By Beth11
Fall 2010 Aerogarden Mega Cherry and Red Heirloom Tomato Grow
Submitted on Fri, 2010/10/15 - 5:12pm
Last updated on Sun, 2011/02/06 - 6:50pm
Hi All,
I see this got three reads before I had a chance to add content! Anyways, I'm going to try an heirloom red cherry tomato and a mega cherry tomato in the ag. I wanted two red cherries but this is what sprouted. I'll be using aerofalls nutes. www.aerofalls.com. I've got 16-8-16, 16-16-16, 8-25-17 and 20-7-13 formulations. I need advice on which to use and what EC I should shoot for. I'm hoping for a successful grow! Here's pictures of the baby plants and a mega cherry in an 8" pot with miracle grow potting mix:
22 Oct, using 8-25-17 nutes, EC 1.5, pH 6. Mega cherry in 8" pot (has buds):
Better pix using the droid phone (go figure). You can really tell that they are different varieties:
30 Oct progress. EC 1.6, pH 6.0.
12 Nov progress. Reg cherry set toms, not sure about ag mega. EC 1.7 pH 6.0. Using 16-8-16 nutes
2 Dec. I'm liking this grow very much! Still manageable plants and buds well below lights. Pruning regularly. Pot mega doing OK. Should get some nice size toms! I like this variety.
8 January 2011. Mega Cherry is doing fine. Typical ugly plant but has at least 20 tomatoes. Heirloom red turned out to be a yellow. Couldn't compete with the mega so I pulled it. Using 16-16-16 nutes, EC 1.8 and 6.34 pH (yup, with the pH meter). Potted mega still setting fruit, but not very good tasting.
21 January 2011. Mega cherry still doing well, but a really ugly plant. Lots of tomatoes ready to ripen. Picked two, not impressed so far. Hopefully the newer tomatoes will taste good! Changing nutes each week. Using 16-16-16 EC 1.8, pH around 6.3.
29 January 2011: A crop of tomatoes ripening. Hope they taste good!
6 February 2011: Tomato plant did put out a couple dozen tomatoes, but the taste wasn't to my liking. Plant fell over under the load even with the plant supports. Need the room for other things so I picked the ripening tomatoes and terminated this grow. Soil grown tomato also terminated. Bottom line is that is possible to successfully grow a mega cherry tomato plant in an ag - but taste suffers.
Sat, 2010/10/16 - 9:31am
#2
Hi Peat,
Thanks - sounds like a plan. Now, which formulation(s) would you use?
Beth
Sat, 2010/10/16 - 1:48pm
#3
You would have to try something different... 
OK, probably 20-7-13 for leafy growth, transition (if you want to bother) 16-16-16 and flower 8-25-17
Sun, 2010/10/17 - 7:34pm
#4
The seedlings look so strong and sturdy! Looking forward to this one, Beth!
Sat, 2010/10/23 - 1:59pm
#5
Hi Gisette,
All tomatoes look so cute when they're this young. It's when they become teenagers they get unruly 
Sat, 2010/10/23 - 7:39pm
#6
This sounds very familiar, Beth. 
Sat, 2010/10/30 - 6:38pm
#7
30 Oct progress
Sat, 2010/10/30 - 11:55pm
#8
Have the ones in the AG been top-pruned and the potted one not?
Sun, 2010/10/31 - 9:16am
#9
I pinched out the top of the mega cherry in the ag (right side) but not the regular cherry or the mega in the pot. I plan on keeping the mega in the ag in check this time. I like the compact size of the regular cherry so far. The mega in the pot can do what it wants.
Beth
Mon, 2010/11/08 - 8:53pm
#10
7 Nov 2010. Toms looking good so far! Using 16-8-16 nutes, EC 1.7 pH 6.0. Clipping leaves to keep the plant under the lights instead of raising the hood. Cherry tom is short and compact. Mega has a few bloom clusters. Mega in the pot has set toms:
I think you should pretty much stick to the 'general' formula below as a rough guideline, increase/decrease as necessary depending on how they do.
Seedling - Week 1 - EC of 0.8
Mild Growth - Week 2 - EC of 1.4
Growth - Weeks 3,4,5 - EC of 1.8
Transition - Week 6 - EC of 1.8
Bloom - Week 7 onwards - EC of 1.8 to 2.6