How many tomato plants per Bounty Unity

[gsaxon]

Does anyone know how many total tomato pods I should plant in my new aerogarden bounty basic? I am thinking about the red heiloom from AG and a Tiny Tim. Can I plant 3 pods, or is that going to be too crowded?

[Shawn]

Three may be too many but I would wait for "tomato" people to answer.

I would go with the 2 heirlooms.

[Sher]

I also would go with 2.

[fldave]

Uh-oh ... I planted 7 AG Heirloom Cherry Tomato pods in a new Bounty two weeks ago and they are growing nicely now.  Sounds like I need two more Bountys.  I wish the top of the Farm 24 Plus was 8 inches lower so it would fit under the table now covered with Bountys.  My better half won’t let me put the table legs up on 8 inch concrete blocks 

[gsaxon]

Fldave,

I should just go  to your house and pick up two of your AG Heirlooms!  

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I will go with two!

gsaxon

[diana]

Thank you!  My first bounty is on its  second month.  I made the newbie mistake of planting 4 tomatoes, basil and minty.  It is way too crowded but I knew my first venture would be trial and  error and I wanted to make sure that I could maintain the garden easily.  I am going to try to remove 2 of them and just leave the basil.

Now I am looking at getting my second one and using the bounty for lettuce and herbs- maybe with a second bounty.  How much extra work goes into the farm?  That looks like my best bet for tomatoes but I want to make sure that the water changes are not too difficult and I won't make a mess all over the floor.

[Shawn]

Oct 12, 2020 7:42:03 GMT -5 diana said:

Thank you!  My first bounty is on its  second month.  I made the newbie mistake of planting 4 tomatoes, basil and minty.  It is way too crowded but I knew my first venture would be trial and  error and I wanted to make sure that I could maintain the garden easily.  I am going to try to remove 2 of them and just leave the basil.

Now I am looking at getting my second one and using the bounty for lettuce and herbs- maybe with a second bounty.  How much extra work goes into the farm?  That looks like my best bet for tomatoes but I want to make sure that the water changes are not too difficult and I won't make a mess all over the floor.

Hello and Welcome!

Congrats on the Bounty.  They are great machines and I have a few in operation now (along with Harvests and a Farm)

I just received my Farm and have not had to empty it yet.  But I do have a battery operated siphon I will use along with a 5 gallon pail.  Unless the drain system on the unit is easy.  I will have to see what other Farm owners say about this.  But I have used my battery operated one for all my Bounty's and it worked great.  As for filling them, I use two of the AG Water Jugs per side.

You may be able to find one just like it cheaper (I bought this model cheaper but that was about 4 years ago).  This is the one I have.

[fldave]

While I don’t have a farm, I do have a Bounty on the floor under a table completely covered in Bountys and AeroVoirs.  I use 2 battery operated pumps, one for clean water only and the other for dirty water only to minimize cross contamination.  I have two 7 gallon jugs that I got on Amazon for $14 each, again one for clean water only and the other for dirty water only.  I pump water out of the Bountys into the dirty water jug on the floor and pump clean water into the Bountys from the clean water jug on the floor instead of lifting gallons of water over top of the front row of Bountys to fill the rear row.  I don't usually fill the 7 gallon jugs full (which would be 56 Lbs) but it is nice to have reserve capacity when I want it, especially since my reverse-osmosis system only stores 3 gallons and it takes 3 hours for it to make another 3 gallons and I change the water in all Bountys on the first Sunday of every month. My Bounty reservoirs currently total 6.5 gallons and each has its own AeroVoir to keep the water levels optimum. Topping off the AeroVoirs under my RO spigot once a week, when I add nutrients every Sunday, is easier than pouring water into the back-row Bountys every day. 

[diana]

Thank you!  I will check the pump out.

[fldave]

I took advantage of AeroGarden’s $249 deal on the Bounty Elite Artisan this morning and ordered two to spread out the 7 tomato plants that I currently have in one Bounty.  I am thinking that the tomatoes, being flowering plants, will get an extra kick out of the 50 watt light in the Elite as opposed to the 40 watts in my regular Bountys.  

[Shawn]

Oct 13, 2020 12:09:54 GMT -5 fldave said:

I took advantage of AeroGarden’s $249 deal on the Bounty Elite Artisan this morning and ordered two to spread out the 7 tomato plants that I currently have in one Bounty.  I am thinking that the tomatoes, being flowering plants, will get an extra kick out of the 50 watt light in the Elite as opposed to the 40 watts in my regular Bountys.  

