Grow log by clumsythumbs · Original thread
What you can learnA detailed mixed-fruiting-crop case showing germination, pruning, hand pollination, repeated tomato harvests, pepper production, and transplant aftercare.
*The days were calculated automatically and approximately.
still producing. Can you bring them in during the night..maybe in a hall away from your machines? That way they will bask and grow in the daytime sun and be safe at night and you could squeeze another harvest out of them. I am always so sad when gardening season is coming to an end, BUT Autumn is my fave...
It surprised you! Very Nice. I still have one out on the deck however with the low temps coming in I do not know how much longer it will last.
The AG site says you can use the old water from the machines , but I am afraid to do that...a few times the plants didn't seem to like it. Perhaps the ratio was off or something. I always add some Mir Grow water soluble granules of the general plant food.
Thanks, @cornne! The AG nute bottle says you can do 4ml/gal of water, but was not sure if anyone has tried. I guess I will experiment and see! I am not sure my friends even 'fed' the thing and it is doing fine, so will not stress too much about it lol
The plants look like they still have good life to them and will be around for a while longer!
They look great but why do you think the tomatoes are falling off when you touch the plants? What did you learn from the hydro store?
I think it is a combination of them being so tightly clustered and the general weight of them versus the strength of the stems? I did not really learn much. He suggested to check the PH, which is off. And I have been adding vinegar to bring it down, but am going to order some ph down come pay day on Friday. I figure from there once PH is balanced, I can decide whether I think it is lacking nutrients? I am not sure what direction to go at this point so just kind of taking it easy since things are generally going ok (other than the pale upturned leaves).
So I took my usual summer time trip back to CA and terminated this garden before leaving. I transplanted both plants and gave them to some friends. From what they have told me the tomato continues to do well, and the Sweet Heat is on the verge of death. I have not heard from the friends who took the poblano and bell pepper plants.The tomatoes continued to produce and the sweet heats had a ton growing when I transplanted/gave it away. The poblano had a few more growing. Overall, the peppers were good sized on this, but the output was lower (about 6 or 7 total). The Bells were nice, but really small. The flavor was really nice. Not sure why they were so small, not sure I'd grow again (so little output). In the future, I might start in the AG and transplant. However, being that am gone during summer, not sure it is feasible.
clumsythumbs, are you back from traveling? If so will you be starting new gardens? If you will be, why not join in the GAL that will begin in two weeks? If you can't, no worries. We look forward to seeing your future AG gardens
Hi Shawn! Yes, I am back home. I will be starting new gardens (probably today?!). I just re-rinsed and sanitized all three of my gardens last night which was a chore! I did see that GAL. I think I might! I was going to do two salad gardens, so if I plant one this week and then one first week of September (I have a few heirloom lettuce kits), I might have a good rotation of greens. I am still trying to sort through and see what I want to do. I bought some Arugula from Park Seeds several months back when they were having all of those 10/$10 sales and realized it is a 'must plant this season', so will be planting some of that. No idea how much comes in the packet. I also want to try some of the other peppers I bought. I got a Sureno Hybrid pepper from Park that looks interesting. Compact and supposedly high yielding, so might plant that along with a sweet heat in one of the Ultras. I also want/need some herbs, but only a select few...and I know folks do not have much luck mixing herbs and lettuce. So, long story short still thinking it all over! I will post in the GAL thread if I am able to join it!
Well I hope your summer has been great! Those peppers look good. I may have to place them on my list of things to try. As for the GAL if you decided to join in we would be happy to have you
Nice peppers. It is always a wonderful surprise when you lift leaves and find them. AS for the yellowed leaves, I myself would take them off. It may help send the energy to the new growth.
Yes, I am slowly trimming back. Especially the tomato plant is very dense and I do not want to accidentally chop off a branch with little tomato-lings growing, as I pass by them I have been snipping off some yellowing and slowly cleaning them up. The 'hard' part is the areas that most need to be trimmed are packed inside close to where they are growing. Given how little attention I have given them, I am pleasantly happy with what they are doing!
