CatHerder
AGA Sprout
"If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat".
Posts: 142 
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Post by CatHerder on Feb 17, 2024 14:43:07 GMT -5
Melted off again. I don't miss it at all! Didn't grow up seeing much of it! Once or twice, before I left Beaumont for college. I grew up in Pennsylvania, so I grew up in a LOT of snow. |
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Post by lynnee on Feb 17, 2024 17:35:26 GMT -5
Got a question that has been bothering me for some time. I'll ask it here although it might be more appropriate in my cantaloupe thread: I have a melon that is getting close to harvest. Everything I've read says to cut back on watering in the last couple of weeks before harvest to increase the sugars in the melon. That, of course, applies to soil farming. How do I cut back watering in an AG ? Should I... 1. fill the bowl partway full keeping most of the roots above the water line? 2. fill the bowl to the top and wait to refill until the water level is very low? 3. stop watering the plant all together? (I think the plant would just die before ripening the melon) Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks
What I did with my last Dwarf Awesome tomato was to stop topping off the AG reservoir, and let it go to Medium or low Medium. The tomato was tastier than the one that didn't get this treatment, but I have no idea whether the watering made the difference. You don't use the AG water level indicators, so I think my "solution" would be number 2. I think that I would keep the roots mostly covered, though I suppose that plant roots in soil survive having no water around them at all in drought conditions. (Where I am, the clay soil gets rock hard during the summer.) 🍉🥝 |
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Post by scarfguy on Mar 2, 2024 13:51:20 GMT -5
I got a question. This seemed to me like a good thread for general questions but it hasn't been as popular as I thought. The "what did you grow today" thread is much more popular....
ANYHOO... I got a question that might more properly be put in a "basic plant biology" thread:
So this arises from my cantaloupe adventures but it would apply to any vegetable plant.
I have a plant that is close to death. It has suffered from powdery mildew and perhaps downy mildew and has also suffered from my spraying to try to control it. It has one last fruit that I believe to be about 2 weeks til harvest. It has very few leaves with green in them. most have wilted and turned yellow. My question is this:
Will a plant continue to ripen a fruit if the leaves are not productive? In other words, if the vine itself is healthy and the fruit is getting water and nourishment through the vine, does the fruit produce sugars and ripen by itself without the aid of chemical processes from the leaves? Do the processes within the leaves contribute to the ripening of the fruit OR do the leaves only provide for the growth and health of the plant in general. 
I'm trying to decide if this is worth continuing or if I should terminate and cut my losses.
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Post by Clovis Sangrail on Mar 2, 2024 14:43:47 GMT -5
I got a question. This seemed to me like a good thread for general questions but it hasn't been as popular as I thought. The "what did you grow today" thread is much more popular....
ANYHOO... I got a question that might more properly be put in a "basic plant biology" thread:
So this arises from my cantaloupe adventures but it would apply to any vegetable plant.
I have a plant that is close to death. It has suffered from powdery mildew and perhaps downy mildew and has also suffered from my spraying to try to control it. It has one last fruit that I believe to be about 2 weeks til harvest. It has very few leaves with green in them. most have wilted and turned yellow. My question is this:
Will a plant continue to ripen a fruit if the leaves are not productive? In other words, if the vine itself is healthy and the fruit is getting water and nourishment through the vine, does the fruit produce sugars and ripen by itself without the aid of chemical processes from the leaves? Do the processes within the leaves contribute to the ripening of the fruit OR do the leaves only provide for the growth and health of the plant in general.
I'm trying to decide if this is worth continuing or if I should terminate and cut my losses.
But without the leaves to photosynthesize, will it produce enough energy to feed and ripen the fruit? I think you have a science experiment there. And it should only take a couple of weeks to find out. This is a good thread. I like that it is specifically for questions, whereas the 'What Did You Do With Your Aerogarden Today?' thread is for showing off. |
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Post by swimmom500 on Mar 2, 2024 15:46:27 GMT -5
I am not sure either but I seem to have the same issue with my cucumbers. So far I have left them on the vine but they don’t seem to be doing much. I have been focusing lately on my seed starting since I really need to get my outdoor garden planted before it gets too hot.
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Post by lynnee on Mar 2, 2024 16:21:19 GMT -5
In my experience--mostly with tomatoes--taking off diseased or excess leaves only contributes to the development and ripening of fruit already on the plant. The plant grows more leaves as needed, but puts most of its energy into fruit. My cucumbers continue to develop even when most of the vine's leaves are crispy dry, cracked, and yellowed. Taking off the fruit and letting it ripen on the kitchen countertop also works with both tomatoes and peppers. I think you can do this with any fruit that arrives green in your grocery store's produce aisle. It's common for plants that are in the ground to produce an enormous number of new blooms shortly before they die from natural causes. It's Mother Nature's way of ensuring a big crop of seeds to carry on the line. Hardly a scientific answer, of course!  |
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Post by scarfguy on Mar 2, 2024 16:36:23 GMT -5
In my experience--mostly with tomatoes--taking off diseased or excess leaves only contributes to the development and ripening of fruit already on the plant. The plant grows more leaves as needed, but puts most of its energy into fruit. My cucumbers continue to develop even when most of the vine's leaves are crispy dry, cracked, and yellowed. Taking off the fruit and letting it ripen on the kitchen countertop also works with both tomatoes and peppers. I think you can do this with any fruit that arrives green in your grocery store's produce aisle. It's common for plants that are in the ground to produce an enormous number of new blooms shortly before they die from natural causes. It's Mother Nature's way of ensuring a big crop of seeds to carry on the line. Hardly a scientific answer, of course!
