Where did I go again?

http://frank-espanto.blogspot.com , that's where. You'll find all my posts from here and any new progress on my hydro edibles. Go there and DIGG it NOW!!!

Arugula!!!

Geez, that arugula grows fast...

Garden Change-up and Improvements

It's a new year and I want something different to eat! I'm a little bored as well so I thought that I might as well write on my blog. With all the pepper plants I had I soon realized that I produced way too many for me to eat alone, no matter how much I loved spicy stuff. The same went for the sweet basil. That stuff really takes off and I found myself giving more away than I ate. I did get some free food out of it from people that cooked it up in something though.

OK, so here's the roundup from top-left to bottom-right: green onion, Italian spice pepper (soon to be replaced with a mix of other pepper plants), garlic, just sprouted pepper seedlings, not-yet-sprouted arugula, and chives.


I've had the chives for a little while actually but I'm thinking about swapping it out for something like thyme or even another set of garlic or pepper plants. The green onions and the garlic were actually just an experiment that went suprisingly well. I grabbed them just before leaving my parents' place after the holidays. After a couple weeks the green onions trippled in growth and the garlic clove shot up to 16 inches. It would have been taller but i read that the leaves were edible and I had to take a bite to try it (it's pretty good by the way). Below you can see the garlic at about 4 inches beside a covered sprouter thing I improvised using a foam cup and clear plasic cup.

***********************EDIT*********************

Ok, just after I finished writing the above I went back to take a closer look at the arugula. It's crazy, I sewed them yesterday and I already have 2 visible sprouts pushing their way through the surface. SWEET!!!

I'm Back!

Sorry for the long hiatus folks. I suddenly got really busy and haven't had time to update. Still, there isn't much new to report. Chillis getting taller, chillis making fruit, etc etc.

Here's one of my ripening anaheims.

Update

Here's an updated pcture of the whole bunch. That tall one in the back corner is the basil. This is the last picture I took of that before I found myself picking off leaves to eat with some vietnamese takeout food. It was gooooood... Anyway, a couple of the anaheims are now flowering. I've hand polnated them so they should be on thr way to pepper making. Meanwhile the spanish spice(pepper) is huge. I think it may actually touch the plant media in a couple days. Then I'll have to suspend t somehow so it doesn't get wet during flood cycles. And by the way, yeah, I know its crowded but I'm still looking for a larger space for me to construct a whole new rig.

Just Cuz

Spanish Spice about 24 hours later.

Update

The Spanish Spice is flowering and peppering everywhere. Here's a cool pic I took of a flower and a starting pepper.


Remember that pepper from a couple post back? Here it in now.

Crowding

Hmmmm... we have a problem again. With 11 plants at least 1ft tall and spreading out, and one set of sprouting Poblanos in the front, the plants are getting crowded. I'm thinking that the best method to resolve this issue is to build an identical frame and stack it on top of the existing one. Of course this new structure will stand on the floor and not the cabinet it is sitting on now. That would make a 6ft tall duplex box with 2 separate light sources. I may even get a large reservoir and have the whole thing stand on that. Or I can even figure out something with some snap together wire shelves I have. I'll update as I get more ideas.

Pepper Sightings

The Spanish Spice is growing at a good rate. Friday this particular pepper was still a flower. Now it's about an inch long. There are other peppers forming and more flower buds growing in.

The Habanero has flowers everywhere but no pepper formation yet. I've even pollinated the bloomed flowers manually to try and speed it along. But it's sort of hard with flowers so small and hanging upside down.

The Anaheims have a whole lot of buds but no flowers yet. I've added some calcium to my nutrient solution to help set flowers. I'll go get some magnesium in the next couple of days for even more flower set insurance.

The Poblanos are in the same boat as the Anaheims.

The Serranos seem to be the slowest to develop. There aren't even any buds yet. It's a little strange seeing that those were the first I planted. Otherwise they look healthy.

The sweet basil spurted out of nowhere. It's about as tall as the Spanish Spice now.

Habanero News

It looks like the habanero was the first to flower. It kind of suprised me when I came home from work.

Upgraded Enclosure

I told you guys last time that I was going to upgrade my system because my Spanish Spice pepper plant was outgrowing the of one. Now, after minutes of planning, a short trip to OSH, and about 6 bucks later:

Here you can see my new box from the side with a mylar curtain pulled down so we can see inside.

This shot is from another angle looking in from the same side opening.

Here's the shot from the front with the main mylar curtain down. About 95% of the light from the lamp is reflected back into the box but we can still see though the curtain without light spilling out into the room. Isn't that cool?

Same angle as above with mylar half drawn up.

More side window.