Day 56:After trimming off a lot of dead and dying leaves on all four plants, they are looking a better. The tomato still has a lot of dead and dying stuff in the underbrush, but it is hard to get in there and when I do, some un-ripened tomatoes threaten to come off. Harvested about 5 varying size tomatoes Tuesday night. So far have gotten 9 tomatoes off of it and I counted Monday, there are at least 40ish varying size growing. They seem to ripening faster now, and I can probably get enough 5-10 this weekend. I have had about 8 fall off still green. I am not sure why. Either I am knocking them off, accidentally snipped something when trying to clean up and prune, or there are some weakened stems and vines due to whatever issues are going on. On the tomato, te leaves are still curled up-- some curled 'down' (underside of leaves curling in) and some are curling up (underside curling up/topside curling in). Any ideas what this means? I think am going to post about this on the general board, but I am a little confused about signs between PH imbalance and nutrient uptake, over feeding, and not getting enough nutrients. I took a trip to the local hydro store and talked to the owner there and he had some interesting things to say (will post elsewhere). I have pics to post that was going to post yesterday, but never was able to do so before work due to the server issues...and now flikr is down. So...those will have to wait.The Sweet Bell Pepper is looking good (photos coming), after trimming the yellowing and older leaves most are looking pretty fresh. A few premi-barely developed ones have fallen off when I try to shake the plant to pollinate. I am a bit worried as all of the pollinated peppers are in odd locations that when they start to get bigger, I am like 'where are they going to go?" like growing upside down and into a branch.... i figure once they get bigger and I know what their intentions are, I can just cut off whatever leaves or branches are in their way? I don't want to mess too much with them while they are young and delicate.The Poblano is standing strong. It seems I just have the 5 peppers for now. None of them are flowering. The Sweet Heat has several growing, and a few flowers have opened and I have tried to be the bee... we will see.What is the flowering cycle like on these? As Shawn mentioned a few posts up, I can still add Mooch of calmag...?? I am not sure how the flowering on peppers works.Ok, even though I said I'd post this question in the general forum, I am going to recount my story here and perhaps re-post the question more generally on another board (for more people to see).So, as my posts have mentioned, I came home last week from a week long trip-- all 4 plants generally had a lot of dead and yellowing and curled leaves. I have only been doing the AG nutes and was a few days late on the feeding (was due Weds night, they got it Sunday morning). The fruit production has not been a ton (yet...maybe this is normal), with the exception of the tomato which has lots of them. [There are 4-5 poblanos, 5-6 sweet heats, and 6+ bells @ days]. So, I have had some difficulty getting a calmag supplement. So, found a new (to me) hydro store very close to my apt. Stopped in Tuesday after I went running at the lake. He told me based on what I had told him, it was not a nutrient deficiency, but a PH issue and that "9 times out of 10" people come in looking for a supplement and what they really need is to adjust PH. He even was kind of enough to say he would sell me a PH tester pen thing and if the PH was fine he would let me return it/exchange for whatever I wanted. He was selling for $30 and I saw ones on Amazon for $9, so instead of being locked into having to buy something for $30, I just said I'd order and come back. The tester will arrive today. From my [limited] understanding, if PH is off, plants cannot adequately absorb available nutrients, so it makes sense that a calmag supplement won't really help if PH is off. He also said he rarely finds hydro projects' PH to be too low, it is usually too high. I had mentioned that I have read many stories on here that the PH was veering too low. So, I guess my question is: how do you which it is? What are signs? Cuz from my ~30 min of reading while one of my students was doing a quiz yesterday found that the signs all seem to be similar.... yellowing leaves, especially on the younger or baby leaves, upward leaf curl, low flowering....I know this has been discussed over and over various places here. My gut sort of says you learn this from experience over time. Anyhow, when the PH tester comes today, I will test and see. I really did not want to venture into doing the tests, but I mean for $9 on amazon prime, I can't really be too upset. Will update this post once Flikr works again and I can access my photos.
I wait until the 2nd month to start R&R's myself.
That’s some headway made by the tomato for 28 days, and the peppers look great! Congratulations!
How are the plants growing? I bet they are getting big.
I just got an Ultra. If I could grow 3 pepper plants in it to fruition that would be pretty cool.
