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Plant Selection - With the Salsa Garden, you must first make a selection of the plants themselves. This isn't the most practical method, but it works. Read this section carefully about how vigorously you should shake the plants - in my oppinion, not very much if at all. There will be only 3 pods total in this kit - 1 pepper, 2 tomato. There will be spacers to fill in the other pod slots, this will allow growth of these plants. I tried this step and it worked fine for the tomatoes, but not the peppers. If you mastered the herb kit, then this would be an interesting next step. Eventually I tried to shake a little harder, which didn't work and also caused many of the under leaves to fall off.
Overall this was a fun kit and it produced all the way until the end, eventually I ran out of nutrients and decided to remove the plants. By instructions, you must gently shake the plants to cause the pollen to move about and eventually end up on one of the other flowers. Pollinating - This might be the easiest step. Growth Stabilization - This kit will eventually require a string or twine, etc.
Read that section carefully before your first pruning. Plant selection is important, so make sure not to let those extra sprouts keep growing - doing so will eventually overrun your pod space.2. Do not forget to come back and brush the first flower again at the end of the cycle. You can also get twine or other thick strings, like yarn, from almost any hardware store or supermarket. The pollen will stick to the feather then stick back onto a different flower - similar to the hairs on an insect's legs and body.
This particular kit has several extra steps - plant selection, pruning, growth stabilization, and pollinating. Salsa Garden and other kits like this - i.e. Then afterwards you will continue to prune throughout the life of the plant - to prevent growth to close to the lightbulbs and to trim wandering branches that are unable to reach the light. Each plant will need a string to stabilize it to the light post at the back of the Aerogarden. On the other hand if you had trouble with the herb kit, then you might want to pass on the Salsa Kit.
Eventually those branches will die and you can cut them afterwards if you accidently forget to prune them earlier. After several waves of blooms appeared on the mini jalapeno plant still no amount of shaking worked. I purchased the Aerogarden system and a few kits last year. - will require a few more steps. This was fun, but may not be for everyone.
The herb gardens are the easiest - just cut off what you need as you go, once mastered you might find yourself wanting to try something else. Pruning - This kit's instruction uses the 5th branch system. On Jan 1st 2009 I took out the remnants of the herb kit and planted the Salsa Garden kit. As each plant flowers flowers, pollination by bees or insects will not be likely. These steps are the main changes for Salsa kit vs Herb kit.1.
After several days of growth you will see the small sprouts. You may have trouble finding a feather - which I recommend using a very clean one at that. DO NOT grab a feather from a stray bird that's in your yard or from a farm animal. I will mention each in detail here to help others. Try a crafts store or you can pull the feather out of a cheap household duster.My final opinion, the tomatoes grow easily and without much trouble except for the stabilization. or possibly not. When you see several blooms open at once, lightly brush the interior of the first flower - then the second, third, etc.
I got about 5 months of produce - which over time was a lot, but I only got 2 or 3 tomatoes at a time or 1 pepper at a time for lots of those weeks in between. You sure don't want lice or other problems in your house. Some other sets like Green Bean kits have their own support devices, but for the Salsa kit you must provide your own - so be prepared.4. If I hadn't, they'd be still going. After your plant grows big enough the, eventually the weight of the plant will cause it lean over, especially after fruit / vegetables begin to appear. The peppers on the other hand stabilize well enough and keep themselves fairly self pruned at the base, but pollinating these bad boys can be a little bit of a trick at first.
Chili Pepper, Cherry Tomato, Snow Peas, Green Beans, etc. My advice - use a feather. I personally used 3 nylon strings that I removed from a shopping mall bag's handle, similar to the draw string of athletic short's draw string. There will most likely be more than one sprout in each pod - you must cut back to just one plant per pod. You will continually get dead leaves, especially near the base of the plant - do not fret, this will happen a lot as the outer edge of the plant gets more of the light.3.
And, of course, it is a pleasure to watch the blooms arrive, the tiny tomatoes form, and the tiny tomatoes turn into ripe edible red or yellow ones. . One tip: I found out how important it was to follow the rule of giving the plants eight hours of complete darkness. That makes it so easy to deal with. I've already harvested several dozen cherry tomatoes from plants grown with the cherry tomato kit, and there are several dozen more in various stages of development on the vines.
I moved my aerogarden, with all three full, tall cherry tomato plants, from my house to my summer cottage. . It survived the five hour drive with little damage, and continues to produce. Thanks for a great product, Aerogrow. I use this kit along with the salad greens (which are very easy to grow, even in a little 3-pod aerogarden) for daily salads and in sandwiches. The design of the aerogarden is really a wondrous achievement in product design.
I used my cherry tomato kit with an Aerogarden Deluxe. I like being able to grow these at home. The main container containing the plant can be lifted out as a self-contained unit -- the lights and most of the electrical components are in the base. Perhaps using it with the Deluxe Aerogarden made a difference in how successfully the plants grew -- I needed to use the trellises to support the tall plants that resulted very soon. . Groundhogs are no threat to these vegetables.
I didn't get blooms until I observed that rule. I can use water I know is pure, there are no pesticides, no possibility of contaminants from soil, and no intermediaries from harvest to table.
However, until they lower the price, I will NOT be re-ordering. Well, if you want pesticide-free, hydroponically grown salad greens, this is an easy way to get them year-round. Is it worth the price.
I harvested my first batch at exactly 4 weeks. Even without harvesting for a couple of weeks, I only had enough for a small salad to share. I am reviewing the Salad Greens and have included a photo as well.All of my pods sprouted on schedule and "took off." I was very impressed, and if they were "greens" instead of the lettuce my husband prefers, that's what I ordered.
For the same price, I could have bought a LOT of lettuce. Just too much money for too little product. They continued to grow for several weeks until we went on vacation and I finished them off.
My disappointment (note the 3 stars) was that because of the size, I was limited in how much I could harvest.
I'm disappointed, because the seed kit is not cheap. My friend who has an Aerogarden said she's never had that many NOT sprout. Out of the seven seed packets, only four sprouted. I wrote the seller but have not heard back.
Did some investigation, and there were no seeds in the third. I received the box, which contained--to my surprise--three spots with the rest spacers for the tomatoes. As much as I love cherry tomatoes, and have loved other aero garden kits very much, I would not recommend this one. So, I basically paid $10 a tomato seed. At a price of $19.95 (and I'm not that price sensitive), I thought this was seriously over priced. Worse, while two of the plants are well on their way, the third never sprouted.
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