Spring is in the ground

I was surprised that all my discarded coriander seeds are now sprouting outdoors. Also my venus flytrap is putting forth a bud.

I got the cilantro to sprout!

Cilantro is notoriously hard. The only other time I've got it to go was actually via aquaponics! This time I put all my remaining seeds in an AeroGarden3 and cleaned everything with ozonated water via the Tersano Lotus. After a week some mold started to appear anyway. I cleaned it up with some more Tersano juice and a couple of days later . . . voilà! Since I started with so many seeds (about 18) I might have enough to get two AG3's going . . . supplying me with tasty cilantro for my Mexican and Oriental dishes throughout the winter.

Thanksgiving of sorts

Well. It's Thanksgiving and I'm stuck at home alone with a cold.

Also, my e-bike is grounded. I suspect the throttle. I hope it's just the throttle. I have opened up the controller and didn't see anything obviously awry. Next step is to find a voltimeter to test that throttle. Fortunately I found some technical advice online. I don't know any repair shops within 500 miles though (perhaps that could be a good business niche).

Sigh. On the plus side, my redneck fake-AeroGarden-in-an-aquarium is doing surprizingly well. I've even gotten a lot of cilantro to sprout! And there is a snow pea in there that is going nuts. I've strapped the aquarium's fluorescent light to a microphone boom stand.

AeroGarden magic

My second attempt at cilantro is proving successful. I have made sure to keep the stuff moist, even putting a little clear plastic hat on the peat cup. Also, I've started a half-dozen pea plants pretty easily this way. The peas I planted outside in the dirt haven't done anything as it's still too cold.

AG hacks that worked

I am happy to report a couple of my tricks for capitalizing upon the excess energy flow of the AeroGarden have proved fruitful. What you do is plant seeds in the little peat pots and set them in range of the grow lights. In this environment you have to water them every day; in some cases I recycled the little clear plastic caps that came with the AeroGarden seed pods.

Peas sprouted in a couple of days. So did cilantro, an herb that AeroGrow removed from its herb kit because it is so hard to grow! Hopefully it won't curl up and die on me.

The aquaponics experiment has also proved successful. Basil will root very well within a week.