New Lettuce Grow

We have run out of room again in all the big systems so we have chosen several different lettuces to grow in the AeroFlow36. We started seeds today for Vivian, Boston Bibb, and Cimmaron. We added a few of the long time favorites, Romain and Arugula so we could enjoy some great summer salads.

Grow 6

Well it has been a while since we did another major grow in the indoor room. We were busy helping all of our friends getting ready for outdoor spring planting by starting their plants for them in our AeroFlo36 not to mention all the Rion Prestige Greenhouse activities which we call the Berry House. Hey, what are friends for right?

We love tomatoes but I have to tell you, growing them indoors with an eight foot ceiling is challenging - especially if you hang grow lights from the ceiling. We have traditionally grown only heirloom and organic seeds but I am trying a hybrid now out of necessity - height limitations.

We have three tomato plants, two indicate that they are bush tomatoes (Bush Steak Hybrid and Bush Early Girl) and we are also planting a Tumbler Hybrid but it is not a bush tomato (just trying it out).

In addition we have planted Romaine since we eat it so fast, organic cucumber (another climbing wonder), Zucchini (we have had great success with these), Jalapeno, Red and Yellow Sweet Peppers.

Another test is for the Ultimate Plant Cage (http://globalgardenfriends.com/the-ultimate-plant-cage/). We have a challenge with our peppers and tomatoes getting top heavy with the fruits and our Ebb n Gro system does not have nice insets for PVC pipe like the PowerGrower does to help support the plants. We have tried netting, but it didn't work as we thought it would to support the plants from the PowerGrower.

So with the new grow, a new product test and some new plant tests...stay tuned. We planted seeds today and will be back to you soon on the results

Grow Room Update

We are busting at the seams here in the grow room.  The eggplants are taking over with elephant ear sized leaves, we have harvested several zucchini, cucumbers, yellow peppers, and of course fresh romaine lettuce each day.

Our Roma tomatoes are doing much better now that we have raised the pH level to about 6.5 on average and reduced our nutrient levels to the minimum recommendations of Canna.

Grow 5 Planted

We have seeded Grow 5 with 4 Jalapeno, 4 Zucchini, and of course more Romaine Lettuce. Germination should occur over 7-10 days and we will bring you more info then. We continue to harvest the Romaine we plant almost every day. We start several new seeds every few days as the germination rate is quick, and once in the AeroFlo36, we get full heads in about 7 days.

Grow 5 planning

We are documenting "Grows" with new plants we have not germinated or taken to maturity in the grow room. We do sub-grows (like Grow 4a, 4b, etc) each week that are mainly romaine lettuce almost weekly. It is taking about 2 1/2 weeks to go from seed to table with our Romaine so I thought documenting each would be a bit tedious and boring for you.

Grow 5 will have 2 new heirloom plants, jalapeno peppers and zucchini, and of course we will put some lettuce and other fast consumables in the grow. We have the Rockwool cubes soaking now and they will be ready tomorrow. Since we have not grown these plants before, they will start from seed.

EZ Clone Up and Running

We received an EZ Clone 60 from Santa this year so I put it into immediate service with some cuttings from our huge Cherry Tomato plant and our healthiest Roma, Pepper, Basil, and Spinach plants.  I used Olivia's Cloning Gel and Solution to get the cuttings off to a great start.



We will start using the AeroFlo36 exclusively as our starter system for our large plants while dedicating it to lettuces and herbs.  The PowerGrower and Ebb n Gro systems have proven themselves with Hydroton as a growing medium.  We have 2 empty modules on each, waiting for the cucumber and white eggplants to be transferred from the AeroFlo36 once matured.

Grow 5 seedlings are doing very well.  Nothing exciting in this grow, just more romaine lettuce to keep the family fed.

Grow 4 Planted

We finally got to plant a few new seeds this week.  Grow 4 consists of:

     1 Fennel (the others from previous Grows are doing very well)
     2 Red Shard (new plant)
     2 Spinach (new seed pack)
     2 Cucumber (new plant)
     2 White Eggplant (new plant)
     2 Mint (new plant)
     2 Leek
     2 Romaine Lettuce

We will continue to update you as we progress.  Most of these seeds germinate in the 10-14 day range.  Hopefully we will have some room to put these plants by the time they grow out of the AeroFlo36.  Interestingly, this unit has become our defacto standard for post germination planting.  Although the lettuces stay until maturity, the size of our other plants have necessitated transplanting out of this "nursery" system.

Grow 4 Planning

Now that we have Grow 3 coming to an end, harvesting lettuces, basil, and parsley (wish I could say tomatoes) from Grow 2, it is now time to start planning Grow 4.

