Lynne's AG Activities

[maskedsonnet]

Wild that it did that from the other side of the room!! Was it turned on super hot?

[lynnee]

Nov 4, 2022 8:29:38 GMT -5 maskedsonnet said:

Wild that it did that from the other side of the room!! Was it turned on super hot?

No, it wasn't the heat, but the force of the warm, dry air current that did the damage. There's a vent over the bed in another room that really dries out my nose and eyes overnight.

The plants in the garden room really hate the winter air from the vent. I have to open the same vent in the summer, to get coolish air to circulate at night and in the morning.

The plant room is on the second floor, and the room really heats up during the day because of a south-facing window. (I have reflective film on the glass, and shades that are drawn all day, but the room still gets hot.)

[maskedsonnet]

Oh wow, I never knew that the dry/warm air current from a vent could do that sort of damage!! That's good information to have!

[areyoukittenme]

Oh no! I'm sorry about your tomatoes Lynne

[lynnee]

Nov 5, 2022 12:11:38 GMT -5 areyoukittenme said:

Oh no! I'm sorry about your tomatoes Lynne

Fortunately the warm air didn't kill any of the tomato plants. I did an R&R today, and found a dozen or so red tomatoes hiding under the canopies of the three plants that were most in the line of fire.

The crumbly leaves were mostly confined to stems that were crowded or not getting any light. I've never had large numbers of crumbly leaves on tomatoes before, though.

[lynnee]

After 347 days, I terminated the AG Heirloom Red tomato. That's the plant that had the most dried-out, crumbly leaves. It was still producing large, sweet cherry tomatoes, but not all that many.

When I looked at the roots, they were all mushy. The only healthy roots were the ones inside the grow deck. I guess that I should have suspected something like that, because the stem had sprouted a lot of air roots at the grow deck level.

I should have taken a photo of the air roots, because I haven't seen that before. However I didn't because they looked so mushy and awful!

The AG is now being cleaned in the dishwasher. I'm going to replant it with another Red Heirloom tomato and a few lettuce pods. They should be okay together for a few months.

[lynnee]

Today (3/19/23) I started two varieties of Sweet Banana peppers in an empty Bounty Elite. It's right next to the Bounty Elite with the two tomato seedlings (Veranda Red, AG Heirloom Red) that were moved from the Bounty Elite that started with 4 pods.

[scarfguy]

I wish the seed vendors would always put the plant size in the description of the plant.  Plant size is of primary concern for us aerogardeners.  I can understand why they don't think it is important.  Outside in your garden it doesn't much matter if your pepper plant grows to 3 feet or 5 feet.

[lynnee]

Today I started a couple more peppers in the Bounty with the Banana pepper seedlings. They are Rare Seeds Banana and Rare Seeds Fish peppers. The Fish pepper is an albino that produces striped peppers; it is widely used in African-American cuisine (according to the Rare Seeds catalog).

[lynnee]

The seeds that I started in a Bounty on April 6 are doing well. At least three of the 2023 Burpee Cilantro seeds have germinated! I moved one of the two sprouts to its own pod in a Harvest (not shown). I hope I didn't damage the root!  

[Shawn]

I have three Cilantro's growing too.  I guess this years batch are good because I had no luck last year,

[lynnee]

The banana peppers have been a disappointment so far. The taller Burpees have been producing tons of leaves, but few blossoms. The Rare Seeds Fish peppers have been growing slowly, and getting overshadowed by the Burpees.

Today I pruned all four plants rather drastically, to improve light and air circulation.

[lynnee]

Alas, the pepper garden is no more. The banana pepper was doing great, and produced a lot of peppers, but it suddenly fell over and the leaves went limp. I harvested the peppers--they'll be pickled today or tomorrow--to remove the weight, and tied the plant upright. The leaves improved, but it didn't look like the plant would produce again soon.

I decided to remove it, then cut the cord of the pump in freeing the roots! My clumsy attempts at replacing the pump disturbed the remaining fish pepper plant, so I took it out, too. Now I can't decide what to plant in the vacant garden. Probably flowers, but they don't need the Farm 12XL height ....



But on a happier note, my Celosia has finally bloomed after being transplanted outdoors!

[scarfguy]

Here's an idea I was gonna try but haven't gotten around to it! 

Get is pack of mixed wildflowers.  Put 3-5 in each pod. 

Some wildflowers grow quite tall and should fill your farm.

AND, surprise, you may not know what you got until it blooms.

[lynnee]

Started a new lettuce garden today because the established Romaine and Merlot were ready to bolt. This time I planted a single pod of Merlot. Merlot gets huge, and produces a lot of great-tasting leaf lettuce!

[lynnee]

At long last, the AG Anaheim pepper has set fruit! I topped it last week, and apparently it figured out what it was supposed to focus on.

[pfunnyjoy]

Always exciting to see a plant setting fruit!

[Shawn]

Love seeing new peppers

[lynnee]

Today the Bounties got their delayed R&Rs. The water color proved that mature plants really do need R&Rs more frequently than once a month, as Aerogarden suggests. The four Bounties had gone 3.5 weeks.

I pruned the Veranda Red--cutting off stuff I didn't intend to, as usual. The roots looked okay, but are kinda brown and soft, so the plant won't last much longer (245 days now, I think). It's still producing lots of tomatoes.

The Dwarf Awesome tomato and Anaheim pepper had healthy roots. Unfortunately I gave both a double dose (10ml) of Cal-Mag. I'm not fond enough of either plant to drain them to correct the mistake, so we'll see what happens.

The Anaheim pepper had blossom-end rot on two developed peppers. Casualties of the delayed R&Rs, I think.

The Quick Snack cuke has healthy roots. I took off the really dry leaves. Again, we'll see what happens.

[lynnee]

Today's harvest. The cuke got the better of me again, with two extra-large. Lots of Anaheim peppers that I don't know what to do with.