Skip to main content

Batch#01 - 16 Jan - Day 38 (Reseeding Cos and transplanted Genovese Basil)

A Busy Day - Harvesting, Clearing, Reseeding Cos and Transplanting some Basil 




Started off by harvesting fully 8 Cos lettuces for brekkie and tomorrow's night dinner! The long roots of the cos, still crisp to the touch. A good sign. Left 4 more for a few more leaves harvest over the next few days. Removed a couple of Grand Rapids and Butterheads each from the bottom tier too.

After some further RO and BH leafs harvest, the total weight is 183.6g.


Sustainable Crop Cycle


The idea here is to stagger the crop cycle in order to have a sustainable supply of lettuce. Another aim is to see how long this Batch 1 of nutrients last before the need to flush and clean the systems becomes a must.


Cleaning

Cleaning is actually very easy. The process I took:

  1. Remove the roots by hand.
  2. Pour out the leca and remove the stem and remaining roots. (of course there are left-over roots and some debris)
  3. Thankful for the sink filter. Keeps the leca together, and prevent the larger left over roots from getting into the tank.
  4. Replaced the leca to about 3/4 full.
  5. Placed seed and top up the leca to the brim.

Seeding

Placed one pelleted Cos seed per pot in Tier 1. So seeding date is 17 Jan 2021 for this batch.

Placed about 4 to 5 Grand Rapid seeds into the 4 tier, next to the adult Butterhead.


Transplanting the Basils


Transplanted 2 rooted Sweet Genovese Basil (from school's Click and Gro unit), and 2 stems of Strawberry Mint from Bootle's Farm visit. The mint was after a week of rooting, while the basil has started rooting from the stem over the last few days. 

A side note. Managed to save a stevia (out of 5 from Citiponics), 


How long it took me?

From harvesting, to clearing, seeding and topping up of water, it took me about 2 hours. Not too bad considering I was taking my own sweet time to take pictures and did a little bit of maintenance on the water outlets.


Clear the debris!

An important learning point for me today, is to remember to clear the debris from the outlet of each tank. The torn roots are all blocking the mesh net, and slowing down the water flow. This can cause an imbalance of water level, such as the flooding I encountered at Tier 2 a few days ago.

To remove the debris is rather easy. I used the reverse side of a tweezer (so that the sharp end won't tear off the mesh net) to remove the old root.

Another learning point is to leave the pot nearest to water out flow empty. This allows are easy and convenient topping up of nutrients in the different tiers.


Data

After the whole process, the data is:

EC1552

- due to the CaNO3, and still above 1200. Will continue to monitor.

pH5.77

- within range.

WT28

Water level: below mid level.

Just topped up with 2L of water, and moderated by 5 ml of down.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

YESH! My Yashponics Kit has arrived

    The Eagle has Landed! And so here it is. Not exactly an eagle, but the Yashponic 4-tier black kit. After a short 4 days wait after placing the order for pre-existing stock, the box arrived yesterday, late evening.  Time to be Bob the Builder Decided to start on the hardware set up today, since I am unsure how long it will take me. As shared in the videos put up by helpful Yashponics owners, it takes around 2.5 hours. The assembly videos are helpful. They gave me a good idea of how to start and the overall concept of the built. The whole process made all that easier, thanks to the numbered parts. And yes the whole kit is up and ready.  Easy to set up? My Verdict... With the videos provided by Yash, the numbered parts, it's totally a breeze to get the whole kit up. Took my time to unbox the parts, lay them out (in other words, you need some space for all these), and put them together.  Only boo-boo along the way is that I forgot to rinse all the parts as ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Batch 1 - 7 Mar - System Shutdown after 88 Days

Batch 1 Shutdown (88 days old) The system before Shutdown. Reason? The persistent "fungal" problem, shown below. No matter how often I trim off the outer leaves, the yellowing continues to propagate. As for the Lollas, browning along the leave stems are accelerating.  Red Oaks looks OK though. So it's likely the water is not healthy in some ways, though EC shows 1040. Didn't manage to measure pH.  8Mar update: A fellow UF member shared this site on leafy plant issues. Dengarden . Looks like Yellows.  About Yellows Yellows is a fungal disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum con-glutinans, and triggers formation of large, dull yellowish green patches on the leaves of vegetables. The harmful microorganism survives in warm conditions, which means that you can prevent it by keeping your garden at lower temperatures. The disease can be spread by farm tools, so ensure you clean and disinfect your tools before using them in your ga...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kailan and Dwarf Green Curled Kale Experiment

  9 July Seeded the first batch of KL and DGCK onto grow sponges and placed them onto a bed of wet leca. Did some research and found that generally, KL and DGCK EC requirements overlap that of WCBC, which is 1,200 - 1,800. The idea here is to try out the diversification of greens from the same pool of water and nutrient in the Yashponic Ebb and Flow system. Thus far, the system has been used to grow White-Crowned Bok Choi (WCBC) and Red Amaranth with pretty good consistent, albeit slow, yield. If these germinates well, it will be used to replace the top and second tier of the current system.
Post a Comment
Read more