Aeroponics, lemons and tomatoes

My sweet hubby has been busy outside but he's also been experimenting with inside gardening. You probably seen my hydroponic setup that he designed and build himself after seeing something similar in the garden display in local area, but now he decided to add aeroponic set up - only 1 for now. Just to see how it works. Inside the 5 gallon bucket's lid he drilled holes, then set up a holding netting and placed the seeds in the same foam squares that we use for hydroponic - one tomato, bean, carrot and some greens like bokchoy and salad. Greens did not do well but carrot, tomato and bean are doing pretty good. Bean is actually getting ready to bloom. It's not really clear in picture but there is some kind of a set up that sprays liquid every few minutes to keep roots moist and allows it to grow. So leave it up for engineer to come up with new experiment.

And speaking of experiments, I added two new item this weekend - two Meyer Lemon dwarf trees. They will grow inside of course as they won't survive our harsh winter. As you can see first one even has tiny lemons and full in bloom.And second one is also in bloom but so far no lemons on it. They both smell so nice and filled up the entire room with the sweet smell! I found them both in my local walmart when I went to look for ground covers. Now I just have to make sure they survive and grow properly with other tangerine and orange trees that I got in winter. This is a first year for me with citrus so I hope they'll make it. And speaking of surviving, seems Mother Nature decided for me on my mix up of tomatoes - they're all got sick! Some are very leggy and thin, and some clearly show damaged leafs so I'm not sure if they'll make it. I'll remove them from the addition and put them on the enclosed porch and if they do make it I'll plant them outside without protection. For now I already started new batch of tomatoes - with different mix this time.Hopefully this time they'll grow better - and yes, I did label them each. I still have half the tray that was not seeded so I'll add more tonight and will also add more peppers as germination on them was not very good. So let's hope they'll cooperate.

8 comments:

  1. Good luck with the lemons! I'd love to have them but I have a cat who loves to eat plants.
    My guess with the tomatoes would be the dreaded dampening off disease.
    I've never heard about aeroponic growing before, I'll be interested to hear how it works out.
    Is it morel season there yet? I've been thinking about going for a walk in the woods to see if I can find some.
    -Heather

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    1. I don't know if this was dampening off disease as I never put water into the actual cups - they stay in a tray and once in 3 days I add about 1/4 inch to the bottom and they soak it up. I'll just try another batch.

      Morel season already started and many states reported in now including Ohio, Central PA, Maryland, Virginia etc. It's just about to reach my area so I'm keeping an eye on it. It's always a who gets it first with deer in the back yard :)

      I also have 3 cats so can't keep any plants at the main house - we keep everything in the addition, which is like a separate guest house attached to the garage. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't have been able to keep them.

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  2. I'm so sorry about your tomatoes! They were doing so well, this will be quite a setback for you.

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    1. It is a big set back because some were big enough to be placed in the large pots and eventually be out on the porch. Well I'll just have to start over.

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  3. There is a possibility of frost tonight so all my outside tomatoes are covered. The 8 I planted this past weekend didn't look so good today. We'll see what happens in the next couple of days.

    I love the lemon trees! Hope they grow well for you. It is interesting that the carrots are doing well in your aeroponic system. Be sure to post some pics of them for me.

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    1. Good luck with your tomatoes tonight! I know they don't tolerate cold so I was not going to place mine out until it's steady 75 or higher.

      I'll take some pictures of aeroponics as it goes along. Carrots has this superlong root that I didn't expect. It will be interesting to see if it will develop actual carrot.

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  4. Wow, those are some great looking lemon trees! What a great find!

    Sorry to hear about your tomatoes. It's a good thing that you have enough time to start over.

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    1. Thank you! I am very happy that I found them. Now if they all produce I'll have my own tangerine, orange, lemons and limes!

      and it's ok, tomatoes have time - they don't get planted for a while so I can play catch-up.

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