The larger plants that will no longer fit on my modest grow shelf at home have been moved to my excess office space under a 1000 watt LED light.  Comparing the cauliflower plants in the protected and heated environment of the office to what is happening to their brothers and sisters planted into the outdoor garden bed is startling.  I’m finding it much more fun to watch plants grow when they … well … grow.

The four cucumber plants seen in the picture are developing nicely.  When they are a bit larger I plan on hanging some vinyl netting along the back wall and start training up the cucumber vines.  There is another variety of cucumber that I want to try indoors, too, but I don’t want to be overwhelmed with the produce so I’ve reigned in my desires for now and will start the next variety in about a month or so.

Looking good !!!

Psalm 118:24

Yes, you can indeed take a celery heart and regrow it in an aquaponic grow-bed!  We did not start it rooting in water prior to placing the celery heart directly into the Hydroton clay balls.  Placing it into the bed is all the work we’ve done on this so far, and check out the growth already!

More room is needed now for our black seeded simpson lettuce and kale started in starter trays not too long ago.  This weekend was spent transplanting the seedlings into slightly larger pots, and we had enough high nitrate fish water to set up another half dozen or so kratky jars!

This weekend was also spent feasting on our fresh microgreen salads!!  So delicious!  We harvested the whole tray of lentil microgreens.  They grew fast and aren’t bad at all, but a touch more on the bitter side than the other microgreens we are growing.  The radish micogreens, grown from daikon radish seeds, are packed full with flavor and that distinctive radish heat.  The broccoli sprouts were mighty tasty and did pack a flavor punch easily identifiable as broccoli.  The sunflower microgreens are fantastic in a salad, proving a more substantial crunch than the other microgreens, with only a slightly bitter aftertaste which is imperceptible when under the spell of a salad dressing.

The two top shelves and part of the third in our basement grow shelf are packed with herbs, lettuces and vegetables now.  We have started a jar of mung bean sprouts and another tray of radish microgreens.  The second tray of sunflower microgreens are nearly ready for eating and finishing up greening under the lights as I type.  So far so good !!

Proverbs 1:5 — A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.

And look !!!

This being our first kratky kale in a half gallon jar experiment, it is really fun to check out the daily root growth.  Leave it alone over the weekend and then give it a peek, the progress is startling.  So far the only thing I would change is that wallpaper.

Here we are with an estimated 12-14 ounce “crop” of delicious sunflower microgreens after just 12 days!  My first taste test was a simple microgreen salad with diced tomato and basil, shredded cheddar cheese, black pepper and blue cheese dressing.  Yeah, I could get used to eating this.

We harvested 1/2 of the tray immediately, which yielded 6.7 ounces of sunflower microgreens.  The other 1/2 of the tray we will eat later in the week.  Additionally we are curious to see if we get a second cutting from this tray.

On September 8th I started my first attempt to germinate lettuce seeds in rockwool.  Reading up on how to prepare rockwool, I soak it in water overnight but I added a bit of vinegar to the soak in order to reduce our city water’s pH from the mid 7’s down to the mid 5’s.  One reason supposedly to do this is to neutralize any base left in the rockwool from sources like limestone, and supposedly a more acidic water helps in germination and growth.

What did we experience?  Nothing.  The lettuce seeds started just a couple of days earlier in soil are germinated and looking great.  Several days after this failed experiment was started, I seeded some new rockwool with two different lettuce seeds and some swiss chard and they have mostly germinated as of this morning.

For this second rockwool germination experiment, I took some of the rockwool from the previous preparation and soaked it several times in plain tap water to help pull out the acidity.  Additionally this set was put into a plastic container that had a lid on it.  Why was this one successful and the previous one was not?  There are two potential variables I have identified.  First, it could be the vinegar.  Second, it could be the humidity dome (aka lid) versus open air.  These will be two things we will keep in mind as we press forward in this adventure.