Gardyn collars, algae, mold ...

It was suggested I buy collars to keep the light from reaching the rockwool once fertilizer was in the system. This is to prevent algae. (bonus algae vs biofilm) Can they go in the diswasher?

In the meantime I had created a rather ragtag offering from brown paper bags. The ones that were less than an inch square were less likely to be displaced. The bigger ones caught in the breeze from the fan and sometimes fell off.

Today some collars were in my mailbox. Since I did not have enough for all my plants, I prioritized  those where I could see lots of rockwool. The first candidates were the sweet peppers and jalapenos which were recently added to the system without any cover. There seemed to be a big requirement among the herbs. Some of the leafy greens were doing a good job of starting to cover with vegetation. Did not have a slit in the paper around the mint. It had grown enough I had to cut it off.

Below the dill, I found white fuzz on one of the papers! :(  I had already raided my guest room for a fan (so not controlled by the app). Limit handling. hmm - is it big enough to eat? My spritz bottle has not arrived yet (expected Tuesday) for a diluted solution of H2O2. So dipped a q-tip in H202 and dabbed it where it may have been fuzzy. Luckily I think it was mostly on the paper. All paper is not to be reused! Sterilize the system sounds like sooner rather than later. Kelby recommends the monthly  tank refresh in two days anyway. What's the difference? To me it looks like taking out the plants and cleaning the ypods. There is a user who recommends what looks like a sterilize augmented with hydroguard every 10-14 days and avoids a deep clean, which seems to disassemble everything, every 6 months. (The bottle brush, hydraguard, and sticky flytraps are due tomorrow. ) I suspect that frequency makes more sense as the plants get bigger. I am at, gasp, %70, having filled it when I fertilized for the first time.

Right, I have also accasionally seen an evasive little critter flying around. Sigh. More when I can actually see it up close 

Does anybody know how to get a cover out without taking a tower apart? (Note to self: cover goes on a ypod, not an empty slot.) Chopsticks!

Below are some pictures of today's adventures. Let me know if you actually wanted to see a picture of each plant.

And a bit later Anastasia Harris posted about a different white thing: https://igworks.com/blogs/the-igworks-indoor-gardening-blog/white-fuzz-on-my-growing-media