#igworks

[hydroponicdragon]

We got our first flowers!! :D The tomatoes are also starting to put out flower buds but the angle is not great for taking pictures so just the bean flower for now!

[hydroponicdragon]

May 27th, 2024

Our lives got crazy busy for a bit there, so kind of a big time jump lol

But plants don't wait and boy it feels like we looked away for a second and everything went insane! The bean plants got huge (we had to top a few more that were getting silly), the tomatoes are nearing full size, and the onion is finally really starting to get into the swing of things!

We lost a spinach plant to mold because it got too humid with the blanket shield, germinating some more onion to replace it.

No flowers yet, but it shouldn't be too long now!

We finally got to eat a couple spinach leaves as well, our first food off the iharvest! On the 30th I actually got enough leaves for a salad - they were the greenest leaves I've ever eaten. Even more excited for the other plants now!

Our new cat barrier used pieces of a couple large boxes we got recently, held together with gorilla tape. The blanket is to further dissuade the cats, as they can technically clear the front of the barrier without it. They have not gotten past this so far, and it's been at least a week since we put it up, so it's going well 👍

[hydroponicdragon]

May 17th, 2024

With the medical emergency taken care of, we focused on the plants a bit more when we returned. The blanket shield continued to work for another while, so we didn't have more mishaps with the cats. We topped the beans that were getting leggy (you won't find more light up there buddy)

One of the beans I planted during the big fiasco started coming in upside down. We had to get creative to save it, but it's doing a lot better now. I am a little worried about its exposed roots up top but only time will tell.

[hydroponicdragon]

May 15th, 2024

We started to get some major growth spurts right around here- you can see one of the beans up top starting to get leggy.

We also had some serious problems with the cats - due to a medical emergency we both had to be out of the house for extended periods of time for a couple days. The cats took their frustration out on the plants. I believe we lost two more spinach plants here which I replaced with a couple of our germinating beans.

Last pic is our temporary cat shield while we dealt with the medical emergency. It worked in the short term, but unfortunately Eros is too clever for that lol

We also pulled out one of our tower fans at some point, though obviously we only use it for the plants when supervised now since the barrier has to be down for it to be effective

[hydroponicdragon]

May 12th, 2024

We lapsed on updates for a bit because a lot of stuff went nuts irl, but going to be posting a couple updates in quick succession to catch up!

At this point our cats decided the leaves looked fun to destroy unfortunately - Eros started taking chomps out of the beans, and Aphrodite fully executed two or three spinach plants. We started germinating a couple more beans to replace them, but for now we have a few empty net pots :(

[hydroponicdragon]

Significant progress! The beans are all standing up straight and tall, and the tomatoes are starting to grow their first true leaves! :D The spinach is starting to sprout as well!

Also a pic of the bunching onion which is finally visible!

[hydroponicdragon]

There has been significant progress since the last post! We've had to help some of the plants escape their seed shells, but since then several of the beans especially are going nuts! The first pic is our star pupil bean, standing tall with its first little leaves out - it's kind of funny seeing them next to the tomatoes which are so much smaller.

The onion I hope is doing well, you can see that little streak of green in there. I dug a smidge of the dirt out from the rim so the light would hit it better.

We did lose a couple more tomatoes and beans, mostly just failed to root correctly. One bean had curled the root around the seed and out into the air.

The fifth picture is of our star tomato plant(s). They are starting to grow their first proper leaves ;A; The original plan was to only have one plant per spot, but after doing research the jury is still out on whether or not tomatoes like the buddy system. These guys are fused at the base of the stem and have been growing the strongest since day 1, so we're going to leave them be for now and see how it goes.

Our spinach seeds also popped roots out in the germination chamber and have been added to the system this morning :D

Germinating a couple more beans to replace the ones we lost.

[hydroponicdragon]

Today and yesterday have been crazy for growth! Lots of baby plants popping off! A few of the tomatoes look like they might be having a bad time, but they can't all be winners.

On a whim we've started playing the plants classical music for 2 hours a day per internet recommendation. These guys are growing pretty fast, and the research says plants do like music, so hopefully it's helping :3c