2024-03-04: Day 61Even though I raised nutrients, the plants have not shown any improvement. They continue to look nutrient deficient. Either two plants are too many, or two plants need a LOT more nutrients. Try, try again.Nutrients (per gallon):6.0ml of CALiMAGic12.0ml of Flora Micro12.0ml of Flora Gro14.0ml of Flora Bloom5.0ml of 3% hydrogen peroxideNutrient mix pH: 6.0Nutrient mix EC: 3.5I do think I see a few lanterns forming, but they are tiny, so it's hard to be sure. Here's some pictures of the garden. It's still hard to get photos in the basement, but perhaps a little better now that I have a Bounty lit across the room. The new leaves look a bit yellow, with dark green veins. For sure the plants aren't happy.
pfunnyjoy, Here's a link that says your plants may lack iron or nitrogen:www.birdsandblooms.com/gardening/gardening-basics/yellow-leaves-and-green-veins-iron-deficiency/FWIW, CalMag+ has chelated iron.I see why you're ready to throw in the towel. I did save a plant that had leaves like that once, with CalMag+, but there are no guarantees. I think that I removed the most damaged leaves--the dried out leaves-- when I started the supplement.
Yes, I had looked up the leaf condition, re: yellowing, dark green veins, and it was about iron. However, I shouldn't think there'd be an iron shortage with GH nutrients, except if I just wasn't giving enough nutrients overall. And there shouldn't be a nitrogen shortage, unless I'm short on nutrients in general. Which could easily be the case! I did up the CAL/MAG, I'm not sure if enough. I don't generally see many people using much more than 5ml per gallon, so I'm going cautiously there.Other than the horrid look, the plant has all kinds of branches and flowers going on. My thinking is that if the additional nutrients make any kind of difference in the next few days, that it may yet be possible to save the plants as the roots still look good. If I see improvement, I'll start pruning off the problem areas.I checked the AG Experiments guy video, he was growing THREE of these in a Bounty! Yikes! The other gal had tried to start two, but actually only ended up with one. I think she was giving normal AG nutes, with no supplementation. But with my soft water, supplementation is definitely necessary.
U
Unknown
The leaves will also look like that with a magnesium deficiency. I had good luck recently by putting a quarter teaspoon of epsom salts in the bowl. Epsom salts is pure magnesium. This will provide more magnesium than cal-mag without adding too much calcium.
@fsullom I've added 1/4 teaspoon Epsom salts as of just now and we'll see how it goes. Do you normally just add the salts, or do you dissolve in water first? I decided to err on dissolving them first, but then I had to take a wild guess as to how much pH Down to add to just 2 cups of water, LOL! Fortunately, I guessed right the first time.How often should I add?Anyway, the plant leaves still look very problematic, but I swear the plants have grown upwards a bit AND I'm finding LANTERNS! So maybe there's hope of rescue, I don't know. But I'm concerned about the appearance of new leaf edema. I may try running the fan all night as well as all day.
U
Unknown
At first I added the epsom salts right into the bowl. Since it dissolved slowly, I didn't have a good feel for how much the EC and pH changed until the next day. I started dissolving it in a small beaker of water and then adding that to the bowl. The EC and pH then stabilized in an hour or two. No difference in effect just easier to control. I had a tomato plant last year that was showing the yellow leave / green vein symptom. Cal-Mag wasn't helping so I tried the epsom salts. Within a day or two, the plant improved and a few days later it was good as new. I think I used the epsom salts twice more about a week apart but then I discontinued using it cause I didn't need it any more. Since then, I gave two other plants a dose of epsom salts and they both seemed to green up and look better. ==== DISCLAIMER: If you don't have good results trying anything I suggest, don't listen to me. What the hell do I know? I have no idea what I'm doing. I get all of my information from the internet. Just cause something worked for me, doesn't mean it will work for you.
I hope. They are pretty wretched looking. Which I can live with if they actually produce fruit! Otherwise, not so much. @fsullom Don't worry, if the Epsom salts cause a huge catastrophe (like these plants aren't already there), I won't blame you! I suspect half my trouble is trying to grow two of them, rather than just one. And being too cautious with the nutrients. And maybe just having cooler conditions than this plant likes.
