Tomato Bounty!

[Sher]

I wish my tomato plants looked that pretty!

[maskedsonnet]

I get super excited every time I compare photos and see how much these have grown. I can't wait for tomatoes!! 

[Sher]

You should be seeing flowers. Are you feeding them Aerogarden nutrients?

[Shawn]

A word of caution..  About the trellis, you will not be able to turn the plants (if that is something you do to control the roots) and it will be a little hard to get in there.  I used it for my tomatoes and a lot of greenery and tomatoes were broken off. 

I love the system but it can not be removed easy at all once the plants get larger.

[maskedsonnet]

I am feeding them AG nutrients, but didn’t get super close to the plants for the photo so not sure if there’s any blooms. I’d just been dealing with the farm with the bug problem and didn’t want to touch anything else and possibly make the problem worse

For the trellis, I don’t turn my plants. But it sounds like it makes it hard to get at the plant, so I’m going to take it down. I don’t think the AG tomato plants get that tall anyways.

[Sher]

Not touching them was a smart move. My tomatoes had a bad case of bugs.

[maskedsonnet]

After my two-day plant room cleaning spree, I finally went over and examined the tomato plants. I'm not seeing any blooms on there yet, but did spot a few nubs on the bigger plant that could be blooms-to-be. Got a nose-full of that nightshade scent as I was removing the trellis though lol!

[maskedsonnet]

I'm... not sure what happened here. One day the plant on the right looked fine, the next... this. The one on the left still looks mostly healthy, but there's some browning on some of the leaves. There are blooms on both plants...

[Shawn]

Maybe put a fan on low there to give them some circulation?

[airscapes]

I don't have a lot of experience with hydroponics yet, but I would guess too much nutrients.

The reason I say this is I just flushed and filled my herb garden for the first time.  I have a DIY Bounty that holds about as much water as the Farm so I used 16ML of nute to start.  This was my first drain and fill and my plants were very heathy looking.  The bottle says on second refill to go to 24ml which I did.  Then 2  day later my parsley had the white/brown edges on some of the leaves that seems to mean too much nute and were also kind of stiff and curling.  I had not checked the water on day one after the refill and it was lower than I normally allow it go get (making for a more concentrated mix).  Since refilling the water level and keeping it full, the plants are doing much better.   Not knowing anything about your process I am just guessing with using the image of the left plant as the only data to go on.  Hopefully you can determine the root cause of the failure to prevent it from happening again.
Good luck!

[campingcorgis]

Uh, oh!  Wish I had some advice...or a magic wand!  St. Patrick's Day is coming...maybe the luck of the Irish or a leprechaun!

[airscapes]

Mar 4, 2021 9:32:30 GMT -5 maskedsonnet said:

After my two-day plant room cleaning spree, 

What exactly did you do during you cleaning spree??  What cleaning products did you use and where in relation to the plants?

[maskedsonnet]

airscapes mostly I just did a more thorough vacuuming than usual, used the hose attachment to make sure I got all the fallen leaves up from both the carpet and all the shelves, dusted with a damp rag around all the plants. The rag was just damped with water, no cleaning product. The biggest part of that cleaning was taking out my farm basic and doing a deep-clean/sterilizing of it, plus taking the peppers from the Farm XL into the bathroom to hose the plants down in the tub. When I finished all that I wiped the decks of the XL with Clorox wipes, but this Bounty is a good 3-4 feet away from there, I didn't hit it with any cleaning solutions. I DID spray all the plants in the room down with an insecticide, but it was a very light spraying that didn't seem to do the sort of damage to the left plant that it did on the right. Though it was the day after the spraying that the damage to the right plant happened, and it's always been a bit smaller than the one of the left. Maybe it was more sensitive?

[campingcorgis]

Hmmm...makes me wonder...people can have allergic reactions, dogs, cats, animals can have allergic reactions.  Maybe plants can too?  

[airscapes]

What insecticide did you use and was it the first time on these plants?

[maskedsonnet]

Maggie's Farm 3-in-1 garden spray, which says it's safe for use on herbs and vegetables as well as houseplants (which I took to mean "safe to use indoors", my primary reason for buying it). It was the first time that I'd used it on that plant, which is why it was a very light spraying, I misted it once (as in, only pulled the "trigger" on it once) and left it be to see what happens. Next time I guess I'd better just do it on one leaf instead of holding it back far enough to hit the whole plant :|

[airscapes]

Was just curious and it sounds like it should be just fine.  Tomato plants are really rather hardy when it comes to chemicals, and most of the times I have caused issue with my outside plants it revolved around applying to late in the morning on a really hot day, after the plants were stressed from the insects and Appling too much..  One spritz should not kill the plant unless they put weed killer in the bottle rather than bug killer.. If all the rest of the plans are ok, I think I would rule that out.

[maskedsonnet]

Yeah all I can think is that your earlier comment about overfeeding is probably right, I did feed everything the same day I cleaned. I tend to round up to the nearest 5 when I feed, because that's easier to measure in my little cup, but I'll probably have to stop doing that to the tomatoes. The peppers have never minded (including the peppers I've got in my other Bounty), but it's an extra 3 ml for the Bounty vs the extra 1 ml that the Farms get. 

[airscapes]

I bought some syringes off ebay which makes it a little more exacting I think then the cap and you can simply adjust if needed.
A 1ml and a 6ml is all you really need.  If you know anyone who is in health care I am sure they can get you something for nothing. After I bought these www.ebay.com/itm/15pcs-Syringes-20ml-10ml-5ml-3ml-1ml-15pcs-Blunt-Tip-Needles-15pcs-Sterile/263899003635 
I found a 5ml Syringe I had brought home after a procedure my wife had done.. it was going in the trash anyway. They use them to flush IV lines, use them once and in the trash they go.. 

[maskedsonnet]

I like to use this little shot glass, an impulse-buy from a few years ago because having a measurement shot glass amused me:



But I also have a syringe that I bought for AG nutrients, I just felt it was a bit clunky compared to the glass. I'll go back to using the syringe for the tomatoes