Bounty Greens Garden-- 8/15/19

[clumsythumbs]

I started a new salad/greens garden in my Bounty a few days ago.

This is my first time going all 'custom'.  All seeds are from Park. 


Machine:     Bounty

Seeds:        Park (varied per pod)

Sponges:    Park


The lay out is as follows:


Bounty Greens Garden 8:15:19 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr


I can already see many of them are starting to break out of the their seed-shells. I may have done too many seeds in the lettuces (the seeds are so tiny hard to just get a few in...I used the q-tip method which I think I learned from one of Shawn's posts...I may thin if too many sprout). The Kale and Chard I stuck to 2 seeds. Once things have happened will post a progress pic.  I am doing the Labor Day GAL with a Heirloom Pod Kit from AG...am hoping by spacing the gardens 2 weeks apart, I will have a steady flow of greens, but not everything 'ripe' at the same time. Fingers crossed 

[clumsythumbs]

Day 5:

Most of the pods have sprouted! 2 (Salad Bowl and Kale) have removed the domes. One of the chards has yet to germinate.

No surprise, but all growing well so far:


2019-08-20_11-33-54 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

I am watching thr little gem...I never grew that one and am curious!

[clumsythumbs]

Aug 20, 2019 13:39:14 GMT -5 @cornne said:

I am watching thr little gem...I never grew that one and am curious!

This is my first time growing it too, so I am also curious to see how it does. So far the first one is really growing quickly! 

[Shawn]

How are they all doing? 

[brenwren]

I will be watching to see your Kale. I was looking at Kale at various seed companys last evening. I use it in soup and have eaten it in a salad mixture.

[clumsythumbs]

Aug 21, 2019 11:19:58 GMT -5 brenwren said:

I will be watching to see your Kale. I was looking at Kale at various seed companys last evening. I use it in soup and have eaten it in a salad mixture.

I have grown Kale a few times from the AG pods, but this is my first time from seed/non-AG. So am also curious how the results will compare. 

[clumsythumbs]

Day 18~ Progress PICS!


As with my pepper garden, I have been derelict in getting updates and photos posted.  I added nutes (6ml) Friday at 2 weeks. 

Here are photos from this morning:

20190902_112434 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

20190902_112345 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

20190902_112444 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

The middle/front Salad Bowl pod is really growing wild. Even though it is only 18 days, I am tempted to harvest a few leaves just to make room. Its sibling took longer to sprout and is perhaps getting overshadowed. One reason I was interested in the salad bowl was that it was a mix of seeds. It is hard to tell it the photos, but if you compare the two pods, they do not even look the same! I love that!

The back left pods (Arugula) do not even look like Arugula to me, and will be curious to see the taste and flavor. I know some folks a while back were put off by the overly pungent taste of the wild Arugula. 

Here are a few progress pics from along the way that I did not get a chance to upload:

~Day 5 (ish)

20190820_111930 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

~Day 12:

20190826_101616 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr


The only thorn in my side has been of the two chard pods, one has not sprouted. I planted a 3rd (2nd back up)...that one hasn't sprouted either. I have one chard going well:


20190902_112529 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

Not sure how long to wait or how patient to be. Also, the chard, while still small, is very floppy. Like it is falling over. Have those who have grown chard had any experience with using something to support? Will it eventually toughen up and stand up? 

[clumsythumbs]

A few of the leaves were getting quite large on the 'salad bowl' pod, so snipped  a few of the longer ones to mix into some fried "rice" tonight for dinner:


20190903_194140 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr


(pardon the messy cutting board). Only about 18 days in, but figured why not? They were also growing into the hood. I am not sure what kind of lettuce it is. Park's Salad bowl is a mix of arugulas, mustard greens, and lettuce. It tastes like very lettuce (almost no flavor). Based on look, I thought it was arugula.

I thought it was arugula too! The garden looks great! Lots to harvest!

[Shawn]

Sept 3, 2019 21:07:29 GMT -5 @cornne said:

I thought it was arugula too! The garden looks great! Lots to harvest!

What she said.  They do look great

[clumsythumbs]

Day ~21:

I have 'cleaned up' some of the starting-to-get-wild 'Salad Bowl' pod by trimming a few leaves here and there.

