Am I An A.G. Addict?.....LOL

[gardengirl55]

Ok, so, yeah.  I just bought another AG Bounty.  This is my 3rd one.  Does that make me an Addict?.....LOL
All kidding aside, I am enthused with indoor growing.  I live in an apartment, so, I don't have many options for having a garden that has little or no upkeep.  I've tried multiple times to have plants in pots, however, EVERY time, I get gnats.  No matter what I do, I get gnats.  And I hate gnats. Hate them....lol
With the AG, I've had no gnats at all.  Thats a winner in my book 
With this 3rd unit, I'm thinking of separating what I am growing.  Salad greens in one, herbs in another, and, peppers/tomatoes in the 3rd one.  Any advice on this method?  I've had tomatoes and peppers growing together before, but, they did not 'like' each other very well, so I had to separate them. 
Also, is it necessary to feed more than the recommended 14 days? My units are 9 pods, and the liquid food says 12ml every 2 weeks.  Sometimes it doesn't seem like its enough, especially with the peppers and tomato's.  
Any 'well-versed' tomato and bell pepper growers out there that are using a Bounty model that can advise on the feeding frequency?

[katyag247]

Congratulations on your third Bounty!  You will enjoy having more options for growing.  Yes, I'm totally with you on the joys of pest free growing.  Even though I have an outdoor garden, the Aerogardens allow me to grow some crops that are difficult to grow outdoors because of pest pressure and adverse weather.  And Aerogardening is just plain fun!  

So far I've only used the Aerogarden nutrients and follow the recommended feeding schedule and amounts.  Doing that has worked out really well for me.  Aerogarden's recommendations are based on a lot of research.  Adding extra nutrients can cause a lot of issues for your plants.  

[scarfguy]

YES!  I would suggest that three bounties crosses the boundary from enthusiast to addict!.

I'm growing 1 or 2 pepper plants or 1 or 2 tomato plants in each bounty. I also didn't have much luck mixing tomatoes and peppers in the same AG.   I've got a variety of harvests ( including the XL which I like a lot).  The harvests are used for herbs and flowers.

I think besides the thrill of growing vegetables indoors. I think a lot of my satisfaction is growing traditional outdoor annual flowers, indoors.  Particularly, in the winter months.  The AG light quality and the blooming flowers really helps with the seasonal winter depression.

The AG nutes at the recommended concentrations work very well. I've advanced to trying other brands and types of fertilizers with mixed results. It's a constant experiment. Results are not immediate nor conclusive. Very frustrating.  If you don't want the aggravation, stick with the AG nutes, you can't go wrong.

[tompepper7]

In the first Bounty I got I grew 2 tomato plants, 3 jalapeno plants and 1 Thai chili plant.

I was impressed in as much as the plants all grew and I got to harvest some tomatoes and chilis but I think the yield was low because I had too many plants in the Bounty. They all grew at different rates and would start to shade out the others.

Pretty much the same with herbs I grew in a Harvest. Basil would grow fast while everything else lagged behind.

When I get around to planting tomatoes in my Farm XL I will be giving the MasterBlend tomato formula (with 2 other supplements) a try. When I tried growing San Marzano tomatoes about half had blossom end rot (black spots at the end of the tomato) and a lot of leaves turning yellow. Can't recommend it as I haven't actually done it yet. So far I have just used the AeroGarden nutrients plus CalMag as recommended elsewhere here.

[lynnee]

gardengirl55, until I joined this forum, I grew flowers, lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes with just the AG nutrients. All of the gardens did well with a rinse & refill (drain the water bowl and add fresh water and nutes) every 2 weeks, starting at week six.

Then I read that adding CalMag would improve the flavor of tomatoes, and discovered that cherry tomatoes grew tastier, more abundantly, and larger with CalMag!

These days, for all my slow-growing vegetables (not herbs or lettuce), I add AG nutes per the label instructions, plus Koolbloom (about 3ml per gallon of water) and CalMag (about 5ml per gallon of water) at each R&R. Koolbloom aids in blossom production and fruit setting.

And yes, it's okay to add extra AG nutes between R&Rs, if your plant really looks like it needs them. You need to be sparing with the extras, though, because they can burn the roots. My cucumber is a heavy feeder, so I sometimes add about 4ml of AG nutes between R&Rs, if it has been producing extra cukes and using a lot of water.



P.S. We're all addicts here, and pleased that you've come to join in!

[lynnee]

gardengirl55, you can probably grow a pepper and a tomato successfully in a Bounty if you plant them at opposite ends. I think that I've done this in the past, though now I grow them in separate large AGs (Bounties or Farms).

This is mainly because peppers and tomatoes take different times to reach maturity. When I want to combine different things, I usually combine lettuce, tomatoes, or peppers with herbs. I don't grow a lot of herbs, though. Right now I've started lettuce and a tomato together, because the lettuce will come out after a few months.

[Shawn]

I have grown a tomato and pepper in a bounty together with success.  The pepper was much taller and they both still did fine.

Congrats on baby # 3 LOL