We have chosen Rockwool cubes (based on tests in Grow 3) for all future germinations.  We have decided to plant the following:

     2 Cucumbers (new plant for us)
     2 Red Shard (new plant for us)
     2 White Eggplant (new plant for us)
     1 Spinach (from a new seed packet)
     2 Leeks
     2 Romaine Lettuce
     2 Fennel
     2 Mint (new plant for us)

We trust our lettuce consumption will keep pace and that we will have a supply of basil from Grow 2 and Grow 3.  As we continue to understand germination, vegetative and generative stage durations for these plants in our various systems we will hopefully have "complete" salads, vegetables, and herbs for our family needs.

Big Harvest

Took 6 lettuce plants out of the AeroFlo36 today.  Salad for dinner tonight (and a few more nights too).  We transplanted many of the Grow 3 plants into the AeroFlo36 today.  I have to tell you that my fears of the Rapid Rooter cubes came true.  Very "crumbly" medium - especially when it comes to transplanting.  Rockwool and STG are no problem to transplant.  I am still using STG hail in my net cups around the transplanted seedling cube.

We took a fairly equal number of Rapid Rooter and Rockwool seedlings into the AeroFlo36 from Grow 3.  Only two STG seedlings were taken due to the slower growth rate, and well, we had enough for a transfer in this grow.  I still have Grow 3 seedlings germinating.  Two Spinach seedlings !  I am going to give them another week or so, then see if we can transplant.  One is in Rockwool, one in Rapid Rooter.

I think I am going to move forward with Rockwool for seed germination on future grows due to the results and observations during Grow 3.

Grow 1 and 2 Plants Exploding

Our AeroFlo36 and PowerGrower continue prove themselves as very good investments.  Not only have we seen great progress on our Grow 2 plants placed in the AeroFlo36 but also the two plants (Roma Tom and Basil) that we kicked back from the PowerGrower from Grow 1 that we thought would die.  Check out the root mass now on the Grow 1 Basil that is recovering nicely:

The Arugula adds more leaves every day while the Yellow Peppers aren't far behind in veg.  I  must find a home for these peppers in the PowerGrower soon (or maybe an Ebb and Flow system test?  Hmmm).  That little Leek in P1 below next to the yellow peppers is sporting good growth too.

The Buttercrunch lettuce seems to just love the AeroFlo36 as seedlings from Grow 2 are doing wonderfully. Our original Buttercrunch plant from Grow 1 is getting huge in the PowerGrower.  It may be salad time for that one in the next week.  The Buttercrunch from Grow 1 was planted as a seed on Sept. 18.  Wow, seven weeks from seed to table.  Try that in dirt!

We can't leave out the Basil......so hard to get fresh Basil where I live, not to mention Italian Parsley!  I "staked" the Basil plant tonight as it was getting a little top heavy.  Another lesson learned.  STG hail is a great medium until you start using it for tall, heavy plants.  It is light and fluffy....and unless you really pack it in (and I mean really!), it seems as it has a problem supporting these plants.  Haven't tried those little pebbles (Hydroton) yet as it has a lot of pre-use maintenance.  Maybe another test to add in the book...(Ebb & Flow, Hyrdoton, LED???)

Grow 3 - Cube Test Results Day 4

The results are in, and it appears that the Rapid Rooters are leading the pack.  They were the first to show signs of germination (Romaine Lettuce) after 3 days.  The seed packet indicated a 5-10 day germination cycle on these seeds.  Wow.

The Romaine is in the far left column.  Four out of five seeds germinated so far.  Second column (from left) has Basil in the top three cubes (going down) and the last two are Roma tomatoes, the far right column - my dreaded spinach.

The STG cubes are getting smoked so far with only two Romaine seeds germinating in the bottom two cubes of the first column.

We can see the beginning of other seeds germinating (as of today) but nothing confirmed as of this posting.  As of now, STG is dead last in this three horse race.

The Rockwool cubes are running in second after four days.  We have progress on the Romaine as we did in the Rapid Rooters, however, the activity didn't show until late yesterday and early this morning.

As you can see, we have fewer seeds that germinated (only bottom three in first column) and no signs in any of the other Rockwool cubes.  The tray with all the cubes shows the three in comparison.  All seeds are planted in the same order as to number of cubes per type of plant and layout in the tray.

