Ann's Air Gardens

Not Exactly Time-Lapse, but...

Here are some in-progress shots of the Sweet Williams:

  

 

1.  Three weeks old

2.  First bud

3. Showing color

4. Starting to open

5. Fully open

6. Now there are three

The AeroGrow "Incredible Edibles" Kit contains dianthus, marigold, and snapdragons.  Due to the short growing season we have while we are on summer vacation, I saved the snapdragons and put a basil seed pod in its place.

The dianthus started out very slowly, but although the marigold grew like wildfire and showed buds first, they were very slow to open and by the time the first marigold bud showed color, the Sweet Williams already had 3 fully opened flowers.  However, those were flash in the pan, as each blossom lasted only a few days after fully opening.

This seed kit is, in my opinion, a perfect starter kit for a new AeroGarden owner, though, because it is sure fire to succeed and the plants are active enough to hold one's interest.  If anyone is unsure, as we were at first, as to whether AeroGardening is right for them, the AG3, also called the Mini, is the perfect way to go. 

Every Day is a New Photo Opp

Down on the farm we called these showy and easy to grow flowers "Pinks" -- or Sweet Williams if we wished to be formal.  The botanical name for the ones in our flower beds was Dianthus barbatus. 

Although AeroGrow's Incredible Edibles Seed Kit just calls it a Dianthus, I think this is a barbatus as well, as the plumarius or Cottage Pinks have more perfume, and the leaves are a bit different from the common carnation (caryophyllus) -- and no I have not eaten any yet, but looking at them does make me hungry.

Yes, despite our love of searching out 10 cent seed packets on sale at the local stores, we finally broke down and ordered some new things to try as soon we get the planters unpacked after another month of vacation.  On order are Green Forest Romaine, Papalo, Senposai, Komatsuna, India Spinach Beet, Edible Amaranth, Purslane, and Watercress as well as some baby varieties of tomato and a packet of Empress of India Nasturtium seeds. 

We'll be giving AeroGrow's Master Gardener Kits a run for their money.

The rational behind my choice of some of the greens which are lesser known hereabouts was their short growing season and heat tolerance.  It was fun finding and selecting them, but I missed a few.  Our next order will be sure to include Mizuna and I'm blogging about it now so that we don't forget later!

Speaking of blogs, my search for the perfect air greens led me to a couple informative web pages we had not seen before:

Learning about Mizuna

Salads Without Soil

I am posting links, here is the page that really go me motivated to buy our first AeroGarden and start experimenting with live food again:

Killer Air Grown Gardens

Getting Personal with the Peppers

Yes, well, I thought peppers were supposed to be self-pollinating, but lately I've been hearing rumors that some of the aeroponically grown plants need a little help:

Probably I am going to be pretty useless at this. Lots of reading to do.

But say, do you think we have enough AeroGardens?

While we were waiting for the last two to arrive,  to make room for my cilantro experiment, I had to set up some "holding tanks" for plants that were wasting space in our first AeroGarden Deluxe.

Fabricating life support for the little nippers was an interesting task, and one which I wish we had tried years ago.   Our summer condo is dark, but the porch is filled with glorious light (and heat!)

That seems to be just what the squash and okra love, though. 

Going Beyond the AeroGardens

After studying the offerings of hydroponics supply stores online for hours, days, and then weeks, my conclusion was that to get what we wanted, we would have to make it.   So here is my prototype for a network of planters suitable for our Arizona porch.

The grow holes are PVC pipe fittings, and as they do not screw all the way in for a tight fit on either side of my growing surfaces (flexible kitchen chopping mats cut down to size and retrofitted with holes), I fabricated washers for them out of the clear tubing which also is used to keep the stems upright.

An office hole punch was just the right size to make the openings for the air tubes which have air stones on the end that conveniently drop into the hollow legs of the planters we already had on hand.  

The other ends of the tubing go to a 4-way valve:

Air from the pump passes one-way through a check valve to ensure that no water will spill back in the wrong direction in case of a power out.

Update on the Peppers: A New Flower

They are Still Alive!

These stems of cilantro are straight from the supermarket and I encased them in supplies from the AG's Master Gardener Kit to see if they will take root.

We use a lot of cilantro, and would like to be able to eat if fresh, but there are two factors that have kept me from trying to grow it from seed:

1)  We will only be here for a few more weeks and thus do not have time to wait for it to germinate, and

2) We do not like a lot of air conditioning in our home, and young cilantro plants are apparently not known to be heat-tolerant.

My reasoning was that if just one plant lived, it will have been a good experiment.

Speaking of roots, check this one out:

Having temporarily run out of the little baskets that come in AeroGrow's Master Gardener Kit, I used the silicon accessory that comes with a baby bottle, cutting off the tip, and making slits up the sides to allow for the growing medium to expand.  Does the Okra plant care?  Apparently not, as it is as happy as a clam.

The weight at the bottom keeps the silicon plug from popping out and a "washer" cut from a leftover piece of flexible cutting mat keeps it from popping in.  The weight is a "Bio-Mech" filter stone left over from our fish-breeding days.  In addition to helping anchor the plug, it could, in theory, neutralize nitrogenous waste. Hmmmm...

