Aerogarden Lightscreen Cherry Tomato, the Rematch

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cherry tomato

Moved this little guy into the Deluxe all by itself yesterday - a sweet baby girl cherry tomato. The last grow of this tomato in the lightscreen was really promising. Huge early yield, of the best-tasting cherry tomatoes I've ever had. (Note, that's not "best from an Aerogarden", but "best I've ever had". I don't usually much like cherry tomatoes. These tasted more like my outdoor mid-size tomatoes.)

Still being fed Beth's Floramato formula. The lightscreen is around the Deluxe, but not turned on. Already pruned off the 5th branch.

3 week cherry tomato - now alone in final Aerogarden, 5th branch pruned

Harvest:

104 : first at age 11 weeks! ripe and delicious, too
Died suddenly at age 19 weeks. Best guess is driveway snowmelt chemicals got into the rainwater supply.
104 harvest above doesn't count how many green-to-scarlet fruit become edible after plant death. (Over 35 ripened in bowl.)

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Thu, 2014/05/15 - 9:57pm

Ginger

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Those deep green tomatoes

Those deep green tomatoes from my last post are still ripening. These only went in the bowl because other fruit had some color on the same truss. Not very sweet, of course, but they still taste better than anything from those dwarf tomato plants (sweet n neat and red robin).

I'm going to try this tomato outside in a topsy-turvy. The first cherry tomato that's ever earned a place in my summer line-up.

Moderator. Author of Indoor Salad, Ecigs 102, and the Calm Act climate apocalyptic series.

Sun, 2014/04/20 - 4:25pm

(Reply to #24) #2

Ginger

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Another 14 excellent tomatoes

Another 14 excellent tomatoes and - sudden death. The tomato died mysteriously much like the eggplant did.

Best guess still driveway snowmelt chemicals got into the rainwater supply. Oh, well. I was thinking of removing it anyway...

19 week cherry tomato - sudden death, much like the eggplant - best guess is still snowmelt chemicals in the rainwater

19 week cherry tomato - saved the bunches with some color

Another possibility - I switched back to Flora nutes last weekend, from UFF organic tomato nutes. But I don't think such a strong negative reaction to that makes any sense. The plant was looking a bit poorly before I did that. But not that poorly.

The tall Aerogarden is going to sleep until August or so. I use it for growing summer vegetables off-season.

Moderator. Author of Indoor Salad, Ecigs 102, and the Calm Act climate apocalyptic series.

Sat, 2014/04/05 - 6:00pm

(Reply to #23) #3

Ginger

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Another 6 delicious little

Another 6 delicious little tomatoes, but losing leaves to fungus still... Pruned thoroughly again and tried the pyrethrin today instead of the neem oil. Hard to kill the plant when it has so many nice little fruits developing - and they still taste great! - but, I can't have this sick plant around and start my summer tomatoes. So, its days may be numbered.

18 week cherry tomato - pruned off lots more fungus

I may try one of these outside in the topsy-turvy this summer. Taste great, harvest quick, compact indeterminate, all with strangely modest light requirements.

That or a zucchini.

Moderator. Author of Indoor Salad, Ecigs 102, and the Calm Act climate apocalyptic series.

Sat, 2014/03/29 - 8:31pm

(Reply to #22) #4

Ginger

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Tomato busily setting next

Tomato busily setting next wave of fruits, not too many left from the first wave. Was losing a lot of leaves to fungus, and gave it a heavy-duty prune & cleaning last week, and used neem oil based fungi-miti-secticide on it last week and this. Hope to keep that up a few more weeks and maybe get this fungus gone.

Especially before I start the outdoor transplants for summer.

17 week lightscreen cherry tomato stayed fairly fungus-free - gave it another weekly treatment - lots of new green fruit

Night and day difference how well this tomato copes with the fungus, compared to the dwarf determinate tomatoes. And the fruit have tasted great all through.

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Thu, 2014/03/20 - 10:10am

(Reply to #21) #5

Ginger

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Corinne - ordinarily I'm too

Corinne - ordinarily I'm too lazy to check, but since I was trying to fix one of the dwarf tomatoes, I was careful last week. The Texas Tomato nutes made up to instructions in rain water came to about 2.0 EC and 6.0 pH - higher pH than my usual Flora nutes, which get too acidic when made over-strength. Last week I added a touch of pH Up to bring the tomato pH to 6.5. I don't think I bothered this week. 6.0 is OK.

I make nutes over-strength when hydro tomatoes are ripening to improve their flavor. It's the hydroponic equivalent of watering sparingly. Not that this tomato variety really needs the help. They taste great!

Moderator. Author of Indoor Salad, Ecigs 102, and the Calm Act climate apocalyptic series.

Thu, 2014/03/20 - 9:49am

(Reply to #20) #6

corinne

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I would say this is a super

I would say this is a super project! Do you meter read with your TT?

Sat, 2014/03/15 - 10:49pm

(Reply to #19) #7

Ginger

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With 66 tomatoes now

With 66 tomatoes now harvested, the tomato plant is growing new leaves and flowers like wild. It liked the Texas Tomato nutes and tying it up closer to the AG hood lights. Of course, that means it's growing into the lights again. That's OK... Gave it the TT nutes again today. Not very many fruit left to ripen from the first set.

15 week lightscreen cherry tomato - first batch of tomatoes mostly harvested, growing new flowers and foliage in earnest

This plant has the same fungus (probably yeast) as the dwarf tomatoes did. It's just not such a problem.

Moderator. Author of Indoor Salad, Ecigs 102, and the Calm Act climate apocalyptic series.

Sun, 2014/03/09 - 3:27pm

(Reply to #18) #8

Ginger

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Another 20 excellent cherry

Another 20 excellent cherry tomatoes.

With 46 now harvested, the plant is back to setting more flowers. Giving it a little more structure. And while I've been fidgetting with the nutes on the dwarf coirstone tomatoes, this gets fed the same thing. So, for this week's refill, it got organic tomato nutes, EC around 2.1, with pH up to ~6.5.

14 week lightscreen cherry tomato - trying to clean up and give a little more support, flowering again

top, potting mix plant A, plant B, then coirstone plant A, plant B, bottom lightscreen plant C

cherry tomato glam shot (tomatoes from 5 plants, not just this one)

There's a bunch of crunchy/sick leaves down below. It's hard to tell how much of that is from the fungus and how much from the plant being all slumped at the bottom of the volume and not getting enough light. Trying to clear it up, give some support, and get a bit more air down there.

Moderator. Author of Indoor Salad, Ecigs 102, and the Calm Act climate apocalyptic series.

Fri, 2014/03/07 - 9:08pm

(Reply to #17) #9

Ginger

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Yeah, the surround does help,

Yeah, the surround does help, especially with this floppy tomato. Be careful not to use it as the only support, though. I let one plant rest on the surround, and then the stem broke at the base when I moved it.

Granted, that stem wasn't in great shape, anyway.

Moderator. Author of Indoor Salad, Ecigs 102, and the Calm Act climate apocalyptic series.

Fri, 2014/03/07 - 6:42pm

(Reply to #16) #10

corinne

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I like the way the Surround

I like the way the Surround keeps the branches all in. Without it, they would be all over and out from under the lights.
I just planted a Mega Cherry Kit and am planning on using my CLS when needed up the road this spring/summer.

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