This will be short due to severe computer problems.
I have quite a few flowers on one plant, and I may be getting some small buds on my jalapenos. But I also have my first tomato. It’s about half the size of a pencil eraser, but it’s there. YAY!
It’s been about 7.5 weeks since I planted this salsa garden seed kit, and this morning, I noticed my first buds on one of the tomato plants. They’re still very small, but I have no doubt there will be flowers by the end of the week. The jalapenos are still considerably smaller, but they do look healthy, so I’m not going to worry too much.
Okay, so I’m not sure exactly how many weeks it’s been. Some. I lost count.
Anyway, the tomatoes are doing great. They got tall enough that I needed to raise the lights a notch. In fact, one day this last week, I noticed in the morning that they were about an inch from the lights. Later that night, I noticed that they were touching the bottom of the light hood. Now, that doesn’t mean they grew an inch, but it does mean they had some phenomenal growth in that one day. Still no flowers, which is totally normal. If they had flowers at this point, they’d be growing exceptionally fast.
The peppers are another story. They are growing. Fairly well in fact. It’s just that they are much smaller than the tomatoes. I think I’m going to need to trim the tomatoes back so that the peppers have a chance to catch up, but I want to read up on pruning them first. Just to make sure I do it right. I have noticed the tiniest amount of mold on the top of the pepper’s sponge. I’m going to clean it up a bit tonight, and keep a close eye on it.
I expect flowers on the tomato plants in about 3-4 weeks or so, but I reserve the right to revise that, especially if I do prune them. So far, it’s all going pretty well.
Still no USB ports, so still no photos. No idea when it will be fixed either.
The tomato plants are now about 3-4″ tall. The peppers are a bit smaller, but not by too much. I have already thinned the tomatoes out to one plant per spot. The peppers didn’t need thinned out, because only one grew. I can’t describe how great the tomatoes look. Really healthy.
On the Aerogarden website, there is a new feature available. You can now make your own herb mix. Want lots of basil, but also a little savory? No problem. I believe there are 15 different herbs to choose from, so there’s quite a lot of opportunity to make your own perfect mix. This is available for the 3, 6, and 7 pod Aerogardens. Very cool!
The tomato plants are now about an inch and a half tall, and looking beautiful. The pepper is off to a slower start, after the main stalk started coming in upside down. lol Yes, I said upside down. I don’t know how. I guess I figured seeds always right themselves. But the roots were sticking out the top, and the leaves were visible in the sponge, so I righted the plant and it looks like it’s taken hold and is growing. It’s got another leaf since I turned it right side up, and seems just fine now. It’s still a little smaller than the tomatoes at only about 1/2 - 3/4″ tall, but it’s growing.
It’s a week and a half (or so) in, and the seed kit is doing very well. The tomatoes both have their first real leaves, and the plastic cover is off. The jalapeno got off to a quick start, but the first stalk was very thin and wobbly, and it disintegrated before it ever really started. No matter, because the second one looks ridiculously strong and healthy. Also, no sign of any sort of fungus or mold, so all’s well on that account. I’m still using distilled water, because we have pretty hard water here, and I don’t want it to cause any problems.
Not much to report, but that’s actually good, all things considered.
Shortly before Christmas, I pulled out my old jalapenos and planted something new. I noticed some scaliness on the bottom of the Aerogarden, so I used a little CLR and did some scrubbing, and it cleaned it right up. I think it’s still from before I discovered that the hard water wreaks havoc with the Aerogarden.
The old one was a bust. It was my seeds, and if you remember, I had a horrible run of luck with the machine. First, I was still trying to clean out the fungus from the herbs that were previously in there. Next, the pump stopped working. Then I found that it hated the hard water. Finally, my tomato plants just died off for no good reason (probably related to the hard water). Worst of all, I got about six peppers total, which made it a completely pointless couple of months wasted. But if you’ll also remember, when Aerogrow sent me a new pump, they also included some herb shears and the salsa garden seed kit. Because that’s what I have on hand, that’s what I decided to plant.
I’ve been in and out of the house because of the holidays and some art committments, but I noticed today that I have some of the tomatoes coming up. I’m hoping that my bad luck is finally gone. With this pack, I’ll have done a comparison between the Aerogarden and dirt, used my own seeds, and now, used one of their kits. That’s just about every way I can think of to test it, and I’m hoping their seeds work a lot better than mine did.
Make your way over to Linen’s n Things, if there’s still one near where you live. Because they are going out of business, everything is 40-60% off. I had been by there before when everything was only 10% off, and decided to wait a little longer. When I went last night and asked about Aerogrow, they said the last one went out earlier that day. 
On the website, they’ve still got some of the bulbs, the vinaigrette maker, the stainless steel wall shelf, and six different types of seed pods for the SpaceSaver 6 model available. If you have that model, it’s a great way to get the seed pods for under $12.
Aerogrow has a new Aerogarden, and it’s just adorable!
This is the Aerogarden 3 Antics, and it comes with a salad greens seed kit. Now, personally, I think it would be better if it came with flowers. I mean, this seems like it’s really geared towards kids, and I’m just taking a guess here, but I think kids might like flowers more than salad. Maybe that’s just my kids. 
Also, and I promise to update the product list soon, there are a lot of new choices across the board. Maybe you like the red Aerogarden 3 like above, but you don’t want spots all over it. No problem. They’ve got red, silver, etc. They’re really spreading out.
Finally, if you’ve painted your own Aerogarden, send some pics to herbgirl at watchmyaerogrow dot com. I’d love to see them, and with your permission, I’ll post them here so others can enjoy them.
I’m not sure why, but the tomato plants just suddenly took a bad turn. One is completely dead, and the other looks like it may be succumbing. It was very sudden, and I had no chance to do anything to try and save them.
Meanwhile, it’s almost time for the first harvest of peppers. I’ve got at least two ready to go, and another few that will be ready within days. I saw a bunch of new buds, so I may get quite a few more following right behind these.
