Grow log by maskedsonnet · Original thread
What you can learnStrong comparison of AeroGarden seed starting followed by indoor soil culture, including drip irrigation, pest control, heat and watering problems, crop selection, transplanting, and a complete microgreens method with taste tests.
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I am so excited about the zucchini! Hope you get lots of squash. But even one would bs a victory worth celebrating! And I am thrilled that you are winning the war with the thrips!
I echo Sher. I am looking forward to seeing the zuchs as well.
Woo hoo! How exciting!
Success!!! So exciting!
Wonderful!
Ditto! Wonderful and good job!
Taste Test #2 - Asian Greens mix (mizuna, pak choi, tender green, daikon, michihili cabbage)!! Very, very tasty, I like this much better than the mega mix (probably because it's not so busy). Ate it with ranch and parmesan again, I'm going to get some more variety of dressings with my next grocery pickup to go with my salads. Maybe someday I'll even graduate to making my own dressings! But for now, the easy and lazy way is good after a 12-hr shift. If I start making my own I'll have to work them in with my regular meal preps. I really don't know how to describe the mix itself, since I've never tasted anything in the mix individually, but they all taste very nice together
It sounds great! And, don't let DIY salad dressing seem like a big task! It really isn't. Or, doesn't have to be.
The recipes for dressings you posted a while back all sounded very yummy! How long do you find they last in the refrigerator? I don’t imagine they’d last me longer than a week, but I’d hate to have something go bad on me.
Most of them will last for about 3 weeks, I would say. Probably not the 1000 Island, because of the egg and fresh chopped stuff...going from memory...but there are so many ways to do oil, vinegar with a few spices or mustard, etc., that last a good while. What I like to do is make several at once. I don't necessarily make the full recipe. And I have dedicated jars and lids I like to use. And a drawer in the fridge that holds salad dressings + most condiments (pickles, olives, etc., etc.) that FIT in a drawer. It makes it easy to find just want I want, looking down into it...LOL. Dressings can be used for other things too. Pasta, taters, rice...make nice "salads" of a sort?
That’s good to know! I figured anything with egg is best eaten as soon as possible, like home-made mayo, so there’s no time for any of the nastier bacterias to form. Also, seeing “salad” in quotes makes me think about potato salad and chicken salad... things that never taste right without mom looking over my shoulder and taste testing for me! I know how they’re SUPPOSED to taste, I even know what ingredients she puts in there in their approximate amounts (nothing is actually measured in either of those recipes with her) but until they have the Mom Seal of Approval it’s not right lol
Exactly! Salad is not restricted to greens. And there are a lot of "dressings" that can be used on potatoes, meats and pasta! Some might say, think outside of the box? LOL. And the dressings take less time to make than it takes to cook those potatoes, meats and pasta...
There used to be...or maybe there still is...a chain of restaurants in So. Cal. called, Good Earth. There was one in Westwood Village and we could walk to it for lunch, when I worked in the Village. They had a sandwich that I loved. It was called the "Baked Cheese Sandwich." It was open faced, on a sprouted wheat bread, topped with cheese (cheddar, maybe? Long time ago), then tomato slice, mushroom slices, baked and then topped with fresh sprouts. It was a real treat. Some folks I know removed the sprouts, but they were very good! Hint, hint...It looks great! I would eat them, anytime!
Ooh, that does sound yummy!! I love a good cheese sandwich, and I bet the sprouts would be good on just about any type of sandwich! p:
I grew micro greens once. Like you, I grew too many kinds --radish, broccoli and mustard--and they were overwhelming in a mix. I was surprised at how spicy the flavors were. I did not grow sunflower. I bet I would have liked thrm.
I will refrain from telling you about my bug eating adventures.
Hubby is growing microgreens too. He started them last week and I quickly figured out that he's going to need a good light, as he is growing them upstairs in the bonus room. It is naturally warmer up there. He is using a hydroponic setup. I ordered him the AG light, but thru Amazon as they ship quick. He put the greens under the light yesterday. Today, I went up to check them and they are very green! He says they need to be about 6 inches tall before harvest. They aren't as dense as I thought they would be. His are Wheatgrass. It is pretty cool. Yours look great!
That was fast.
That was the biggest appeal when I read about this method! In about a week, you can have enough micro greens for salad. Seems like it may actually happen, I really had my doubts but thought it’d be a fun experiment anyways
I'm looking forward to your taste reviews!
I have seen these and heard micros are good but I can not bring myself to try them.
You are industrious! Hoping all the Kratky transplants love their new homes!