2024-03-11: Day 68The plants are growing and looking better than they were. However, they continue to look somewhat “off” to my eye. There are leaves curling like cigars, some leaves that don’t look quite right. I’m bumping the Flora nutrients and cutting the cal/mag back a notch. Have trimmed quite a few leaves and cleared access to the water hatch.Existing lanterns are larger, and more small ones can be seen.Nutrients (per gallon):5.0ml of CALiMAGic15.0ml of GH Flora Micro15.0ml of GH Flora Gro18.0ml of GH Flora Bloom5.0ml of 3% hydrogen peroxideNutrient mix pH: 6.0Nutrient mix EC: 4.6
2024-03-18: Day 75The plants are looking about as good as they have, less stressed with better looking leaves, but there’s still signs of it not being 100% happy, including small amounts of leaf edema. I’m proceeding with the grow as there are LOTS of lanterns, and the lanterns are getting bigger, though none have dropped yet.I have done another pruning, as the plant is a rambunctious one! I also lifted the deck and cut roots impeding the pump away. And cleared the water level sensor, which had stopped working. I have changed the pump to 60 minutes on, 0 minutes off. And as the EC was reading 2.6, I think the plants could possibly go 10 days instead of 7 before the next batch of nutrients is necessary, so I changed that setting.Nutrients (per gallon):5.0ml of CALiMAGic15.0ml of GH Flora Micro15.0ml of GH Flora Gro18.0ml of GH Flora Bloom5.0ml of 3% hydrogen peroxideNutrient mix pH: 6.0Nutrient mix EC: 4.4
And stupidity strikes! After unplugging everything to lift the plant out and rinse the bowl, I FORGOT TO PLUG THE PUMP BACK IN!5 days without the pump.The plants weren't looking good, and not drinking much, and I was seeing more leaf edema, so I thought that was why the leaves were developing brown spots, but this morning, when I went to shake the plant for pollination, the stems felt much less rigid and more flexible. At which point I knew what I must've done, checked, and sure enough. I plugged the pump back in, gave the garden a shot of hydrogen peroxide and now I'm hoping it can recover.I don't know if it will, since it's been challenged from the get go.
I hate to admit it, but I managed to do it to the kale the week before this. They went a whole WEEK without the pump, but other than just not growing, didn't seem badly affected, and are back to doing their crazy kale thing and need harvesting yet again, LOL!The ground cherry though, the pump has been back on all day and the plant does NOT look improved tonight. So I don't know. I'll give it a couple days, but if the stems don't firm up again....
The ground cherries did not recover from my big boo-boo with the pump. I've terminated them, but still need to clean and sanitize the garden, though I did take the plants out for trash day on Thursday.I'm not sure what to put in next. NOT ground cherries. I may retry at some point, but I'm not in the mood to do it now. I do hope to try and start some seeds in the near future to put outdoors.Might buy some pepper seeds.
Too bad about the ground cherries. Live and learn. Unfortunately, with the pump thing, experience doesn't protect against leaving the pump unplugged from time to time, if my own experience is at all typical.
Yes, I was hoping to at least get a taste of the fruit, but they were ill-fated. I don't think the plant liked the cooler basement environment AT ALL, but I did not want a large and messy grow in my crowded office. And I had no idea what I was doing, trying for two plants was a definite mistake.I cleaned out the water and roots today, wadded the roots up in my hands and had a softball! A lot of roots! And they had infiltrated the pump somewhat! All cleaned out now. I still need to sanitize the garden, but we are low on vinegar and Safeway was out. I might just do a lettuce grow next. I've not had a lot of time for the gardens lately, so something not too demanding would be nice. The kale is still going absolutely crazy and not remotely phased by the death of its neighbor garden. It's totally happy in the basement!
Day 26
UPDATE#3
Grower update
Update #3
🔧Actions taken
🐝PollinationCommitted to manually shaking the plants each morning.
💧SolutionSiphoned and fully rinsed the reservoir bowl.
