This is eventually my hope, too, to have tomatoes year round. I enjoy tomatoes very much. Ones I grew outside haven't been too successful. Haven't kept them watered enough and the skin was tough. I am waiting for a new garden to grow the tomatoes. I bought my son's family and my daughter's family an AG too and I hope they get excited about theirs as I am about mine.
I haven't done that yet, but my understanding is that the cages and the domes must be steriled by washing them in bleach or with vinegar as well as rinsing them well. Then must insert the new pod and the seeds. There are several seeds inthere tomake sure you get one good one. Then insert in the hole or the pod and put the done on and start the AG. Need to unplug and replug in the morning as then it begins the cycle. If you use a used AG you also have to sterilize it by wiping it down and brushing it with a brush. You have to put it up with tap water and put bleach in there (before you add the cages, etc) and run it through the system and then dump the water and then run tap water through twice to rinse all the bleach out. Then I put in distilled water or filtered water and the new liquid kelp fertilizer in the water and put in your pots, the top on and get things going.
The pod dome comes off before the plant touches it.
How many days have the flower seeds been planted? They take longer to germinate than lettuce. Everything takes longer than lettuce. Though probably not more than 8 days.
The dark doesn't matter so much until it comes flowering time.
Great. I think you will like the Aerogarden. I bought my first one about the end of March and planted on May 8. By then I had also bought 2 off Craig's list. I planted the new one with lettuces, one I planted with herbs and the other I planted with flowers (edible ones). All but one of my lettuces is up already. Most of the herbs except for 2 are up now and 2 were touching the top of the little tops and I removed them. I am not sure when they should be removed though. I am not sure why the flowers are not growing yet. I have read that they need some total dark. I think it should be dark in our sunroom but there may be a light from outside. Do I need to cover it up? They should each be set for the type of plant it has. What am I doing wrong with the flowers? I thought maybe the bulbs might be old so I put a reflector around that one so it should have more light when the light is on. It is brighter right now. there is no AC on there. I did have the window open but it rained in a bit so I closed it. It is not as hot outside but it is warm in there and not cool. Anyone want to respond? Do you know when the little tops of the pods taken off?
Glad to hear that things are looking better. In addition to pruning tomatoes (try planting those suckers in water to get roots and then in a pot. I understand that tomatoes take more fertilizer (liquid kelp) so first watering takes 1 packet and then in 2 weeks (and you have probably put in water before then to thin it down, it takes 2 packages of liquid kelp. And from there on out every 2 weeks. What I read was that it was recommended to change it half way through but that it didn't have to be done. Do need to take a brush and self pollinate the flowers so fruit will set. Good luck, since tomatoes are getting red now, you should get tomatoes that are nice. Let us know.
Check aerogrow.com for pruning instructions/videos.
I've let lettuces and herbs have multiple plants per pod. But lately I've thinned down to one per pod. Probably depends on what you're growing. Was that the question? I eat the thinnings.
Flowers are much slower than lettuce. I don't know what kind you're growing. Marigolds and mimulus are quick - for flowers.
It can definitely get too warm for lettuce. They like 65-75 degrees and do really badly if they get too hot. Looseleaf ("salad greens") take heat worse than romaines. Tomatoes and herbs are happy with a warm room. Above 90 degrees is a problem.
Thanks, SweetCarolline. Those LTD boxes look nice, much like the growboxes I use, maybe a bit smaller. Similar price.
This soil is pretty terrible - clay / loam. Who knows where they trucked it in from, because CT just doesn't have lousy soil like this. If the next batch of seeds don't work out, I may try amending with something else.
But I'm more concerned there may be devouring critters in the soil, than that the cukes don't like the soil.
Does one have to take out extra plants from the other pods like lettuces or herbs? Don't have to trim down to something like just 3 single plants like tomatoes I don't think but I am not sure if we have to thin out the pods of a lettuce or not. I hate the thought of wasting a good plant. I might do like you, but those little labels sure don't go back on well. Do you remove the pods that cover them for a greenhouse effect once they touch it? I have 3 types going now - lettuces in a new Aerogarden (7 classic) and 2 more that were used by someone else and I sterilized them and then planted herbs and flowers. the flowers are very slow, is that normal? They may be in one with older lights but I did put up the reflective mylar silver thing around it to give it more light. I thought that might work. I have it in a sunroom where I don't generally have AC on and not much air movement. It is warm with the 3 Aerogardens out there with lights on 16 hours a day. Do I need to turn on a fan? I did crack a window open. I will have to make sure that is closed and locked before I go to bed. I just don't know if it can get too warm for them. The windows are large but we don't have much sun coming in as there is an overhang.
Do I have to prune off other plants like I am going to have to when I grow tomatoes? That is only down to where there are 2 leaves opposite one another, is that right? Perhaps you can suggest where I find the video to see the pruning. I haven't found it this evening. Thanks.
Aren't leaves acid? Might have too much acid in them. Leaves should be mixed with other green compost I think - sort of green and brown. You might want to plant it in an area and put some good topsoil there and cover with mulch to keep moisture in. And needs some fertilizer too. The AG has the seaweed or kelp fertilizer and has plenty of water in it. There are some planters that have water under them like the earthboxes. There is a less expensive one at www.LTDCommodities.com and it is similar to the earth boxes. It has a build up trellis on the back and you can get 2 of them for about the price of one earthbox. No pipe down into the water, but a hole in the front where you can renew the water and could put in fertilizer. Can get the seaweed from Aerogarden and maybe other nurseries as well, just make sure it is organic kelp or seaweed. I probably should do that with one of the 2 I will be planting tomorrow if i get my potting soil. In using the boxes, use potting soil but when using the ground, i use topsoil. Probably good to mix in some vermiculite as well to lighten it up. I have sand in mine so I think I can mix in the topsoil and it will adjust it pretty good. If you have clay soil add in the vermiculite with top soil to enrich it. Always think of green and brown on compost though --- grass or leftover or rotted veggies and then the brown leaves. And you need ot put them together to work them. Can use newspapers too but I think that may classify as brown but I'm not sure. Good luck to you. There are earthtainers that y ou can make but I think the earthboxes are cheaper than making those. The huge bins are expensive. The container I'm talking about is about half the size of the earthtainer. I don't know when they will sell those out but I'd sure like a few moe for next year. it is sure better than my yard for growing things. We do have some nice flowers from time to time but do better with natural plants that are native to the area. Good luck. I am no big gardener but I do read a bit and have tried from time to time. I am really impressed by the partially hydroponic boxes like earthboxes or earthtainers or the one I got. I liked it enough to get 2 more. I didn't figure I could afford to get 4 more which is what I wanted since I spent money on Aerogardens this year.
Not doing well. I should just give up trying to give cukes an early start... Planted seeds around the two remaining plants, and seeds where the other two plants died. I do hope the problem is temperature, and not something in the soil. This area of the garden got a bunch of leaf compost from the town recycling center back in March, and not much else by means of soil amendment this year.
Had my first fully red pepper! Mid-May. It was good... picked one green, too, and made kielbasa and peppers. Yum. All peppers planted out, and look very happy with buds.
I split the difference and used 1/2 Growbox nutes and 1/2 Gurney's pepper fertilizer on the growbox peppers (only Gurney's on the in-ground pepper, and a mix of pepper and tomato on the early pepper). I suspect part of why the growbox instructions say to put eight pepper plants in one growbox, is that the nutes have an awful lot of N for best results with peppers. But physically, eight just don't fit if they're happy. Besides the question of what I'd do with 10 plants worth of peppers. Give even more away, I suppose.
End of pak choi and spinach. Pretty miserly crop of spinach. Small as they were, some were starting to flower, too. Peas in bloom, potatoes got their first layer of burying, then shot up another 4+ inches in height within days! (Bag is no longer folded down.)
Hi, SweetCaroline,
The pod dome comes off before the plant touches it.
How many days have the flower seeds been planted? They take longer to germinate than lettuce. Everything takes longer than lettuce. Though probably not more than 8 days.
The dark doesn't matter so much until it comes flowering time.
Check aerogrow.com for pruning instructions/videos.
I've let lettuces and herbs have multiple plants per pod. But lately I've thinned down to one per pod. Probably depends on what you're growing. Was that the question? I eat the thinnings.
Flowers are much slower than lettuce. I don't know what kind you're growing. Marigolds and mimulus are quick - for flowers.
It can definitely get too warm for lettuce. They like 65-75 degrees and do really badly if they get too hot. Looseleaf ("salad greens") take heat worse than romaines. Tomatoes and herbs are happy with a warm room. Above 90 degrees is a problem.
Thanks, SweetCarolline. Those LTD boxes look nice, much like the growboxes I use, maybe a bit smaller. Similar price.
This soil is pretty terrible - clay / loam. Who knows where they trucked it in from, because CT just doesn't have lousy soil like this.
If the next batch of seeds don't work out, I may try amending with something else.
But I'm more concerned there may be devouring critters in the soil, than that the cukes don't like the soil.
Not doing well. I should just give up trying to give cukes an early start... Planted seeds around the two remaining plants, and seeds where the other two plants died. I do hope the problem is temperature, and not something in the soil. This area of the garden got a bunch of leaf compost from the town recycling center back in March, and not much else by means of soil amendment this year.
Had my first fully red pepper! Mid-May. It was good... picked one green, too, and made kielbasa and peppers. Yum. All peppers planted out, and look very happy with buds.
I split the difference and used 1/2 Growbox nutes and 1/2 Gurney's pepper fertilizer on the growbox peppers (only Gurney's on the in-ground pepper, and a mix of pepper and tomato on the early pepper). I suspect part of why the growbox instructions say to put eight pepper plants in one growbox, is that the nutes have an awful lot of N for best results with peppers. But physically, eight just don't fit if they're happy. Besides the question of what I'd do with 10 plants worth of peppers. Give even more away, I suppose.
All tomatoes out.
End of pak choi and spinach. Pretty miserly crop of spinach. Small as they were, some were starting to flower, too. Peas in bloom, potatoes got their first layer of burying, then shot up another 4+ inches in height within days! (Bag is no longer folded down.)
SweetCaroline - could you post a link to the design of planting boxes you use? I'd like to see!