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This is week 2 of new plantings. Some lettuces are visually lager than week 1. All pots received water and are moist. Timered water pumping is working but still with slight spill. The water tanks are low and the main supply is turned off. So not clear if the solenoid for the water value is working or not. Tanks need refill. I have manually refilled both tanks and kept the mains off. Some pots have soil eroded and plants are tiny, but all plants are still alive.

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Today 198 new plants were potted into the vertical farm. Weekly logs will start on every Friday. Everyone is welcome to post photos of the farm when you visit.

The farm has a new blue box to contain and protect electrical/network equipments. New irrigation pipes (was inside before) on the outside of cylinders may improve the water distribution in the cylinders.

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The farm is now in maintenance mode. We powered off and the industry partner Chris from AUG will service the IoT devices that control to irrigation. I did some readings of EC and TDS with two probes for the two tanks. One tank has higher readings but much lower than last time.

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My regular weekly check this morning bumped into Liv who is also maintaining the farm at the same time. She cleaned the pump filter, removed some over drinking lettuces and replanted new ones. Recently the Shelly relay devices were intermittently showing up in the network and water pumping may be irregular causing over water supply. Hopefully cleaning up the filter could resolve the water supply issue. EC and TDS readings are high from my probe but lower from Liv’s probe. I will need to calibrate my probe.

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After heavy rain in this week, today Friday finally sees lovely sunshine. The farm is functioning as usual, with new lettuces (looks like Oakleaf now) growing bigger than 4 days ago. Got a new EC probe today with reading 3880, not sure if that is in good range. TDS reading is about 2000 ppm. Soil moisture probe fell out on the ground and needs reconditioning.

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All empty pots were filled with new plants last Friday. They look like coral lettuces again. Hope they can grow well this time. The temperature is significantly lower and wet weather in the past two weeks or so.

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The farm needs a reset for new plants soon. Will clean a bit more later this afternoon.

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Before heading home in late Friday afternoon, I came for another check and harvest. At about 4:30 pm there is sunlight shining from low sky. Not many corals left growing. Water level is fine. After many raining days at least one has rotten maybe due to over water supply?

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Alert Alert. Bush Turkey attack. I caught one (image 5) bush turkey approaching me with no fear when I am taking photos. It found some basil leaves on the ground but they probably did not smell good so the turkey left. Established lettuces are growing well but some seemed to have been washed down by rain. Cylinder 4 is a mystery; all new coral lettuces in cylinder 4 have almost die out. Some baby corals are looking to grow up. Pump is working. Water supply is normal but all is very wet due to rain today.

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Cylinder 4 is not looking well. New planting of lettuces may be getting too much water or nutrients.

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New plants (lettuces) are put in and all cylinders are now at capacity. New lettuces seem to be a different type. Cylinder 6 will need harvesting. It has been raining most days this week. The soil moisture sensor (see last image in this post) has been reporting 100% percent all week. Water supply is normal. With the current lower temperature (15-25 degrees in autumn) the lettuces should be happier to grow.

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All parameters are normal. Need another harvest today. Why the top plants seem to grow better?

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First harvest. I picked many larger leaves, enough for a bowl of salad. Still some to harvest. Time to investigate further sequence/logistics for harvesting and food safety (how to consume).

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27 April 2026 - second harvest (10 days after the 1st harvest)

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27 April 2026 - second harvest (10 days after the 1st harvest)

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The weather was a bit gloomy so the photos aren't very good, but the veggies were very beautiful with bare eyes. The last photo is the screenshot of what the actual colour was like. I fully picked cylinder 2 & 5 but did not pick the light green ones on cylinder 2. Partially, I picked some leaves from cylinder 1, 3, and 6 as well. There are still some to harvest on cylinder 1, 3, and 6 (enough for a bowl of salad). Also noting that cylinder 4 seemed very sad and it might need new planting?

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To harvest, simply pick large leaves from outside, the inner small leaves will continue to grow. Must wash in clean water before consuming the produce.

Water level, moisture level and EC level are normal.

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Time to harvest lettuces?

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The Farm is functioning. Existing plants can receive good amount of water but noticed that cylinder 1 and 5 has few net pots at the bottom of cylinder are dry. A soil moisture sensor is placed in cylinder 6 (see image 3) and its data will be exposed later for public view after some testing. The pump also started to make intermittent clicking sound once in about every minute.

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There are some lettuces ready to pick (in this 7th week). In the third photo, it shows one lettuce on the ground. I suspect that there could be some animal pecking it out from the net pot.

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The farm is functioning normally. Some lettuces seem ready to harvest. But will keep observing if they grow any bigger.

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another week of steady growing. I wonder how big is ready to harvest. Basils are still small. All seems to function well.

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Lettuces and basils are steadily growing. Lettuces usually take 6-8 weeks to harvest so expect some full grown in 2-3 weeks. Basils are new so will take longer to harvest. Water supply is normal. With some rains this week, most pots are moist and some may have excessive water than needed. However, water should drip down and these vegetables should be able to tolerate.

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After about 4 weeks, some lettuces have grown with stronger roots. There seem to have some new basils planted. Watering is now about 5 seconds when pumping and most pots are moist.

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Good to see visually some lettuces are growing bigger but watering has some issues. 3 cylinders have lower half or some side pots not receiving water. Many pot holes are dry. Need to check water dripping and adjust pumping timers. During this post in about 10 minutes, the pump was on once for only 2-3 seconds. Past week has received some rain but still hot about 31-33 degrees in some days. Lettuces ideal temperature is between 15-25 degrees so perhaps more suitable for autumn and winter.

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Many are still small and only few seem to grow bigger.

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New pump installed, in trial. Will hard mount soon.

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Dosed nutrients to EC 1400PPM

Taken motor to recondition.

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The situation is the same from last Friday. One cylinder has tried and could not receive water. Other 5 cylinders are good but lettuces did not seem to grow bigger. Pump is working but still making a click sound every few seconds and leaks few drops of water.

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The farm was moved and reoriented. One cylinder is dry and plants on this dry cylinder will not survive. Other 5 cylinders are still moist/watered adequately but plants do not seem to grow bigger. The pump issue remains.

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Checked today, pump has a minor gasket/seal leak. These consumables sometimes need replacement. Good thing I have spares!

The drip is minor, but still enough to leave a water trail. No algae build up, slip is equivalent on wet and not wet concrete.

Note of interest, pebblecrete finish holds higher risk than regular concrete. Relocating system across the garden until drip can be resolved.

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Lettuces are still small. The pump is making a noise about every 15 seconds.

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The past week was hot and dry. Yesterday (Thursday) might have some rain and today will be raining most of the day. Lettuces are still small after a week but at least survived the heat last week.

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Some lettuces are growing.