Good Excuse for Another Upgrade

My Spanish Spice hybrid plant is getting taller than the walls of my grow... thingy. It's not really a closet or cabinet. I guess it's just pieces of wood with mylar arranged into a box. Anyway, when I closet the lid the top of the plant touches it. I need to do something to raise the top a few inches. I'll probably do something like a table with 4 legs that rest on the existing walls. The light will be mounted under the new table/lid thing. I probably won't use the reflector for the bulb anymore because it would actually limit the spread of light inside the box. We'll see.



Just another progress report: Habanero below has tons of buds. Woohoo!

Sprouts Coming Along

Here are a couple more poblano sprout pictures. They seem to be growing trouble free in the hydro system. Of course I still have to see if they damp off but I don't see it coming from the looks of things.

Sprout!

Poblanos!!! The first 4 seeds I started from the border bowl germinator are now starting to sprout. The picture directly below is one of the my mini pots with 2 poblanos just coming to the surface.


About 12 hours later here they are again. You can see the one that's about a centimeter high starting to unfurl its cotyledons(first pair of leaves).

The media being used for the grow pots is a mix of clay rocks, pea gravel, and play sand, in that order from bottom to top. The seeds were planted at the bottom of the sand layer. That gave maybe a half a centimeter for the seeds to grow through before they hit light. As noted before, these pots were sitting in my full strength hydro system the whole time from when they just had tap roots a few millimeters long.

Even More Germination... and More

I seriously have to order more border bowls from taco bell. When I came home from work today almost all the poblano seeds had tap roots sticking out. There were only 3 left. I decided to use the space left over from planting out the started seeds by popping in some jalapeno seeds I saved. Those seeds are fairly fresh but I hope I get something out of them.

Also the pumice planting media is working out really good! It holds water well without having a wet surface. From what I read on the net chili plants don't like "wet feet" and pumice does a really good job of draining off after absorbing its limit of water.

The anaheims are sitting in coconut coir pots that also help with good drainage but I ran across a problem today. Roots easily grow through the sides of those things and with them hanging out in the light it's just asking for a mold problem. So I just took some square plastic pots and set the coco pots directly in them. Easy fix.

Germination and More

Well another seed germinated in my patented Taco Bell border bowl germinator. I forgot to mention in the last post that these seeds are poblano peppers. What, another pepper? Yep, cause I like em. I also checked on the seeds I already planted and moved into my hydroponic system. The tap roots are about twice as long as they were yesterday and growing down into the media(that's a good sign of course). This also means that they're doing fine in the full strength nutrient solution, saving me from having to do more work. That solution, by the way, is at 15-85-55. Yeah that's what it says on the bottle. Seemed crazy to me too but it's been in the system for over 2 weeks now and everything looks good.

The peppers I have now are poblano, jalapeno, habanero, anaheim, and serrano. The habanero has a bunch of little buds on it and i can't wait to make an omelettte out of them.

And here are my anaheims sitting in the upgraded flood tray. I'm trying out a different media with these, pumice. So far so good.

Lots of Changes(continued)

I upgraded the flow tray to a 3 gallon transparent tupperware type container. It took me a while to find one that sat perfectly on top of the existing reservoir. Actually I found the same reservoir container at OSH and set different containers on the lid until I found one that was perfect. Sure I got some weird stares from the staff but its not like I cared. Anyway, I drilled straight through the bottom of the flood tray and lid of the reservoir and friction fit a 3/8 vinyl hose with about 3/4 of an inch sticking up from the bottom of the new tray.


You can see where I threaded the hose and attached a t-adapter with short hoses going into the grooves around the bottom of the tray. That groove was an extra bonus and helps completely siphon out the nutrient solution after the flood cycle. Cool points... That second thing sticking up is a second hole drilled and threaded as in the first hose to act as the overflow. It stands about 2 and a half inches allowing a flood to that height.

I sort of regretted placing the overflow so close to the t adapter as it was a bastard working in such close quarters. As you can see below, the flood test was a success!

Lots of Changes

Phew, a lot of changes and additions have happened since the last update. There's so much in fact that I have to separate everything into 2 posts.

This first post shows my Taco Bell Border Bowl germinator. Yes, a Border Bowl from Taco Bell. I used the paper towel germination method in which seeds are placed in between or on top of a folded moist paper towel. As you can see from the second and third picture, the seeds placed on top of the paper towel had a pretty good rate of germination. The third picture shows the seeds placed in between the folds. Out of all those seeds only the one to the bottom right started. All of these seeds have only been in germinator for about a day and a half. They've gone through about 14 hours of darkness and 22 hours of light. I'll give it up to 2 weeks to let the others start up.

After planting the 4 with tap roots I set them in the old ebb 'n' flow.