2024-02-15: Day 43Rinse and refill. The growth has been crazy this week AND a couple flowers snuck up on me! I don’t know if they got pollinated. Perhaps time to prioritize bloom nutrients! I guess I will have to remember to go down each morning and manually shake the plants to help pollination. Unlike my cherry tomato upstairs, this plant does NOT like having a fan on it, the leaves droop and wilt within a very short time (under a half hour). And with this kind of canopy, I won't see the flowers easily!There's an amazing root mass already. Fortunately, it seems to be behaving itself and not clogging up the water level sensor. I did lift the deck out and completely rinse and drain the bowl after siphoning most out. Unfortunately, I forgot entirely to look around the pump area. Next time.Some leaves appear to have what looks like edema. Not sure what to do about that, since the plant hates the fan. I do think that I might be inclined to only plant ONE ground cherry in a Bounty if I ever do this again....As the TPU pod covers were getting deformed, I removed them. I don’t think algae will be an issue with the amount of shade the deck is getting! If I see a problem starting, I'll put some foil over the pods.I have set the Bounty Elite to remind me for weekly plant feedings. The EC was at a low 1.0 after a week. I may need to raise the amount of nutrients, but will see how things go this week.Nutrients (per gallon):5.0ml of CALiMAGic6.0ml of Flora Micro6.0ml of Flora Gro7.5ml of Flora Bloom5.0ml of 3% hydrogen peroxideNutrient mix pH: 6.0Nutrient mix EC: 2.2A flower!
Might have a possible help for the leaf edema. I'm running the fan (on low), but it's way across the room now. Won't help with pollination, but it's at least providing a bit more in the way of air circulation in the room. Will see how it goes, but so far, so good, no limp or droopy leaves.
2024-02-23: Day 517-day scheduled rinse and refill, but one day late. Having a fan across the room during the day has helped with the leaf edema, no new signs of that. The previously affected leaves look awful now with large dry spots and I’ve cut the worst off. There are brown, dry edges on some new leaves and that worries me. Plenty of flowers. Checked EC (0.7) so the plants had gone through their nutrients swiftly! I think I’ll raise nutrients next week.I remembered to check roots this time, and some were trying to grow into the pump, so I pruned just a little around the pump area. Also cleared a couple roots gathering at the water sensor. Otherwise, the roots looked good!I gently lifted a couple branches to prop them over the trellis rather than under, to get better airflow.Nutrients (per gallon):5.0ml of CALiMAGic6.0ml of Flora Micro6.0ml of Flora Gro8.0ml of Flora Bloom5.0ml of 3% hydrogen peroxideNutrient mix pH: 6.0Nutrient mix EC: 2.2
2024-02-29: Day 57Rinse and refill a day early. The plant continues to produce flowers. Leaf edema is under control, I have a nice Holmes oscillating fan in the room. The plants still look like there’s nutrient deficiency. The EC for the nutrients I mixed was not as high as I hoped. I had to do quite a bit of pruning to control growth at the front so I can fill the reservoir. I cut off a lot of the bad looking leaves while I was at it. The plant is so far staying low and wanting to grow outward rather than up. Roots are a big mass, it’s hard to siphon fully, as I can’t get the siphon to the bottom of the bowl. I wish now that I’d just grown a single plant! Live and learn.I'll try and get another picture soon, but don't feel like fighting with the lighting right now.Nutrients (per gallon):5.0ml of CALiMAGic8.0ml of Flora Micro8.0ml of Flora Gro9.0ml of Flora Bloom5.0ml of 3% hydrogen peroxideNutrient mix pH: 6.0Nutrient mix EC: 2.6
If it were my garden, I would remove the less vigorous of the two plants. You have blooms, but are the plants setting fruit? Neither plant may be getting enough nutrients. Sixty days to harvest is one number I found by Googling, and you're about there now.
Neither is exactly "less vigorous," LOL! Neither is optimally healthy either. I can't tell yet if they are setting fruit. I did think I saw a tiny lantern forming the other day, but it was so small, I really don't know. I'm thinking I will seriously boost the nutrients next feed (possibly early), see what happens. If nothing improves, it might be time to terminate and either try again with a single plant or grow something else for a while.One thing I know, Ground Cherries supposedly like heat. And that might partly be the problem with the leaf edema. It's on the cooler side in the basement. But I would not wish to grow these rambunctious plants on my office table, so that's that. It's either the basement room or nothing. I don't regret having the seeds, as I'll probably give a try at growing some outside when the weather warms.
pfunnyjoy, It's likely that either plant will do better if it's less crowded. You can cut the roots apart vertically and then gently pull on the roots of the plant you're removing, to disentangle as many roots as you can from the plant that's remaining. Don't worry about leaving some roots behind. Roots are used to being submerged in water, and the root ends that are no longer attached to anything won't break down or rot quickly.