Very impressive! Especially the lemon balm and pequins!
You sure have a green thumb. Very nice
I am interested in seeing how it goes anc how you like them.
You have it all lined up and under control
I am crazy about pretty pots, too, maskedsonnet . I have replaced almost all my plastic pots with ceramic, and have the pots to get the rest of my houseplants in them as soon as I am sure I have won the battle of the bugs. Yes, Kratky in small containers is a pain. I need to move my grow tent tomatoes into larger jars. Right now they drink their containers dry in three days.
I haven't had a spider plant in years. Seeing yours makes me want to hang one in my bedroom window! And I am so intriqued by your pot-o-peno! It's going to be fun watching it grow!
The poor spider plant has been in a teeny pot in my kitchen window, it already looks much happier in the bigger basket! I just got the lights hung and I’m 100% going to have to replace the hooks on these with carabiners, accidentally jostled one of the baskets while plugging the lights in and made a humongous mess, the hook swung right off the bracket. Soil everywhere. :| at least the plant was okay.
Been there with the messes. Sending empathy!
I was looking for a solution to suspend my light and make the easy to adjust and found these. They work very well!
My mother used to have spider plants all over the house. Memories... Uh Oh, I am sorry you had a mess. I know you will get some sturdier ones up.
I hope those that need it recover and that the bugs are gone and they all thrive.
Good luck, maskedsonnet.
I am glad to hear that the zucchini is doing well. I plan to start mine when I make space for them and get my lights hung. I also bought a bag of flower drying silica gel so I can dry and freeze the pollen. I hope! I don't have room for two plants.
Question, will all these plants stay indoors or any any going to be transplanted outside?
The pequins and lemon balms are going to be transplanted. The others are either sentimental (pomegranate and turmeric, which used to go outside in the spring but after a bug incident are permanent indoor plants) or part of a larger project to see how much of my own food I can produce indoors without plants spilling out into the rest of the house for the dogs to get into. The drip system is an attempt to make it as ‘set it and forget it’ as the AG and my outdoor garden usually are, which also has automatic watering and just needs to be weeded and cleaned up after dust storms, because I always end up with a bunch of trash in my back yard when the wind gets that high.
I forgot to say, both zucchini varieties (actually all the veggies) I chose are parthenocathic, so there’s no need to save pollen to fertilize the flowers with. The varieties I went with are Cavili (a green zucchini) and Easy Pick Gold (a yellow zucchini), but I know there are others out there. I have lots of seeds left over if you want me to send you some to play with! Just let me know
Cool! I thought they were indoor plants but wanted to ask.
I may keep one of the lemon balms indoors to replace the super old container one, which I keep indoor year-around because I love to make tea with it. But lemon balm plants are weirdly hard to find in my area compared to other types of mint, so I’m half-way tempted to buy an actual seed-starting kit for one of my AGs to grow a bunch with. My goal is to spread the lemon balm throughout a very difficult/weedy part of my yard. I’ve had some great success with that with the one plant I was able to find two years ago, but more plants will speed up the process a LOT! These overwinter like champs in my area, so it should be a much shorter process now that I know I can start these from my own seeds and the smell when I mow it all down at the end of the season is divine
Thanks for the seed offer, maskedsonnet. But I specifically want to try the Astia container variety.
You've created your own little jungle vacation paradise.
Your garden sanctuary. My dad had a papasan and loved it. If I had the room I would get one.
I’m not opposed to insecticides but all the Sevin products I’ve looked at are for outdoor use only. I’ll look around for things safe to use indoors!
Although I can't tell exactly what's wrong with them, I would pinch off all the dead and dying leaves. Then I would mix up some aerogarden nutrients and hand water them with that, and see if there is an improvement. I do that with my houseplants that are potted in soil and they love it.
Also, your tomatoes have bugs! I will copy one of your photos and mark the evidence. On edit: you have apparently been fighting bugs with the DE. Have you already gotten rid of them all?
If you are not averse to using Sevin, now would be a good time to use it before bugs decimate your garden. At this stage, I have never been successful using organic solutions. Others may have better advice.
Zucchini, cucumbers... you are growing a staggering amount of food in that small space. Eggplant and tomatoes love the same conditions -- hot and sunny. What wattage are the lights they are under? Not equivalent wattage, but actual wattage. That could be the problem. They might need a stronger light, or they might need to be closer to it. Can you do a closeup under natural light of the tomato and eggplant? I can't tell from the picture if they are over fertilized or not.