Grow 3 is comprised of:

Basil - 9 Plants (3 Rapid Rooter, 3 STG, 3 Rockwool)
Romaine Lettuce - 15 Plants (5 Rapid Rooter, 5 STG, 5 Rockwool)
Roma Tomatoes - 6 Plants (2 Rapid Rooter, 2 STG, 2 Rockwool)
Spinach - 12 Plants (4 Rapid Rooter, 4 STG, 4 Rockwool)

Grow 3 Experiment - Planting Strategy

Grow 3 will be an experiment with three cube mediums.  In our first planting, Grow 1, we used Sure to Grow (STG) cubes and had pretty abysmal results.  We thought our methodology may have been flawed and determined we would try STG again to be fair.  In our second grow, Grow 2, we used Rockwool cubes using a Rockwool conditioning solution and a different planting/germination methodology and had very good results.  We had some Rapid Rooter cubes on hand and determined an experiment with all three was warranted.

Grow 3 will use Rapid Rooter, STG, and Rockwool cubes using the same germination methodology as we employed in Grow 2.  We will plant Romaine, Roma Tomatoes, Basil, and the dreaded Spinach.  We have yet had spinach germinate (maybe bad seeds?).  We will plant each medium with a series of the same seeds and document the results.  The medium that produces the best will be the medium we use for all future Grows (until Santa Clause brings me a cloning machine).

Grow 2 Transplanted

We spent a few hours in the grow room yesterday installing the Nutramist machine and transplanting Grow 2 seedlings.  Parsley, Buttercrunch, Romaine, Yellow Peppers, Arugula, Leeks and Fennel were all put into the AeroFlo36.  Roma and Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Grow 2 Leeks and Fennel were transplanted into the PowerGrower.  We now have the second HID light activated over the PowerGrower sporting a 1,000 watt SolarMax metal halide bulb.



Nutrient concentration was increased to 1160 ppm, with a pH reduction to 5.8 for the PowerGrower plants.  Previously we had these plants in the AeroFlo36 with nutrient levels around 780 ppm and pH at 6.2ish.  The plants were all big enough where full strength nutrients made sense.

Our C.A.P. Hum-1 humidity controller manages the humidification level in the room.  The Nutramist machine activates when the humidity drops below 40% and is deactivated when humidity levels reach 50%.

Grow 2 Seed Germination

Grow 2 continues to show fantastic progress.  The seeds in this grow, from the same seed packages used in Grow 1, were placed in Rockwool plugs soaked overnight in Europonic Rockwool Conditioner. We planted red and yellow sweet peppers, spinach, buttercrunch, romaine, arugula, parsley, leeks and fennel.

A significant difference between Grow 1 and Grow 2 included the use of the "plug tray".  We believe that this tray allows more airflow around the seed plug, as well as within the tray (notice holes between the tray plug rows).  We have not added any water to the tray since inserting the seeds into the Rockwool plugs.  We have not seen any mold, fungus, or algae growth on these plugs as we did with the 98 STG cubes used in Grow 1 that were placed (packed) into germination tray.  Grow 2 seeds were planted about 7 days ago.  Humidity dome was removed for photos.  The plug tray sits on top of a standard flat with approximately 3/4 inch of water in the bottom of the flat.  The plugs in this tray do not touch the water in the flat.  The water is in the flat is there to help keep moisture / humidity under the dome.

Above you can see a close up of our first yellow pepper plant germinating from Grow 2.  Other pepper seeds have started to form primary growth.  Seed packet indicated normal germination rate of 10 to 25 days.  We have seen germination after 7 days.  Exciting!

Our fennel grew about a half an inch between yesterday afternoon and this morning.  We are now seeing the first leaves from the seed appear.  These leaves were not seen yesterday.  An overnight wonder!  The leek seeds in the row directly to the left of the fennel (far right) are also showing progress and we anticipate we will see their first leaves in another day.

Grow 2 was germinated under "dark" conditions until we saw the first signs of leaves (buttercrunch, romaine, and arugula) and then began a 16 on / 8 off light cycle under a T5 florescent lamp.  We are now planning Grow 3 and experiment with Rapid Rooter plugs, Rockwool plugs, and Sure To Grow (STG) cubes all in one modular tray.

Seed germination update

Grow 2 is turning out great. We used Rockwool plugs in a plug tray, pretreated with Europonic Rockwool Conditioner. The  buttecrunch, romain, and arugula all showed their first leaves after three days. At six days now, we have leeks and fennel starting to emerge.

Grow 1 plants survived the transfer to our Aeroflo36 except a few seedlings we knew weren't looking good. Roma and cherry toms are almost doubling in size each day, basil isn't far behind. Grow 1 was started in STG cubes with a 25-30% germination rate, but again, I think that was due to my performance vs STG.

Grow 3 experiment will have Rapid Rooter plugs, STG cubes, and Rockwool plugs all in same germination tray, same nutrients, and seeds to see which germination medium produces better results.