#Experiment daily notes
After starting 3 seed cubes of Tiny Tim tomatoes, and 3 cubes of Basil, I ran 3 recipes on 3 different PFCs v4 machines. I accidentally swapped the basil and tomato plants though.
The three machines are running:
- Control (PFC Hidden-Snow): 12 hours summer sun, 12 hours dark
- Basil (PFC Aged-Shape): 12 hours summer sun, 12 hours dark. This PFC should have one tomato plant and 3 basil plants
- Blue Night (PFC Blue-Water): 12 hours summer sun, 12 hours blue (no IR) light
Realized I had the basil plants where the tomato plants were. Considering that the experiment is focused on the tomato plants, and all 3 were subjected to 2 days of 12 hours light, 12 hours dark, this shouldn’t be an issue. Transplanted the plants to the correct PFCs as indicated above.
Trimmed basil in PFC Aged-Shape as it was hitting the lights.
Flower buds have formed on all 3 tomato plants
Trimmed basil again
Installed the Ph Sensors but left them in their solution bottles for now. (I.E. should read 4 I believe, they are currently sitting at 3.7 - 3.8. (The plants are going through a lot of water/solution now, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep the sensor covered with liquid at the rate they are using the water. See Below)
Added a total of 2 liters of Hydroponic solution between all three PFCs. They were all very low after only 1.5 days.
The root mass is quite heavy in all three PFCs, and I think that is adding difficulty to being able to pull out the drawer to add liquid. In the case of the blue light, the roots might be tangled with the EC sensor.
Trimmed the tomato plants in the control and ‘with basil’ boxes. They were growing into the lights.
Used an electric toothbrush to manually pollinate the flowers on the blue light at night plant, and one on the with basil plant.
Added solution to all 3 PFCs
Used an electric toothbrush to manually pollinate the flowers on the blue light at night plant, and one on the with basil plant. Control has a few buds that have yet to open on it.
Added solution to all 3 PFCs
Used an electric toothbrush to manually pollinate the flowers on the blue light at night plant, and one on the with basil plant. Control has a few buds that have yet to open on it.
Used an electric toothbrush to manually pollinate the flowers on only the blue light plant, as that was the only one that appeared to have new blooms. The control looks like it will have some new ones soon though.
Added solution to all 3 PFCs
Added about .5L solution to each PFC.
New blooms on blue light plant were pollinated.
Control plant has some new buds. Might need to trim higher leaves on it and on the +basil one as they are growing into the lights and dying.
Trimmed both the control and +basil tomato plants.
Discovered several buds on both, and actual blooms on the control. All right up against the top of the PFC.
Trimmed both the control and blue night tomato plants. This did remove a few buds from the blue night plant. There are probably 4-5 times more buds/blooms on the blue night plant than the other two.
Added about .5 - .75L per PFC of solution
Trimmed stems with leaves off all three plants. Blue Night has even more buds in the center of the plant. At least two of the blooms are now spherical on the Blue Night indicating successful pollination.
Added more solution to all three. (have done this every day, just haven’t noted it every time.)
Trimmed plants again. Added more solution
EC on blue-water (blue light at night) and hidden-snow (control) was high (8.1,7.7) so I added water to these (no-solution). The plant with basil I added a 50/50 mix of water and solution since the EC was ok, but I was low on solution.
That evening I trimmed the basil, and some of the tomato box in the +basil box.
Note: The blue-night box has actual tomatoes forming… about the size of a chickpea right now (~.25” diam). At least 5-6 spotted.
Added solution to the +basil (aged-shape) plant, and water only to the other two.
Fruit has appeared on the control plant (two small fruits). There are many on the blue night one.
Major trimming was done to the blue night plant (and a little on each of the other two.)
Added more solution to all the plants.
Some of the tomatoes on the blue night plant are ‘full size’ for the tiny-tim (About ¾” diam.)
Added water to blue night and control plants.
Added solution to +basil plant.
Note - the solution is formulated for leafy greens.
Minor trimming on the +basil plant due to it growing into the circulation fan.
Added solution to the +basil and water to the other two.
Trimmed a branch on the blue night one, accidentally cutting off two tomatoes (For a total of 3 that have been removed by accident from that plant.)
Trimmed a lot of material off all the plants (tomato and basil).
Added just water to all 3 PFCs
The +basil plant has 3 small new tomatoes, and a few new buds. It’s lagging behind the other two. Could be because of the amount of trimming it has required due to how crowded the box is.
The control and blue night plants have several tomatoes on them (~6 and ~20 respectively)
Added just water to all three machines.
Blue Night’s first tomato turned orange over the ‘night’ cycle. It was still green when I checked yesterday, maybe slightly yellow. (Day 53 of ‘recipe’)
Added solution to +basil, and water to the others.
New blooms on all plants.
Trimmed blue night a bit more, another tomato has turned reddish-orange. Yay!
Ate two tomatoes off the blue night plant. Not sweet, tart, maybe even salty?
No comparison point, as we haven’t tried this tomato grown conventionally. We’ll do that in the spring. (Weights recorded in a spreadsheet.
Control has two tomatoes that are just beginning to turn orangish rather than green.
Added water to all boxes. They were all a little low (skipped one day on filling them). Attempted to use the water to rinse the EC probes a bit due to crystals forming on them.