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Post by lynnee on Mar 4, 2024 22:20:33 GMT -5
The suspect piece of silicone mat is, today, feeling normally pliable and laying perfectly flat on the kitchen counter. Where last night, it was curling no matter what. I have no idea if it has "memory" and may yet curl again when exposed to water. It is very strange! I will, naturally, eventually try it. And I won't be using vinegar the next time I sanitize these! Maybe it's haunted!  |
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pfunnyjoy
AGA Bounty
Made more grow room in my office!
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 6, 2024 2:15:09 GMT -5
It was really weird. It felt stiff and would curl on one side, but then if you flipped it and tried to get it flat, it would promptly curl on the other two sides. Currently, it seems pliable and flat, but I don't know what will happen next time it gets exposed to liquid.
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Post by Clovis Sangrail on Mar 6, 2024 7:34:17 GMT -5
Is that silicone mat made out of the same stuff as silicone bakeware? Like those soft, pliable silicone muffin 'pans'?
I kind of remember seeing something somewhere about not using vinegar on those.
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Post by scarfguy on Mar 6, 2024 14:43:04 GMT -5
I don't do microgreens BUT for all you microgreenies, this item was just listed by the guy who makes "stuff" with his 3D printer. Grow microgreens in your slim:
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pfunnyjoy
AGA Bounty
Made more grow room in my office!
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 6, 2024 14:57:42 GMT -5
Is that silicone mat made out of the same stuff as silicone bakeware? Like those soft, pliable silicone muffin 'pans'? I kind of remember seeing something somewhere about not using vinegar on those. All I know is that it is food-grade silicone, so maybe. I won't be using vinegar on silicone grow mats again, just in case! I may have to cut another if I've ruined the one, but I'll wait and see what happens the next time I put it in. |
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pfunnyjoy
AGA Bounty
Made more grow room in my office!
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 6, 2024 15:06:06 GMT -5
I don't do microgreens BUT for all you microgreenies, this item was just listed by the guy who makes "stuff" with his 3D printer. Grow microgreens in your slim:
That's interesting! Although, given I'd like to eat a LOT more microgreens than the 2 cups worth the AG gives me every 12-14 days, I may experiment with trays. I've bought one 7x14 tray from On the Grow and have wheatgrass going in that now, though I didn't soak enough seed to fill it all the way. So far, so good. I'll see how it does with the wheatgrass, then maybe try a microgreen grow before deciding if it's worth getting another couple trays. |
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Post by swimmom500 on Mar 6, 2024 15:47:33 GMT -5
I was all about that microgreen tray for the slim until I looked at the price. That’s more than the Aerogarden one which I thought was overpriced!
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pfunnyjoy
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 12, 2024 16:21:08 GMT -5
Microgreens experiments are continuing ...As our last episode ended, we had unexpected curling of our silicone reusable grow medium upon replanting it. As I ended up with a repeat of the experiment, i.e. Micro-Mat on the left, brand-new unused silicone reusable grow medium on the right, I thought it would be useful to report on the results if only to see if they were the same or not. And the answer is: NOT. This time around, I have better growth on the silicone medium! Too small a sample to say which grow medium is best, but enough to say that the silicone is capable of performing similarly to the Micro-Mat. There has been ONE change between these grows. The last grow used AG nutrients. This grow used GH MaxiGro. Primarily because I needed to mix up some nutrients for the wheatgrass tray and I thought a gallon would give me enough for both the Harvest tank and the wheatgrass and save me some time/effort. My microgreens, at least the right side, are ready to harvest. I can see true leaves coming. At 9 days, instead of 14! It's possible that using 8ml of the AG nutrients (plus the cal/mag) would provide similar results. I may do an experiment trying just that. I used 1.0ml of GH CALiMAGic, and 5.6g (roughly a teaspoon) of GH MaxiGro. I think. I forgot to write it down, but I'm pretty sure that's what I did, because I was a little worried that the stronger mix might nutrient burn the little plants. OTOH, my reasoning for forging ahead was that they are densely planted and also, mostly plants of a sort that like nutrients. (Brassicas) Micro-Mat on the left, silicone on the right, top view: Micro-Mat on the left, silicone on the right, side view: I currently am attempting the same AG Spicy Mix seeds with my On the Grow white tray. I'm following the instructions in their On The Grow YouTube radish microgreens video where they use the same tray. So far, so good, I have germination!
