34 bar rises 29.50 3mph NNW dewpoint 31 Spring
First Quarter Moon of Growing
The calendar says spring; the snow says not yet. It’s all moisture, though, and if it doesn’t run away to rivers and streams, some of this goes to recharge ground water and aquifers. A good thing whether it comes chilled or just wet.
Last night it looked the drive in to the MIA this morning would be a nightmare. Predictions of 1 foot snow depths and high winds could have lead to blizzard conditions. The temperatures never dropped far enough. So, instead of a foot of snow we got about 3 inches of slush, suitable for snow cones if not so oil impregnated. The drive in was uneventful.
Sachei Makabe brought her kids from Robbinsdale. Marilyn Smith and I divided them up and took them through Weber. Each one of the Japanese language classes I’ve taken through have been attentive, observant and interested. Can’t ask for more than that. The diversity in the classes surprise me. There seem to be far more Asian, Latino and African American students than Caucasian. This speaks well for the schools and the students but only reinforces the dismal record us white folks have with learning a second language. I’m one of those who never learned. Shame on me.
Came home. Kate had a great lunch made with fish, green beans and acorn squash. I added a salad.
After the nap I got out the books and handouts for the hydroponics and got started. The meter I got a couple of weeks ago I handed over to Kate because it required precision and a chemistry background, neither one of which characterizes me. It will help us quickly diagnose problems and repair them. It measures ph, temperature and conductivity. All of these measures have to do with the uptake of nutrients, though I don’t understand the relationships by any means at this point.
The lettuce seedlings that I started a few weeks ago have started to push roots through the rock wool medium. This signals the time to transplant them to the hydroponics. Each planter in the smaller hydroponic system (We have two.) has round lava rocks which hold moisture, but do not interfere with the plants root system reaching the nutrient bath in the reservoir below the planters. It took 3 gallons of nutrient solution to fill the reservoir to the 2 1/2″ depth recommended.
The nutrient goes into the reservoir through the planters. This charges the lava rocks. Then I got a pair of forceps (Adson’s, Kate says.) and plucked the rock well medium out of the seedling beds one at a time. With a soup ladel I scooped lava rocks out and let them sit in the left over nutrient solution while I positioned the small cube of rock wool and its single lettuce plant. When I had it where I wanted, one per planter, I scooped the lava rocks around the cube. Planted. It’s a strange process compared to gardening directly in mother earth, but it’s fun, too.
After the nutrient solution was in the reservoir, a plastic tub in essence, I plugged the pump into the black tubing that leads inside the reservoir to a plastic tube with two airstones. Airstones are permeable and the bubbling of oxygen through them creates a nutrient rich mist that reaches the bottom of the planters. The roots of the lettuce seedlings will head down, through the lava rock to the mist.
With the small pump sighing the only thing left was to switch on the Halide light. It’s a big thing, 250 watts, with a ballast that feels like a large rock in weight. It now glows about 22 inches above the seedlings. The distance is necessary while the seedlings are still young and fragile. After they become well rooted and mature, I’ll move the lamp down to 6 to 12 inches above them. It will be on roughly 16 hours a day.
We’ve begun.
