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Aug 31 - so far performing as per advertised. Grow lights, fan and pump working as intended and turning on and off as per the “vegetable” cycle with no added action on my part. All my seeds have sprouted, although I did replace one that was in mid-sprout with another seed due to plant preference. Some of the leafy greens are growing pretty fast compared to my pepper and tomato plant but that was to be expected. I did notice some greenish tinge to at the top of some sponges, so not sure if it was normal in this type of medium & hydroponics, but i simply lightly scraped it off. Problem solved! The roots on the plants are pretty healthy and the leaves very green. Excited to see them all keep growing and hopefully produce come winter time. I did hear the pump grow a bit louder at some point which was quickly resolved by topping off the water as per instructions. New pics posted to compare from Aug 14 when I started the seeds to now.
Sept 11- Plants are doing really well, I had to increase the height of the grow light as my dwarf okra seems to have a mind of it’s own and have grown a lot taller in less than a month’s time. It also looks as if it’s starting to grow what look like okra pods or flowers pods??? (Don’t know. It’ shaped like a baby okra lol). Comparatively, the same type seed I grew outside during the summer had grown so slowly taking so many month’s to mature (could have been my soil). To take care of the small algae issue, I’m experimenting on these black circular plastic things I made from recycled Chinese take out containers to see if blocking the light out from the growing medium will take care of the problem. Maybe I could have used a black garbage bag to cut from but I was feeling crafty today. ;)
Sept 12- got a response from iDOO rep today that what I’ve done to prevent that algae formation in the pod is what they recommend too, and that it is not harmful to the plant. Thanks for the quick response to my inquiry!
Sept 25 - I didn’t anticipate maturity of my mini bell pepper plant would be a lot faster than if I planted in soil. Maturity should be 4-5 mos. I started it on Aug 14 and as of Sept 24, I already see little buds that will become flower. I’d like to promote it my changing my settings to “Flowers & Fruits” instead of “vegetables” setting, unfortunately, that might encourage my other leafy greens to start to flower, which I don’t want since I’m still harvesting their leaves and encouraging them to keep making more, or setting change might stunt the growth of newly started pods or plants that have a slower maturity date (Example: Thai Chili - 100 days, or 80 days for eggplant; Tatsoi 45 days, Iceberg Lettuce 50-90 days). Nothing against the unit. It works awesome. The only thing is, for a first time user of a 1 hydroponic unit owner, one has to really think about the type of seeds you intend to plant, consider maturity date (considering it might be speeded up in hydroponics). From trying a mix of peppers, tomatoes, herbs, leafy greens with varying maturity dates and harvest dates, I’m losing out on using full functionality of the 2 settings - “Vegetable” & “Flowers & Fruits”. It’s just something to consider for those that are thinking of only ever owning 1 hydroponic unit. Therein lies the challenge, and if you’re like me that can’t stop at just trying out herbs. The other thing to consider is how high you can extend the grow light to accommodate plant growth. I knew at the time of purchase to take it into my seed considerations, so I had only planted “mini”, “dwarf” type of seeds, or greens that won’t grow taller than the lights. (Pic posted of growing plants with grow light extended to max height for reference).
Sept 28 - some plants have reached the height of the growlight to its max extension. As the plants do not seem to mind staying in it, I trimmed some top leaves to keep the plant growing under the grow light. The dwarf okra kind of got wilty and the buds never produced flower or veggie. It fell off. To save it, I moved to soil and it seemed it perked right back up. Conclusion: This unit seems to sprout anything. However, it’s still part of seed consideration, to look at the nature of the plant. Experimenting with seeds should be considered to know what works and what does not. Some plants seem to not mind hydro in germination and infancy stage, but need to be transplanted to soil at maturity. Some plants don’t mind staying in it getting free nutrients all through out. Hopefully it keeps to it’s healthy status and start producing flowers so I can pollinate it. I’m excited to see flowers and more buds soon. Especially the peppers. For the leafy greens, now I know how much space it requires and can plan ahead with spacers. I wish iDOO sold spacers. Will have to search for one that fits these holes.
Nov 29 - new pics posted. I had to move the bigger plants that just kept on growing into bigger hydroponics unit (same brand, taller growlight, no pump). Started new seeds just to test some more. Using same type of seed, the unit with pump to circulate water and nutes, germinated faster compared to the unit without. Once the poor seed got moved to one with circulating pump, it germinated quickly. All 3 Fushimi test seeds are growing with varying maturity rates. Ofcourse, the one that was started from another unit is not the same height or maturity and behind (pic posted to compare). I also tested the fresh (i say “fresh” loosely) herb cuttings from the grocery store. Trimmed the leaves in the bottom, stuck it in the medium around Sept. I also did the same for Sage and Rosemary. The thyme seem to have done really nicely (pic posted), but the same can’t be said for Sage and Rosemary. It preserved it for longer but eventually died. No new growth whereas Thyme seem to have thrived. Will continue to test other seeds/herbs when opportunity exists.
I’ve bought another similar unit to separate leafy greens from peppers or tomatoes etc. Things that just have varying height requirements just simply don’t work in the same unit. Herbs may work together with leafy greens if height is considered and how far the growlight can be to other plants once extended. Or…. Just simply move the plants once they’re more stable to another medium.
Feb 23, 2022 - more pics posted, herbs, new set of leafy greens. Previous greens already harvested or eaten.
March 20, 2022 - so my herbs continue to grow, to the point of growing past the grow light which has caused constant pruning on my end. Specifically (Mint, Dill, Curley Parsley, Tarragon, Sweet Basil, Thai Basil). I’ve finally filled in the last spot with peppermint so my unit is full. I did sprout it in a different unit that had a closer grow light and then moved it into it’ permanent unit. I hope it makes it fighting “nutes” with the bigger herbs. The Oregano, Thyme and Rosemary have not required pruning so far. I was hearing some whirring noise a week ago and I thought something was wrong with the fan. Actually there was… the “Sage” had grown so high that it’s leaves started to go through the fan slats. Lol! Had to prune again practically every other day or every 3rd day. It’s probably best to dry these herbs then crush them. However, what I did was froze them in ziplock bag. Will they be any good? So far I’ve used the Frozen Thai Basil in a stew, it wan’t as great as fresh but you could still taste it Thai Basil was included. The reality is I get a kick out of growing things. The herbs produce leaves faster than I can consume them, so I’ll freeze them (to test out how long they’ll be okay to use), and not dry them, as frozen is the closest to fresh herbs. I was able to even propagate more Thai Basil, snipping from original plant in iDOO, putting in water until they grew roots, and gifting them to someone who loves Vietnamese Pho soup. Now he’ll have his own Thai Basil to take care of and he can stop “eyeballing” my herb. Lol. (Pic posted of Thai Basil as of today)
May 2022 - my Thai Basil’s flower had dried up. I cut the dried flowers out and crushed them on a paper towel and inside the little dried pods were the black seeds that I would normally purchase. Now I won’t need to. I can harvest my own. (Can’t post a pic. I’ve reached the max allowable pics to put). Lol.
