brrrr...it's cold outside!

While i was away, my daughter got it into her head that it was time mommy had more flowers around the house...and she wanted mom to have tulips!...well, it's 14 degrees F outside, with ice on the ground...so after explaining the cold weather in January was bad for bulbs- she took it on herself to plant some petunias instead, in 'her' powerplant mini. She instructed mom on what to do...and here they are 4 days later!!!..they like my new prepara grow lamp and their green nutrient (more on this later).

Every morning she pulls over a bar stool and climbs up, clicks on the grow lamp and checks them out, normally followed by ooos and ahhhs, as they really have shot up. I'll be sure to keep the blog up to date.
I've been thinking these power plant products would be great for schools, they are just so remarkably engaging and fun.

Here's some nutrient update i mentioned above;
While developing new products Prepara has been continually upgrading their methodolgy and specifications of the products. The first thing they learnt was that you cant trust to any old nutrient for growing. So, if you have green nutrient..then you have the latest and VERY best available in the world....1 teaspoon per gallon of plain old water! voila!

However, if you have some yellow or aqua color nutrient, then you have the 'old' stuff (with different mixing instructions)...this will work, but be sure to 'upgrade' your machine to the new stuff...you WILL NOT regret it...it's amazing!..you'll get the replacement, currently from preparas web site, where they will sell you enough -at a great price-for many, many grow cycles.

While at the site download the growing instruction PDF...this was simplified and you will see the use of the 'timer' has been written out...this is now considered an option for those of you that want to save electricity, however the power plants can be left running 24/7 with no adverse effects whatsoever. plus- they really only use a tiny amount of power, so...its up to you. I dont use a timer and my plants grow splendidly.

getting a bargain

while i admit, i have been very busy at work lately, and my kitchen has been under some construction, i should share with you a great holiday item that we have been developing; its called the power plant pro and it's our 'new kid' on the block.

it's a completely 'open' system, whereby you can plant any type of seed into the individual pods on the top surface of the power plant (there are 6 pods). Burpee currently has a great site for ordering seeds at this time of year, (prepara also offer a gourmet herb seed collection). i'd recommend keeping the plant under 2 feet tall!...otherwise they'll do what my chilli and lettuce did and crowd out the others.

how does it work?
fill it with the supplied super nutrient (enough nutrient for a lot of fun..possibly a year or more of growing), plug it in and off it goes!..the really cool part is that the patented top grow surface rotates, very slowly-once every twenty minutes...this is hardly noticeable at first, but is so cool when your plants start to grow, it's very kinetic...plus it serves a very real purpose of allowing sunlight to hit all the pods without the need for a lamp, if you have a really sunny spot.
however you can fit the lamp easily under the base...and boy, it looks fantastic...smaller footprint, neater and more stylish than any other on the market.

check out the photo...shown with it is the herb savor, proven (lab tested) to keep your herbs fresh for over 3 weeks..why waste them!

time to start harvesting

i took a weeks vacation, and as you'll see from the photos my basil didn't miss me one bit!
i changed out her nutrient for a fresh batch and filled her up before i left.

the small leaves are very aromatic, i sprinkled some on my salmon yesterday, not only pretty but flavorful too.

next up for growing in my other power plant is mint. I love mint, great for cocktails!

i'll start a catalog of images as i grow them.

how does your garden grow?

recently i've heard a few people mention the need for a timer with the power plant, however, this was based upon old instructions included with the packaging.
the laboratory technicians at prepara discovered the power plant mini actually runs better when left on full time...no need for the timer!


and btw, running it full time should be a quiet and tranquil experience-sounding very much like a faraway trickling stream.

a New plant to try!
i thought i'd include a video here of a very interesting plant we grew....it's incredible and so much fun!!!!
it's called a 'sensitive' plant (mimosa pudica) and you can see why...it didn't take long to grow, possibly 5 weeks to this point.
we just planted the seeds and plugged the power plant mini in and left her to grow
you can see a more formal description here on Wikipedia

Pistou forming up

here are some images of the two prepara power plant minis i have in my kitchen.
the basil pistou has just grown some real leaves, they're tiny, but perfectly formed, they look like mini versions of the pictures on the seed packet.
i have a small crop at one end of the sponge area, the other seeds sprouted along the length but not as successfully as this small bunch.

