Pampered Plant

The plant in the photo is a Black Cherry tomato started from seed on November 5, 2008.

The description cherry is more to describe the color of the fruit, rather than the size of the fruit. The tomatoes are more of a medium size, and the plant is very very prolific. Each truss can produce six or more tomatoes, and the plant will continue to produce fruit for as long as it continues to grow.

Last summer I passed some of them around to my neighbors, and they all raved about the taste. I plan to grow at least one plant in the greenhouse next summer and I may simply take a cutting from this plant for that purpose.

This will be my first attempt to grow them under lights, and most likely I will have to prune the growing tip to control the height of the plant.

As for being pampered; the plant is in an Autopot with a TDS of about 2500, and a pH of 6.5. The growing media is a 50/50 mixture of coco noir and agricultural perlite. It is receiving sixteen hours of light each day, and a timer is periodically providing ventilation and humidity. That should be pretty close to being Plant Heaven.....

Florida Petite plants sure are petite

After reading my post regarding the Florida Petite tomatoes someone asked if I was sure that it is the world's smallest tomato.

At this point I would not bet the farm on that statement, but they sure are small.
The plant in this photo is all of seven inches high!

If someone has a plant with fruit that is shorter than seven inches I sure would like to see it.

Evergreenseeds.com should be Nevergreenseeds.com

Sometime back in search of unusual varieties of vegetables I placed an online order with evergreenseeds.com.

Although I received the seeds with no problem, I have yet to have any of the lettuce seeds germinate. I have tried, without success, rockwool cubes with bottom heat, moist paper towels under several temperature conditions, and over night soaking of the seeds in dilute hydrogen peroxide and water.

Not a single seed has germinated, so I wrote to their email address twice asking for either advice or replacement seeds. I have received no response.

I usually order online and have never had a problem with the products or service, however, this time was a disappointment. Going forward I will stick to the larger vendors such as Johnny Seeds, Thompson & Morgan and Jung.

As for Evergreenseeds.com, shame on you....

ps. In mid December I tried about fifty more lettuce seeds and not a single one germinated. Damn, what are the odds against that? They must have been storing these seeds since the Civil War.

Hydroponic Lettuce

The lettuce in the photo above has been growing in our basement under full spectrum fluorescent lighting for a few weeks. While in the process of changing one of the ebb and flow systems, I placed some of the plants in the greenhouse to take advantage of the afternoon sun.

I still marvel at the quality of the vegetables that I can grow hydroponically, indoors, or in the greenhouse. These plants have never been exposed to weather extremes, or insects, and have had all of their nutrient requirements met without having to expend energy searching for them.

The plants are a week or so from the salad bowl, and we have already harvested a number of plants. I am trying to have a succession of plants going by planting three or four seeds a week. My next batch will be oriental lettuce varieties using imported seed from China, Korea and Japan. That may prove interesting indeed.

I wonder if there would be a market for "gourmet lettuce" in the off season? Producing the plants does not require a great deal of effort, at least in my opinion. The results are consistent and predictable if the proper conditions are maintained. In this case; the TDS is in the 800 to 850 range, the pH is 6 to 6.5 and the photoperiod is 14 hours.

The plants above are from left to right (front row) :Antigo, Waldman's Dark Green, Antigo, (back row) Grand Rapids, Silva and Parris Island.

Indoor tomatoes - Florida Petite

Each year since I have been into hydroponic gardening I have grown tomatoes under lights during the winter. This year, for the first time, I will be trying the water farm drip ring system.

Following is a description of the variety I will be growing this year:

FLORIDA PETITE- the University of Florida, "World's Smallest Tomato Plant" very dwarf even by today's standards, HR (rugose foliage, heavy-stem, self supporting) plant. Red 3/4" fruit.

The seeds were obtained a few years ago from Tomato Growers Supply and have been stored in my freezer. For whatever reason, the supplier no longer offers these seeds.

I had grown them the first year I was into hydroponic gardening, and had some success, although I really did not know what I was doing at that time. The fruit I did get tasted more like a homegrown tomato than a cherry tomato, so I elected to grow them again this year.

The plant will be grown under a full spectrum 125 watt fluorescent light with a photoperiod of 16 hours per day. As a mild general purpose nutrient mix is recommended, I used 15 ml each of General Hydroponics three part nutrients to yield a TDS of about 1100 with a pH of 6. I consider 1100 as being a mild strength for tomatoes, as they are heavy feeders. The pump is programmed to run in cycles of a half hour on and an hour off during the photoperiod, and remain off during the time the lights are off.

This variety is a short sturdy plant with deep green foliage. The plant in the photo was started from seed on September 11th. and has buds forming at the tip.

My version of the Aerospring garden - phase II

Well it is not pretty, but it works. I should say it sprays the nutrients around within the reservoir, and it does not leak. As to living up to all the praise I have read over the years; that remains to be seen. In any event, investing fifteen dollars to build one beats the hundred and sixty dollars to buy one.

I thought it best to use 3" net pots, but I would have preferred 4" pots. The cover has a recess in the center for the Rubbermaid trademark, and I wanted avoid any problems with leaks caused by the pots being uneven.

It seems like a big waste of space to grow six plants. In the same area on my grow table I can grow almost three times as many plants in an ebb and flow system.

My main area of concern is clogging of the spray heads. Just the small amount of debris that fell into the PVC tee from tapping the holes for the heads clogged them. That is why the spray pattern in the previous post was not a full 360 degrees.

Another consideration is that it is necessary to run this system 24/7. Although the pump is a small 130 GPH unit and does not use a lot of power, I keep comparing it to the ebb and flow system running only six fifteen minutes cycles per day.

Unfortunately, it will be awhile before I can test grow in this system. It is my plan to grow some super fast growing oriental lettuce, or cabbage, but I want to complete an experiment with nutrients and Swiss chard first. This particular experiment really has my interest piqued.

My version of the Aerospring Garden

In his book, How To Hydroponics, Keith Roberto writes: "If you are looking for the best performance for the least investment, build an Aerospring." Additionally, he promises "Aeroponic basil, from seedling to skyscraper in 45 days."

I have read a great deal, both pro and con, regarding aeroponic systems, and finally, I decided to build one to satisfy my curiosity.

Future Gardens will sell you one for about $125 with pretty close to $40 shipping. Being basically frugal (cheap), I opted to build my own. After all, it is just a pump feeding a tee that has spray heads, confined in a reservoir. I had all the components on hand, except the spray heads, which I purchased for less than a dollar each.

The recommended container is a Rubbermaid Tough Tote, and I found that to be true. That particular unit has a large flat lip on top that makes for a better seal, which is very important. It is necessary to put foam tape along the inside lip of the cover to prevent the fluid from leaking when the system is in use.

Basically, the nutrients spray around inside the reservoir misting the root system providing ultimate growing conditions. So the literature says anyway...

The system was simple to construct, however, preventing leaks was another problem. The photo above shows my system under test, and it required some adjustment to get the spray heads to spray 360 degrees.

Now on to phase two.