Code Update

Here, finally, is a right and proper posting of my Shishi code.

Good or Bad? I can't decide.

Found here at Brandeating.com.  Litchi and Chocolate, while I love them both, I'm not sure in they go together.  It's hard to even imagine the taste of both on my mouth at the same time.  I now feel the call of science.

In other news:  McDonalds Singapore is putting their US partners to shame with their Black Sesame McFlurry and Aloo Tikki Burger.  I had high hopes for the Durian Crunch McFlurry, but the comment section makes me think other wise.

Code update V 1.1

Update to the Code

ADDED exhaust fan control
lowered the humidity requirement to 55

Lychee Shishi Version 1 - Code

As promised here is the code for my ShiShi project(working title).  I know that it's not the best.  I learned so much while creating this.  One day I'll sit down and rewrite this whole thing.  Code after the break..

Another

Another project I've been working on is this:

The picture above is of an early prototype.  On the bread board you are looking at:

• an Arduino Uno
• Sainsmart 4 Channel Relay
• LCD shield made from the Maker Shed Kit     
• a bunch of wires.

It's called an Environmental Controller.  The plan is for this device to control and monitor the grow tent.

Time for an Update

First the Wine

I never really got the chance to follow up on the Lychee wine.

I ended up with two separate gallons of wine.  I used the same recipe for the second one except instead of blending the fruit, I placed it into a mesh bag.  I did this because it was a such a hassle to remove and strain the fruit in the first one after primary.

Here they are together in primary

Just Saving for Later

One does not simply "wish" for Lychee Wine,

it must be made.

I promise you, I cleaned that jar.  Inside and out.

What better use of 5lbs of lychee?

Say Yes to Fresh Lychees and No to Sulfur Dioxide Import Alert 99-21

I re-post this because I've noticed quite a few obvious cases of lychee being brown on the outside not matching the inside.

Via Blueproduce

It is well known in the industry that China, Taiwan, and Israel have been shipping lychees treated with Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) gas now for several years to the United States. There are already a few Chinese Exporters on the FDA Import Alert List for illegally applying SO2 to fresh lychees. Foreign exporters do it because it is the only commercially known method to preserve lychee fruit (also done with longan fruit) for the 25-30 day boat trip to the USA and because the lychee color can be maintained better since they avoid normal browning that is naturally occurring on the fresh lychee shell when exposed to oxygen. When the cold chained is maintained well you may see some light browning on the shell, this means it is fresh with no harmful post-harvest chemical treatments.


Here are a few photos that you can use as a reference guide when checking to see if the lychees you are buying are fresh:


Lychees with Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Gas Treatment
Click on the picture for more detail


As you can see from the photos, most lychees that undergo SO2 gas treatment turn beige in color and this is a good indicator that these lychees likely do not follow FDA Food Safety Guidelines. However, when the SO2 gas is applied optimally and the lychee fruit is later dipped in an acidic solution most of the lychees return to their natural green or red color which makes it difficult to detect if a lychee has been treated with Sulfur Dioxide without performing a full laboratory analysis.

If you are in doubt, there is no need to panic, just contact your distributor and ask them for a lab certification guaranteeing that the lychees they are selling you are 100% fresh and free of SO2 gas residue. If you suspect you have lychees with SO2 gas residue, you should notify your distributor to get your money back and register a formal complaint with the FDA.



Lychees are yummy when served chilled and fresh, let’s make Food Safety our #1 priority by saying “yes” to fresh lychees and “no” to sulfur dioxide.



Import Alert 99-21

Progression of Peas

This is an older picture, in fact thse peas have come and gone.  I got a decent yield from them about 2 pounds of peas, which is plenty. 

Today I'm starting another batch.  However, this time I'm using the Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas which apparently won't require trellising.  We shall see.

What's the best PH and EC for lychee??

On the left acid peaty soil, Om the right ordinary soil

Following the advice of this paper, Soil PH variation and Lychee Growth by Robert A. Nanz and a few other places from the web I've decided to take greater control of the PH in the nutrient solution. My first readings revealed a PH of 6.7 and ppm of nearly 3000.