Thinning, Separating, Upgrading... Peating

The chili plants have blasted off and some of the pots were getting crowded so I picked up a plant tray at OSH and some of those little peat pellets that expand when you dunk them in water. The latter was because I realized that I didn't have enough net pots if I put each plant in its own pot. One of the basils wilted after I moved it but there's already new growth so I expect it to come back after a couple new leaves form. I also put aluminum foil all over the place to help reflect useful light. I wanted to buy some reflective duct tape but that stuff was unexpectedly expensive.

Dual Updates

I have 2 pieces of news to report today, as I watch game 5 of the SJ Sharks and Dallas Stars series. GO SHARKS! Anyway, I just noticed this morning that a few of my chili plants have gotten taller than my basil. The basil was the tallest just a day ago. I had to rearrange my pots so the now taller chilies don't block the shorter plants.

Also, I took a few of those pizza box supports, that you used to use as a kid to hold footballs, to raise the flood trays from the lid of the reservoir. I did this because I noticed that the solution could not completely drain with the surface tension clinging to the bottoms of the trays. Now the solution drains back into the reservoir completely. I always knew I could use those things for more than just helping my pizza and holding up footballs for punts.

System Upgrade

Well I switched out the reservoir with a roughneck bin. I used the existing flood trays and just rerouted the water pump line through the sides so they could be set on top. The solution drains though the bottom of the trays and through holes drilled into the lid of the reservoir. The main water line runs up through the lid and is split with a T-adapter. The system is runs quieter and less light gets though to the solution.

Spinach Again

Since the temperature of the solution went up over 70 degrees there has again been noticeable growth, this time, with the spinach. The burst in growth, I think, was probably caused by a combination of the warm solution, a new clay growing media, and extra time to adapt to that media.

As you can see, I've thinned out most of the withering leaves. Hopefully the energy being sapped by the dying leaves is redirected towards more leaves.

Warm Solution = Good

It was a pretty warm day today and I noticed that the temperature of my nutrient solution went up to 74 degrees Fahrenheit. From this morning to now, when I just checked, it looks like there's bee a significant growth of all my peppers(even the one I think is dying) and basil. The new growth is noticeable to the naked eye. Now I have to figure out a way to safely use an old aquarium heater in the styrofoam nutrient solution reservoir.

Spinach Update

The spinach is looking a little off. Either it is not getting enough iron or it is over watered. I'll monitor it for now.

That one Serrano chili looks like it's about to croak as well, but again, I still have 5 more of those guys. It's normal to have 1-2 plants go out on you anyway.

Chili Leaf Curl Virus

Hmmm... after reading a few articles online I've determined that one of my chili plants has the chili leaf curl virus. Some of the leaves look similar to the above pictured plant. I'll throw on some pictures of my plant when I get home. The scientific name escapes me right now. It's no biggie really. I'll try treating with some extra nitrogen and potassium to encourage some more leaf growth as some articles suggest. If I end up tossing that plant I have 4 others of the same chili. Plus it would open up a spot for a cayenne pepper plant that I have some seeds for. Anyone know of a reliable way to germinate and sprout seeds hydroponically in a net pot?

Planned Expansion

Over the last month or so my plants have been doing really well and that has motivated me enough to try and expand and other wise polish my existing system. Basically I'm going to do a rebuild to a slightly larger scale only keeping the light source and pump from the original system. I'm thinking of using one of those opaque rubbermaid containers for for storage from OSH.

I've seen homemade ebb & flow hydroponic systems using one of 2 of these stacked. One for the reservoir and one for the flood. I've also seen that configuration used for aeroponic systems. I think the use of 2 bins is a waste of space and money unless you're making 2 separate systems with each bin. Instead of stacking I want to find a nice fitting tray or tupperware of some sort that can go into the reservoir bin. I'll either secure that to the sides or glue it to the lid of the bin. That way I'd have a completely enclosed single bin ebb & flow system. Of course the flood tray has to bee deep enough to eventually support full root growth of whatever plants I stick in my system. I can just imagine a whole bin lid-full of spinach. I'd do tomatoes but I'm not motiveted when I actually hate raw tomatoes. I may get 1 plant so I can have some to cook with. I also hear that they take over wherever they are growing. Anyway back to the lid. I'll cut out anywhere from 8 - 12 holes for the net pots to drop into. I haven't actually bought a bin yet so I can't say exactly. It would basically have the same concept as the below picture, only bigger.That kit is about 200 bucks! The first thing a person like me thinks is, "I can build that for below 50!". It would be even cheaper if I found a good sturdy syrofoam cooler. And the hole cutting would be way easier in a foam lid. Although I don't think I'd want to place those net pots that close together.

My Hydroponic Garden: Update

It took a whole day before I realized that the pictures I had on the other days post were old pictures. Here are a few of what my system looks like now.

You can see my hygrothermometer here:

I added walls because the light made it hard to sleep at night:

Serrano chili, basil and spinach: