I hadn't planned on making today the day I did a major change to my Aerogarden. In fact, I had planned on not doing much at all until it told me to add water. I wanted to see how long it took to warn me about a low water situation. Well, that went out the window by last Friday. The water seemed to be going down a lot, so I topped it off anyway. I do have to say, though, that today I found a video on YouTube about the low water situation (link provided in resources section) and the man in the video said that it took his Aerogarden about three days to warn him, and the water level was about halfway down. That told me what I needed to know anyway. When I walked out into the living room to check on the tomatoes, I hadn't planned on changing the water just yet. I was close to the four week mark, but was waiting because I didn't want to waste nutrients. But looking at my Aerogarden this morning, I kind of felt like today was the day. Hey there, looking good this morning! This little guy was in the back getting crowded out. I switched him out for another one that was in front to try and get him some more light. Upon reflection, it was not prudent to use all the slots. But, Aerogarden does not provide just plain covers for the seed holes with the starter kit and I didn't know how well taping cardboard would have done to prevent light from getting in through the hole. You have to make sure any unused spots are covered so the light doesn't encourage algae from forming in the water. First step: Raise the light all the way up to give yourself some room to work. This is going to become less and less relevant as time goes on. The light doesn't really feel that sturdy. It really isn't that bad, but this plastic telescoping thing is probably one of the weak points of this system if you are not a gentle person. On this model, you have to unplug the pump from the bowl thing. On the videos I've seen on YouTube, they just lift the bowl part right off without showing unplugging anything. I don't know if that is because it is a different or older model that has a different way for the pump to plug in or because they didn't show it. Remember to try and do this right after the pump stops its 5 minute run so you have an hour to do all this before the pump wants to pump again. As soon as I plugged mine back in after, the pump immediately started up. Then it stopped pretty soon after. I used the menu button to give the pump a little test just then to be safe and it seemed to be OK. I picked up the whole bowl assembly with the seed pods and all and set it by the sink. I had my plastic basket ready to set the seed tray on. Here is the root system. I guess that's looking pretty good? I don't really know much about this sort of thing. I only ever grew plants in the ground before, so I don't know what kind of roots things are supposed to have at whatever point. There is clearly a lot more going on in the left hand section. It is interesting to note that the biggest one on the left used to be on the right side before I switched some around before. I think the roots are too enmeshed to do any switching around anymore, unless I trim a whole lot. Which I'm not going to do. This is what the water looked like. I'm not sure if the water is that color merely from the nutrients added to it or not. The nutrient solution definitely is dark in color. I poured this water out and gently cleaned the inside with just plain water. There was a bit of something, well, not quite...slimy...going on with the bottom of the bowl thing. I wiped that with a paper towel and, it seems, problem solved. I didn't use any soaps or detergents, as I thought that keeping it simple was probably best. I took out the black filter from the front of pump as it is clearly removable and found some roots trying to grow into it. As I rinsed it out and gently squeezed it, I kept finding more root pieces every time I thought I had gotten them all. I got them all out, I think. The bowl thing before the final wipe down. There are a few stray roots and things. But it doesn't look too bad really. See the part I've circled? That's a little clip that holds the pump cord in place. It had some gunk around it, so I wiped all around that with a paper towel. It had some roots trying to grow around it, too. It stands to reason that you should keep an eye on any little areas that could be trouble spots later on if you don't clean them. There was some gunk building up around the rim. I wiped that down, as well. There was some building up in the ridges on the seed tray, too. I wiped that off as best I could with all the tomato plants in the way. The seed tray is definitely going to need a good cleaning once these tomatoes are done and I get ready to plant something else. I think you can put the bowl and the seed tray in the dishwasher to disinfect it, however. I guess this is the algae the instructions warned me about? Here is the base without the bowl in. I started to carry the thing back to the base full of water but thought better of it. I left it half full and then carried it back. Next time I'll just not put water in yet at all. Easier and safer to carry that way. I can always fill it with my watering can when I get it back on home base. So that's what I did, I filled it the rest of the way when I had gotten everything situated again. Put it on the base, then plug the pump back in. There is a little flange on the pump plug to help you do this. On this model, you position the plug over where you plug it in, and then push down. By the way, getting it out before removing the bowl I almost thought that the plug wasn't supposed to be removed once you plugged it in when setting it up, because it felt like it was in there for good. But there was absolutely no way to get the bowl out without unplugging it. About the nutrients: Since I still had time left on the plant food timer (it's the number that is to the right of the time on the display panel when it's in regular mode) I had to reset the timer. You press that glowing green leaf button to get to this menu. You press it again to get to the options and use the up and down arrows to move the menu, then press the leaf button again to select one This is the menu option you want if you want to reset the plant food timer. Since I was adding nutrients today, I needed to reset it to alert me in two weeks to add more. Once you see the "Change Days" option, just press the leaf button again. The instructions for this size Aerogarden say add 8mL every 14 days. Navigate to this option, use the arrow keys to select how many days you want, and press the leaf button again. Oh, there's the basket I used to set the seed tray while I cleaned the bowl. One video I watched showed a man just laying his seed tray down with the plants on their sides. He just had lettuce in his. I thought the tomato stalks might break if I laid them down like that. I did trim the roots just a bit because I was worried they would grow into the pump mechanism, as this was something that I had already read warnings about. Too little? Too much? Just right? Only time will tell. All the plants seem safe and happy again. I didn't think to take another picture. Just scroll back up to the top, I guess, because that's what it looks like again.
And that's it for the whole process. All in all, kind of anticlimactic. I was a bit worried I was going to break the tomatoes or something. But all seems well. See you next, week, which is 4-5 weeks (I guess technically tomorrow is 4 weeks because it is day 28) so it'll be about time to prune for the first time. That plant on the left certainly looks about ready. Ciao!
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AuthorJust a person growing stuff in an Aerogarden Archives
October 2021
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