I think looks cleaner...and more importantly, I think it has allowed for some of the others to catch up and even out.


20190905_192024 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

The second chard STILL has not sprouted, so about to give up. Not sure if I should plant something else in its place, or just leave the space empty. I am 1/3 for on the chard germinating. 

For those who are interesting, I did taste a few of the arugula leaves (pack row far left and next one in). One large, one medium, one baby. It is peppery and spicy (more so that grocery store brand), but also WAY more flavorful in terms of the 'grassy' quality I like. It is growing rather sparse so far, so may plant a third pod in place of the chard dud. Will probably be able to harvest some to mix in with some store bought salad greens and have a salad next week...maybe even this weekend! I'd like to harvest before I add nutes next Friday (9/13).  

[Shawn]

The garden looks good.

It is said to always harvest greens and herbs before you give them nutes or at least two days after.  This help avoid a bitter taste from the uptake of the nutes.

[clumsythumbs]

Sept 6, 2019 3:30:43 GMT -5 Shawn said:

The garden looks good.

It is said to always harvest greens and herbs before you give them nutes or at least two days after.  This help avoid a bitter taste from the uptake of the nutes.

Exactly my thinking! I want to harvest some right before, to avoid that window after adding nutes! 

[clumsythumbs]

Day 26:

Everything is growing nicely, and relatively evenly:


2019-09-10_07-08-27 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr


The back right Chard still never sprouted, so just removed the pod and left the spot blank. If one of the pods hanging out in the pepper garden germinates, I will move it back.

Probably will some to mix into store bought lettuce this week for a salad. Want to let things grow a littler fuller. Have been harvesting a few leaves here and there from the Salad Bowl pods (front center) just to keep things even.

What a successful project, clums.

[Shawn]

A beautifully full garden. 

[clumsythumbs]

Day ~30 something:

So, I guess I was busy this weekend, but this has exploded:


2019-09-17_04-55-57 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

2019-09-17_04-56-37 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

I have only harvested some bits here and there so far, so definitely have a salad for dinner tonight. Friday/Saturday I knew it was needing some harvesting, but last night I pass by and was like... "wahhhh?!"

[Shawn]

They do that to you.  Will you be doing a large cut or still smaller harvests?

[clumsythumbs]

Day 50:

Been a long time since I have updated any of my gardens!  I have managed to take pics along the way, but have not been able to get on here and post them. 

The gardens are doing well. I have had to move some pods around between this and my and Salad Garden GAL (for size and light). Some of them may be ready to exhaust. The Arugula is still growing, but is slower to grow back. Next time I plant, will plant more seeds as it is fairly sparse. The Salad Bowl and Little Gems do not seem to like to grow back much once you harvest a lot of them. The chard has grown really big and FINALLY harvested some leaves today...should have really done so a while ago, but have not had the chance to use them. I managed to *finally* get another pod of those to germinate (on the 4th or 5th attempt), so have a small one of those growing in its early stages.

Here are some photos, harvests, and their *approximate* day/times:


This is about Day 32(ish):

2019-09-17_09-48-15 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

As you can see I butchered one of the little gem pods. It was starting to grow kind of spindly and was weak at the base. Rather than just harvest some and have it go awry, I just snipped the whole thing (Which, yes, you are not supposed to do) and see. Well, it never did grow back, so I replaced that space with one of the pods from the GAL that was exploding and outgrowing its siblings. Here is some of the harvest that same day:

2019-09-17_07-48-30 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

To give some perspective, that dinner plate it is on is 13" in diameter!

A week later:

2019-09-23_11-20-33 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

2019-09-23_11-20-54 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

And this is this morning after a substantial harvest:

2019-10-04_03-46-21 by Aaron Blasyak, on Flickr

Th second salad bowl (can't really see in this photo), I more or less chopped off against, because it only had a few straggling leaves from the stem. It may or may not grow back. If not will start another pod of something...probably Arugula or Salad Bowl. For now, letting the bigger plants have their space, and letting the fledgling Chard and Parris Island get their light. Will try to update this again soon/more often.