Update of the vertical teaponic system and the compost tea experiment.

The parsley and the small collard greens

  Things seem to be going well in the vertical farm, expept the parlsey, I made the mistake of plugging the extra light for the all day on friday, and when i came back in the evening, a couple of the leaves looked dried up ... Also, It overall seem to not be as green anymore- I though maybe not enough light- but it could be also anot enough nitrate. But today there is a new leaf growing on it, so it probably will be good. 

The green onions are growing nicely and this growth has attracted the lovely kitty who palyed with it. have transferred poted plants on the window seal so the cat does not have acess to it anymore. 

Given the nice growth of the collard greens (and green onions) I decided to count the number of leaves and the size of the biggest leaf just for the heck of it. The longest green onion leaf is just below 11 inches (30 cm) long, the longest collard greens is 2 inches (6 cm), and the parsley is 7 inches (17.7cm). Each of the 4 green onion has 3 leaves, the parsley has 9 leaves, and the biggest collard green has 9 leaves. I took a few pictures of the plants to get an idea of the progression. 

The small collard greens - pulled out to show the small roots growing out of the stem.

 The bigger collard greens, with plenty of leaves growing from it.

A view of the whole teaponic system. 

On the 'tea" side of the things, this week using 1.5 cups of worm compost for 2 cups of water, it seems that I got some traces of nitrates. Given the color of the tea, I really have to give a try at the stips style tests. But see the picture below, it when from a dark brown to a  "redder" dark brown after the incubation. I think it could be the apparition of some of the red of the API kit that changed the color this way, indicating that therre is some sufficient nitrate to change the color. I will get a set of test strips for next week's tea and update.

The system's ammonia keeps showing traces (what i add) but it does not accumulate - showing that is really is cycle. Also Nitrate do not seem to accumulate either, they have been indetectable since thier "diseaperance "from the water a few weeks back, after the system had fully cycled.