Friday, December 25, 2009

Well, lookie what Santa brought!

So, take a look at what I found today!



This was the first VeggiePro tomato that we've been following for weeks. A few days ago it was a very faint red color, but now it's gotten bright and big! A few more days and I'll be harvesting it. So, the burning question is the same one I had with the cherry tomatoes: what is the best recipe I can think of to cook my inaugural tomato? Post a comment if you have any ideas for me! 




Monday, December 21, 2009

Still time to get them an Aerogarden for Christmas! :)

Well, if you've done it again and put off Christmas shopping to the last minute, Aerogrow is about to bail you out ;)

They're offering Free 2 Day Express Shipping with any garden purchase. But hurry, in order to get it delivered by Christmas, you need to order NOW!

As you're sitting down for Christmas dinner this year, you can talk about how next year, they can make the stuffing using fresh sage, parsley, and thyme from their own indoor garden! :)

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Tomato plants getting bigger on the VeggiePro.

Well, two weeks have passed, and take a look at the VeggiePro now.




I count a total of about 6-8 full tomatoes. As someone who used to grow tomatoes outdoors, I can definitely see that the tomatoes would definitely do much better if they were outdoors and not bunched together like this. On the other hand, what a thrill it is to have living tomatoes in the month of December when the temperature is 18 degrees outside!




The Aerogarden Veggiepro hood is officially raised as high as it'll go. The larger plant is close to hitting against the hood, so chances are I'll have to prune it (although I'd hate to, as there are several flowers on that stalk). This larger plant is the one that has the most tomato growth.




I have to say I'm still disappointed with the second plant, though. It's grown large but it was yet to produce flowers that don't fall off immediately; I'm guessing there was definitely something wrong with this batch of seeds. To Aerogrow's credit, they did send me a replacement pod, but I'll keep this original plant going just to see if anything will come of it, and then at some point I'll plant the new pod.

In the meantime, the one plant has all but spread out the entire unit, so I'm not disappointed.

As each week goes by, I'm doing quite a bit of pruning. Of course, any leaves that grow too far out of the light get cut, as well as leaves which turn brown or spotty because they're being covered up. I'm also cutting off some of the larger branches that are clearly not producing flowers or fruit, in order to let more water and nutrients go to the tomatoes.

Something else I've been doing every few days is filling up the unit with water. This thing drinks water at an amazing pace.

As branches have gotten big and flopped toward the ground, I've been using the trellis system that was provided with the VeggiePro. Right now I have three of them supporting the branches, all of which are now producing fruit, some large, and some tiny ones like these cute little guys.



Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have the first fruits to show you. Stay tuned!