OK, that is REALLY good to know about the roots, as these are very intertwined, THANK YOU! And I did worry over leaving some roots behind and possibly having them rot. I don't plan to remove a plant just yet, but if a nutrient boost fails to improve things....
I'm too tired to redo the nutrients tonight, but I might do 'em tomorrow. It's not due for another 4 days, but I might as well find out if a nutrient boost helps at all. Let's face it, I tend to fail a lot with gardens before I succeed. OTOH, I brought back Tatsoi, Italian Dandelions, and cilantro practically from the dead! And garden by garden, plant by plant, I'm learning stuff.The AG Experiments guy did two Ground Cherries in a Bounty and was quite successful. And it didn't sound like he needed a ton of nutrients either. I get the feeling he has lucky, normal water, which may be part of it.
Well, as you know . . . Stuff grows so fast in AGs, you can always pitch everything and start over.I haven't seen the "Experiments" video on Ground Cherries, but if I have one criticism of the channel, it's that he grows a lot of things in too-small AGs, just to prove that he can. He doesn't get a lot of production from his plants. In one video that I did watch, he got only a couple of cucumbers from the vine. But of course I'm a fan, because his experiments always teach something. pfunnyjoy
Yes, I do think he often overcrowds things. Or does plants that might not be entirely practical, like radishes. However, I think I saw someone else on YouTube who had done ground cherries in AG successfully and I think they had two plants. I'll have to go see if I can find that video again.I'm pretty sure he said he'd gotten at least a hundred ground cherries before he terminated.
Day 14
UPDATE#2
Grower update
Update #2
🔧Actions taken
💧SolutionChanged the solution early after leaf blotches appeared.
2024-02-02: Day 30Rinse and refill. I think the plant has gone through its nutrients or the pH is off. I’ve suddenly got blotches on a leaf and the other leaves have a bit of yellowing. It’s a day early for a rinse and refill, but I won’t wait.Nutrients (per gallon):2.0ml of CALiMAGic5.0ml of Flora Micro5.0ml of Flora Gro5.0ml of Flora Bloom5.0ml of 3% hydrogen peroxideNutrient mix pH: 6.0Nutrient mix EC: 1.5
Day 1
UPDATE#1
Grower update
Update #1
🔧Actions taken
✂️PruningRemoved two stunted ground-cherry seedlings.
2024-01-19: Day 17Late rinse and refill! The nine pods planted produced 8 seedlings, of those, two were stunted and I removed them a few days back. A third is struggling, but the others look healthy. At present, there's not much for roots, so they are easy to move around. I'll let them grow just a bit more before picking the two best looking seedlings as the final contenders for growing.Nutrients (per gallon):3.0ml of CALiMAGic3.0ml of Flora Micro3.0ml of Flora Gro3.0ml of Flora Bloom5.0ml of 3% hydrogen peroxideNutrient mix pH: 6.0Nutrient mix EC: 1.2
I've never grown them, but people have done so in Aerogardens, including the AG Experiments guy. Which is why I know they will eventually get really rambunctious! I can only hope AG will restock Bounty trellises before that time comes! I have eaten a cape gooseberry or goldenberry (Physalis peruviana) which is related to ground cherries, back when I was still getting a produce box and I thought they were tasty. My understanding is that the ground cherries are a bit smaller in size, so it's hard to say whether they'll be a worthwhile grow or not. The AG Experiments guy said they produced a lot of fruit though. And they don't sound like a difficult grow, once you get germination, other than managing the sprawl! Or the possible dropping of fruit on the floor ... I'm hoping the table will catch most!So we'll see. I could swear the little seedlings grew a bit overnight after the nutrients were added.I just couldn't resist growing an actual sweet fruit for fun. I've not the patience to attempt strawberries.
First, I need a good sale. Like really good.I've got the trellis from the currently unplanted regular Bounty assembled and on hand to make level 2 on the ground cherries. Perhaps if worst comes to worst, the kale could stand on their own.