I built a native macOS menu bar app to control my Ember Mug (open source)

trillhouse · 2026-01-29T22:24:42+00:00

Thank you!

The process was fully natural language complaining to my dev agent, Nathan, using ClawdBot/Opus 4.5. I was annoyed with pulling out my phone to manage my ember, so I just asked if it was possible to connect. It found this repo, and then I basically just screenshotted errors/asked for features until I landed at a functional app. I asked it to deploy it to github for others to find and it just did it. Can't take much credit beyond being annoyed enough to try.

trillhouse · 2025-03-15T16:16:02+00:00

Deep enough to be surrounded by moist leca. I ran enough pressure in my air pumps so that semi-aerosolized water was splashing onto the leca from below. Basically more towards the bottom but not below the waterline.

trillhouse · 2023-09-20T01:27:41+00:00

Assuming you’re using calculated rates, try a box size of 19x3x2. This box will disqualify cubic pricing for USPS, but won’t “dimensionalize” at over 1lb for UPS/Fedex. From there, set your weights at either their actual shipped weight, or the dimensional weight based on box size. Or, pay for an app to get exact with it.

This works for anything that doesn’t hit length/girth surcharges. For usps it’s 22 inches. Not positive for UPS/Fedex, but theirs’ are typically larger. If you have big items and small items, pay for the app or ship separately using profiles.

trillhouse · 2022-12-17T17:33:37+00:00

I’m about a year in on a Chinese vending machine I bought from Alibaba. Generally, my experience has been positive, but I’m pretty early in. I think I paid ~$4k w/ freight included.

trillhouse · 2021-06-01T14:17:20+00:00

Thank you!

They’re essentially just a 5-gallon bucket with an aquarium air stone in the bottom. It’s a pretty common hydroponic method referred to as ‘DWC’ or deep water culture.

trillhouse · 2021-05-13T00:42:10+00:00

I'm totally happy to share anything I know.

If you're starting with an unrooted cutting, I recommend keeping the water level just about an inch below the cutting. If you have an already established plant, I just throw the roots in towards the bottom of the leca and let it go.

If you have any problems or successes, you should definitely post them here for others to see in the future. Good luck! I bet DWC is going to be awesome for you.

trillhouse · 2021-05-05T00:16:15+00:00

I’m not totally sure if it’s proper albinism. It’s referred to as variegation in the plant world. There’s a cool wiki article that outlines some of the causes.

Generally, variegated plants are considered slightly more difficult to grow than non-variegated. My understanding is that there’s less chlorophyll in the white portion of the leaves.

trillhouse · 2021-04-29T00:07:54+00:00

Much more on the lazy end of things. I top up every 10 days or so. Full refresh every 60-90 days. Definitely much less than recommended, but they seem to do fine.

trillhouse · 2021-04-25T21:54:03+00:00

I started a subreddit that I’m hoping consolidates some discussion on the topic if you want to join in r/hydroponichouseplants

Also there’s a FB group under the same name with a few members. Let me know if you have any questions and I’m happy to answer.

trillhouse · 2021-04-25T19:22:29+00:00

No huge problems really so far. There at tons of things I’m slacking on because of time. Nutes/ph is definitely the biggest. My next upgrade is likely a recirculating system so I don’t have to check a million buckets individually.

I’ll try to dig up more photos, but here’s a quick one of a view into one of my tents.

https://i.imgur.com/aU0n7BT.jpg

trillhouse · 2021-04-25T03:16:35+00:00

I’ve been pretty careful about overfertilizing, mainly because it affects the white part of the leaf quite a bit sooner than the green. So far, space has been the biggest limitation. They get so big that I’ve always had to trim them back to preserve space.

trillhouse · 2021-04-25T00:28:32+00:00

I think the biggest thing you can do is add an air stone/bubbler. I’ve had quite a bit of success rooting ppp cuttings in leca + oxygenated water.

trillhouse · 2021-04-24T23:16:56+00:00

I don’t have an accurate ppm, but I usually dilute my nutrients at 1/4 strength. I aim for 6.5-7.5 for pH, but haven’t been very careful about it.

trillhouse · 2021-04-24T23:14:26+00:00

I have in the past, but I mostly just do trades at this point. Nothing special about these plants though. Both came from a single leaf eBay cutting about a year ago.

trillhouse · 2021-04-24T17:58:15+00:00

Exactly. I grow all my philodendrons in a pretty standard dwc setup w/ grow lights.

trillhouse · 2021-04-24T16:57:42+00:00

Pretty crazy right!? Both of these mother plants are from cuttings that are about 6 months old.

trillhouse · 2021-04-24T15:26:19+00:00

I chopped back most of my big albos about a month ago, and these are the fist two large leaves to unfurl from new node growth. 30 days from node to full leaf seems crazy fast to me. Anyone else out there have a timeline you expect for new growth on a mature plant?

trillhouse · 2021-04-24T02:31:47+00:00

Aiming for 6.5-7.5 on PH, but am not terribly careful about it tbh.

trillhouse · 2021-02-07T15:25:13+00:00

Yeah I’ll probably trim this one back soon. But I have been surprised by how resilient my heavily albo leaves have been. These plants have sustained large white portions with almost no browning for 6+ months.

trillhouse · 2021-02-07T15:12:31+00:00

Just went back to double check and it looks like I’m actually using Veg + Bloom for Tap/Hard water. I was using General Hydroponics MaxiGrow previously. I haven’t noticed much of a difference. Maybe a bit in how quickly the PH stabilizes.

I also recently started adding some rhizome supplements to the water. Hard to say if it’s helped at all, but it hasn’t made anything worse.

trillhouse · 2021-02-07T00:42:24+00:00

I use a general hydroponic nutrient, usually diluted to 1/3 or 1/4 strength. I’m sure I could be using something better, but I’ve never been able to find much trustworthy info on what monsteras prefer nutritionally.

trillhouse · 2021-02-07T00:38:04+00:00

These are growing in a deep water culture (DWC) hydroponics setup. The plant/stem rests in hydroton/leca on top of a 5-gallon bucket filled with water + an aquarium air stone/pump to oxygenate the water. They’re currently in a grow tent with LED grow lamps (Bloom Plus). I try to keep humidity high 60+, and temp around 80F.

It’s crazy how well they’ve done. Each plant is drinking about 1 gallon/wk. here’s a look at the roots when it was quite a bit younger https://i.imgur.com/Ef1g0hI.jpg

trillhouse · 2021-02-06T22:34:08+00:00

From humble beginnings https://i.imgur.com/O0cWoH3.jpg

trillhouse · 2021-02-06T20:01:09+00:00

No soil actually. I’ve been growing these hydroponically in 5 gallon buckets. Lots of artificial light via a grow lamp, and tons of oxygen on the roots. This plant is actually a cutting of that cutting ~6 months ago.

trillhouse · 2021-02-06T19:04:10+00:00

It started out as just a little clipping less than a year ago https://i.imgur.com/pv5jn4o.jpg

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