KennethT

How does the Blossom Set fertilize the blossoms? I am to understand that it is a plant hormone which helps the fertilization set and not drop off. I would think any true pollination is coming from the action of the liquid spraying into the flower, dragging some of the pollen with it. Personally, if I'm going to spend the time spraying something into every flower (which are mostly hidden in the foliage), I'd rather spend the same time and use a pollinating wand and not use any chemical whatsoever.

A new show on YouTube is just coming out now, from our own @Fengyi. I had the pleasure of hanging out with her for a day on our trip to Beijing, and her great personality definitely comes out in her show. This show is all about the local foods of various areas in China and the wines that pair best with them. Fongyee travels around to all different areas, talks with chefs and shows some awesome food porn, all with tons of knowledge to boot. Here's a link to the first episode:

@TicTac Upward curl is sometimes called "leaf roll" and can be caused by a few things.... Some varieties naturally have a curl to their leaves - but it's not usually that drastic. If it is very hot and humid, tomato plants will curl their leaves in an effort to curl water loss. This is because the plant is losing more water than it can take up with its roots, so the plants roll their leaves to limit evapotranspiration. There is also a leaf roll virus which can cause this. Finally (but this is usually more of a farm problem), leaf roll can be caused by over application of certain herbicides... Based on your description, and knowing how hot it has been in the North East, I'd say the problem is being caused by the heat, in which case there's not much you can do aside from setting up some kind of misting system to lower the temps and raise humidity!

I don't think it's necessary. The plants should be producing enough hormone on their own, and as long as I can manipulate the environment (which I can) I can make sure that the plants are healthy. The only problem is the lack of pollinators (like bees) indoors, so we have to do it manually. It seems as though some of the blossoms have pollinated themselves (maybe from the circulation fan?) but I don't know how good of a job it is or how even it is. Uneven pollination results in misshapen fruit. This is why most indoor growers either hand pollinate (with a vibrating wand that resembles an electric toothbrush) or if the facility is large enough, with a hive of honeybees.

I was a little nervous leaving the strawberry plants while we went on vacation, but they're doing great! Now I'll start pollinating every day and we should be getting tons of strawberries soon.

We use Fresh Direct practically every week. The're great for bulky heavy things, but their meat/seafood is good too. I usually like to pick my own fish, but if we're strapped for time, FD is our go to. My wife gets a few pounds of red potatoes from FD every week and rarely has a problem. One graet thing about them is that if you have a problem with your delivery - anything at all - they will basically immediately credit you for it once you contact them. They're great to deal with when there's a problem.

Wow. You could take Big Blue on to the side of the road and set up a fresh juice stand! That is, if you ever want another occupation....

What made it Japanese?

@HungryChris Your clam dishes always look so good! Have you ever posted your recipe for linguine in white clam sauce?

@Smithy Mangosteens. It's very hard to describe them to someone who's never had a fresh one (which is most people on the US) as I think they are unique. I tried to describe them in my Singapore foos blog. Let me know if that helps. Right now I can only use my phone so long descriptions are a pita.

@TicTac check out the discussion in this thread from last year (I think it's on page 6). @liuzhou gave a good description of how to pick them.

Finally!!!! After being in Bali for about a week, we were finally able to get to a market where there were fruit vendors (with one day to spare - we're leaving Friday morning (it's now Wed evening)). I got a nice sized bag of these: The vendor originally wanted IDR75000 but I was able to get her down to 55000. At about 14000 IDR per USD that's nit quite $4. Before getting back, the quality seemed good using the equator squeeze test, so I was optimistic. Now, back at the hotel, I thought I would sample one but wound up going through about half the bag - thry were so good... So juicy they were dripping down my chin.... And that flavor! There's nothing like it.

This fruit is new to me; it appeared in a hotel "welcome" basket. This is an Indonesian fruit called Salak or snake fruit, as the skin looks (and feels) alarmingly like a snake skin. It's also thin like a snake skin. Once peeled it looks like this: It has 3 large garlic clove-like segments, each with its own stone. There is some kind of membrane around each clove as well. It has a texture similar to a chestnut and has a scent that reminded me of a mild french cheese, but fruitier. Flavor is very slightly sweet and a little sour... All in all it is certainly not amongst my favorites... but I thought it interesting nonetheless.

Usually the prefilter goes just before the main filter. The filter that I have is called a kitchen or bathroom filter and is designed to filter the entire kitchen or bathroom cold water. They make other types of "whole house" filters but they'd need to accommodate much more flow than a single room filter. But if part of your problem is coming from old rusty pipes, a filter at the water entry point won't help that...

I love how every dish's pruce is xx.95 😄

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.