That all makes a lot of sense, lynnee .
As the plant dies, it would put all it's energy into ripening the last of the fruit.
FWIW, I've found that putting the unripe fruit in a paper bag seems to ripen it faster than just the countertop. The ethylene gas that is given off by the fruit is what ripens it and in the bag, it stays surrounding the fruit.
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Post by Clovis Sangrail on Mar 2, 2024 18:34:09 GMT -5
FWIW, I've found that putting the unripe fruit in a paper bag seems to ripen it faster than just the countertop. The ethylene gas that is given off by the fruit is what ripens it and in the bag, it stays surrounding the fruit.
I haven't tried this with anything else, but it works great with avocados. Avocados only made it to Kansas a few years ago, and we don't get the good stuff. When it hits the grocery stores here, it's either way overripe or green and hard as a rock. The green ones go into a brown paper bag when they get home, and the overripe ones stay at the store for the Millennials to buy. |
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Post by scarfguy on Mar 2, 2024 18:44:02 GMT -5
Fruits that will ripen in a paper bag (those that release ethylene gas) are called climacteric fruits.
google "climacteric fruits" for a list and more info.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 849
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Post by slw on Mar 2, 2024 19:02:51 GMT -5
Interesting that this comes up so soon after I watched Aerogarden Experiments video about spider mites attacking his melon vine. Apparently he believes it can be left to try to ripen. Not sure I concur.
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slw
AGA Bounty
Posts: 849
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Post by slw on Mar 2, 2024 19:11:55 GMT -5
Oh... and I don't believe melons will ripen off the vine. I have bought more than my share of green cantaloupes and they stay that way until they rot.
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Post by scarfguy on Mar 2, 2024 20:09:07 GMT -5
Oh... and I don't believe melons will ripen off the vine. I have bought more than my share of green cantaloupes and they stay that way until they rot.
Yes, there is very conflicting information about this on the internet. Cantaloupes will ripen. Muskmelons will not. Honey Dew is a muskmelon and will not ripen.
Cantaloupes definitely do ripen as I just ripened two of them in the last two weeks. The rind turned from green to orange overnight and the smell got stronger. I don't know how far from "ripe" they were when I harvested them though.
I also think you are correct. The rock hard lumps of concrete they call cantaloupe at the grocery store are probably way to far from ripe to be helped by a couple of days in a paper bag.
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Post by lynnee on Mar 3, 2024 10:21:18 GMT -5
If you don't have a paper bag, you can ripen things faster on the kitchen countertop by placing them close to a banana or bunch of bananas. I harvested a couple of Dwarf Awesomes that were small and really green--no "give" to them at all--several days ago, and they are definitely ripening. Both were completely green when harvested, and they stayed that way for several days. The one on the left is just beginning to lose the green on the bottom.  Maybe things left to ripen on the vine taste a little better, but I don't notice much difference. These immature-when-harvested tomatoes probably won't be very juicy when they are ripe enough to eat, I'm pretty sure. That's because the seeds won't be fully developed.  |
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Post by Clovis Sangrail on Mar 3, 2024 11:00:49 GMT -5
If you don't have a paper bag, you can ripen things faster on the kitchen countertop by placing them close to a banana or bunch of bananas. I harvested a couple of Dwarf Awesomes that were small and really green--no "give" to them at all--several days ago, and they are definitely ripening. Both were completely green when harvested, and they stayed that way for several days. The one on the left is just beginning to lose the green on the bottom. Maybe things left to ripen on the vine taste a little better, but I don't notice much difference. These immature-when-harvested tomatoes probably won't be very juicy when they are ripe enough to eat, I'm pretty sure. That's because the seeds won't be fully developed. Those look perfect for some fried green tomatoes. |
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Post by lynnee on Mar 10, 2024 21:28:30 GMT -5
All of my AG plants seem to be stalled or hibernating right now. I suppose that the room temp has been too warm or cold for them, because we're having up-and-down weather this winter. Does anyone have any ideas for getting AG plants into the mood for growing again? They all had R&Rs about 8 days ago. I think it's only me that's sulking because of the change to Daylight Savings Time today!  |
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Post by scarfguy on Mar 10, 2024 22:08:29 GMT -5
All of my AG plants seem to be stalled or hibernating right now. I suppose that the room temp has been too warm or cold for them, because we're having up-and-down weather this winter. Does anyone have any ideas for getting AG plants into the mood for growing again? They all had R&Rs about 8 days ago. I think it's only me that's sulking because of the change to Daylight Savings Time today!
I have the same thing from time to time. I haven't found anything definitive that works all the time. Here's some things that you could try.
1. increase the dissolved oxygen in the water. Add an air stone if you have one, if not, try putting about 3 or 4 ml / gal. of Hydrogen Peroxide in the bowl. Try it for 3 consecutive days. H2O2 will add oxygen to the water.
2. try increasing or decreasing the pH. In general pH should be between 5.5 and 6.5 for most plants. Check your pH. If its on the high end of this, say 6.4 or 6.5 try lowering it to 5.7 or 5.8. If it's low, try raising it in a similar manor. The reasoning here is that different nutrients are absorbed more fully at different pH values. Perhaps your plants are struggling to get a particular nutrient that is present in the water but not able to be used.
3. If your plant has "harvestable" fruit, harvest it. Sometime plants have just too much growth to maintain. Likewise, try a good pruning to see if the shock of pruning spurs new growth.
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Post by lynnee on Mar 10, 2024 23:09:27 GMT -5
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