Restructuring

Photo Album
Pre-restructuring Photos

To rectify the growing space concerns (get it?) in Chinatown, some restructuring and downsizing was necessary. After careful review of each plants performance reports, many were let go. Some of the seedlings had mold on their peat and others didn't make their case well enough growth-wise. So many ended up in the trash and good riddance anyways. As it stands now there's 67 plants remaining plus the new additions that I'll talk about later.

Other than that, the remaining population is quite happy. Lazarus is enormous. After measuring from the tip of one leaf to the tip of the other, his wingspan is 10inches. Tip to base is 6inches. A couple of days ago, I checked on him after I woke up and he was completely wilted. At some point during the night, he drank all his water and was near death. Watered the bejesus out of him and now he's growing like no monkey has grown before. Considering some sort of growth cone to make Lazarus more manageable, because as it stands, he's a real pain in the ass to deal with.

News in Little Venice: My first venture into hydroponics is teaching me a lot. Venice is set to flood with water for 15 minutes 3 times a day. Originally two times, I upped it after noticing wilting. There's a half-strength concentration of Miracle Grow all-purpose plant food (24-8-16) for nutrients in the reservoir. I'm completely in love with hydro. The plants grow noticeably faster than their dirty counterparts. The automatic flood/drain setup frees me up from having to babysit them, unlike the dirt gang who require watering at random times and remove all of my over watering concerns as well. I've kept the setup as unscientific as possible. There was no ppm check and only a half-assed initial ph balancing. My belief is that if plants can survive in the wild with raccoons and llamas, tornadoes, and crap like that, then the hydro boys already have a leg up on surviving. These monkeys grow with the fury and make me proud. I have a couple other hydro/aero designs that are a bit more complicated that are still in the 'vision' stage of production.

Venice is simple in design. One tote sits on another. The top tote has three poorly drilled holes on the tote bottom while the bottom tote has a 'square' opening on its lid. These line up so when the top is flooded, it drains through the holes into the bottom tote (reservoir). There's a submersible waterpump in the reservoir attached to a timer that turns on three times a day. The timer's settings are in 15 minute increments, so the pump remains on for the full 15. A hose goes from the pump to the top tote and floods the basin. This flooding is achieved because the water is pumped in faster than it can drain out. Since the pump runs for 15 minutes straight, controlling the flood level was important. This is done by limiting the amount of water in the reservoir, so when the top tote reaches the desired level the waterpump in the reservoir is sucking some amount of air. I think this aeriates the water as well and will keep the water from stagnating. Other than a few notches for the pump powercord and to keep the hose from pinching, that's about it. The top tote is at an angle so the water flows towards the drain holes. The pump powercord jacks the one side up enough to achieve this.

Anyway, hydroponics are awesome and worth screwing around with.

New pictures of the post-restructured area soon. Til, then Grow Monkeys, Grooooww!

~Grow Monkey