Starting over

My smaller mighty mini cherry tomato has been looking pretty pathetic.  The leaves were dried up, so this morning I made the call and pulled it.  Since cleaning the pump of my AG7, the peppers have started taking up more than their fair share of space, so I moved one over and left the middle space empty.

Since I now only have one tomato plant, and the tomatoes it produces are about the size of a grape, I decided to plant some more.  So bye bye lettuce.  You had a good life.

So much stem and not enough leaf.  It was time for it to go.  Plus it had been needing nutrients for a couple days now, so I figured it was a perfect time.

The lettuce had developed some impressive roots, one was several feet long.

Although I tried, there was no way I was going to salvage that grow sponge.  It looks like an order of sponges is in my future, but for now I still have some left that I had purchased when I bought my AG7.

I was able to save the grow baskets, because they're plastic.  I can't see why anyone would ever need to buy more grow baskets.  But then again, I think I may have thought that about sponges at one point in my early AeroGardening days.

I rinsed the grow bowl, airstone, and baskets, which wasn't too gross.  Everything was covered in a layer of brown "scum" which I assume is nutrient residue, but it came off easily.  If you're careful when removing the old sponges, you can sometimes save the paper on top of the basket.  Otherwise, it's simple enough to make your own out of freezer paper.

I got out my trusty old tomato kit and dug some seeds out of a pod.  Sorry, AeroGarden, but when you charge me $18 for a seed kit (although I didn't pay that. It's the principle of the thing) and put 5 seeds per basket, I will pick them apart and make 5 baskets from them. Every. Single. Time.  I haven't yet had a seed from AG that didn't sprout.

I wouldn't have the heart to chop off 4 healthy plants.

These say they sprout in 7-14 days.  I'd be willing to bet it doesn't take them that long.

I got my baskets inserted, new water and nutrients added and reset the garden.  Total time from start to finish was actually less time than it took me to write this post.

My other tomato is doing great.  I'm kicking myself for not cleaning out the pump sooner.  I can't believe what a change my garden has had in just 3 days.

That basil is all the way to the top on the tallest setting.  My son is doing a science fair project and is borrowing light, which is why it's up so high.  Basil grows so fast that if it didn't taste so good, they would probably consider it a weed.