Grow log by ERR0R1755 · Original thread
What you can learnExcellent experimental diary showing a low-cost DIY pod, nutrient depletion, unusually large growth, flowering, seed-pod harvest, and seed processing.
*The days were calculated automatically and approximately.
Here's my self-survey:Plant Grown: Japanese Giant Red MustardGrow Method: AeroGarden Harvest 360Time to Germinate: 5 daysTime to First Harvest: 93 days (since germination)Time to Last Harvest: 93 days (since germination)Plant Spacing: 1 per Harvest (17% usage)Final Height: 6 feetWould I grow these again? Not in an AeroGarden. I'm not sure if I would grow it again at all, but if I did, I would grow it outside.Lessons Learned: With the cup + rockwool method, it's easy to grow plants too tall for an AeroGarden by pulling it up and tilting the plant to the side.
I cut off all the flowering stems, up to the last maturing seedpod, to see if I can get it to focus on maturing the pods rather than making more flowers.(As for the flowers and stems, I blended them up and poured them into bottles to make compost tea)
How did the tea taste
Oh no, that's definitely not drinkable. You chop/blend up plant materials and let it sit in water for a few weeks to create an (outdoor only!) fertilizer. I don't dare to open a bottle of it indoors because the smell will stick around for hours, and it smells terrible.
LOL I misread it. LOL I see now it is COMPOST tea
It has a mind of its own LOL
After pruning all the flowers, I've noticed that this plant is only using 1/4-1/3 of the water in the tank each day, instead of nearly running out of water on a daily basis.
Added 4ml of nutrients! The lack of nutrients started to stress the plant and the seed pods have gotten noticeably thicker, so I decided I'd be nice and give it some nutrients again.
Added 8ml of nutrients.
Added 4ml of nutrients.I'm a bit scared of the clean up after I end this project. We are almost at the three month mark, I never did a R&R (as I normally don't), and I'm not convinced that the pump is still functioning properly. When I manually run it through the green Nutrients button, it sounds very quiet and doesn't seem to run for as long as I would expect.
In a Harvest it will only run 5 minutes every hour. However you may need to take the pump apart to clean the gunk out. I have something somewhere on how to do that.
I found a brown seed pod today! I took it off and crushed it, and it had 5 healthy seeds in it.I'm looking forward to starting something new in this Harvest.
Healthy seeds! Great job!
Added 8ml of nutrients.
They will be touching the ceiling soon! Are those seeds on the counter?
I wish! Those are all the flower petals that have fallen off - they coated the table, the windowsill, and the floor.
Added 1/4tsp of Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster, because clearly this doesn't have enough flowers yet.
In case anyone is curious, this plant drinks up enough water that I have to refill it at least once a day. Given 24 hours, this plant will use almost all of the water in the tank and the low water light comes on.
Well looking at its growth it does not surprise me. It is drinking like a Giant
Yikes!
Will you have to dry the sees?
Yes! The recipe I'm going to follow is:1. Dry the seeds. (I'm going to set some aside for regrowing in the future and giving to other gardeners)2. Soak the seeds for 2-3 days in a mixture that's half water, half cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt until the seeds swell. (It may start to ferment a bit and that's okay)3. Pour the mixture into a sieve (to separate the seeds from the liquid), set the liquid to the side, and rinse the seeds off a bit. Don't throw out or dilute the liquid!4. Place the swollen seeds into some type of grinder (such as a food processor, or a pestle & mortar) and grind until you reach your desired consistency.5. Optionally, add some of the vinegar-water from earlier in small amounts if the mustard gets to be too thick or isn't grinding well.No sugar and no cooking involved Some people will add a bit of crushed garlic or herbs to the mixture you soak it in, which lets you create different flavors of mustard. You can even add powdered peppers!
I am seriously impressed!
You do the most fun, interesting projects! And it is so picturesque in the window.
Holy moly! I think you will have enough seeds too.. I ended up terminating mine. But yours is looking quite pretty by the window.
That REALLY grew
Added another 4ml of nutrients. I need to do a better job at keeping track of nutrient usage.
Is that a type of mustard that you can grind the mature seeds to make hot mustard powder for cooking?
Wow! You could almost grow that just for the flowers.
I think you can use any mustard for that, but I'm not sure what this one was bred for. My plan is to make mustard (the condiment) with it
It has turned out to be a beautiful plant. So graceful.
My mustard plant is bolting in the same way in the AG, and is still too small to have reached maturity. I was reading that this may be due to over exposure to sunlight, as mustard tends to grow best during short fall and winter days.It seems like my mustard outside is having no problems with bolting. Perhaps this is one of those plants that grows best outside the aero garden. Not sure if the hours of light could be manually decreased on the AG unit? Unless you looking to produce mustard seeds, then the bolting would be great..
that is tall
Crazy, looks like you might have mustard seeds soon.
Always great to see new flowers
Looking good! Is mustard similar to basil and dill etc, where you are supposed to pinch flowers to prevent bolting? Or do you just let the flowers grow? One side perk of gardening to me is seeing the different kinds of flowers veggies and herbs produce, something I was never aware of when I just bought them from the grocery store.
It's similar to lettuce and bok choy, where the bolting process marks the end of life and causes the plant to turn bitter. You can try removing the stem of the bolt to try and get it to focus more on leaves, but generally it's not worth it.On the other hand, if you let a mustard plant bolt, you can use the seeds to make mustard
Ah I see. So have you been enjoying harvests from the mustard? How is the flavor?
The flavor is good for mustard greens, a bit spicier than I expected though. I took the other plant I had and boiled the leaves in vinegar for a while, and then filtered it and made a vinaigrette with that - I was pretty happy with it!
Very creative to put it in a vinaigrette! My plant in the Aerogarden is about ready to harvest from and I just transplanted 3 giant mustards to an Earthbox this morning. I'm really looking forward to trying the flavors and seeing what recipes it's good in.
At least you caught it.
That took off quickly! Is there going to be anything in the other pods?
The mustard should get large enough to cover the entire top of the Harvest, so probably not? I might start some radishes in here later if that doesn't happen
Oops haha. I have my seedling in a harvest with 5 other greens, probably will not work out too well.
It definitely lives up to its Giant name! The leaves are so textured, they look like they'd have good texture for eating. Since it's so large, I wonder how it'll do in the Harvest. I always look forward to the Baker Creek's free seed packets. The giant mustard is not something I'd have thought to order on my own and it has good reviews on their site.
What a creative way to make an Aerogarden pod. Incidentally I also planted japanese giant red last week in my Harvest, as well as in conventional seedling soil. I'd gotten it as a free seed from Rareseeds. My seedling looks the same as yours. I think the hint of red around the leaves is so pretty. I hope they thrive in the hydroponic setup.