This week's report really isn't as dramatic as some previous reports.  Things are growing at a good pace, but the situation is fairly stable.

However, I would like to mention something, in case you haven't heard it before...  An aeroponic system (like my TurboGarden) helps plants grow very quickly.  Since so many changes are taking place under an aeroponic setting, you have to be very mindful of the condition of your reservoir.  Normally, the water chemistry is fairly stable... However, in an aeroponic system, like the TurboGarden, this really isn't the case. Admittedly, the TurboGarden has a fairly large reservoir tank (about 25 gallons when full).  However, there's so much growth activity going on, that the chemistry changes rapidly.  The TurboGarden consumes a lot more nutrients than my other system, and the pH changes much more dramatically.

This may sound strange to someone new to aeroponics, but I add almost 1 pint of pH increaser to my TurboGarden each week.  That's a lot of pH increaser.  Although I don't understand all the plant biology involved, I can tell you from experience that the plants just suck the pH right out of the water.  I check the pH every morning, and most of the time I find it around 6.0.  I realize that 6.0 is still in a good range for the plants; but I also know that it will continue to drop unless I supplement it.

I really need to buy more twine.  I need to tie some of the plants, like the eggplant.  It's not being a good neighbor at the moment.  Additionally, the eggplant is flowering.  We have several flowers, but no baby fruits yet.

I'm not quite sure what's going on with our younger tomato plant.  It doesn't look as good as I would expect.  The chemistry is good.  I'm suspecting a heat issue (as it's tall, and closer to the light source).  As an experiment, I've laid it down, in the strawberries. 

Here's this week's photo:

Things have really started to take off in the TurboGarden.  This week's title comes from the big and leafy results that I'm starting to see.  The eggplant is of particular interest this week.  It looks like I've got a good balance going.

The leaf burning is gone.  Since I acted decidedly unscientifically during the trouble, I cannot cleanly attribute the success.  However, I've got it narrowed down to two solutions.  Firstly, I moved the 400W light further away.  This significantly lowered the heat on the leaves.  Leaves love light, but aren't so much in love with overheating.  Secondarily, I've started supplementing the plants with MagPro supplement on the advice of Beau, my local hydro-guy.  He's always given good advice.  This appears to be no exception.

The eggplant has gotten so large that I'm thinking about cutting back a few leaves... It's shadowing it's neighboring strawberry.  Things are going very well.

Take a look for yourself.  That's one big eggplant. 

Also, my lime basil has sprouted a little flower.  I didn't know that basil produced flowers.  Live and learn.

Keeping with my promise of solid record keeping, here's this week's chart:

I've spent some more time working with the plants this week, and I have a tenative solution for the burned leaves issue...

I think the root cause was the proximity of the 400W HPS (High Pressure Sodium) light bulb.  I had it previously positioned approximately 3 ft. from the top of the plants (only about 12 inches from the tallest plants, the tomatoes).  This lamp generates a lot of heat.  It's amazing, I never really noticed it until I removed the lamp for a while.  Here's a great example:  All the plants are sitting in hydroton (clay pellets).  Normally, the hydroton would be constantly damp, from the continual circulation of the water in the aeroponic system.  I only learned this after removing the 400W system for a few days.  The 400W system generates enough heat that the top layer of hydroton was always dry.

I removed the 400W system for a few days, and ran only on the underpowered 125W compact fluorescent.   I wanted to see if it would stop the leaf burning. I admit that this experiment is far from scientific, as I also added the Mag Pro supplement at the same time.  Regardless, the burning has stopped.

As a more permanent remedy, I've added the extensions back into the lighting frame.  Take a look at the picture below; you'll notice that the frame is much taller than last week.  This makes the light less harsh on the plants, and the heat less intense. 

I don't think that any of the plants suffered irreparable damage.  Regardless, I'm going to limit the cycle of the 400W light for a few weeks.  I'm going to start it around 9 hours a day, and see how we do with it.

