So last November I wrote a post about my Aerogarden, and how it was finally a way to grow plants I couldn’t kill. I also made my own Aerogarden style tub, and planted a tomato kit in it for about 5 minutes before swapping the herb garden into the DIY box and the tomato seeds into the Aerogrow.
New Aerogarden Cherry Tomato Kit
Well, the poor tomato plants didn’t do so well. They were slow to sprout, and when they began to grow, developed brown spots and the leaves began to curl and die. It spread from one plant to another fairly quickly, so I shot off an email to the Aerogarden people once all the plants looked like they were about to die. I was quickly informed that while I contacted them late, they would send out a replacement kit free of charge. A week and a half later, new seeds in hand, I replanted the garden.
Aerogarden with Cherry Tomato Kit, 4 weeks
Tomato Flower Buds in the Aerogarden
Here we are, about 4 weeks in, and flower buds are starting to form. Looks like I’ll be getting some fresh tomatoes in time for summer!
If you’re having trouble with your garden, don’t hesitate to contact the company for help.
Here are some tips they sent along in the meantime:
Nutrients – The feeding schedule is very important. Most gardens should receive two nutrient tablets every two weeks. The nutrients sometimes breakdown resulting in moisture on the inside of the plastic bags. Please rinse out the inside of the bag in a cup of water and add that cup to your bowl of water. Nutrients can be stored in the freezer to prevent the breakdown. However, the cleaning of the inside of the bag stills needs to be done so all the residue will be added to the bowl of water. *** my new kit came with liquid nutrients, which were much easier to use ***
Water – Some plants are more sensitive to excessive minerals in the water than others. We recommend using Distilled Water as the nutrients make up everything the plants require. If the Municipal Tap Water in your area is too hard, softened, filtered, or heavily chlorinated, we recommend changing to distilled water. Please do not use well, spring, or mineral water as these do not work in hydroponic gardening.
Grow Bulbs – Are the grow bulbs older than six months? We recommend replacing the grow bulbs every six months as they start to loose intensity, even though they continue to burn, and full intensity is required when trying to germinate a garden at that six-month mark.
Temperature – Some plants, like lettuce, are cool-weather plants and do not do well if temperatures exceed 74%. Tomatoes are warm-weather plants and love temperatures in the mid to high 80s in the daytime and cooling off at night.
Storage – Seed kits should be stored in a cool, dry area (even the fridge) and should be viable for up to three years.
If all of the above checks out, then to better serve you and when you are with your garden, please call customer care at 1-800-476-9669 and they will run a diagnostic test to determine if any parts might require replacing.
I’m sorry that your tomato yield was so low. Tomatoes are finicky; some people treat them horribly and get hundreds of tomatoes, and some people pamper them and can’t get a dozen. We can’t always figure out why this is, and we’ve been studying them for close to a decade. But there are several things that you can try to boost production:
Change the conditions. There are a few ways that you can do this:
1)Unplug the cord that attaches to the lamp hood in order to turn off the lights and leave them off for 2 days. This often ‘shocks’ the plants into producing more fruit.
2)Empty the water in the bowl and refill with fresh water and fresh nutrients . . . OR
3)Skip a nutrient feeding
(Don’t do both 2 & 3, choose the one that works best for you)
* Temperatures – the ideal range for fruit set is 70 – 85 degrees. If your AeroGarden is in a sunny window, it may be too hot.
* Add a tablespoon of Epsom salts to the water bowl – this improves phosphorus and nitrogen uptake and in many cases will increase production.
* Make sure the grow lights are about an inch or two above the plants and that the light is filtering down to other parts of the plant. It helps to look at the plants from above to get a ‘bird’s eye view.’ Trim any larger leaves that may be blocking the light. Also, grow bulbs that are more than 6 months old should be replaced for best growth and production.
