is my third try with Sheepnose.
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Post by kanewai on Jan 15, 2021 14:30:05 GMT -5
I think your cooking must be more interesting and adventurous than mine. It would be fun to watch!
The savory, especially, is beautiful.
I agree with you about the mint vs spearmint. When you had a soil garden, did you ever grow pineapple sage? It's a huge plant, but the scent and flavor (especially for teas) is exquisite. It also has attractive red flowers.
Thanks! It's fun to experiment. Though some of these are actually standard herbs that I see all the time in old recipes, but since they don't ship well, or can't be grown in bulk, they disappeared from the stores. We live in such a mass-market world, yeah? If you use oregano, thyme, or sage then you could add savory - it blends well with them. And chervil could go with anything you use chives in, like beans or potato salad. Some of the Latin ones are definitely more experimental, at least for me. The pineapple sage sounds lovely. I live in the tropics, so never had much luck with even regular sage.
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Post by kanewai on Jan 13, 2021 20:35:45 GMT -5
I have flower buds after only 40 days on the mirasol pepper! I haven't had to raise the lights yet; maybe this one will stay nice and compact. These chiles grow upward from the top of the plant ( mira sol = "looks at the sun"). I need to read up on how to help them pollinate once the flowers open.
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Post by kanewai on Jan 13, 2021 20:32:21 GMT -5
I did some two month housekeeping:
- Removed the mint. The mint was pretty enough, but didn't have much flavor. I tried making ice cream with it, but you could barely taste the mint. I made tea a few times, but I'm not much of a tea drinker. I have a spearmint plant in a pot, and the difference was striking - the spearmint smells and tastes wonderful.
- Removed the Thai basil. I like it with Asian food, but it doesn't really match with anything I cook at home. I just don't use it enough, and I wanted more light to reach some of the slower growing herbs.
- I tried planting cuttings from cilantro, French tarragon, and rosemary. The cilantro shot up some leaves the first day, but then slowly rotted. I pulled it. It's too early to tell how the tarragon and rosemary will do.
- I put in new pods with epazote (attempt number 3), and added second plants for chervil and pipicha. I really like the flavors of all of these, and I can easily use all that I grow. I think it would be good marketing for Aerogarden to add savory and chervil to their regular pack, instead of giving us four (!) pods of basil in the nine-pod herb pack.
- On order: AG pods for another savory, oregano, globe basil, and Marseille basil. That will give me four varieties of oregano (marjoram, zaatar, AG oregano, oregano in soil). It will make an interesting taste-test when they all mature.
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Post by kanewai on Jan 13, 2021 20:09:35 GMT -5
And my seeds are in the sponge: Sheepnose Pepper, from Dave's Seeds. It's a mild pimento that gets good reviews on here.
I put five seeds in the sponge at varying depths. This will be my third attempt - two others did not germinate, all from the same package. I don't have high hopes ... but hope springs eternal.
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Post by kanewai on Jan 8, 2021 5:14:59 GMT -5
kanewai , I am also very impressed by how you saved that pepper.
Another gem to file away for when I need it!
I might have posted too soon - the plant got heavy, and finally snapped this morning. I think if I had taped it tighter it might have worked. Luckily, it looks like the second one is coming up strong. I'm not going to touch it.
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Post by kanewai on Jan 5, 2021 18:00:57 GMT -5
My Aleppo (left) and mirasol (right) peppers after one month. I thought I had killed the Aleppo a few weeks ago - I was putting in another pod, brushed it, and the stalk snapped. It was hanging by a thread. I taped it back together, and that seems to have worked. Meanwhile, I planted another pod with Aleppo, just in case it wouldn't survive. I also planted a second pod with sheepsnose pepper, since that hadn't germinated. And I didn't label well, and now my organizational skills have failed me - I see a new pepper coming up, and I have no idea which one it is. I hope it's one of the sheepnose, since the reviews here are so positive & it sounds perfect for me. I had thought herbs would grow faster than peppers, but I was wrong about that! My idea to get one herb harvest in before the peppers blocked the light isn't going to happen. I do have two little guys coming in, culantro and pipicha (my second pod; I love this herb). Both are cilantro-like, and will go great in guacamoles and salsas verde. The culantro is supposed to like semi-shade, and the pipicha grows tall and thin, so I think they might be good co-inhabitants. On a whim, I cut the roots off a cilantro plant from the grocery store & stuck it in a sponge. We'll see if that works. I had tried to plant cilantro in a pot outside the AG, but it didn't survive. No shock there - I have had a very hard time growing traditional cilantro by any method.
