Step3 Prophet

Aerogarden Tomato 21th week update

What crazy week I've had. Despite that, things are going well for the garden. I spent a little bit of time today clearing out dead leaves and dying branches, and looking at the health of the plants overall. Both remaining plants seem to be in good order. They both have new growth shooting out every which way, and tomatoes are growing at a good rate also. I have several bunches that are ready for harvest, if I can figure out what to do with them. Maybe I'll pack them in my lunch tomorrow. The wide view pic shows the left most plant has a stalk running up above the light canopy again, as well as its predecessors who've succumbed to gravity. Here is a close up of the bunch in the lower right corner of the wide view pic.

For more aerogarden madness, check out my garden tab.

Aerogarden Tomato 20th week update

Twenty weeks is upon us now, and things are changing rapidly in the garden once again. Those soaring branches ripe with the promise of fruit have been dragged back down to earth by the harsh realities of a 9-5 job, I mean heavy cherry tomatoes. You can see two branches on the left side that grew too far, too fast and can't support their progenies weight. One branch still valiantly sticks up behind the light canopy, but it will also fall if it is too successful. Otherwise the tomatoes are doing fine. Since it's an even week, I'll give them their food rations. This is the last of the rations though, so in another two weeks the starvation begins. I've also observed an interesting phenomina where the branches that don't bear fruit tend to shrivel at the base, thereby constricting the whole branch and eventually causing it to fall off. I still can't understand why an other wise good sunlight gathering branch would be sacrificed like this, but I clean up their corpses none the less.

Check out more garden posts here.

Aerogarden Tomato 19th week update

More growth on the sides! And some under the light canopy as well. But this week I'm saddened to report the one of our dear friends didn't make it. The yellow tomato plant, which was always the runt of the litter, gasped its last two tomatoes and then I had to put it out of it's misery. I did it humanely with a quick snip at the feet, I mean base. I topped off the reservoir and cleared out some other dead growth. It amazes me that the plants go to all that trouble to grow branches and leaves and then hang them out to dry. The limbs shrivel and fall off. Maybe all plants do this and I've never noticed since I don't pay to much attention to the conidtion of wild growing things. Anyway, here's a juxtaposition of some new growth tomatoes on the side, with bonus flowers around it.

To see other garden updates, click on garden!

Aerogarden Tomato 18th week update

This week sees the middle plant and the right plant on the decline, while the left most plant zigs and zags with new growth. You can see from the pic that one of the branches has shot up above the light canopy. There are flowers at the top of it, as well as some more flowers under the canopy. This week I fed the plants. I only have 1 more packet of food remaining, so that means they should be good on food for another month. See more AG pics here in the garden index.

Aerogarden Tomato 17th week update

The tomato plants continue to chug along and produce more tomatoes. My yellow plant is looking pretty grim, but it continues producing as well. I haven't done much trimming lately, but I think the weight of the tomatoes is keeping the plants in check. I've been eating them with my meals as a little extra.

 

Bonus Apple Tree pics from my back yard. The fruit is somewhat sour, so I think I'll make some pies.

 

See more of my Aerogarden pics under the garden index.

Aerogarden Tomato 16th week update(new camera edition!)

Many of my tomatoes are now in the ripe phase. The weight of the tomatoes is really dragging on the plants and I'm having trouble supporting the plants with floss. Surprisingly enough, the giant twist ties provide the most support. I placed a clear plastic box under the branches of the right most plant. This gives it a semblance of stability. As for the middle one, it's pretty much a goner. All of the fruit it bears is ripe, so I'll probably be picking the fruit and cutting the plant to make room for the other two.  At this point I've got enough food for about 6 more weeks so by mid-september the tomatoes will have run their course. I'm not sure what plant I'll try next. Check out this awesome close up I got with my new camera!

Aerogarden Tomato 15th week update

This week has seen many changes. After the midweek disaster, the tomatoes have sprung back in full force. I haven't been paying much attention to them due to a ridiculous work schedule, but when I checked in on them today I was shocked to see color! That's right, my tomatoes have started turning. I have a few bright red and yellow ones as seen below. My left side plant has made a startlingly quick recovery. Or maybe the trauma showed it how fragile life is and it decided to get on with the next stage of life.

Here is a red tomato from my daredevil jumping plant.

and here is yellow one from my runt of the litter plant.
To see more aerogarden tomato adventures, check out the index here: Garden.

Distaster in the Tomato Aerogarden during week 14.5!

I had to spend an extended time at work (ie: I was on duty > 24 hours) and when I came home today Disaster had struck! See the damage for yourselves (click to enlarge). That's right, the weight of the plant overcame the capacity of the stem to hold it up! This past sundays post was like some kind of horrible foreshadowing.

Upon seeing the casualty I took immediate action:
Step 1. Get a camera.
Step 2: Document the evidence
Step 3: Rack my brain for the location of any string or twine that I might own.
Step 4: Conclude that I don't own any string or string like material (in hind site, I have about 100yds of dental floss that would have worked)
Step 5: Get some super long twist ties that I had been saving for a rainy day and a create a make shift support system. 

I did a visual inspection of the stem area when the most stress occurred. No permanent damage appears to have been sustained. The next 24 hours will be critical to this plants life. Sadly, I have duty again tomorrow so I won't be able to check on it until Friday afternoon. My plan is to shore up the other plants with dental floss and hope they make it till Friday. The supports are so unobtrusive that you don't even notice them in a carefully framed head on picture.

Check out the other harrowing adventures of my tomato plants here in the Garden index.

Aerogarden Tomato 14th week update

 The tomatoes continue to grow. There are several that look like they should be getting ripe, but so far every single tomato is a brilliant green. The guide book dosen't say when to expect them to ripen, but I did find some interesting tips on supporting the plants. So far my plant stems have been up to the job. Thank goodness I've been keeping track of the dates with this blog, otherwise I would have forgotten to feed the plants this week. I water them quite frequently because the sound of dripping water from the empty slots gets annoying if I don't, but the food reminder lights are not accurate because I can't reset them every Sunday like I should due to work schedules.

See other weeks here.

Aerogarden Tomato 13th week update

 This week the plants look much the same as last week. The tomatoes are a little fuller all around. I clipped the bottom branches that had leaves turning brown and added some more water to the reservoir. All around it's looking might fine. I'm surprised that  I haven't  had to be more aggressive  in cutting plants  reaching for the grow bulbs. Maybe the tomatoes are weighing them down.

Bonus!

This week I'll throw in some other vegetative delights from around my yard.

The rose bush:

The weed garden:
 
The blackberry bush with unripened berries: