Aphid Infestation | Growth Log Day 005
Channel: qqii
Date: 2020-05-22

After some searching I've concluded that the bugs are aphids here to destroy my succulent tomatoes before they even bear fruit. I had thought aphids were wingless bugs that stick to the bottom of leaves, but it turns out some females grow wings when the population are overcrowded to find new plants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=181

I've hosed all my crops down and used some general bug spray, so hopefully that sorts out that problem without impeding their growth. Shoots have appeared on the tomatoes and I'm planning on moving them to the grow bag tomorrow - possibly along with a slightly longer video.

Lighting conditions were similar to yesterday, so I've tried out 1080p this time as planned. I'm writing this as it uploads, so I haven't watched it with youtube's compression.

I've also had to do a little cutting from my desktop. When selecting macro, my phone sometimes switches to the secondary lens but sometimes it doesn't. I recorded a whole video with my external macro lens without it switching to the secondary lens, but this time it did and interrupted my train of thought. I need to investigate why it sometimes switches and if a third party camera could solve my issue.

Focusing has also been a bit of s struggle, there are no tools to help focus and I still haven't found my stand, so I'm having to try to keep my hand and the plant steady in the wind. The wind sound is also very annoying. Perhaps the move to the grow bag will also include a move to the greenhouse where I won't have these issues.

Cutting about 10 seconds out of the short clip using Kdenlive took a whole hour to render, so I must have got some settings wrong. Once I work out how to properly render thing in less time I might start recording clips and cutting them together. I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to editing, so I'm going to take the opportunity to try some different software each time.

Since I've already started using my desktop in the video making process next up is thumbnails. GIMP or Krita seems like sensible choices, but I'd also like to see if there are any command line scripting tools I can use.

Still waiting on the day I make something with production value before I ask someone for feedback, for now making these videos have meant that I've been paying close attention to my plants every day and I've got a record I can look back on. This is another reason why I wanted to keep the length of each video short.