September 27, 2009 by gisette
Replanted the minis today. Will do the usual scheme - one lettuce, one ornamentals. But for the moment, the ornamentals are incubating in my pro100, and two of them may stay there...
20090927: Planted 3 pods silvia red romaine. Other mini is growing 3 "tea" clones - 2 pineapple sage, 1 lemon basil. At least one of those is for my mother's birthday present, to go with the AG tea kit (which only has 6 pods). In pro100, planted 1 pod each thumbelina zinnia and convolvulus. Already had 3 mimulus pods, planted 9/18 (9 days older).
It takes surprisingly little fresh pineapple sage and lemon basil to make a cup of tea. I just took the leaves I'd clipped off the cuttings (maybe 10) and boiled in the microwave and steeped for 5 minutes or so, and it's a pretty good herbal tea. 
I'd love to grow the zinnia and convolvulus in the mini, but I have my doubts. The ones I planted in my annual bed came out funky. The supposedly 6" zinnia is 2' tall and wide and sports lavender blooms - a color that does not appear on the package. The "bush morning glory" convolvulus looks anything but. Most of them never flowered at all. The ones that did, are pretty sprawling. And their foliage looks like the sort of weed I'd yank quickly. So... Maybe 2 of the 5 flower pods will stay in the pro100 purely for experiment... (ATM, the pro100 is mostly growing a tomato seedling.)
20091120: Very short-lived lettuce garden. 
Replanted in comparative romaine - 4 seeds each, one pod each, roman emperor, little caesar, and red silvia romaines. Hopefully it'll last a little longer...
20091205: Latest 2-week lettuce now on fresh 1.7 EC/6 pH nutes. Dumped and refilled the reservoir on remaining mimulus, too, using my cucumber nutes.
Sun, 10/18/2009 - 14:22
#2
Happy plants. I like waiting 4 weeks to first harvest on romaine, but may cull to 1 plant per pod, and call that the first harvest.
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 14:19
#3
Culled and ate all the spare romaines last week - they were very good. 
Just cropped again and replaced liquids before this picture - rainwater + 1.7 EC Flora 3-part.
The young flowers look very happy, with the mimulus about to bloom. Left the lettuce liquids it already had, but adding some pinches of FloraMato - EC presently about 1.5. No idea what it ought to be. Like most of my flower grows, eventually probably need to cull to one plant per pod. But the seeds were all from mixed-color packs, so want to see what colors the flowers are first.
Sun, 11/01/2009 - 15:26
#4
Sun, 11/08/2009 - 12:44
#5
Picked my first zinnia and put it in a vase. Thinned down to one each convolvulus and zinnia (the non-white one). Still no sign of convolvulus flowers.
The mimulus was looking pretty peaked yesterday. Replaced fluids and brought the EC up from ~1.4 to ~2.0 yesterday. They seem to like that better. The lettuce looks like it may need replanting before my pro100 lettuces are in production. Oh, well. It'll be much colder down here, soon, and they'll like that...
Sun, 11/15/2009 - 16:25
#6
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 14:50
#7
Flowers dawdling along. The zinnia buds take forever (weeks) to open into flowers. Convolvulus may have buds now. Mimulus still in bloom.
Thinking of starting new snapdragons to replace the flowers. Snapdragons and coleus were prettier. But I'm still curious about the convolvulus.
Silvia romaine lettuce garden only lasted 8 weeks. 
Got too tall, and the plants kept falling over. Probably because it's been surprisingly warm for November. Replanted... this time comparative romaines, one pod each of little caesar, roman emperor, and silvia. Two days old now - they've hatched.
Sun, 11/29/2009 - 16:21
#8
Romaines coming along great, but I'm tired of this flower garden. Trying to root some impatiens from out in my garden. I'll see how that works before trying something else from seed. They're super-shady impatiens, and grew really well this year, and clearly don't mind a chilly room, since they're still blooming outdoors despite a number of freezes.
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 18:20
#9
Removed the zinnia and convolvulus, because they were ugly. The two remaining mimulus have lots of buds - should look pretty nice tomorrow, but mimulus blooms only last a day or two. Still not clear whether the next flower garden is going to be the impatiens - which are starting to root - or my old snapdragon/coleus combo, which I love. Both under development. And both would thrive in a chilly pot by the sliding glass window, too. Haven't decided. 
It'll be a few weeks before snapdragon and coleus seedlings are big enough to bother putting in the mini.
The romaines are doing great.
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 21:41
#10
Mimulus also needed pH attention... After they got it, they went wild flowering. The romaines are doing great - time to start eating them.
I put two impatiens cuttings in with the mimulus, but don't think they appreciated the nute strength, so put them back in water until I got the tomato bowl cleaned and set up again. Now all four impatiens cuttings are developing in the pro100 alongside eggplant seeds. And the snapdragons and coleus have sprouted. While the mimulus has revived. So... some of these flowers are headed for a pot by a cold window.
Sat, 12/19/2009 - 14:45
#11
Mimulus and romaines doing well, backup flowers coming along.
One of the salmon impatiens cuttings looks about to bloom. Hopefully have scarlet, hot pink, and salmon impatiens. Thinking the salmon would look best with the mimulus?
Snapdragons and coleus take forever to get going (that's why I don't start them in the AG).
Sun, 12/27/2009 - 15:07
#12
Mimulus and romaines doing fine. Was hard to do it, but cut the mimulus way back to move the impatiens in. Transferred snapdragons and a peppermint into the eggplant back row nursery next. Coleus and lemon balm still in the Park Starts block.
Sun, 01/03/2010 - 15:51
#13
Sun, 01/10/2010 - 16:19
#14
Sun, 01/17/2010 - 21:14
#15
Sun, 01/24/2010 - 17:32
#16
Sun, 01/31/2010 - 16:44
#17
I wasn't sure whether hacking back the mimulus would help or hurt the impatiens, which are a special extra-shady variety. But they seem to have loved it. I'm starting to debate whether/when to remove the mimulus, so I can enjoy the impatiens better. They've been there an awfully long time.
Sat, 02/06/2010 - 19:17
#18
Our ladybug took up residence in the mimulus.
Sun, 02/14/2010 - 16:49
#19
Retired the last of the lettuces. Ought to replant that, and retire the mimulus. For now, giving some TLC to a carmen pepper started in the LED side of the tomato-pepper CFL/LED test.
The ladybug is still hanging out in the flowers, and I haven't seen any fungus gnats in a while.
Fri, 02/26/2010 - 17:18
#20
Retired the flowers this week, too, and replanted with gazanias and brachychome. So I'll close this with a last picture of the plants I potted out some time ago, to winter by my cold bedroom slider:
Romaine coming along. Gave the pineapple sage and lemon basil cuttings to my mother yesterday, and moved some flowers down to the mini from the Pro100 - the tomato plant in the Pro100 needs the lights too high already. The 3 week old mimulus pods didn't fare so well - tossed the other two. The two week zinnia and convolvulus - so far so good. This zinnia is supposed to start flowering at 3" tall. I'll believe it when I see it.