The day it all started. February 19, 2021. Well, it actually started a week or so before, when my fiancé ordered me an Aerogarden as a Valentine's Day present. He knows I didn't inherit my grandfather's green thumb, and he had heard that this was a foolproof way of keeping plants alive, so this was a welcome present. Within minutes, my little seed pods were tucked away in their shiny metal-like guardian, bathing in their vitamin bath, safely away from my ministrations. Well, mostly, I have some things to do. But the directions promised that the Aerogarden would provide the plants the proper light, and that the thing would remind me when to put the plant food in and tell me if the water got too low. Feb 21, moisture starting to condense on the "seed dome." The domes are supposed to be "loosely" put on top of the seed pod things, but I found out that you have to make sure they're not too loose. If they're too loose, proper moisture won't condense and the plant will have a harder time. Thank goodness I saw a video about this early on, I knew to tape one of my seed domes down so a proper little greenhouse could develop. No sprouts yet on this day. FEBRUARY 24, A SEEDLING!!!!!! Well, that didn't take too long. February 26. Seedlings really took off. Plenty of moisture. March 2, domes off, plants seem to be generally happy. You're supposed to take the domes off before the seedlings start actually touching the domes. The label on one came off with the dome, it was loose anyway. Oh well, I don't think it matters. By the way, the one without the label was the one I was worried about because I had to tape down the dome because it wasn't "greenhousing" properly at first. It seems to be doing just fine. I saved the domes and the one label. I know the domes can be reused, the label I'm not so sure about. Also March 2. I guess this is plenty of roots? The plant seems to have no complaints about anything. A poster in a houseplant forum I belong to on Gab said that I need to make sure and trim the roots so they don't get caught in the water pump and clog it up. I'll have to keep a watch on that. March 3. Does it look any different that March 2? I'm not sure. Today, March 5. The plant food light was on this morning. Normally, you just take off the little cover over the small hole in the thing and pour the liquid food in the spot that they provide for you to do it. Because I'm a complicated person, and because I had been peeking and and seeing a lot of roots, I decided I had to make things more complicated than that. I took out the seedling tray and gave it a place to rest. This was also a test run for the one month mark where I am going to have to switch out the water and I wanted to have a plan for what I was going to do with the seedlings while I did that. I also took this opportunity to check the roots and trim a little a few of them. This Dollar Tree basket was **almost** the right size. It worked for now. I'm thinking making a frame that I can set in the sink and let the tomatoes chill there for a little bit while I change out the water. I'm not sure yet. The roots! They don't look like too awful much here, but when they're in the water they spread out considerably. One of the longest ones is right next to the pump. I wonder if it gets better water flow right there and grows better? I don't know. I'll try and remember to see if the ones further away from the pump have root systems that take longer to develop. I trimmed them just a tiny bit, I'm a little scared because of the aforementioned brown thumb. I'm not so concerned with the roots, really, it's pruning the top I'm worried about. That probably won't have to be done for a good long time. The pump hard at work. Sort of. It's not really that massive of a pump. Pretty quiet, really. Looks like a little dirt from the seed pods got in the water and is hanging out in the upper right area. I guess the water is that color from the plant food. I also topped off the water as it was just slightly down. I know this thing will tell me if the water gets too low, but that's another tip someone from the houseplant group said: Try to keep the water topped up more frequently, don't wait until it tells you to put water in. All happy now, the plant food light is green again. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry. I was done with this whole process at this point and wanted to eat my breakfast that I had forgotten about while I was preoccupied with the tomatoes. They got fed before I was! If you've followed me over from any of my crafty pages, then you might have read about my Jelly Bean Irish Chain Quilt. I figured it would make a nice cover for my Aerogarden table. It's washable, I don't think the Aerogarden is going to make too much mess, and it looks so nice under the lights! And it gives my quilt pride of place in the parlor. Whew!!!!That was a lot. That's only because I let so much time go by before I posted anything. I'll try not to let that happen again! I normally blog on Fridays on my main blog, I put out a short podcast on Anchor on Wednesdays, so I think I will make "Tomato Day" Thursday. Links for all this and resources on tips for growing and also money saving Aerogardening ideas will appear in the "Resources" section of this blog once I've got some together and can sit down and format it all. Ciao for now!
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AuthorJust a person growing stuff in an Aerogarden Archives
October 2021
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