I grew mine (on the couple of occasions I grew tomatoes) in the Bounty Elites and mine liked it   Oh Congrats on the incoming new units

[ERR0R1755]

I might regret this, but now that I saw your post about that excellent deal, I bought one.

My only other Bounty is the 30W Basic - I don't want to imagine how bright this will be.

[fldave]

Here is what became of the seven AG Heirloom Cherry Tomato plants that were initially crammed into one Bounty.  I transplanted three into each of two new Bounty Elite’s when they were around 18 days old and discarded the seventh weakest looking one.  Here is a photo at day 60.  Three plants in a Bounty seems to be working but I am struggling to keep the TDS over 1000 ppm and each set of three plants chugs down over a quart of water every day so I am refilling completely emptied AeroVoirs every four days now.

[Sher]

Wow, fldave! It looks like you are running a U Pick tomato farm! What abundance!!!

Do I see a sauce or paste in the making up the road?! Congrats on a bountiful harvest.

[fldave]

I may have to try that just for fun.  We are fresh salad lovers here though and are eating huge salads everyday from this garden.   I suspect that we’ll just be tossing the tomatoes into the salads, using them to make bruschetta on the homemade bread that we bake weekly these days, snacking on caprese using fresh-picked basil or cook them in our “One Pot Cheesy Italian Pasta And Chicken” dish.  I also pick at all of the harvestable plants in the garden daily as I tend it, taste-testing everything plant-to-mouth, and these tomatoes are definitely pop-in-the-mouth bite-sized.

The flowering has slowed down dramatically as the fruits mature so I suspect the harvesting phase will be short-lived. I have never grown a tomato plant before so I’m not clear of the duration or repetition rate of these events.  I am just having loads of fun learning something new and harvesting the fruits of my labor.

[clumsythumbs]

Oct 10, 2020 16:26:01 GMT -5 fldave said:

Uh-oh ... I planted 7 AG Heirloom Cherry Tomato pods in a new Bounty two weeks ago and they are growing nicely now.  Sounds like I need two more Bountys.  I wish the top of the Farm 24 Plus was 8 inches lower so it would fit under the table now covered with Bountys.  My better half won’t let me put the table legs up on 8 inch concrete blocks 

I know this response is way late, so probably a moot point, but...

Depending on your set up, if you have space between AGs, you can transplant some of what is in a too crowded unit to a pot and place between them. I have done this with peppers and they grew nicely. Especially if you have a bounty unit, as the lights are stronger.  

[fldave]

It is funny that you mention that clumsythumbs ... I just spent the last few days filling the empty spaces between my back-to-back Bountys with Kratky planters.  I had to be careful not to pinch-off the water that flows through the AeroVoir tubing that is routed through there as well.  I made little plastic platforms that fit the space with double-sticky-taped wood cube legs to let the tubing and power wires route freely under the platforms supporting the Kratky planters.  I also long ago discovered that a Harvest-360 fits nicely into the four-corners region of four Bountys clustered together both on top of and under my 24”x48” table.  Oh by the way, I also replaced the 28” legs on the table with 34.5” (Adjustable to 35.5”) high legs so I can now fit two Farm 24 Pluses back-to-back under the table in the future if I decide to keep expanding. I would then have to figure out what to do with five Bountys, one Harvest 360, and a bunch of Kratky planters that are currently in that space.  In the near term, the new legs allow me to fully extend the light hoods on the Bountys that I currently have under the table growing cucumbers and peas back-to-back sharing a 30” high A-frame trellis, pepper plants and tomatoes.

[clumsythumbs]

Dec 3, 2020 10:26:58 GMT -5 fldave said:

It is funny that you mention that clumsythumbs ... I just spent the last few days filling the empty spaces between my back-to-back Bountys with Kratky planters.  I had to be careful not to pinch-off the water that flows through the AeroVoir tubing that is routed through there as well.  I made little plastic platforms that fit the space with double-sticky-taped wood cube legs to let the tubing and power wires route freely under the platforms supporting the Kratky planters.  I also long ago discovered that a Harvest-360 fits nicely into the four-corners region of four Bountys clustered together both on top of and under my 24”x48” table.  Oh by the way, I also replaced the 28” legs on the table with 34.5” (Adjustable to 35.5”) high legs so I can now fit two Farm 24 Pluses back-to-back under the table in the future if I decide to keep expanding. I would then have to figure out what to do with five Bountys, one Harvest 360, and a bunch of Kratky planters that are currently in that space.  In the near term, the new legs allow me to fully extend the light hoods on the Bountys that I currently have under the table growing cucumbers and peas back-to-back sharing a 30” high A-frame trellis, pepper plants and tomatoes.

That sounds like an AMAZING set-up!!