Lynne's AG Activities

[lynnee]

Mystery solved! The yellow tomatoes in back are Harvest Golds. The cluster grew through the branches of the Veranda Red.

[campingcorgis]

LOL...glad you figured it out!  

[lynnee]

Today I harvested all of my peppers. Tomorrow I will pickle some of them. There was actually one more large banana pepper, but I left it on the plant to ripen for seeds. That banana pepper plant is a great producer.



I also pruned the poblano pepper plants. The one that the poblanos in the photo came from had a lot of new leaves and a few blooms, but the growth was all spindly. I took the spindly stuff off, and maybe that will get it going again. The other poblano has a very small pepper developing on it. I need to try again with poblanos.

[mike]

Wow, what a haul. Good job!

[Shawn]

What a WONDERFUL Harvest!

[lynnee]

Today I harvested the Swiss Chard (dinner tomorrow).

That left more room for the brave little parsley plant. It germinated, but nearly died when the pump failed on the Farm 12 Plus. I’m waiting to see what it does. It’s sharing a Bounty Elite with Veranda Red tomato (plenty of unripe tomatoes).

[lynnee]

Yesterday (1/12/22) I relocated the young peppers and tomatoes that were clearly overcrowded in a single Bounty Elite. See this earlier post. The peppers went into the Bounty where the Sweet Bell Pepper used to be. The AG Heirloom tomato was relocated to the far left.

At Day 35, all the roots were a very healthy white, but the plants were near maximum size for relocation.

The Sweet Bell Pepper was ended at Day 199. The plant was producing new blooms after the last harvest of eight peppers, but they were at the very top of the plant, which was already growing into the fully raised lights.

Burpee Blazing Banana Pepper, AG Shishito Pepper



AG Heirloom Tomato, AG Mighty Mini Tomato

[lynnee]

The Poblanos looked like this in December, and they look pretty much the same now (1/17/22). However, I've removed tons of new growth (leaves and blooms) at the tops, right near the lights.

Yesterday I cleared out the tops again, greatly improving the air circulation. What remains are quite a few developing peppers, all found in the top branches. I have been adding Koolbloom and CalMag+ to the AG nutes for at least a month (after reading mike's posts).

I was ready to terminate this garden, until the little Poblanos started to show up.

[mike]

The chard tastes like a strong tasting spinach, right?

[lynnee]

Jan 17, 2022 21:11:53 GMT -5 mike said:

The chard tastes like a strong tasting spinach, right?

Swiss chard tastes like a hearty lettuce, not really like spinach (though H and I like spinach, too). It's not as strong-flavored as kale or broccoli.

It is one of the "dark leafy greens", very high in vitamin K, that people taking blood thinners (like my husband) must consume only in measured quantities. The rainbow varieties of Swiss chard taste the same as standard white-stemmed chard. Chard grows really well in the tall AGs.

[campingcorgis]

Nice peppers, lynnee!  Can't wait to hear about the taste test!

[lynnee]

In the past, I have always thrown away pods that developed mold prior to germination. This lettuce pod had a healthy crop of gray fuzz a few days ago, with no signs of a plant.

However I left the pod alone this time, because I read on the AG blog that the seeds will come up through the mold, and that the mold will die off. Turns out that the blog is right!

If you look closely, you can see that there is still some mold around the base of the little seedling.

[mike]

Yeah, some PR hack must have gotten their hands on that one because AG calls it "beneficial" mold. What a crock! 

What it IS, is unavoidable mold that doesn't overly HURT the seedlings. I hear that term beneficial and I crack up. I soak a q-tip in hydrogen peroxide and spin the q-tip to remove as much of that mold as I can.

[ERR0R1755]

As far as "beneficial" goes, it is slightly beneficial, just not in the way that most people expect. It blocks the light from reaching the pod and so it helps to prevent algae formation

[Shawn]

I do what Mike does, with the qtip.

[lynnee]

Today I terminated the Jalapenos in the Farm Plus. They were healthy plants, so I hated taking them out, but Ray and I don't use many jalapenos.

Got a huge harvest, then cleaned the garden in the dishwasher--top rack for the grow decks; bottom rack for the bowl (circuit board for water level removed); fast wash cycle (one hour). Cascade Platinum packets do a good job of removing algae deposits.

For the first time, I took the deck apart. Using the iFixit tool that mike recommended made it fairly easy, once I noticed the little latch in the center of the deck.

[Shawn]

Wow, look at all those penos and that nice clean deck.

I am too afraid to put mine in the washer.  We have VERY HOT water and I think they would warp.

[Sher]

A satisfying end to an exciting beginning!

I tried to buy jalapenos yesterday, but Walmart was out. I got Serrano's instead.

[lynnee]

Feb 2, 2022 3:42:50 GMT -5 Shawn said:

Wow, look at all those penos and that nice clean deck.

I am too afraid to put mine in the washer.  We have VERY HOT water and I think they would warp.

With Aerogardens, I live kind of dangerously, but I'm just too lazy to scrub the decks. I wouldn't ever have put the Farm decks through the dishwasher if I hadn't done it with a lot of Bounties already.

To guard against warping, you can place the deck on the bowl whole the parts are still warm from the dishwasher, turn the whole thing upside down on a flat surface, put something heavy on top, and let it cool. Any warping will be minimal.

[lynnee]

Yesterday I got another huge harvest from my mature banana pepper and green bell pepper plants. These are probably nearing the end of their natural lives, but they keep surprising me.


There are 4 smallish bell peppers and too many banana peppers to count in this big Hefty 2.5 gallon bag (front and back shown). The peppers will fill at least 2 quart-size mason jars.