I have grown peppers in mine. But I only did two,
Would you recommend using the two sites farthest from each other, or ones closer to the center of the LED lights?
I usually use the two furtherst back corners for mine. If you look at my garden and then look for my Sweets projects you can see where I place them
Sorry for the long delay and absence!! School/work and life have been crazy hectic, so have not been able to get on here...The gardens are doing ok. I think they are somewhat under-developed due to my negligence. I will post some photos soon. I harvested my first two heirloom tomatoes tonight!! The tomato plant has done really well and has many various sizes growing (2 that seemed ripe enough, and several that are starting to turn red).The three peppers (Sweet heat, pablano, and sweet bell) all have peppers growing, but not many. Due to my not being diligent to 'beeing the bee' perhaps. Again, will post some photos this weekend. Due to my busy-ness I have just been feeding them the stock AG nutes and never did do CaliMagIc or Mooch. Long story short...a local aeroponics said they had it, so never ordered from Amazon, then they did not have it when I finally managed to get there before they closed. Ordered from Amazon, but was sent (for some unknown reason) to an old address... So the plants are all a bit yellow and not super lush. But they are producing. They are currently on day ~ 50. Would it be too late to start add supplement? I know a photo would help...Will get back to this now that things are gonna be quieter for a bit. I also *finally* terminated by salad garden after 122 days. I went away for a week and sometime during that time, my lights went out, cuz all 3 AGs lights were off (but were on). No idea if pumps were working or when the power went off. I was gone for 7 days and I think it went off in the first two days. Good news is nothing really went awry or died. Bad news is the salad garden totally bolted from warm stagnant water. Salvaged enough for one salad and a few heads of the choy. Going to replant another salad garden this weekend. I feel like 4 months is pretty victorious for my first garden and especially salad.... Granted I have basically not harvested for the last months other than a few snips here and there... I think that prolonged it (and also set it up for bolting)...so 6 of one half a dozen of the other.Sorry again for my long absence!
First, do not apologize for the absence. Life happens and we get busy. You will get back into the swing of things again. As for your plants, and the calcium supp, I myself would add in. Just do it in stages. 1st week 3ml, 2nd week, 3rd week on 5ml. Usually it is started at 30 days so you should be just fine. I have in the past forgotten to plug my pump in and after a week found it. Hopefully it should be fine. As with pollination, if possible start doing it now. Cut off a few of the yellowed and old leaves. I find this helps send energy to the new growth.
Day 15--Nutes added last night. All three pods have now sprouted, although the Poblano just barely (it's little seed head has been slowly waking up over the last 36 hours).Thinned the tomato down to one a few days ago. The Sweet Bell has apparently 3 that germinated. Will eliminate down two 1 in the next few days. AG says to so when they are about 1" (?). The 2nd one that sprouted is quickly catching up to the first and about to over take it. So I guess I will see who wins the battle and keep that one over the next few days.Also, planted a Sweet Heat pod late last night (Park sponge and seed). The lettuce garden seems to be coming to an end. I have been trimming and nibbling, but do not see a lot of new growth. Once that is done, I will move two pods to that Bounty and keep two pods in the Ultra. Not sure which two to pair....Once the Poblano stops being so shy, I will post an updated pic.
The poblano is above the label, and took the dome off this morning. It looks like 2-3 germinated, but one is well above the label and the leaves were about to touch the dome, so they are catching up fast. My Bounty lettuce garden that looked like it was declining, has not quite done so...yet. So, still the 3 pods in the Ultra, but will eventually move one over to bounty. I planted the Sweet Heats a few days ago and waiting to see if they germinate. First time doing my own 'custom' so really no idea if I did it right. After reading someone's thread the other day, I snipped the pod to open more so that the seeds have more room to germinate. I did 3 based on reading others' posts and what they have done with these. The tomato and bell pepper pods were reduced to one plant in each several days ago and are looking great. Will post some photos this weekend perhaps.
I am sure you did fine. It is pretty easy
This one will be fun. I love the pepper grows
I think so too! This is my first venture into peppers and tomatoes. Looking forward to it immensely!