Deep Water Ebb-Flow System

6 days after seeding results. These are the Red Amaranth and White Crown Bok Choi. Little sprouts poking through the sponges. Will wait a few more days for true leaves to appear.  Bok Choi and White Crown Bok Choi seeded on grow sponges are doing much better. These were seeded on the same date as above - 6 Feb. The results look more promising. The baby roots are also growing into the leca and water layer, as planned for. Will wait for the true leaves and roots to grow a little more before transferring them to the pool noodles. Should take 2-3 more days before that happens.  

6th Day of the new Lunar New Year. A new start. Red Amaranth Did a final harvest and cut down all the 4.5 months old RA. It was seeded on 15 Sept 2021. Many have started to flower and bolt. As a result, the taste is earthier and the height of the RA has reached the bottom of the upper trough. Learning Points: RA is easy to grow on either leca or grow sponges. For this batch, black grow sponges are used. These are prolific, and an EC of around 1200 is good enough. RA leaves can be eaten raw. Taste just like any spinach, with a mild earthiness to it.  Looks nice too. The red stem and variegated deep red hues on the leaves liven up the system, and make it look New Year-ish. Seeded 6 sponges with about  3 to 5 seeds and placed them in a plastic container. White-Crowned Bok Choi Seeded 6 sponges of WCBC to top up the current batch. Baby Bok Choi Seeded 12 small sponges with BBC. Really like BC since they are easy to grow and produce multiple leaf harvest. The remains of the RA were cut up (

The very first fiest harvest of the White Crown Bok Choi. Trying out multi harvest and see where this leads. A reasonably happy harvest. From 11 plants. Good for 2 pax. Stir fried with fish cakes as usual, though from the picture it would seems that the fish cake is the main actor instead of the green!  Now the before and after. EC kept to about an average of 1200 over the 3 weeks of growth. Busy with work, i was unable to monitor daily. So I just checked the EC every 4 to 5 days. Sometimes, it drops to 600+, and I will top it up with 40 or 50ml of A and B. That will bring the level back to abput 1300+. From this experience, I am more confident that for hobbyist, its OK not to maintain required EC all the time. That is a requirement though for farms, where a sustained process is necessary to ensure regular produce.  In between the 4 to 5 days, I just made sure to.top up water, and this can be up to 3L every 2 days.  The after look.

And yes... after just 15 days, the BC are ready harvest again. Round 4! Sturdy green leaves. Rrally happy with the deep green look and feel of the BC. Harvested 2 large bowls from 12 plants from both tiers. There is very little wastage, just a small handful of yellowing leaves. And yes, into the wok they go for a big plate of BC stir fry with fish cakes, the family favourite. The before and after harvest look. And after... The bottom tier is showing good growth of White Crown Bok Choi. These are the slimmer and greener stem cousin of the BC. Growth is pretty fast too. Seeded on 31 Dec. EC kept to 1200. Looking forward a new batch of green for the LNY!

3rd Jan and its Bok Choi harvest round 3! Managed to stir fry this plate for dinner. Taste is still pretty much the same. Did not detect any hint of bitterness and neither is it fibrous. Now, on to harvest round 4, and the last?

It's 2022! Time for a new year update. Bok Chois and Red Amaranths are doing well. The BC are probably tad "old". Missed the intended 3rd harvest last week, as thr home cook meal plan was scuppered over the festive weekend. No complaints though. 😁 This batch will certainly meet the wok tomorrow! New white crowned Bok Choi (WCBC) sprouts are doing well after transfer yesterday. Figured out how to let the roots lengthen downwards instead of sideways through the grow sponges. Added a layer of leca balls underneath the sponges and topped up water. In just 2 days, the roots were growing into the layer below, by gravity and pull of life giving water. Have also seeded some more Cos Romaine for the Kratky. Planning to transfer them next weekend and restart the Kratky for lettuces.  Now on to the Swiss Chard. Still no signs of germination, using the same germination technique. Time for more research.