12 weeks. Game over?

My first bottle of nutrients ran out today.  Does that mean it's time to pull out my lettuce and start over? I think not!  It's still producing well and drinking a ton of water.  I continue to harvest every couple of days, usually only a handful leaves here and there to go on top of something.

12 week old lettuce

I wish I could say the same for my romaine lettuce experiment.  You can see my creeping thyme back there too, which seems to be doing well under the AG lights.

If someone asked me whether growing an AeroGarden salad was worth it based upon this one season, I would say yes.  Without considering the initial cost of the AG, I probably didn't save any money.  Between the cost of running the light and pump and buying nutrients it's probably a wash at  best.  However,  to have fresh salad at my fingertips at any time is great.  My family has eaten fresh lettuce when  we otherwise would have skipped lettuce altogether.  And of course with produce, the fresher the item is the more vitamins are in it.

I will continue to let this lettuce grow until it stops producing, then I think I am going to try strawberries - without the grow bowl.

My AG7 is growing beautifully. The newest plants have sprouted, and the slow-to-take-off oregano has really taken off.  The basil continues to grow faster than  anything else and must be harvested every couple of days.

The mighty minis are growing like a boss.  I counted no less than 9 visible tomatoes.  The largest one is the size of a small grape.

Tomatoes!

Pollination was successful!  I have at least 4 little tomatoes.

Hidden objects: There are at least two tomatoes hidden in this picture. Can you find them?

The larger of the two tomatoes is above the left front flower, the other is just above the right.

My newest tomato has already sprouted its first set of real leaves.  The peppers have both sprouted, but haven't quite made it above their papers yet.

Lettuce has survived another massive harvest, also known in my house as chimichanga night.

The birds and the bees: tomato style

Yesterday morning, after doing some research, I found out my ideas of tomato reproduction are incorrect.  I knew tomatoes are self-pollinating, which I thought meant that one flower from the tomato plant can pollinate another flower on the same plant.  This is not true!  In fact, one tomato flower can pollinate itself.  And it turns out the way it gets pollinated is by the vibration of bees' wings sending the pollen from the male part of the flower to the female part.

Luckily, I had already given my flower a little shake for some reason.  I hope I got the job done because it seems like the flower is starting to go limp.

approximately 8 weeks old

I have two other flowers open, and several more that should be open in the next couple of days!

I have been shaking them daily.  I think I should know within the next couple of days whether the pollination was successful.



I have been trimming my green basil every couple of days because it keeps hitting the light.  The purple basil is finally starting to catch up.  Even the oregano looks like it hit a growth spurt.

The mighty mini cherry tomato seeds I planted a week ago are coming up too. 

6 days old

I have not seen signs of the peppers appearing yet, but they are in a different kind of sponge with a deeper but narrow hole.  It kind of drives me crazy not to be able to look in on them several times a day.


My lettuce is doing well as always, but with all the changes in my AG 7 I have to confess I forgot to take a picture of the other garden!  Not a lot changes with that one anymore - the lettuce is growing quickly, but it's not really doing anything new.  It's almost at the three month mark - the end of the growing cycle according to AeroGrow, but it does not seem like it is slowing down one bit.  I will keep giving it nutrients until the growth drastically slows or until I find something else that I absolutely can't wait to plant.  Whichever comes first.