Gary's Almanac? No. Unendurable.

I need new photos. You can see the Marvel of the 4 Seasons lettuce, second from the right, first row of the iDOO. When I harvested it for a salad, it was red. If I took a picture, I didn't use it nor save it. I was going to see if the Marvel would come back, but since I have more Marvel pods in those oh-so-convenient drawers, I went ahead and threw out the old pod and replanted, 2022.03.25. Germinates in 4-6 days.

Behind and right of the Marvel is Red Sails lettuce. As the name implies, it too is red. I pruned four leaves from that plant, one of the lettuces that was harvested last month for another salad. The four leaves were part of a BLT. It came back stronger. Invisible behind it is a Black-Seeded Simpson lettuce, none of which germinated from the first attempt. This one has germinated nicely, 2022.03.20. Back row left, where you can make out a cap, I planted a Mini Jalapeño, which has germinated, 2022.03.22. I planted a Rouge d'Hiver lettuce in front of it, second row left, 2022.03.22.

The Romaine lettuce is visible in this picture, but it has grown since then. I acquired and commissioned the iDOO Bucket on 2022.03.23 by transferring one of the Romaines and planting five new pods. There were pictures posted yesterday. I can distinguish growth under their cute little greenhouse domes, but none have reached high enough to see from the side.

Yesterday's post also mentioned harvesting. Besides the lettuce for a salad, I took all the Bok Choi plants and green onions for stir-fry. I was going to see if they'd come back from the inch left behind - research says they should - but I went ahead today and replaced the two Bok Choi and one Green Onion with three Pak Choy pods. I had them to use, so. 2022.03.26. That allowed me to slightly reorganize and lower a set of lights. I'm still using distilled water, mostly, to top off all the hydroponics units.

The tomato report is that there are flowers in two of five plants, but no tomatoes, yet. I am sorely tempted to rip out everything without a flower and start over, with much more aggressive pruning to keep them short, and more space between.

Other than that, I acquired some bamboo skewers and a pack of Avery address labels and started printing little signs with plant names.

Here's the picture of the bucket system. Five AeroGarden Romaine pods around a sixth central pod, the central pod being weeks older than the rest. I will have salads. My only regret with this bucket system is that I have to open the fill port and shine a flashlight in to check the water level. The other systems all have level indicators.

About being an Almanac... one of the main features of an Almanac is the weather, predicting it based on past trends and hurricane forecasts. Yeah, no. This is an indoor hydroponic garden. The weather will be somewhere around 75°F±4°, or 23.5°C±3°. Wind will be out of the electric heaters, the wall fans, and/or the window air conditioner on low, medium or high. The weather is exciting, yes? It may trend warmer in the hottest part of summer - it's only a 5,000 BTU AC, after all.

What else do you find in an Almanac? Articles about farming. Sure, I do those. Quotes expounding wisdom? I do those, too. Oh, hell. I am publishing an Almanac!