Sunday, January 17, 2010

Updates on Indoor Garden (AeroGarden & Prepara) - Jan 17, 09

So what exactly happened, you ask? One day as usual I went to check on my garden in the morning but only found out that my Prepara looked like a dead garden.



I tried my best to put everything back to what it was. Everything except the tomato looked OK.



The strongest stem was broken in the middle. I really hoped that it can recover from this.



This is how much I lost. My heart was crying when I picked up these delicate tomato leaves.



The whole garden looks pretty sad over the Prepara.



So I think what could be the culprit to this?! I think there could be several possibilities. I didn't support the plants well enough that it made them grow out of shape. I planted too many tomato seeds in one pod so there's not enough room for them to grow. The Prepara's slow spinning could cause the plants entangle with each other especially when the mint has grow out of control. The 3 machines were put too close together didn't help either.



So I raised the support stems on my Prepara. The rosemary still hasn't sprouted. What have I done wrong?



These salad greens probably are the easiest to grow for beginners. I should've started with this first.



Since the main reason is the mint taking too much space and got caught up with the tomatoes, I decided to trim some of the leaves off. I don't use mint that often anyways. But I'm not just going to throw these away, I'm saving them for drinks.



The herbs looked a lot "tamed" after the trimming.



Things learned:

1. When planting the seeds, make sure there has the appropriate amount of seed(s) in the pod. For example, only 1 tomato per pod while several chives for they don't grow as bushy.

2. If possible, buy seeds from professional seed company instead of cheap places. That way you know your seeds are going to sprout and later on your plants will be strong.

3. Dump the old water and start fresh after the initial 2 weeks. At early stage the plants don't drink that much water compared to later on. So if you wait for the water level to get low, the chance is that the nutrients in the water are already absorbed but water is still there. If you add water, you're most likely going to thin out the solution. So the plants won't get enough nutrients. That's probably why my Prepara wasn't growing as fast after 3 weeks.

4. Do a good pruning/trimming at the 4th week or so. It's going to help for the long run.

5. Leave enough space for the plants to grow.

6. Raise the support stems(Prepara) or tie the plants on the lamp (AeroGarden) to support slim plants.


Related Posts:

Updates on Indoor Garden - Jan 15, 09
Quick Updates on Indoor Garden - Dec 31, 09
AeroGarden vs. Power Plant Pro




2 comments:

Laura L said...

are u a botanist? those plants are really nice, they looks healthy.

Fruity Lashes said...

ning*star: haha I'm not a botanist. I do indoor gardening for fun and those herbs are indeed very healthy and clean.

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