It's been a difficult week in the aeroponic bed.  We've had some setbacks.  For starters, let me post an addendum to my previous statements regarding Milwaukee meters.  My Milwaukee pH51 digital meter almost caused me to kill all my plants.  The damn thing was so inaccurate that it caused me to severly unbalance the pH in the aeroponic system; causing damage to many of the plants.  I've shipped it off to Milwaukee as a defective unit.  I'll have to see if the replacement is any better.  At this point, I don't trust their gear at all.

Here's what happened, and how it progressed:

Starting last week (after my last water change and adjustments), we began to see "curling" and "burning" of some of the leaves on our plants.  The older leaves on the tomatoes showed it the most.  Initially, the strawberries were unaffected.  The picture below shows a comparison between healthy tomato leaves and damaged tomato leaves (taken on the same day, same plant). 

Although our problem seems obvious in retrospect; it wasn't so clear in the beginning.  First, we suspected that we might be suffering from insect damage (as we saw a few aphids).  We killed the aphids; but nothing improved.

Second, since we just added Liquid Karma to our regimen, it was the next suspect.  I dumped about 1/2 the water in the reservoir and replaced it with fresh (in case the nutrient content was far too high, and was burning the plants).

Since I had replaced a lot of the water, I wanted to test the pH.  For no particular reason, I decided to use the chemical testing kit (the color change type) instead of the meter.  Here's where things got interesting.

Our water is approximately pH 6.9.  I tested the reservoir after refilling, and I found the pH to be about 4.0 (that's way too low).  I wish that I had tested earlier, it must have been obscenely low before it was diluted.  The meter has previously misled me, causing the water to be extremely acidic.  I immediately started raising the pH of the water to fix the problem.  I tested every hour, and added small amounts of pH increaser.  I've got the pH to about 6.5 now, which is the ideal for my plants.  I'm waiting to see how they recover.  They look like they are on the mend.

Here's a photo of the TurboGarden.  You can see the leaf damage on the tomatoes (back row).  Interestingly enough, the tomato plants are still growing.  The biggest one is almost 17" tall now.  The eggplants are oddly unaffected by the pH problem; the seem quite happy.

Although the strawberries didn't suffer the same extent of damage as the tomatoes; their leaves did receive some "burn" from the poorly adjusted pH.  However, the little strawberries are growing, and they look good.  Please note, the following photo is of an immature strawberry, not a ripe one (that's why it's not red):

This week's news wasn't so bleak over in the MegaGarden.  It uses a different reservoir, so it didn't have the same pH problem.  Things are growing wonderfully, and everything is good.  Here's a new photo of the MegaGarden (for my "green" stuff).

The wheatgrass is happy, and the lettuces are really growing.  Here's a closeup of the lettuce:

The lettuce is very healthy, and is growing well.  I'd guess and say that we're about three weeks from salad.

Hopefully, now that the pH is more regulated; we should get back on track.  I'll post updates and photos as things progress.