Lettuce is tasty. I must report a casualty this week.  #16 is no more. 

Here's this week's overview photo.  The strawberries are finally getting moving.  Finally.

Keeping with my promise of solid record keeping, here's this week's chart:

This week has presented a challenge in the garden.  Some of the leaves have been burned, but I'm not sure of the cause just yet.  For those of you who were reading during the first aeroponic experiment, this should be soemthing of a flashback.

Last time, I was pretty sure that it was poor pH regulation that caused the burning of the leaves.  This time, I've pretty much ruled it out.  Before I pontificate on my theories, here's a photo of the problem:

Several of the plants are showing similar symptoms.  I've got slight leaf burning on #6 & #7 (strawberries), #17 (basil), and #10 & #18 (tomato). I talked with Beau, the owner of my preferred hydro shop.  His theory is a calcium / magnesium deficiency.  I'm trying a supplement that he recommended.  Personally, I think it's burning from overexposure to light.  That 400W bulb I've got is no joke.  It puts out a lot of light and a lot of heat.

I've temporarily shut down the 400W light, and replaced it with my smaller 125W fluorescent.  It seems like the damage has stopped.  I'm thinking about raising the roof on the lightstand and giving the 400W another try.

Despite the minor bad news, things are doing pretty well.  We've got flowers on the eggplant (#12), and they look quite healthy.  I've included a photo below of the baby flowers.  For reference, the photo below is much larger than life.  They're about 3/8" wide in reality. 

Here's this week's overview photo.  As you can see, the eggplant and the tomato plants have gotten quite large.

Keeping with my promise of solid record keeping, here's this week's chart:

I wish that I had more groundbreaking news this week, but sadly, that is not the case.  Things are working well.  The plants are happy, albeit crowded.  I've pruned back some of the dead leaves, and things are growing.

I'm considering setting up the aeroponic unit, but keeping the compact fluorescent lighting.  It's hard to tell until it's set up.  Also, I'm planning on reinforcing the light stand a bit before setting it up again.  I want to add some stabilizing braces to make it stronger.

This weeks pictures: Lots of lettuce

Number 8 is the biggest of the strawberry plants.  It's looking great.

Keeping with my promise of solid record keeping, here's this week's chart:

I feel that it's time to admit a mistake.  A personal failing, on my part.  I did something bad.

I tended the garden while I was hungry.  I regret to report that several of the lettuces have suffered substancial... sampling.

With the exception of taking a bit of an early harvest at the expense of the letti, things are doing well.  Everybody survived the transplanting into the hydroton.   The MegaGarden is jam-packed at the moment.  I'm stalling on the aero as long as possible, and I'll probably make some room in the comming weeks by rendering innocent lettuce into salad.   Mmmmm.  Salad.

I've got the larger tomato plant (#10) climbing the lightstand, and it seems to like it.  I hate to start up the aero for just a single plant.   Just as a reference for everyone, the 125W flouroescent bulb costs me about $8 per month.  The 400W High Pressure Sodium bulb costs me about $30 per month.  It's a good deal, provided you have enough plants to make it worth it.

Truthfully, I thought I'd be further along at this point.  I didn't realize how terribly slowly strawberries grow.  At this rate, I expect fresh ripe strawberries in about a million years.  I don't know how long it's supposed to take, because it seems that everybody else is getting them at the nursery, rather than growing from seed.

Here's an overview of the plants.  The eggplant is in the foreground, strawberries on the left, lettuce on the right. 

Lettuce jungle.

Keeping with my promise of solid record keeping, here's this week's chart:

It's been another week, and everything is doing well.

I spent some time this week potting and repotting some of the plants.  I know that I'll be starting the aeroponic TurboGarden up again sooner or later, so I thought I'd migrate things into the aero (net) pots wherever possible.  I managed to get most of the plants moved, but I was limited by space.

