System Maintenance

Hey guys! I hope everybody has had a fantastic week!
We have a few new starts in the grow room this week! We have started some more basil and kale. We have also added a couple of new plants to the system: radicchio and mustard.
In a hydroponic system, care and maintenance are key in being successful. Lately in the grow room Sam and I have started to run into an issue with clogged emitters. This is a result of algae buildup. Algae formation can take place when your solution has high concentrations of nitrates as well as having exposed stagnant or slow moving water.

The picture above is an example in our system  of an area that has some algae buildup. There are a couple of ways to help prevent buildup. If at all possible you should find a way to not have large areas of exposed water. Having large areas of exposed water increases your potential for buildup and the chance for algae to get in your system. The picture below is an example of having as little exposed area as possible. 

If you are unable to have this in your system, you will just have to make sure to clean your system out regularly and to watch your emitters for clogging. If you do get clogged emitters you can either blow on one end to get the algae out or you can soak them in a 2 parts water to 1 part bleach solution like pictured below.

Sam and Ally

Harvesting

Hey ya'll! I hope you guys are having a fantastic week!
This past week in the grow room we got to do our first harvest! We were able to harvest some chervil and basil. Since each plant needs to be harvested different ways, we thought that we would walk you through the process on harvesting both chervil and basil!
To harvest chervil you should wait until the plants are at least 5 inches in height. When you go to harvest you just need a pair of clippers, we use needle nose ones. These aren't as bulky as bypass ones and we find them easier to use.

When you go to harvest the chervil, make your cut about half an inch up from the base of the plant. This leaves an adequate amount of tissue for regrowth if you would like to get a second harvest out of your plants. Once harvested it is best to rinse your produce to insure there are no containments on your chervil.

Prior to the grow room, I had never heard of chervil and didn't know what it could be used in. In case I'm not the only one, I found a recipe that you could use your chervil in and have provided the link below.
Basil can be harvested at the same height as chervil, at least 5 inches. When harvesting basil, the cut needs to be made right above the first node on the stem. This leaves a couple branches on the plant and helps to restimulate regrowth giving you multiple harvests.

Again, after harvesting it is recommended to rinse your produce. Once you have done so your produce is ready for consumption! Between harvests of different plants, make sure to rinse off your clippers each time. This will decrease the potential for the spread of any pests if they are present.
Basil is personally one of my favorite herbs and can be used in a variety of cooking recipes. I have provided a link to a recipe below that you could incorporate your basil into. Not only does basil taste good in a meal, it also smells amazing! I think the smell of basil can be seen as a stress reliving smell and can make any space smell refreshing.

Here are the recipe links!
Chervil: http://camillestyles.com/food-and-drink/morning-meals/baked-egg-with-ricotta-thyme-chervil/
Basil:http://kitchenbowl.com/recipes?q=Basil%20mozzarella%20grilled%20cheese

Happy harvesting everybody!
Ally and Sam