Grow 6 Seedlings

We have had several of the new seeds sprout already. I gave them all a very diluted taste of what they will be drinking in the AeroFlo36 in about a week. Roma tomatoes look great in the grow room, getting more white eggplant too.

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.

We have zucchini

Picked our first zucchini this morning.  Just couldn't stand it any longer.  This baby is huge!  About 12 inches long and 4 inches in diameter.  We have many more on the way.  The White Eggplants are flowering nicely and we anticipate seeing some eggplant soon.  Picking Roma Tomatoes here and there.

Grow Room Video Update

We posted some photos of the peppers, eggplant, and zucchini today but also wanted to give you the broad view of the grow room.



We are ready to fill out our PowerGrower and the remaining two spots on our Ebb and Gro system with the Jalapeno peppers and Zucchini we just transferred to the AeroFlo36 system.

Changed the water and refreshed the nutrients on both PowerGrower and Ebb n Gro systems today. Taking out the Cherry Tomato plants was bittersweet but we had eaten so many that I felt it was time to move on. We did clone the plants and also started another from seed so it won't be long before we have more.

Holy Eggplants Batman

This is our first attempt at growing white eggplant and all I can say is, WOW !  These things are getting huge in a very short time.  We can't wait to see some flowers.

There is another white eggplant in this picture (about 11 o'clock) that is equally as large. 

We eat eggplant a lot in Italian recipes we make and are looking forward to seeing how this white variety does.  The fruits are round like softballs on steroids versus the elongated pear shaped purple variety.

These plants are in our Ebb and Gro system which we recently expanded due to its success in our grow room.

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.