As I mentioned last week, some of the strawberries were starting to get algae growing on the surface of their rockwool cubes.  Although I don't think it's a problem, I don't care for it.  I only want planned vegetation in my garden.

I used replanting as an opportunity.  Now the rockwool cubes are fully covered in hydroton; so the algae won't get any sunlight.  I'll check it in a few days, but I hope the hydroton inhibits further growth.

The lettuces are getting large.  I accidentally broke some leaves during their transplantation.  They're tasty.

I offer two pictures this week.  The first is the #8 strawberry, in it's hydroton-filled aeroponic pot.

This week's second picture is a close-up shot of #'s 15 and 16, both of which are lettuce.  They're all over the place.  I've hung their leaves off the side of the tray to make space.  The tray is packed tight (since everything expanded when it got it's own pot).

Keeping with my promise of solid record keeping, here's this week's chart:

We have a new "guest" in the garden this week.  I don't know the back story, but here's the tale as I understand it:

Jessawick walks over to me, holding a green leafy chunk of plantlife.  I don't know what it is, but the rest of it is growing in a planter near her desk.  Regardless... She's holding a chunk of plant matter.

She asks if she can put it into the MegaGarden, in the hopes that it might sprout some roots and survive.  Mmmmm.  Foreign plant matter.  Hopefully, it won't hurt things too much.

Freeloading plant matter aside, here's this week's update:

Everything is doing pretty well.  I've still avoided starting up the aeroponic unit (I'm stalling because a 400W HPS bulb is expensive to run).

Algae has started to grow on the rockwool cubes of the strawberries.  It makes sense, as they are very slow growing.  They haven't yet formed a canopy, so algae growth is natural, I suppose.  Thus far, I've just scraped it off (with a paper towel).  It's not out-of-hand; and it's also the only algae in the entire system.  It doesn't seem to be a threat, the strawberries are still quite well.

Everybody else is growing as expected.  The lettuce(s) are larger, the tomato plants are larger, everybody seems happy.  I'm still keeping with the slightly higher than usual pH... It's been about 6.8 (tap pH in my area) since the beginning.  I'm taking the lazy and stable route, with good success.

I'm probably going to move some of the other plants into the aero-style net pots shortly.

Here's an overview of the plants at the moment.  Notice the large green freeloader in the foreground.

Keeping with my promise of solid record keeping, here's this week's chart:

As you may remember, last week I was thinking about starting up the aeroponic TurboGarden... However, after much thought, I've decided to keep everything in the ebb-and-flow for a bit longer.  Here's the situation at the moment:

I've replanted the four lettuces (letti?) and the two tomato plants.  They're now living in the net pots (for the aero), and are surrounded with small-bead hydroton.  I'm planning on moving them into the aero at some point, but for the time-being; they should be happy.  Hopefully, this transplant will make them easier to move when the time comes.

The plants seem pretty happy.  I've been letting the pH run a bit higher than in previous growing sessions; it's about 6.8.

The lettuces are looking healthy.  The tomato plants are growing quickly.  Damn, strawberries grow slowly.

Here's a picture of the plants at the moment: 

Things are growing.  Admittedly, some things grow more quickly than others.  As expected, the tomato plants and the lettuce(s?) are the largest.

Strawberry plants grow much more slowly, so they still aren't very tall.  That's not a bad thing, they just take a lot longer to mature.

The eggplant (#12) has emerged, and it looks quite healthy.  The basil (#17) is looking great as well.  The MegaGarden is doing very well.

I think the time is approaching for the transition to the aeroponic TurboGarden, but I'm thinking of stalling a bit...  I may plant the tomato plants into the aero-style net pots, but keep them in the MegaGarden.  I'd hate to go through the effort to run the whole aero unit at this stage; as only the tomato plants are pushing the need.  Hopefully, I should be able to keep the tomato plants happy for another week, or so.

Here's a picture of the plants at the moment: