Jung’s Weblog

Now I know where the story came from…

Planted Monday February 18th, 5 p.m. in my homemade aeroponic system

February 28, 2008 (11 days)

picture: Left to Right, and Top Down

Purple String Bean
Cucumber
Patty Pan Zucchini
Yellow Baby Bellpepper
White Tomato
Chili Pepper

March 5, 2008 Update (17 days)

To give you a sense of the reality, Purple String Bean stalk is actually 10 inches tall!

very healthy plants and roots, roots picture taken while the fogger is going wild

March 6, 2008 Update (18 days)

A few major details:

1. The Metal Halide Light has to be hang at least 10 inches from the plants (otherwise, the plants get burned, I actually learn it the hard way…)

2. I give the plants 8 hours light a day so far, they seem to do fine with it.

3. I hook the fogger and air pump to the same timer, that goes on for 15 minutes, rest 15 minutes while the strong Metal Halide Light is on. And goes on only every 3 hours for 15 minutes, when the plants are sleeping. (and they do go to sleep! The leaves go downward, and close up, it is quite a sight!)

This so far works, I am not sure if this is how it is supposed to be, but through lots of observation and experiment in the past 18 days, this somehow makes the plants look very happy

March 9, 2008 Update (21 days, exactly 3 weeks)

The Purple String Bean is 15 inches tall now, it grew 5 inches in the past 4 days!

I have created a monster of a garden

March 15, 2008 Update (27 days)

Was going to wait until full 4 weeks to post pictures, but can’t wait any longer… there are flower buds everywhere right after I post last update! BTW, the Purple String Bean stalk is now 28 inches tall.

Purple String Bean flower bud

Patty Pan Zucchini flower buds

Cucumber flower bud

March 21, 2008 Update (33 days)

Female Flower (with an ovary!) of the Patty Pan Zucchini plant, first showed up about 5 days ago, now is finally large enough to be photographed.

Female flower??? I was very surprised when I found out that zucchini, along with cucumber, melon, pumpkin, luffas and squash…, are "monoecious." These plants have unisexual flowers where the male and female flowers occur separately on the same plant. Now that my "shaking the plant vigorously" technique will not work any longer, I was seriously thinking about bringing in a bee hive… nope, not that insane yet…

A funny article on how to pollinate zucchini flowers could be found on http://www.pumpkinnook.com/howto/pollen.htm

After reading Jason’s Guide to Indoor Organic and Hydroponics Gardening, I searched every store around my area, couldn’t find the most beneficial 35% hydrogen peroxide anywhere. A few sites carry them but the price is quite high or you have to pick up in store somewhere in CA… Finally found the one and only seller on eBay, selling the food grade 35% hydrogen peroxide, she is a fantastic seller also. If you like what you read on Jason’s Guide, look her up

My garden is truly a jungle now…