I love the pots and the drip system. I also like your preparing plants to move outside already. A 2 year old veteran lemon balm. Cool!
Beautiful organization!
Your room really came together nicely. KUDOS to you!
Thank you! It’s nice having everything in one room again, as well as room to walk through the guest room!
Very nice! You apparently have a green thumb!
Ah! TLC for your potted plants! Great idea!
What a great set up. I do not have the room to do anything like that. I just can not bring myself to have anything with dirt in the house. I do not have a basement and my garage is way too cold in the winter.
Lol yeah the dirt sometimes bothers me a bit too, but I vacuum at lot anyways because I have two huskies and they shed non-stop. The thing that really bothers me is the carpet itself, I never feel like carpet is ever truly clean, it drives me nuts. But I can’t afford to have it all ripped out and tiled over right now. Someday!
I am always vacuuming with Piper. I actually puled my carpet cleaner out to do my carpets this week. I do them several times a year. Our house is all hard wood with the exception of the bedrooms and family room. I do have area rugs and runners because of Piper (and Proxy before her). She needs them or she would be side sliding all over LOL. As for the dirt, it is the bugs that come with them that bother me.
Not sure if you'd find it worthwhile, but for my few soil plants (like my cayenne in a bottle) I find it extremely helpful to put something else such as coco coir in the top few inches. Anything that would live in the potting soil can't get through that and "escape", so instead it dies in the soil and becomes free fertilizer. Also, when buying potting soil, don't ever buy potting soil that is stored outdoors (since it will inevitably have a small hole that bugs get into) and stay away from the Miracle-Gro potting soil that comes in a yellow bag.(alternatively, you can always put your potting soil in a tote/bowl/container and pour boiling water into it to kill all the insects and eggs)
I always put a top layer of diatomaceous earth on the potting soil to kill the bugs, but didn’t realize until after I potted everything that day that I needed more lol. I’ve got them all fixed up now
Thanks. I have read and heard of that but just the thought of bugs make me itch. So I do not bring them in. The last time a plant was brought in (from my MIL) went directly on the deck. With the maybe 10 minutes it was inside I had gnats. No thank you
Oof, can’t blame you there, gnats are the worst!! Annoying and hard to get rid of! I think the worst bug experience I’ve had was actually when I discovered a huge grey centipede with orange legs crawling through my carpet a couple years ago though, which is when I started being a bit neurotic about carpet lol. After sweeping it into a long-handled dust pan and hurling it out the front door I went and bought a big bottle of Home Defense, sprayed the whole house, and found TWO MORE dead ones the next day. No idea how they got in my house, but thinking about it still makes me itch to this day!
I am betting you will need more lights and space soon!
Lol that room's started to get pretty full, though I can squeeze a bit more in there I think. The master bedroom in my house actually has 2 walk-in closets - I use one just to store junk in and am thinking about clearing it out to convert to a mini grow-room just so I can have more plants!! I've been meaning to throw out a bunch of junk that's piled up over the years anyways, it's a good motivator to actually get it done.
I empathize! I bought a folding screen to keep the bright AG lights from bothering me when I am sitting in my recliner. It arrived today, and my first thought was, "Oh goodie! That makes another little nook for plants!"
Ah yeah I love finding new spots I can turn into plant homes! I actually made my guest bedroom my AG room, since I haven't been able to have guests for nearly a year. As I'm hoping that'll change at some point with the vaccine roll-out, I'm trying to come up with a way to keep the super bright lights from disturbing said guests. I really like the mylar-coverd panels I've seen posted about here, with either velcro or magnates to hold them up. I just haven't gotten around to it yet, since there's really no hurry right now. But if I do convert a closet (or three, since there are a couple barely-used storage closets in the house too) into plant nooks, I'll have to figure out a way to block the light at least around the edges of the one in the master bedroom. I have to flip between day and night shift quite a lot, and having lights shining out of the closet might make that difficult. At the same time, I've gotten used to sleeping during the day with my bedroom door open at my dogs' insistence (turns out daylight is easier to sleep through than scratching and whining), so maybe it wouldn't actually be a problem
How exciting! You have really put that Bounty to good use!
Enjoy the time with family. We will still be here when you return!
Enjoy! And I am looking forward to seeing those pictures!
Excellent. Nice to see that everything is growing. Hopefully the yucca wont be far along.
Progress!
I know I say this a lot on the forum, but it is a great feeling when you see those seedlings sprout.
Off to a good start. I have never purchased from Territorial. I may just check them out in the morning.
They have a great selection!