Strawberry and Pineberry attempt with Farm 24plus

[Shawn]

You were not spamming

You are doing great at documenting this project.  They are looking good.

[agfarm]

Okay another update. Also, note that I was confused about when 3rd feeding was supposed to happen. I got mixed up after doing emergency R&R. Notes on R&R and nutrients at the end of this post.

We are at 22 days planted on pineberries (left), 20 days planted on seascape strawberries (right).
 

I have been trimming away runners on both sides.

For the pineberries: 
The leader pineberry plant has started to flower. Many of the left pineberry plants have been growing buds. The right half of the deck has only been making runners. The pineberry roots look amazing white. The one that had root rot has survived my 95% root trimming and is aggressively growing roots and leaves.

 

I am using the be the bee pollinator tool. I attempted to pollinate the first flower: it eventually dropped all its pedals and has started growing down (not pictured). The second flower is doing the same thing (picture below). Now that the seascapes are flowering, I am attempting to cross-pollinate for better fruit. 

Is this normal behavior after pollination? (To drop all pedals and grow towards gravity?) 



For the seascapes:

In a turn of events, the seascapes now seem to be trailing behind the pineberries. I had added extra nutrients to the pineberries which was critical in their turn-around. Furthermore, I am noticing burnt tips on new leaves as well as brown spots for the seascapes. The seascape roots are also looking rather brown.

The flowers on the seascapes look great. I think the fruit these produce are going to be nicely sized (if they survive):
  

From reading strawberry literature off .edu sites, the burnt tips and browning suggest an issue with Calcium deficiency. The challenge is applying Cal-Mag which competes with other nutrients for uptake. It is possible that the seascapes consumed the cal-mag in the aerogarden food since I was at day 14 of feeding cycle.

Today I performed a rinse and refill. I drained the tank, washed it with dish soap and refilled with 2 gallons of distilled water.

Water consumption is up for both plants. I have yet to quantify it, but I think I am dumping little less than 1/2 gallon in a day for both plants (1/4 gal per farm side). So buying distilled water won't remain practical in the long run. I think I might try and recycle fresh snow/rain water in those empty jugs.

For nutrients, I did the following:

Pineberries: ~24 mL AeroGarden liquid food, ~4mL hydroguard (new addition). I am no longer using hydrogen peroxide since I will be using hydroguard (since that might kill the added bacteria)

Seascapes: ~16 mL AergoGarden liquid food, ~4mL hydroguard, 5mL cal-mag (package suggests 5mL per gallon, so 1/2 dose)

This marks week 3 of feeding...so I will call it the second official feeding. I think I might bump the seascapes to 24mL in 2 weeks if they look healthier. That is when I will be at the official 3rd feeding (not now, which is what I confused).

Thanks for looking!

[lynnee]

agfarm, your strawberries look terrific! Someone here may know whether strawberries normally drop their petals after pollination.

You're obviously doing fine with your Be the Bee, but at some point you may want to switch to a child's battery-operated toothbrush. I find the Bee hard to use because of the angle on the vibrating brush part. Also, with a kid's toothbrush you don't have to hold the button down to keep the vibration going.

Brown roots suggest that there may have been too many nutes in the water. If any of the roots are still white or light brown the plants should be okay. The R&R should have rebalanced the nutes, and CalMag always seems to help.

You should be able to use city tap water in your AGs, unless the water is extremely hard. My tap water works fine--it has about 55 ppm when I fill a new garden. I think that tap water with 100 ppm is considered "hard".

What I would do is continue with distilled water until the plants start producing strawberries or until I really understand how they grow. Then I'd try switching them to tap water.

Great pictures!

[Sher]

agfarm, I am very impressed with your project -- and with your gorgeous pictures!

I have not grown hydroponic strawberries, but lynnee's advice sounds very good to me.

[agfarm]

Hi All,

Thank you again for all your compliments and help.

Unfortunately my seascape strawberries have continued to decline. I am not going to terminate the grow until they 100% die. After seeing a dead pineberry crown go from nearly zero roots to alive, I want to see if the seascapes pull through.

A couple weeks ago, all the leaves had started showing signs of calcium deficiency (burnt tips on new leaves: www.yara.co.uk/crop-nutrition/strawberries/nutrient-deficiencies-strawberry/ ). So I tried to feed cal/mag along with hydroguard. As the images below show, their slow death seems to continue. But all 12 keep trying to produce strawberries. 

