KennethT

My filter doesn't slow down the cold water flow initially, but definitely slows down over time. If your local water had a lot of silt or particulates, it could be beneficial to get a prefilter which will only remove solid particles that would quickly clog the main filter.

Years ago, I installed an under the sink filter in my rental apartment. One day, when we move out, I'll have to do something about it. Ours is a little different, but very easy to install - it probably took no longer than a half hour. Ours doesn't use a separate spigot, but filters the cold water line of the kitchen sink. I installed a GE filter system that was like $50 at the Home Depot. I think it's been either discontinued or just that the Depot doesn't sell it any more. But I get replacement filters from Amazon or Ebay for anout $25. In hindsight, I'd install a different one as the filters are a PITA to change.. But the initial install was really easy.

@dcarch great post - so glad you did that. That is the big misconception about BER, the lack of calcium but it really is a distribution problem. I had the same problem with my hydro tomato and my nutrient mix was just fine. Here's hoping I dont get it or tip burn on my strawberries!

Maybe for typical strawberries. The ones I'm growing are particularly delicate- and I'll be picking them super ripe for same day or next day delivery. Pollinators are easy - I've used an old electric toothbrush on a tomato plant with great results. It's still slow though... I have a theory for a different kind of pollinator that's much faster but it needs some testing first.

You're reading my mind!! Although I believe the cameras could be trained to spot a ripe berry, I think the actual robotic harvesting would be a challenge due to its fragility. Most grippers aren't that gentle. Plus we'd still need people for doing other maintenance like pruning older leaves, pollinating (I dont know if I'd have the volume for a hive of honeybees) etc

I've been picking the flowers until the roots were a little more established and until we get back from vacation. There have been a lot of flowers! Lots of them lurking in the foliage.

I wonder if they're there all the time, or just put there for the pictures, then put back in a case or something.

My wife took a photo of me making some alterations to the space strawberry garden... I added some more controls to the humidifier/dehumidifier system.

Les Halles hasn't been in business in a long time - at least a year.

Do you know if your tomatoes are determinate or indeterminate? The difference is that determinate will basically grow vegetatively for a period of time, then flower basically all at once, ripen all at once as the season ends, then the plant dies. Indeterminates will continue to grow (maybe to 30 feet long!) and continue to flower for about a year until their production slows down (but never really stops). Most heirlooms are indeterminate, but it's not a guarantee. I used to grow an awesome indeterinate heirloom in my apartment, I pinched the first several flowers as well, waiting for the root system to be able to take the strain of heavy fruiting. I think I started to pollinate the flowers (gotta do it by hand indoors) after the plant reached it's third truss. But the length of your growing season would affect my decision. Indoors, I don't have a growing season as I can manipulate basically everything - but outdoors, once frost comes, that's it - so depending on the length of the season, you may not need to pinch off the flowers.

@dcarch These varieties are not runnering strawberries, so there is no chance of that.

In honor of Tony Bourdain, tonight, I'm making a Singapore Nyonya curry. It was his shows on Singapore and other places in Asia that sparked my love of travel to those places. No picture, but I've shown it before - it didn't look any different tonight.

I'm surprised that Travel Channel won't be showing any Vietnam episodes - it was one of his favorite places in the world, and he did several episodes for them.

Here's an update on the strawberry experiment: I picked a bunch of flowers this morning - I don't want the plants to fruit until they're a little more mature. They all had flowers except #2 which had some problems from the beginning. If #2 doesn't come back in a few weeks, I'll plant a new one and see if it does any better. Right now, there's too many variables to see where the problems are coming from - is it that plant? Does that variety not do well in hydro? Was it from the shading in the "nursery"? Too many unknowns to be sure...

Being a foodie in NYC, it's impossible not to know Xi'an Famous Foods - they've expanded all over the place. For a period of time, I would go there several times a month. According to an interview, they attribute a lot of their success to Bourdain when he talked them up after eating at their sole stall in a Flushing, Queens mall (Flushing is probably the biggest Chinatown in NYC right now). See https://ny.eater.com/2018/6/8/17442082/xian-famous-foods-jason-wang-anthony-bourdain

I had just heard about this. Like many, I watched his shows for a long time. I think his shows on Asia sparked my love of the region and desire to travel there. Lately, his shows on CNN were beautiful - really well shot, paced, and had a great narrative. I'll miss watching them.

@ImportantElements Your pics always look so good. What do you use for lighting?

Most residential fridges instruct the installer to use a dedicated line as well. Whether or not that is done is a different story, but it's in practically every installation manual I've read, and I've read a lot of them for work!

@pastrygirl Ha! One of these vacations, we're going to go to southern Vietnam - and spend a little time on Phu Quoc - a small island that while it is beautiful, is very well known for having several large fish sauce making facilities. They say you can smell them for miles!

I can't answer your question, but I did want to say that I'm impressed that you tried to make your own soy sauce... it reminds me of when I was young and reading the Time Life series of international cuisine books and saw a description for SE Asian fish sauce. Never seeing it in a store before (that stuff wasn't readily available back then), I tried to make it and it wound up being a horribly spectacularly smelling failure.

BTW, @PassionateAmateur - I used to do what you're talking about every once in a while - I would make a 4-5 course tasting menu for 8-10 people every couple of months, in a small Manhattan kitchen. Sous vide was my best friend and I could make everything (except the fish) the week or so before, then retherm for service and everything tasted just like it would have if made fresh.

@TicTac This is an experiment to grow some relatively rare (in the US) wild strawberries. I have been considering using some unused warehouse space and growing them commercially, but before I put down that kind of capital, I want to check yields, costs, etc. to see if the investment makes sense.

@dcarch There shouldn't be. Usually slime is caused by bacteria, which would be an indication of other problems - primarily root rot caused by anaerobic bacteria. The good thing about NFT is that all the agitation highly oxygenates the water, and since it's only a film on the bottom and there should be no standing water, it should be pretty resistant to anaerobic problems. Theoretically. Over time, as the roots grow, they can block the flow somewhat causing ponding, which is a haven for anaerobic bacteria. The 2% grade usually helps with that, as does "air pruning" which can be done by cycling the nutrient flow on and off letting part of the root get dry and die back. From that point, you get lots of secondary roots, but it keeps the clogging to a minimum. Also, keeping the nutrient cool does a good job of keeping oxygen in the water and the anaerobes at bay. Luckily enough, research has shown that strawberry crowns' optimal temperature is about 65F which is also good for keeping plenty of dissolved oxygen. Most problems start when your nutrient gets over 70. There should also be no algae, since algae needs light to grow, so keeping the root zone and nutrient dark keeps that away.

I finally got a chance to finish (well almost - it's functioning but not yet perfect - more parts coming in soon) the setup for the strawberry experiments, and not a moment too soon!!! These guys were crowding each other around in the nursery - so much so that one of them was almost completely shaded - we'll see if it can recover in the main garden... This is how it looked as of this morning - the black container with yellow top is a homemade humidifier - there is an ultrasonic fogger floating in that reservoir and 3 cheap fans push the mist out of the box and into the tent. The hose going into it is coming from a trough underneath the cold water air conditioner - it's basically just a heat exchanger with about 40degF water running through it and a couple of fans blowing the tent air through it, so the heat exchanger gets lots of condensation - so by draining the condensate back into the reservoir, it's self sustaining. The heat exchanger is quite effective at sucking heat out of the room. Here's a closeup of the "nursery".... This is the new setup (without the plants) going through a testing phase. In hydroponics lingo, this is called an NFT setup which stands for Nutrient Film Technique. Nutrient water is pumped into the left side - it flows like a river down the trough which is sloped at a 2% grade, and then drains out the right side into a sump underneath. The sump then pumps the nutrient back into the main reservoir located outside the tent (for heat purposes - the nutrient is kept around 65degF, which is different from both the daytime and nighttime temps in the tent, plus it's big, so it frees up real estate inside). Finally, the plants are home! #2 is the runt that was shaded by everyone else in the nursery. Added this shot of the outside - 30 gallon reservoir and chiller

I think the floss is usually purchased rather than made at home. Every time I fly by EVA from NY to Taiwan, there is a package of fish floss accompanying the congee during the breakfast service.