Ann's Air Gardens

I May Have to Pull the Plug on my Awesome Cucumbers

They are beautiful but I may be offline for a few weeks or more due to a family emergency, or if a miracle happens, and I DO BELIEVE IN MIRACLES, then less time.

It is no fault of the cucumbers, which are SO cute!  But nobody will be here to care for them, so they may get tossed.  Or not...

UPDATE:  Haven't been able to pollinate, but when I checked the porch on Feb 3, most of the plants were still alive.  I ate some peas, beans, tomatoes, and one cucumber in passing.  Did not have time to take photos.

I WILL BE PREDOMINANTLY OFFLINE for a few more WEEKS, but all is going to be well.  Very big thanks to all those who have been wishing us well. 

Komatsuna is a Good Spinach Substitute

Everyone in my family loves spinach, but it doesn't meet my main gardening requirements as it is not fast-growing or heat-tolerant.  Fortunately, there is a good spinach substitute that is.  Propagated by root division, it does not meet my "roots easily from cuttings" requirement, but we can use division to get more plants.  Komatsuna does well in the little pots that grow alongside our AeroGardens or out on the porch.

It is a cut-and-come again plant.  The smaller leaves make a great salad green, and the larger ones are good in soup or stir fry. 

Trying Tomatillos

Since it appears that the tomatoes are likely to pull through out on the porch this winter, I decided to try tomatillos, too.  After getting this plant off to a good start in the AeroGarden, I replanted it in clay pellet grow rocks and put it out. 

This particular plant is a cutting that I took off the top of another plant and then kept in a glass of water until it rooted.  I put it back in the AeroGarden until it looked strong enough to be taken outdoors. 

Here is a collage of photos showing my passive ebb-and-flow container and how I drain it by hand once or twice a day:

The pink handles are pipe cleaners, which work well, and are inexpensive and easy to replace if they get dirty.  These are containers I stole from my SmartSpin system, but any nesting containers will do.  The inner box has holes in the bottom for the nutrient solution to drain, and the outer one has both a fill line and a drain line written on it.   The markings can be removed easily with baking soda and water when it is time to clean them up for use with another plant.  

I "planted" the hollow PVC pipe with the plant in case a stake is needed.  A small dowel will fit in it when it becomes necessary to expand the height.

The small band of green velcro is temporary, just to support the plant until it is strong enough to stand on its own.

Often when the environment is switched on a plant like this, the buds will dry up and fall off, so I meant to move this out a bit sooner.  No matter, though, as if these do not make it, soon others will appear.  This is what they look like now:

 

One of the indoor buds is starting to show some color:  

This is what the plants looked like in the AeroGarden when they were three weeks old:

The little one at the left front is a lipstick pepper, and behind it to the right is a pod of green purslane, but the rest are tomatillos. 

I have read some controvery online as to how whether or not you can hand-pollinate tomatillos just by shaking them, like tomatoes, or not, and whether you need more than one plant to succeed.  I hope to be able to answer these questions soon from first hand experience. 

Exchanging Links

I received an e-mail from the owner of TheAeroGarden.co.uk/ today offering to exchange links.  As I am always looking around for blogs and sites by other AeroGarden owners and enthusiasts, it seemed like a good idea to accept.  As he stated:

The AeroGarden is mini hydroponic garden for beginners and experts alike.

There are a few members from across the pond on the AeroGarden Growers Community Forum as well, so I hope everyone has had a chance to check that forum out as well.

Exchanging links is a good idea and anyone who has an interest in AeroGardening or hydroponic gardening in general is most welcome to come forward here. 

  An eggplant one month old in the AeroGarden.

Another eggplant started in the AeroGarden but moved out into a passive ebb-and-flow planter on the porch.  This one has a bud, but the flower has not yet opened.

A Good Question

Although I'm not a beer drinker, I can always find something interesting to read over on a blog written by one of my readers, Red Icculus:

Beer, Hydroponics, and Food  

Red left a comment on my last post with a question that I'll answer here in case others wondered the same thing.

I had mentioned using a "weak solution" of the GH Flora Series nutrients to get my scallion experiment started and Red asked for clarification as to what I meant by "weak."

Here is my response:

Since this is my first experiment with the scallions it is still unclear exactly what concentration of nutrients should be used, but my general rule is to start all new plants (when they are still forming roots) with 1/4 strength nutrients.  So in this case where I premixed one liter of water with 3 ml "gro" and 2 ml "micro" and 1 ml "bloom" (3:2:1) then when starting out I poured the nutrient solution 1/4 way to my drain line and topped it off with filtered water.  That is my "weak solution."  When new leaves start forming, then I will move up to medium strength, which is diluted 1/2. 

Once the plants are well-established, I will go to full strength.  However, some of the water will evaporate out, leaving a higher concentration, so from that point on, I will top off by alternating between plain water and nutrients.  I will also be taking the containers to the sink periodically to give the roots and rocks a good rinse and change the solution as warranted.

Now I am going back over to Red-Icculus.com to ask Red where to get some of that Panda film shown in the post about growing things in the AeroGarden without seed kits.  White on top and dark underneath, that looks like the perfect material for fabricating replacement labels!

UPDATE on the Panda film:  An eBay seller indicates that the 3 mil panda film (mylar) will not prevent light from passing through, but that the 6 mil will.   More on this in Red's comment below, but in short, I had not heard of the Rockwool Block Covers before, and they are perfect as they will be easier to cut into circles as they already have the center hole punched out...and they are affordable and available in small quantities.

Growing Scallions in Water

The scallions tasted so good in that Amaranth Soup I mentioned in the previous post that it seemed like a good idea to learn more about growing them hydroponically.  Not wanting to wait a month to start from seed, I bought a bunch at the supermarket with roots still attached.

Several gardeners have posted comments on various gardening forums about how easy it is to grow new scallions by just cutting the bottoms off the ones they bought at the grocery store. Not finding any pictures, so I decided to try it and take some photos to post here:

In the first test I planted just a few tips  in a very small container.  "Planted" on December 13, this is how they looked after a couple weeks.  Happy with this result, I bought several more bunches and put all of the tips in a shallow container of hydroton rocks:

  Here the inner container is shown draining between a couple of table knives.  To the left is a container marked with the date started, a drain line, and a fill line. 

The drain "water" is a weak solution of General Hydroponics Flora series nutrients in the ration 3:2:1 (Gro, Micro, Bloom)

I premix the solution in 1 liter Smart Water bottles, and, as necessary, pour in new solution to bring the water level up to the drain line, then lower the inner container back down slowly until the solution reaches the fill line. Since this is a simple manual ebb and flow system, doing this at least once a day keeps everything clean and provides enough oxygen to the roots to make these plants happy. 

In the past, I had not kept scallions on hand as often as we would have liked because we don't use up a whole bunch that often and I hate for them to go to waste.  This way we will be able to add a little fresh organic scallion flavor to soup and salad at will, without any fuss. 

Over time, I expect to figure out new and better ways to do this, but for now, this is an exciting enough experiment for starting out the new year.