Journal January 6, 2016 - Our mild winter has vanished.

December was the warmest December locally since they began keeping records, and warmer by several degrees!  It was t-shirt weather on Christmas, even a local golf course reopened for a few days.

That said,  our mild winter went poof, literally overnight. The night temperatures have been from below zero to low single digits and the ground is now frozen solid. The day temperatures have been in the teens, today we have a heat wave with the temperature at 25 degrees. I braved the cold to get a pruning tool from the tool shed and thought I'd check the greenhouse, even though it is empty. Good grief, 85 degrees in here! Turn on some music, grab a chair and let Old Sol warm these creaky old bones. It felt so good that, Sol cooperating, I may make it a daily ritual.

The Gentilina lettuce is coming along nicely now.

'Gentilina' is an premium Italian lettuce variety, usually found in mesclun mixes which produces an open loose head of slightly savoyed, crinkled and ruffled leaves.
Lettuce 'Gentilina' is good for baby leaf use or can be grown to full maturity. It holds well in summer heat and has good resistance to bolting. The rich green colour and nice texture make this a premium salad selection.

It is one of the easiest, trouble free lettuces you can grow. It's a cut-and-come-again, that is, if you pick the outer leaves, the plant will continue to grow. Given the right conditions, this type of lettuce will produce leaves for three months or more. 30 days for babyleaf or 55 days to maturity. 

It takes a while for the roots to develop, but once they do the plants really put on a spurt of growth.

Today I refreshed the nutrients and changed the tanks.  One of the nice things about aeroponics is how clean the process is.  The photo above shows the used nutrients, they look as crystal clear as they did the day I placed them in the system.

Journal December 23, 2015 - Gentilina lettuce

After having received 14 hours of light for the last several days the Gentilina lettuce seedlings were ready to be planted.

Once again I have decided to grow them aeroponically.  Although it is possible to grow more plants in a flood and drain system, the aeroponic systems are easier to maintain, assuming you have no leaks.

The plants will have a photoperiod of 12 hours, with an intensity of just about 5,000 foot candles.  That intensity is not necessary,  however, it should not harm the plants.

After my morning walk I took a look around our property to see if the unusual warm weather was having an effect on the plants.  The foundation plants are still green, the gazania is putting out new growth, dill seed is germinating, and the chives are thriving.

Christmas is forecast to be warmer here in upstate New York than it will be in Los Angeles.  The greenhouse is still open, with the forecast for the warmer temperatures to continue into next week, it will probably remain open into January.

I am not complaining, it could stay this way and I would not mind at all.....

Journal December, 6, 2015 - Seed starting

The Gentilina lettuce seeds have been placed into horticubes to further develop prior to being placed into the aeroponic systems.

In my opinion, horticubes are far superior to rockwool, in that they do not have to be pH adjusted and are almost impossible to over water.

That said, I find the pre-punched holes in the cubes are far too big for tiny seedlings, like lettuce.  To overcome this, prior to placing the seedlings in the cubes, I use the end an artist's brush to punch a small hole on the bottom of the cubes for the seedlings.  Using tweezers and the artist brush I place the seedlings in the holes and "tuck them in."

The cubes are fine as is for larger seedlings like cucumbers, but work better for me using the above method for small seedlings.

Once tucked in, the seedlings are placed under 2 24" T5 grow lights until they have a few true leaves and roots showing from the cubes.

Using the 1/4" tube I can exhale CO2 into the tray a few times a day to help the seedlings along.

 

Journal December, 2015 - Seeds sprouted in 48 hours.

It may be difficult to see in the above photo, however, every one of the Gentilina seeds have sprouted within 48 hours of being placed in a moist coffee filter.  The filter was placed in a plastic bag, which was placed near a light source.

This illustrates the importance of having fresh seed, for lettuce in particular.

This will be my swan song in terms of Fairy Gardens, although I have found making them an enjoyable process.  They have been placed in my den, on a shelf under an LED grow light.  All of the plants I have used are terrarium plants, so they will require little maintenance.

Journal December 2, 2015 Fairy Gardens

Making the Fairy Garden with Ava turned out to be such an enjoyable process that I decided to make a few more.  There is enough space under one of the LED grow lights in my den to accommodate three or four small gardens, so that is my plan at this point.

Today I started seeds for Gentilina lettuce to be grown in two of the aeroponic units.  It was necessary to purchase seed, so I placed an order with Alisorganics.com.  The seeds were received yesterday, however, the sell by date is only three weeks away.

That is normally not a problem, but with lettuce is it definitely will be a problem.  The seeds were placed in the refrigerator in an attempt to prolong their viability.

Journal November, 25, 2015 - Completed Fairy Garden

Ava was here today and she completed her domed fairy garden.  We have a layer of gravel for drainage,  landscape fabric to prevent the soil from getting into the gravel, soil with charcoal for odor control, gravel to maintain moisture and prevent fungus gnats.  In addition, we added Osmocote timed fertilizer, so it is a very low maintenance garden.

She is really really really proud of her project, and well she should be.  As for me, it made my day so see her  so enjoy working with plants.

Grandchildren are the best!
 

Journal November 24, 2015 - Fairy Garden Started

On her last visit my granddaughter Ava wanted to speak to me in private, so I knew something was up.  She wants to make a present for her parents for Christmas, with of course my help.

We have kind of settled on a Fairy Garden, so the above photo shows the preliminary arrangement.  On hand, I had the container, ground cloth and figurine, however, it was necessary to purchase the plants, activated charcoal and cacti and succulent planting mix.  Making a short trip to the local reservoir, I was able to collect several niece pieces of drift wood for accent pieces, so on her next visit we will put the finishing touches on the garden.

At this point the olive and fig trees are still in the greenhouse getting their chill, and last night they got a good one, as the temperature went down to twenty degrees F.  Even with the heat on low the water in the watering bucket had ice on it this morning.

Last Thanksgiving we had a snow storm, but this year the forecast is for the temperature to be a mild fifty degrees or so.

We  have had several calm sunny days, which were ideal for getting in a few more drone flights before the weather turns nasty.  

I wanted to take a photo of my drone in flight, but when I returned home and was putting the drone away I found that while I was photographing the drone, the drone was photographing me.

Below is a photo of the Hudson River valley looking west.  The photo was taken at the Frear Park golf course in Troy, New York.  Just about the lake, slightly to the right of center, the large waterfalls at Cohoes, New York are just visible.  They were a major attraction in this area in the 19th Century.