Image below shows a 2 day difference. Honestly they look more sad/droopy in person. So I have identified a really weak one in the front and trimmed off its flower truss along with two sets of leaves that were just laying on the deck. If this trimmed plant starts to show faster recovery, then that might suggest the plants can divert energy to recovery if I remove the flowers for now. I will assess recovery based off root growth. All seascapes are showing light brown roots with some getting darker. I am also back to adding H2O2 (which probably doesn't work with hydroguard). 



The pineberries are all flourishing, with 4 plans on the left side of the left farm flowering, the rest just making runners. You can also tell how poorly the seascapes are doing when compared to pineberries in the image below.


Some of the flowers on my left side pineberry strawberry plants:



The right half of my pineberries don't show any signs of growing flowers. So I plan on letting them grow in the aerogarden until it is warm outside. Then I will transfer them to pots. After that, I will either try and clone the flower producing plants via their runners or buy more pineberry crowns to fill up the farm pods.

[Shawn]

Thanks for the update

I recently asked what a Pineberry was and today I actually saw some. 

[lynnee]

agfarm , that web site is a fabulous resource for strawberry growers! Thanks very much for posting the link.

What are you doing differently with the Pineberries?

With the Seascapes, you haven't yet hit on the right balance of nutrients and supplemental nutrients, but there's certainly hope. It's possible that the Seascapes are overcrowded, but your Pineberries are flourishing, so that's probably not it. I'd consider removing some of the weaker Seascapes if the plants continue to decline.

For now I would try a thorough rinse and refill--empty and clean the Seascapes bowl, assuming you have something to use to support the grow deck while you wash the bowl. Then I'd try refilling with some extra AG nutes (maybe 30 ml rather than the suggested 24 ml), and 8-10 ml CalMag (recommended is 5 ml per gallon). (I've no experience with HydroGuard.) The extra nutes will support the plants' current fast growth. I'd also consider extra small feedings with AG nutes for the Seascapes.

You know best, though.  If the Seascapes are languishing, all you can do is experiment.  Please continue to keep us updated, because your experience is both interesting and educational.

[Sher]

agfarm, I agree with lynnee that your strawberry projects are interesting and educational.  Thanks for keeping us updated. 

[agfarm]

Hi All,

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't get around to doing an R&R until today.

Originally, I had assumed that the Seascapes were not as nutrient hungry as the pineberries. When I started with the 16 mL dosage the Seascapes did very well. They surpassed the pineberries even though they were planted 2 days after.

The pineberries (which also started at 16 mL) started to show decline and the right half (5/10) had leaves that were misshaped. Based off the helpful feedback from this board I then upped the pineberry dosage to 24mL along with hydrogen peroxide. The pineberries recovered and now I have 5 of 10 flowering. The other 5 are just making runners.

lynnee, you are right in suspecting I am doing something different between the two. Based off your suggestion I have performed a R&R. I also cleaned out the seascape tank (dish soap and rinse). For the pineberries I did a rinse and refill, but no cleaning of its tank. Also, pineberries are now on 100% tap water. Seascapes took my last two gallons of distilled. I am going to proceed with tap water on both (and I have been refilling with tap). 

Here is what I am now doing for nutrients:
Seascapes: 30 mL AG nutrients, 10 mL Cal-mag, 10 mL hydrogen peroxide
Pineberries: 24 mL AG nutrients, 10 mL cal-mag, ~2mL hydroguard

The roots for seascapes do not look great. Many are forming new air roots, so there is hope. Half of my pineberry plants are working on making some fruit. So hopefully my daughter and us will get to try our first pineberries soon.

[agfarm]

Feb 19, 2022 14:00:56 GMT -5 Shawn said:

Thanks for the update

I recently asked what a Pineberry was and today I actually saw some. 

I have yet to see one in person! Let me know if you ever get to try one. I can't wait to try pineberries. 

[Sher]

agfarm, I am so happy that lynnee was able to help you.

Our members' expertise has saved several of my projects.

[lynnee]

agfarm , one cause of unhealthy roots is too much fertilizer. You may have hit on the correct amount of nutriients for strawberries in general with what you're giving the pineberries. Hopefully the Seascapes will perk up after the R&R!

