Photo Update: Butternut Squash

Here you can see the Butternut Squash is really taking off now that it has some established roots.

The roots look like they're unhealthy in this photo, but what's actually happening is that the Rapid Rooter plug is dissolving and some of the detritus is getting caught up in the root system. I'll add some hygrozyme at the next reservoir change to help clear up the decaying material.

You'll also notice that this plant is in a plain bucket without any built-in supporting structures. That's because I'm going to train the Butternut Squash to climb the trellis that I built. I'm going to have to figure out exactly how to support the big heavy squash fruits but I won't have to worry about that for quite a while.

Photo Update: Roots!

While taking down the pepper plants this afternoon, we got a couple of shots of the root systems of the plants, and I thought you might find these interesting to look at.

This photo shows the root system of a bucket which had both an Ancho Magnifico and an Early Jalapeno plant in it. As I noted before, had I known how large these plants would eventually get I would certainly have given each their own bucket, something I'll be sure to do moving forward.

As you can see, the root systems of the two plants became co-mingled into one large network. Ideally the entire root system would be pure white like the bottom tips of the roots in this photo. The dark-colored portion at the center mass of the root network is slightly less healthy tissue, which hosts a small amount of algae. This is bad because the algae competes directly with the roots for resources in the nutrient solution. I have rectified this in the most recent bucket design by adding a wafer of mylar insulation to the top of the bucket lid to prevent light from penetrating the lid and supporting algae growth in the solution and on the roots.