For an explanation of that plastic tubing you see above the AG label, go HERE.

UPDATE on the Cilantro: 

Unfortunately this experiment coincided with a little heat wave hereabouts and since this variety of cilantro needs cool temperatures whereas I am a heat freak, although the cuttings haven't croaked yet, I think I will yank them out and use the grow holes for something more likely to succeed.  However, this did inspire me to do some research on different varieties of cilantro, as some are easier to grow and more heat tolerant.  I have described three heat-tolerant plants that are sometimes substituted for cilantro here:  

Heat-tolerant plants that can be used in place of cilantro.

My First AeroGarden Dianthus Blossom

This plant was grown from an AeroGarden Seed Kit called Incredible Edibles, marketed for the 3-hole AG Mini.  It was "planted" on May 4 and is therefore a little over a 1 1/2 months old.  Since then we have acquired 3 more AG planters, and today I set up three 8" square "cloning stations" using leftover parts from our last fish tank.  Good bye dirt!

Closeup of the Micro-Mini

The little fountain I tore apart to make a holding cell for my basic cuttings is doing quite well.  Here is an aerial view which shows the tubing coming up out of the black post and back into the cover which I fabricated from a kitchen cutting mat.  The awkward tubing and cord at the left are where I have isolated the LED lights from the water.  The inline on/off switch is shown at the right.

The little grey spots on the cover are beads of water that form on the underside, but there is no evaporation or leakage.  this experiment has definitely been a success in my book.

I thought I would just be parking the basil in this apparatus until our new AGs arrived, but now I am thinking I will just leave the basil there and have more room in the big planters for lettuce, spinach, and okra.

Here is more detail on the tubing: 

The flexible part is standard fish tank tubing, but as that did not fit exactly in the stem coming up from the fountain, I placed the tip of an eyedropper in the stem, and pushed the tubing into the top of that.  

In this detail you can see the official AeroGrow label showing that this one was rooted from cuttings on 5/30.

As some friends have expressed concern over the compatibilities of the different baskets, I wanted to note that the baskets are really quite versatile and in my own view can be retrofitted for just about any use. 

Can't Wait

To celebrate the fact that our first Deluxe AeroGarden is three weeks old, we ordered two more.  However, I could not wait to get some new seeds started, so I got adventurous and fabricated a little device to hold some of the smaller plants and hopefully keep them alive until the new gardens arrive.

I chose the basil for this experiment because I have rooted it from hydroponic cuttings before and thought it would be the most likely to survive the abuse.

My $14.95 micro-mini wannabe is covered with a flexible cutting mat that I trimmed down to size.  I then cut holes  in it to allow insertion of the AG baskets.  The base is six inches square and I had to transplant these herbs from AG3 baskets to standard ones, as the height of my gadget is less than three inches.

I dropped 1/2 of one of the nutrient tablets that came with the herb kit into the base along with one drop of Superthirive.   The Deluxe hulking to the right of this micro planter will, I hope, provide sufficient light.  

Purple Super Hot Pepper Plant

This one is from the official AeroGarden Seed Kit,   It did not get off to as fast a start as some of the other seeds, but seems to be coming along nicely, now that it is three weeks old. 

Update on the Basil Cuttings

Here is a sprig of basil that I started from a bare stem on May 30.  It consisted of two leaves that were disproportionately large in comparison to the rest of the plants growing from the official AeroGarden Seed Kit that I planted in my first mini garden on June 4. 

Here is a shot of the parent plant, after several harvests:

This is a milestone shot because after three weeks from planting, the marigold is finally showing a few buds, and also because the plants are now large enough that we had to raise the lamp position for the first time.

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Sap Beads on the Okra

When I saw a beautiful okra seedling reaching for the sky in a photo one of my AeroGardening Forum buddies had posted, I started digging for information on this plant and serendipitously also found a seed packet on sale for 10-cents at a store just down the street. 

Why okra?  I'm looking for heat-tolerant fast-growing edible plants, and to my amazement, internet research convinced me that young okra leaves are indeed edible.   Here they are less than a week from planting:

And here they are two weeks old:

Those primary leaves are ready for the taste test!

In truth, I really did not expect them to be so delicious.  So far, I have tried them lightly sauteed with eggs and butter, and also raw, wrapped around flavored cheese cubes.  Either way, I find them a bit tastier than spinach, and quite palatable. 

Here is a close-up of a three-week old stem showing the bead saps that develop on this by now well-munched plant:

Atop this, much like an umbrella, there are still lovely 3-inch wide leaves that look almost exactly like those on our summer squash.  

Already, little leaves are getting ready to grow out from the stems I munched on.  In a few days they will be huge, and the top of the plant will be ready to snip back.

Without pruning, these fast-growing seedlings will get too tall and leggy. 

The sap beads are really quite interesting and if a comparison to orchids would be meaningful here, they apparently are an indication that the plant is healthy.  If anyone knows more about this phenomenon, I'd love to hear more about it.

Next time I am buying the spineless variety, because although those sharp looking things in this detail are soft and furry now, something tells me they could become quite prickly down the road a piece.

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