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pfunnyjoy
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 14, 2024 19:45:53 GMT -5
Harvested this batch. Got 3 cups worth, with the silicone media side providing nearly 2 cups! Two were vacuum-sealed in small Mason jars and refrigerated for the next couple of days. I enjoyed a cup's worth on top of my eggs this morning, along with some AG Heirloom Cherry tomatoes. I timed getting the roots out of the silicone media with the stopwatch feature on my fitness watch. It took me exactly 1:32 to have the silicone media completely free of roots. Not bad. Before(Upended on my kitchen counter with lots of roots to remove!)  After cleaning(One minute and 32 seconds!)  Since I didn't dare sanitize it with the rest of the garden using vinegar, I washed it well with soap and water, then boiled it briefly. I also tried boiling the problem piece of silicone media from last grow that had been sanitized with vinegar, with the result that it curled up like crazy, while the never-touched-vinegar silicone lay flat after boiling. I plan to discard it, cut a new piece of media, and replant the garden with silicone media only either tonight or tomorrow morning. And then we'll see if any problems happen. Left: once-used silicone media, boiled Right: once-used silicone media, sanitized with vinegar, and boiled Meanwhile, the On-the-Grow tray microgreen grow seems to be going well. Today was day 3. I left it in blackout an extra half day, because when I checked yesterday morning, the roots were not quite reaching the water. Last night though, the plants were clearly pushing the inverted humidity dome upward, so I removed them from dark conditions, put the humidity dome on correctly and they've been getting their first light today. Also their first nutrients. The roots are doing well, beautiful and white. This morning |
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pfunnyjoy
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 14, 2024 22:55:41 GMT -5
So far, no curling issues with the one piece of silicone that is being reused. I planted straight BROCCOLI microgreens about an hour ago, just checked the garden, and no curling! If it were going to do it, it would have done so already. Last time, it was nearly immediate. My advice, is don't sanitize silicone with vinegar. I wouldn't try citric or any other food-safe acid either. Stay tuned to see how TRAY growing on silicone mesh works out! I'm impressed so far with how quickly things are proceeding! For the curious, the Mason jar vacuum sealer I'm using for stashing my microgreens in the fridge, along with the little tool for prying the lid off again. I was dubious, but I have really enjoyed this item in the kitchen! It does regular and wide-mouth jars, and should be nice for preserving extra harvests of other greens. I also use it for chopped jicama or sweet potato to juice, since I'm usually not needing the whole piece of produce to make a juice with. |
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Jeff
AGA Sprout
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Post by Jeff on Mar 14, 2024 23:28:27 GMT -5
Wow Thank you again pfunnyjoy for such great and detailed information. This is definitely a bookmarked post I will come back to. I purchased the silicone mat from your Etsy link and will give it a go. Such fun. You have me curious now as well with the vacuum jar sealing! |
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pfunnyjoy
AGA Bounty
Made more grow room in my office!
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 15, 2024 12:19:05 GMT -5
Wow Thank you again pfunnyjoy for such great and detailed information. This is definitely a bookmarked post I will come back to. I purchased the silicone mat from your Etsy link and will give it a go. Such fun. You have me curious now as well with the vacuum jar sealing! You are welcome! The microgreens garden looks fine this morning, silicone laying flat in both trays, so I guess my error the first time was sanitizing in vinegar along with the rest of the microgreens kit. Live and learn! Here's my tray grow today, day 4, I think. I should've started a log for it to keep track! Either way, doing well. I let it out from under the humidity dome for a bit this morning, but it's back under now.  |
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pfunnyjoy
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 16, 2024 16:42:19 GMT -5
Day 5 for the tray grow!
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pfunnyjoy
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Post by pfunnyjoy on Mar 17, 2024 13:27:22 GMT -5
Day 6 for the tray and it looks similar to last night's photo, only maybe a little taller. I can't see it taking longer than 9 days to be ready for harvest, but it might well surprise me and be ready sooner. It's looking very good, I'm not seeing any problems with mold or fungus.
I changed the water for freshly made nutrient water. And also did this for the AG microgreens kit growing broccoli, as it was day 3 there, and that's when I usually change water and add the first nutrition. I've got lots of germination there!
Nutrition:
1.0ml GH CALiMAGic (My tap water is soft and generally reads ZERO on my EC meter, so this may not be necessary for others!)
5.6g GH MaxiGro
5.0ml of 3% food-grade hydrogen peroxide
This produces an EC of 1.6 and and normally comes up as a pH of 6.0 down from straight tap water at pH 8.5. It's possible this would be too strong for other varieties of microgreens, but the brassicas have been loving it!
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