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Post by kanewai on Jan 1, 2021 4:14:41 GMT -5
I gave my basils & dill a major haircut for New Years Eve; my parsley was looking very weak after 2 months, and I'm hoping more direct light can help. Also - the dill has a wonderful flavor, but it's producing far far more than I can use! Also, look at my chervil! I tasted one of the leaves, and it has a pure black-pepper zing. I like it, and hope it grows strong. My savory, meanwhile, is ready for a good harvest. The stalk is nice and thick, so this looks like a strong one. I'm thinking of making a savory mashed-potato dish tomorrow. And finally: sorrel is growing very slowly in a pot. This is a bit bitter like arugula, but with a stong lemon taste. I tried some seeds in the ag; they sprouted but don't look healthy. Sorrel is a cool-weather plant, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to gather enough for a proper sauce. It needs to be cooked, so I won't be using the leaves raw. I need a good amount. As for some of the other guys: my chives are just a few straggle stalks after two months. Does it ever get large enough to harvest? Lovage and borage never sprouted, but they were some experiments more than herbs I really want or need (though lovage would have been a nice addition; it looks like parsley and tastes like celery). And I cut back on the zaatar after leaves started turning brown, and the new growth looks healthy,
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Post by kanewai on Dec 28, 2020 17:33:16 GMT -5
Let me ask, when did you add nutes prior to picking it? They say to never pick your lettuce or herbs the day of or within two days after as the uptake of nutes can affect the taste. I've read that, but it's been close to a week. I taste a little of of the citrus- and cilantro-flavors that it normally has, but they're weak. I suspect it's the cultivar; when I grew papalo in my garden the leaves were a silver-green color; these are just green. Ah well.
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Post by kanewai on Dec 27, 2020 17:16:27 GMT -5
I have my first complete miss: the pápalo is growing strong, but tastes like soap. I've heard people say that cilantro tastes like soap to them, but I never thought so. What's odd is that I've grown pápalo before, and loved the taste. I'm not sure if it's the nutrients or the cultivar, or what is different this time.
The pipicha, meanwhile, was fantastic. I used it in a guacamole, and I think I like it better than regular cilantro. I'll learn soon if it will grew back after harvesting - it was only one single stalk. This one might be better in a pot, where I can grow multiple bunches at once.
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Post by kanewai on Dec 24, 2020 21:05:06 GMT -5
The brown on the zaatar looks like a disease to me. It doesn't look like nutrient burn. Possibly a fungal or bacterial problem. My guess is that you will lose that plant.
If it were me, I would remove it, add clean water and nutrients to the tank and add one teaspoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide to the water to hopefully keep it from spreading.
Thanks - I'm about to go to work on the unit. We shall see. I wonder where the disease could've come from; most other plants look healthy
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Post by kanewai on Dec 24, 2020 17:11:54 GMT -5
I thought something was wrong with the pipicha - it kept falling over, like it was too weak to grow upright. I've since learned that this is just how they grow. I really like the taste of this plant, it's very bright and citrus-like, with a cilantro-like flavor thrown in. I don't think one branch will make much, though - I have a recipe for guacamole de pipicha that uses the leaves from six branches for one avocado. Maybe I'll try a miniature version ... and hope the pipicha grows back if I cut it.
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Post by kanewai on Dec 24, 2020 17:02:17 GMT -5
I'm not sure what is happening with the zaatar. It was healthy last week. I've read that brown leaves are a sign of nutrient imbalance, but the other herbs in the unit are doing well. There does seem to be some algae growing in this unit. I'm going to do a rinse and replace this weekend.
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Post by kanewai on Dec 24, 2020 17:00:04 GMT -5
The savory is doing great at day 43! I've done some light harvests, and added it to potato salad. The taste is slightly peppery, and somewhere between sage and thyme, though more subtle than either. This is my favorite of my 'new' herbs (new to me). I think aerogarden could offer savory in their standard nine-pod mix, instead of multiple basils. In the lower right, chervil is just starting to grow. This is the replacement pod; the first did nothing.
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Post by kanewai on Dec 24, 2020 15:45:51 GMT -5
Well hello little guy. The mirasol pepper at 18 days. He sprouted after ten days. This is a Mexican pepper that is medium-spicy. The plants should only grow 30 inches, and the peppers themselves will be three to four inches. And this is my Aleppo pepper at 18 days. He sprouted quickly, after only six days. Smoked and dried Aleppo pepper is the best; I've never had it fresh. And finally, I'm still waiting on my sheepnose to sprout. It's been 16 days. I might keep the pod in, in case the seeds are taking their time, but plant a second pod as back up. And in the same Bounty: pápalo, a strong Mexican herb that has a part citrus, part cilantro flavor. They use it in sandwiches in Puebla, and in salsa verde in other regions. I've grown it before, and love the flavor. I've shared it with friends, who seemed less impressed.
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Post by kanewai on Dec 18, 2020 15:10:23 GMT -5
I love how organized you are. I have thought many, many times of having charts to track stuff, but decided against it Looks like a great set-up and great variety of stuff you are growing. I think I'm addicted to excel spreadsheets. But I always start super organized, but after a month or two I start getting sloppy. We'll see. It helps me a lot now here at the beginning. I get impatient & start to think that something isn't growing ... and then I check the spreadsheet and realize it's only been five days for that podd
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Post by kanewai on Dec 17, 2020 4:52:06 GMT -5
It's been about fifty days from my first garden ... and now I have three. I've been trying to track growth on an excel sheet, but I've planted things at so many different times that maybe it's easier just to do a quick summary. Harvest, Bounty, and Friends - this will be my main hard garden: Bounty II and Friends - This will be my chile garden, though I tried to sprout a few experimental herbs in here that I'll transplant if they grow. Sprouting times three to five dayssavory pipicha pápalo sorrel zaatar *thyme ***basil (Genovese and Thai) six to ten dayschervil Aleppo pepper chives ***dill *mint parsley (curly and Italian) mirasol pepper * / *** = I've been harvesting them a little / a lot still waiting
epazote (5 days) sheepnose pepper (10 days) cress (12 days) lovage (14 days) borage (14 days) culantro (14 days) replaced after 30 daysepazote (replanted with second pod) savory (replacement pod is doing well) marjoram (received replacement pod, but no space for it) garlic chives happy neighbors (in pots) - These are the ones that are thriving lavender - this is growing fast in the ambient light. I haven't had any flowers yet, but it is super aromatic. I brush it quite a bit just to let it release its perfume into the air. purslane (portulaca) – I didn't realize there were many species, and I thought this one might be the verdolaga that's used in Mexican cooking. It's not. He has pretty red flowers that bloom quickly, so he can stay. It is also growing fast! Probably too fast to actually plant in the a.g. It filter the direct light from the a.g. and casts shadows. **koba green onion - this is our local, Asian-style of green onion. It's more of a fat chive. I like it, and use it a lot. **oregano - It is big enough already that it's probably better in a pot than the garden. *lemon thyme - It looks fine - but the thyme in the a.g. is growing at twice the rate! melancholy neighbors - These are surviving, if not thriving sage - It hasn't grown much, it hasn't died. It's just kind of there. I might try a pod in the aerogarden when I have a slot sorrel - A lot sprouted, and they look healthy, but they are growing slow. It'll be interesting to compare these with the a.g. sorrel pod. rau ram (Vietnamese coriander) - This guy is not happy. He's growing slowly, but a lot of leaves turn brown and drop off. globe basil - He's a rescue plant, and I haven't been able to nurse him back to life. He had a spurt of growth, then stalled. I've got others in pots, but it's too soon to tell how they'll do: cilantro, rosemary, & spearmint. The only herb I'm missing is French tarragon - if I could find that I'd have a complete set of herbes de provence. But it doesn't grow from seed, and I can't find cuttings at any nursery near me. I'll keep looking, though. I'll start a new thread just for the chiles once they grow a bit more.
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Post by kanewai on Dec 12, 2020 7:41:16 GMT -5
It's a wonderful herb garden, kanewai. I am especially fascinated by the pipicha. Very anxious to see how it does. Thanks! I’m anxious too. So far the pipicha is just a single frail stalk - but so are the chives. Or rather: the chive. Singular. And it’s still growing faster than the parsley. And that usually grows strong eventually, right?
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