Its Time to Plant the Tomatoes

Many of you will remember the commercial a few years ago where the guy gets up in the morning and keeps repeating "It's Time to Make the Doughnuts."  Well, in that spirit I say to you, "It's Time to Plant the Tomatoes" and that is exactly what I am doing.  I received an AeroGarden as a gift a few years ago.

My Aerogarden is the compact size, having only 3 growing pods (as you see above).  You can get them much larger as you see below.



There are even elaborate systems, such as you see here, with multiple units mounted on a wall.

I love the idea of being able to grow herbs and vegetables indoors in this soil-less system.  This approach at growing without soil is known as Hydroponics.

hy·dro·pon·ics/ˌhīdrəˈpäniks/

Noun:

The process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil.

Aerogardens are little hydroponic systems.  A hydroponic system can be quite elaborate and also very rewarding.  Will I eventually branch out from my 3-pod Aerogarden to a more elaborate system.  There is a good likelihood of that.  There are instructions on various websites which will help guide you through the process of assembling and planting a large hydroponic growing system anywhere you like.  I have a corner of the basement that I think would work perfectly for one of these larger systems.  But for today, I have the three-pod AeroGarden, so let's get started with that.

I placed an order online about one week ago for my seed pod kit.  I ordered one Cherry Tomato (Red) Seed Kit (3-Pod). 

What came with the order was one seed pod insert and two seed pod spacers.  The spacers are placed in the unused slots to keep the water and nutrients inside the bowl of the unit which are necessary for the plants to grow.

I cleaned and disinfected the unit from the previous growing seasons as instructed on the AeroGarden website.  Finally I filled the bowl with water and set the timer and added the first nutrient pac, and the preparation work was all done.  Now let's see what happens.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures of tiny tomato sprouts in a few days.