baby tomato growing

Finally my little babies are big enough to take a picture of. The box fan is doing a great job of wind pollination too.

I cleaned out my other aerogarden unit and have planted lettuce mix seeds. Even though our outdoor garden is growing, I figured that having fresh lettuce for summer salads available right from my kitchen was worthwhile. And since lettuce is not very summer-heat tolerant, they will love being in a more controlled environment in the house. And no bugs dining on them too!

Our outdoor garden is now planted with the remaining four tomato plants that were germinated along with my current aero-tomato plants but of course they are no where near ready to flower or produce fruit yet. They are about half the size too.
We've got corn, beans, peas, and peppers planted too. Not to mention the Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds for our local "friendly" competition.

I have just added shade sails to my inventory of store products. These are very popular this year not only for looks but they block out up to 90% of UV rays from the sun and temperatures underneath can be up to thirty degrees cooler too. Check em out!

54 days to blooms!

Seeing is believing with the Aerogarden system. I now have fully opened tomato blossoms so fruit is not too far away. Since tomatoes are pollinated by insects or wind, I have set up a household fan to give a gentle breeze to my plants. Not only will this assist in pollination but stresses the branches with a little wind resistance which will only make them stronger.

I can't say enough nice things about the "after the sale" customer service from Aerogarden people. They have replaced my defective upgrade hood and all the lights. I got them yesterday and replaced the original hood. Everything is looking great and the plants will do even that much better with all three lights working instead of just the two they had been growing on with.

I reseeded my garden starter tray with new seeds four days ago. Already I have cosmos flowers germinating and I notice a morning glory seed and sunflower seed pushing their way up too!

Tomato flowers forming and plants ready for transplanting

Wow! Tomato flowers are starting to form and in only six weeks from seed planting in my AeroGarden! This is just truly amazing.

We will be transplanting out baby plants from our garden starter kit tomorrow straight into the garden beds outside. Looks like a good day to do that as the weather will be mild and rain is again forecast for the weekdays. On with the battle with the slugs!

Pictured are the cucumber and pepper plants. We got sixteen pepper to germinate out of eighteen! Amazing! I have always failed to germinate peppers, always! Out of seventy plugs, we only had seven no-shows, so a 90% germination success rate.

I will be starting some new flower seeds in the starter kit, cosmos and morning glory vines.

Using my aerogarden to grow tomatoes and my starter kit saga

Here is my aerogarden with tomato plants in it. I actually have three plants in the unit and brought in four others in pots/soil because we have been hit by sub freezing nights with this lasted blast of Canadian air!. Geez, we woke up to snow on the ground this morning and here it is late April in the Pacific Northwest, elevation: 100 feet, that's right, we are only 20 miles from the Pacific ocean and usually experience a mild maritime climate!
Last weekend, we had temperatures in the seventies!

So below I am showing my garden starter kit with sprouted alyssum flowers, cucumbers, and tomatillo plants. The peppers are just started to break the surface so don't show up in the picture. Not bad for only a week since we started seeds in it!

Check out the root system underneath! They look great!

I have run into one major problem though that is being worked out. My AeroGarden upgrade light hood has a short in it so the lights are flickering and already one has burned out (less than two weeks old). Aerogarden folks are going to send me a replacement hood, but they are on back order so there is a delay. On Monday, I will be chatting with them again about the bulbs burning out. I am certain they will make it right. The customer service folks have been great so sounds like the warehouse is having to play catch-up on orders on this new feature.

Starting seeds in my slippers

I am so "stoked"! New from Aerogarden this year is a garden starter kit to be used in your existing Aerogarden unit. Very cool. Now, you can germinate seeds for your outdoor garden without the mess of pots, dirt, trays and the like. The garden starter kit contains one styrofoam flat that has seventy holes in it and includes seventy plugs for planting your seeds. You can see in this picture taken today, cucumber seeds and pepper seeds already emerging and it's been less than four days!

With the timed full spectrum lights warming the seeds from above, I had allysum flowers seeds sprouting in less than 24 hours. How great is that? I can't wait to get these out of the unit so I can plant my other flower seeds. Additional plugs are available for using this starter flat over and over again.

I also have full size tomato plants growing in my upgraded Aerogarden. The plants are looking awesome and I am looking forward to harvesting delicious cherry tomatoes right in my home office this summer.

Got questions about the Aerogarden? I have been growing in mine now for a year and know this unit inside out! Come visit us at virtualseeds.com to get yours.

Joyce

Double duty growing idea for your AeroGarden

This is my third crop of seed plants in my AeroGarden and I am very excited! I decided to use the Master Gardener Kit and plant my own tomato seeds for both indoors in the AeroGarden and transplants for my summer garden.

Since tomato plants need more room than leaf salad greens or herbs, tomato plants are limited to three spaces, back left, forward center, and back right spots. But I am going to think outside the box and use all seven spaces to germinate seven plants. Then I will transplant out the other four plants into pots for transplanting to my garden after frost days are done and the soil has warmed up to at least sixty to seventy degrees.

The baskets that the plant plugs are in, are breakaway, ie: they snap apart. Then the organic foam insert and root systems can be planted in pots or directly into the ground for less shock to the plant. The breakaway planting baskets are only found in the Master Gardener Kits. The standard Aerogarden planting baskets are in one piece so would be a little trickier to get the plant out without damaging the roots, but if done soon while the plant is quite young, I would think they would transplant fine.

I am probably going to get the extension arm for the unit so I can grow my plants taller and fuller. The extension arm allows plants to grow up to 24 inches high while the standard arm only allows for 12-18 growth before the plants get too close the lights and burn.

Just for info, AeroGarden also came out with a 70 port seed starter tray than can be used in any AeroGarden for starting garden seeds for outdoor transplanting. Imagine, have 70 baby plants started with optimum conditions: lighting, watering, and feeding in your AeroGarden.

For those of you who used their AeroGarden year round like I do, remember to replace light bulbs every six months as they do lose their potency over time.

Happy Gardening,
Joyce

Hello to March!

Well, here it is March and it's raining like crazy! We had such nice spring-like weather last week. Nature is such a teaser! LOL

I did make a trip around the yard yesterday with my dog, Toby, and noticed all kinds of bulbs coming up! The honeybees are even out and starting to work the flowers too.

Let's see, blooming now are crocus and the forsythia is starting to bloom too. Dandelions are blooming and oh yeah, the weeds are doing well to! So, will be out with hoe when weather permits to try and stay ahead of the game.

Joyce