Fabulous that the pineberries are starting to produce fruit!

BTW, I was quite encouraged just now by your February 5 closeup photo of the Seascape crowns. Now I'm not so concerned about whether my Albion crowns are planted too high, because your planting produced very healthy-looking plants.

[agfarm]

Hi All,

lynnee, do you have a link or pictures of your Albion grow? I'd love to see them!

Today I performed a rinse and refill. I added 30mL AG nutrients along with 10 mL of Cal-Mag and 10 mL of hydrogen peroxide. We are at 49 days planted for pineberries, 47 days planted for seascape. Clearly the seascapes suffered a setback which is why there is such a large growth disparity in the image below.


In the past 2 weeks, I harvested some berries!! I harvested my 2 pineberries and they were way too ripe. Tasted terrible. The seascape berries are about the size of my thumb tip and are delicious. I am dying to try a proper pineberry.

Our first harvest (image on left, 2 pine berries 2 seascapes) was shared between us three (daughter, wife and myself). Second set of berries harvested from seascape shown on right. I thought I had a better picture of the pineberries, but I don't. They clearly look too immature in the plate picture below.
 

Pineberry plants: 5 on the left continue to try and flower, 5 on the right continue to just grow leaves and runners. They will be relocated to pots and stored outside in a few weeks (we are in Michigan).



Seascape plants: I am starting to see new root growth that is healthy. Also the image below shows new leaf growth. It looks like they might pull through. I think once I finish harvesting the berries, the plants will be able to focus on leaf growth since I am not seeing any new flowers.

[Shawn]

They look wonderful!  Your daughter is cute and did she enjoy them?

[Sher]

She IS a cutie! And your mini harvest looks delicious! 

 

[lynnee]

agfarm, here's the link to my Albion strawberry garden.

All I've done is plant the crowns and add 24 ml of AG nutrients at the first and second feedings. My thoughts were that the crowns should be fed like they were mature plants, and that CalMag and/or Koolbloom could be added later if the plants seemed to need something.

Now I'm puzzling over the best way to pollinate the flowers. I'd be interested to hear what you're doing, because you have strawberries that look like strawberries ought to look! Your daughter is a terrific model already!

Are you still using the Bee the Bee? A couple of places say to use a soft paintbrush or a Q Tip with the cotton teased out, which would both be more gentle than a vibrator. However, when I use a Q Tip, I have visions of deformed, half-pollinated berries.

Your Seascapes do look healthier now. It's a mystery what happened to the roots earlier.

[agfarm]

Mar 9, 2022 10:19:44 GMT -5 Shawn said:

They look wonderful!  Your daughter is cute and did she enjoy them?

Thank you! Yes, she immediately wanted more. Lol

Mar 9, 2022 12:52:41 GMT -5 Sher said:

She IS a cutie! And your mini harvest looks delicious! 

 

Thank you!

Mar 9, 2022 16:44:04 GMT -5 lynnee said:

agfarm , here's the link to my Albion strawberry garden.

All I've done is plant the crowns and add 24 ml of AG nutrients at the first and second feedings. My thoughts were that the crowns should be fed like they were mature plants, and that CalMag and/or Koolbloom could be added later if the plants seemed to need something.

Now I'm puzzling over the best way to pollinate the flowers. I'd be interested to hear what you're doing, because you have strawberries that look like strawberries ought to look! Your daughter is a terrific model already!

Are you still using the Bee the Bee? A couple of places say to use a soft paintbrush or a Q Tip with the cotton teased out, which would both be more gentle than a vibrator. However, when I use a Q Tip, I have visions of deformed, half-pollinated berries.

Your Seascapes do look healthier now. It's a mystery what happened to the roots earlier.

Thanks for sharing the link. Your grow is off to an excellent start. I noticed that you used a different pump setting. I might change mine if I run into issues.

I am still using that bee the bee pollinator. It is very aggressive. And as it gets difficult to reach the flowers in the back (or in between leaves), I just kind of wing it. I think once a flower is "fully pollinated" any additional vibrations just cause the flower pedals to shed. I don't think that's a bad thing (kind of tells me that I am done with pollination). I would prefer to use a soft bristle brush since that is more gentle and controlled. But the vibration device seems to be working well. It is not easy to aim like someone mentioned earlier to me.