Update: It's been about a week since the
original drafting of this post and currently the ppm is 1500 and a PH of 6.2

String Trellis

Here is a picture of string trellis I made for the peas. I hung the strings from the top of the shelf the holds light. I then wrapped the string around the plants to get them started. Hopefully the string is thick enough for the peas to hold on to.

Wait, What?

So for the past several months I've been trying a new "organic" nutrient solution from General Hydroponics called Biothrive Grow.  It's even vegan.  I've put up with a lot from this stuff, you can't test it in any way accept for temperature(no PPM/TDS/PH), and the recommended dosage turned my reservoir in to a foamy foul smelling mess that, at one point,  I had to nuke with peroxide.  Seeking a solution to these problems I found this post on the General Hydroponics blog.

So the foaming is most likely caused by the small bubbles made by both my water pump and by the air stone in the reservoir.  A General Hydroponics employee posted a suggestion that a General Hydroponics Product called Bio-Marine, which is essentially fish oil, would help.  Which is supposed to work in the same way that adding a drop of oil will stop a pot of ramen from over-boiling.   This helpful tip, however is refuted, in another unrelated post, by another GH representative stating that Bio-Marine will "funk up" a recirculating system. Sigh.

Later on in the original post, appears this helpful quote:


"While lots of growers are experimenting, at this point, GH is not intending BioThrive to be a base for hydroponics."

Thanks for nothing General Hydroponics

I shall press on.

The Hardware

Here is my current system configuration:

4 Tier adjustable metal shelf from K-mart
American Hydroponics Baby Bloomer w/ Hydroton
180 watt Blackstar LED Grow light from Lighthouse Hydro
Hydrofarm Commercial 2ft 4 tube T5 fixture
Four 4" Personal Fans Two to exhaust heat and the others circulate cool air
Vick Ultrasonic Humidifier
Hard Cider CO2 Enrichment System (the subject of an upcoming post)
all happily wrapped in Mylar

Three plug-in timers:
one for the lights (currently on an 12/12)
one for the water and (currently in a 3 hour cycle)
one for the humidity and air circulation (currently in a 30/15).

This setup is going strong so far. The only downside is that the UFO, which I keep abount in the middle of the box, blows its exhaust air in all directions around it resulting in heated air blowing unto some of the leaves. 

My future upgrade plans are to automate the fans and humidifier with a thermostat and humidistat for greater precision.  Also, I'd like to upgrade to a 54w T5 Fixture.

Perpetual peat pot problems

Note to self: Peat pots are problems o' plenty.  Once wet, the pots hold too much moisture and drown the seeds. After that, they dry out too quickly, sucking the water and life from the seed and roots.  Of the 10 I've used thus far, only 3 or 4 seeds have sprouted. One of them being basil, the world's easiest plant to grow.  The rest have either remained lifeless or grown a layer of green mold, marking what should have been a place of new life into a tombstone  . 

Wonder and Warnings

The good, the bad, the longan

I was walking through the store today and came across a bunch of longan that were the largest that I've ever seen. Pictured above, with a quarter for scale, is a few from that bunch. There were about the size of a large grapes. However, should you come across such longan, leave them where you found them because the taste was horrible. The increase in size came at the cost of flavor.  Longan isn't the best, but watered-down longan is hopeless.  Another reason why you're not reading Longanyum.

Yearly Reading

After finding a really nice copy of The Lychee and Lungan by George Weidman Groff on the Internet Archive. I feel like I've just read it for the first time. Most copies of this text consist of scanned pages that are then converted into a black and white image, while this version is a color scan of the book and I think that made for a much easier, or rather more natural reading.

Lots of Good Info Here

Merry Christmas!!

How did the Tempura Lychee turn out?

THE PLAN






THE RESULT



I think I was pretty close. They didn't taste too bad either. The next time I try this, I'll only bread them once, the taste of the overpowered the Litchi slightly. However this might have been because they were canned lychee. I also think that it would be better to dry the fruit as much as possible before frying. Also, deep fryer would have made life a lot easier.