here's an interesting fact i learned;
each packet of seed sold by a manufacturer actually has a propagation success rate (i.e. 95% etc) this success rate will also vary by type...so a basil pistou sold by X may be more likely to grow than that sold by manufacturer Y!....so don't buy cheap seed...thats the only logic i can see

i'm fascinated by the growth of secret experiment, theyre drinking alot and they are getting real bushy...hopefully they'll continue on with some more 'root' growth. i think there's too many along the sponge, but i didnt want to start paring them back yet, as my daughter loves brushing her fingers over them...she knows it helps them grow!

basil pistou...and a surprise guest!

i finally got some time to set up the new crop.
my daughter dutifully helped mix up the nutrient. we rinsed the sponge, first under some running water. we placed the sponge back, in the correct orientation, and placed the seeds along the inside of the grow sponge slit. we dribbled mixed nutrient along the seed slit and filled up the reservoir with the mixed nutrient. and Voila we turned her on and that was saturday.

it's now wednesday and there's been some nice developments, as you can see. i placed the humidadomes over the sprouting seeds, to help concentrate the humidity, light and heat.

we are trying Basil Pistou seeds from Burpee. the seed packet says it's a small leaf basil, grows abundantly and is commonly used for pesto in France...cant wait to see its beautiful leaves.

i will admit that the second power plant mini has something very unusual in it (the last picture)...and i'll continue to keep the blog updated with photos of it....and you'll just have to keep coming back to see what it might develop into!

so far its been an absolute joy running the power plants, especially the level of care i feel for these developing plants, right in front of my eyes. every day i get to see a little more development and my daughter still grabs the kitchen stool to take a peep at 'her' plants.

the last days of this basil crop

after resting the basil for the weekend, i was glad to see how well the leaves had grown,

the thai basil had grown really large!

as you may have gathered,  i've been raving about my power plant mini's basil success and how well its been doing, so i was asked to submit it to the designers at prepara. they made short work of integrating it into a photo shoot for some new packaging designs. 

tomorrow i hope it'll still be healthy enough to accompany a pizza!

at home, my daughter and i will be testing some new basil type... called Pistou, a small leaved french basil

i'll keep you posted

the power plants new look

so the basil has started to get some real attention from my family, i'm looking like a real gardening guru...'oh, and here's my latest crop of basil...all green and leafy!'...it's very funny, i can now discuss the merits of sweet basil to that of thai basil.

this morning my daughter asked if she could put a sticker on the power plant..of course you can...and bam- not 5 minutes later the product is now covered in stickers!!!...i guess she feels some ownership too..

full of flavors...but not mixed!

since the basil was trimmed there's been a lot of newer bushier growth.
the leaves are growing in tighter groups, i'll likely use some again this weekend, it'll be the 3rd crop.

in this crop you'll see i planted siam basil in one half (the pointy leaves) and italian sweet basil in the other.
however, now i wish i'd just done one varietal.
both are delicious, but they are so different in flavor.

the siam is truly the same fragrance and flavor as that found in thai food. it has an especially strong liquorice taste and reminded me very much of my favorite pad thai dish..yum yum

the sweet basil is great for pizza and pesto, much less pungent!

talking of which;
i thought i'd share my latest pesto mix
the 'power plant pesto' great for spreading on sandwiches-panini anyone?, especially with tomatoes and mozzarella

heres my recipe for a small qty;
take 1-2 cup of leaves- tightly packed
2 tablespoons of roasted marcona almonds (i've been heating some marcona nuts my wife bought at costco ...salted....add them into a pan with a dash of olive oil and stir regularly until they brown...you'll probably need to do twice as many, cos when you taste them -they are out of this world!)
2 tablespoons of grated parmesan
1 small garlic clove-peeled
half tablespoon lemon juice-or lime juice
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin oil

combine ingredients of; basil, nuts, cheese, garlic, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of water, season with salt and pepper in a small blender...i use a stick blender. Puree until you make a paste (you could use a mortar and pestle with such a small qty of pesto...the old way!)
add in portions of the olive oil, just enough until the paste becomes a smooth buttery texture...good for spreading.