Nutrition

Originally I had not intended to blog about yet another refresh, despite attempting to swap lids to fix a webcam issue while under warranty. If you are  facebook friend you know it failed to connect to wifi, so this is an ongoing thing. Because my memory is not what I wish, I put some bullet journal (bujo) styled notes in a calendar entry attempting to track my time.  Since I now want to share them with another person, I figured I'd dump them below. (Btw. I totally forgot about those todos today. Tried once more to get the new lid  (and nothing else) to connect to the internet, but failed. Got the old one to water and light. Not sure about the automated scheduling --- - replace lid and test :( - put boxes from accessories in attic - thin bull's blood beet greens - make pesto for cod (jarred salsa verde) - continue stripping dried leaves from stems an put in smaller container; thyme was good in eggs the other morning  - Empty: 1 3d lid,  2 back lid, 1 ypod, 1 inv...

Befor cleaning and pruning.  Is it the extra week between cleans or the maturity of the system? Had extra deposits as well as a serious root effort. Not suprised the tomato roots were a challenge to get out and had escaped at least two holes away I guess you have to expect a plant as big as the amarynth to have big roots too. Had to rip it out too. I've never grown savory before. I guess this is it. My next scramble will have some. Then what? The tatsoi has really long stems. I don't think its bolting from flavor and the lack of flowers. Maybe it just does not like the tomatoe's shade. The tomato is taking over the world. While the kale crop has me questioning the user group wisdom, I took off two big branches and stuck them in a gallon of water out side. Unfortunately I accidentally took off a little one too. Will they root? Should I add fertilizer or hydraguard? Spray deer repellant? (sigh, I hate doing that to my food.) I have apparently been hiding 3 mustard plants in t...

 Refresh So I've settled in a a routine. To reiterate, on top of the documented process, I have added cleaning the system with dilute sprayed h202 and a 2 inch round brush.  This was recommended by users on facebook to avoid a deep clean in 6 months and only adds 15 minutes.  (The number of groups has grown as individuals have started thier own groups. oy.) I use an old toothbrush to get hard to reach corners and fish roots and stuff out. It's also good for the occasional seepage at joints. The hanging shoe holder seemed silly when my plants were tiny. However it makes lots of sense now. My doors are too tall for me, so it is over the shower bar. Since it is not against a solid surface, putting big heavy plants at the top is more stable. It only has 24 slots, so things like harvested kale share slots. I've backed away from the GSE since it does not make an obvious diffence to my plants and it makes it  a little more to clean. I've also backed off worrying about the P...

Time Technically I am six days early on doing the tank refresh. However based on what I have read in the google groups, I was aiming for every two weeks, so I am a week late. (This made sense for what I saw in my tank and my root growth.) Despite my attention being focused elsewhere, I have nibbled tomatoes, pollinated peppers, and served and expedient tuna salad on a bed of greens. I view this as my gardyn giving back.  (Usually I try to coordinate with the tank being low. So I have been just adding two gallons even though it has been low all week. This morning it read 40% but now it reads 30%. I think that is the notification threshold.   Yes, indeed.) One day this week I had to get up *early*. It was very wierd not having gardyn lighting my house from the entryway. It did make me question what happens when daylight savings hits in a week. Allegedly the system will take its time from my phone, which will automatically adjust. In theory the plants will not be bothered by...

 Another two weeks or so has passed since the last refresh. Have been adding augmented water every several days. The water was kinda middling with a bit of surface scum and stuff in the water. Pruned tons of roots. Had troubles pulling out the tomato plant. It's root had gone both up and down. Used a toothbrush to attempt to get them out of the system. Looking on facebook, it had big roots last time too. Maybe I need to prune the roots for this thirsty plant more often. I tried to be proactive on root trimming - at least on my last harvest of 2 green mustard, 1 red mustard, and 2 curly kale. The tomato has not produced a harvest yet.  I may be over my hesitation on root trimming. The mint will be prohibited from the bottom and free water. (What was the other plant I thought that about? tatsoi?) The mint had a fine runner with new plants every inch or so. The other, not quite thinned to one , buttercrunch bolted. Not sure why. I took off the collars. Having them on the peppers ...

x  It has been 14 days since the last refresh. Kelby resets to 28 days, but some users advocate doing it more frequently. I'd rather do a bit more work along the way than have to disassemble the whole thing and fight to clean it.  (I forgot to look at joins.) I have added two gallons of water with 1 measure fertilizer and 20 drops GSE twice since the last refresh. My plants are much thirstier than the two weeks before the last refresh. The plants are bigger. Many more plants had roots going into other sections. This meant putting the ypods in a tub was less efficient this time.  This is were I recall instructions of harvesting the plants.  Sorry, I noshed rather than gathering and taking a picture. I harvest the Swiss chard earlier than I might have otherwise. Kelby had recently notified about  root care.  I was glad I had trimmed my tomatoes roots, when I was trying to pollinate. (Sorry reader - that was a brief Facebook post. Today a flower fell off. snif...

It is hard to tell what the right effort level is. As mentioned in the last post, there are three levels of cleaning: refresh , sterilize , and deep . It would be nice if they were documented a bit more consistantly rather than picking and choosing the bits that seem to apply from each (and not assuming knowlege from the other). Added recomendations from a user, Tracey Mertens, that has posted her process, which has evolved from September in Gardyners to November in Gardyn. See my process below. Overall:   I found little biofilm, mold, or algae. There were a few bits of roots on the ypods and in the towers. I should have run a timer. I think it took more than the expected 40 minutes. Not sure how much more effecient it will be next time. See below for before pictures of roots. Afterwards: This deep cleaning video  has me thinking I should have just wiped the ypods, instead of trying to figure out how to do the roots. Clearly it uses the water from the tank to hold the pla...