We are 12 weeks into our tomato crop with Aerogarden. We tried the salad greens before this and had them every day until they bolted. Currently, one of the red heirlooms has not even flowered yet. We have abundant fruit set on the others and are anxiously awaiting ripening. We are currently building a NFT system for our stawberry runners from last year.

I am concerned about how much space I need to grow tomatoes hydroponically. Is it necessary to trellis the plants? I have limited space and want to ensure my other plants receive equal priority.

How tall do you let your tomatoes grow in the veg cycle before you start flowering?

Thanks,

Kinderella

How are you guys growing tomatoes in such a small space? IÂve seen one of these units in the store and donÂt understand how you would have room for even a small tomato plant.

Thanks!
Phil in Alaska

I only have minimal experience growing tomatos and none in hydro yet but my guesses on the answers to the questions. Small growing varieties of patio plants might be easy enough as they are meant to be small and would only need a little support. Most tomatos do need some sort of support, staking, strins, tressising, etc. especially in hydro systems where they aren't getting much support from the media.
I don't know the aerogarden but I suspect large plants would need a fair amount of support.

Kinderella,
Growing hydroponically (contrary to popular beleaf) plants still require a fair amount of space. I wouldn't grow anthing small right next to a tomato plant unless it wants the shade that the tomato is going to provide. For a small space you might want to choose something like a pattio variety tomato plant if you really wish to grow tomatos. I got a pattio cherry tomato variety plant and it is in soil but it is much smaller than the three other plants we have growing. It would still probably be much happer in a system that can give it a little more space than plants on 6" or 1 ft centers. What else are you wanting to grow with the tomato? Is it all going to be in the same system? Under lights or outdoors? Good luck

I agree with the others that your spacing may be inadequate, but if you are going to continue to grow in a confined space i would recommend that you LST( low stress training) the plants, it is a bit late but may help, attempt to tie the top of the plant( i use nylon twist ties loosely) and slowly bend the top of the plant down to the side of the pot( string and a weight or whatever) this should help with more light exposure and height. Tomatoes are light gluttons and any bit of natural light might help as well (south facing window?). Also check you nutrient regime, although tomatoes can grow solely on a premixed nute you might want to switch to something else to give the tomatoes the nutes they need when they need it (fox farm have some good options such as cha-ching for early flowering help). save the premix nutrients for no plowering or fruiting plants( lettuce) Keep your pH 6-7 and you should see results. Best of luck
IM

My AeroGarden toms are doing fabulous.
Just need to know a bit about selective pruning.

Does anyone know the difference between the original AeroGarden and the latest AeroGarden Pro? Thinking of asking Santa for this and would like to know why the Pro is $20 more.
Thanks!

Bulb replacement reminder, a 24 hour cycle option and adaptive blah, blah technology.

just go to the website!

http://www.aerogrow.com/

The 'Pro' has an auotmatic light raising device on it,so as the plants grow, the lights will rise up, so not to hit the plants. Save the money and move it every so often!

If you want to grow tomatoes better consider the deluxe model. It has 3 grow bulbs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aerogarden Deluxe

My tomato Aerogarden has been growing nicely,- I have red and yellow tomatoes although I prefer the red ones. Can anyone tell me if it would be ok to grow only the red heirloom tomatoes in all 3 slots of the Aerogarden. The center slot is for the yellow ones. Would planting red heirloom in the center position provide improper light? Thanks.
Attymusic

My first experiement growing tomatos hydroponically. You can check out this other thread to get a jist of the success and possible trouble I am currently investigating, as to why they are flowering while so short:

My tomato thread:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hydro/msg0323324321081.html?14

Here are the pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/richard.eric.crawford/TomsFlowering?authkey=7rVLUhsOm2o

If you have the older two light Aerogarden, the center plant will grow slower than the other two because it gets slightly less light. You can certainly plant red tomatoes in 3 of the slots, but they have to be a 'dwarf' type tomato plant. 'Tiny Tim' is the only one of that type that I know by name, but I'm sure there are tons of others available at seed stores or internet seed sites.

When you say 'heirloom' tomatoes, it sounds like you are wanting to produce full-sized tomatoes from full-sized tomato plants. If that's what you mean, you should know that is not a possibility with an Aerogarden. Not even the new one specifically designed to handle regular tomato plants are up to the task. They would drink the water reservoir dry a few times a day.

Dwarf red cherry tomato plants seem to grow well in the thing though. Here's mine. I put some rockwool cubes into it and added tiny tim seeds 5 weeks ago. I only had blue painter's tape to cover the other holes, but I wasn't going for aesthetics anyway :)

They haven't produced any flowers yet, but are budding. I'm keeping the water at ~2,500 ppm (I'm guessing. My meter only goes to 2,000 :( ) per grizzman's suggestion, and all seems to be going well.

Your tomato plants look very healthy. I have the Aerogarden Deluxe (with the stronger lights). I am growing the red heirlooms cherry tomatoes that are manuf/provided by Aerogarden. They are doing very nicely. However, since I have the deluxe lights, next time I am going to go ahead and plant only the red heirlooms in all three slots instead of 2 cherry heirloom and 1 yellow (golden harvest) as is directed.

attymusic, I'm thinking of getting an Aerogarden for a friend of mine who likes to grow cherry tomatoes. I noticed you have the Aerogarden deluxe. I also notice aerogarden.com is selling a pro 200 model that looks very similar to the deluxe model. Do you know of any difference between the two models and which one might be better for growing tomatos? anyone else know?

Hi. Below is a really good website that summarizes (much better than I could) each Aerogarden model. Generally speaking, the Deluxe has a lamphood which provides twice as much light as the original (classic) model. This Deluxe model has enabled me to grow much bigger and beautiful cherry tomatoes - a big improvement over the ones I grew with the Classic original Aerogarden.
I think the Pro also offers the same light (but not sure so please check). However, the Pro also offers more sophisticated technology. I read some criticism by some consumers about the Pro model - that it wasn't worth the extra money.
I am doing fine without the added technology. The Deluxe model always tells me when I need to add water (just keep the water line at the indicated level) and "feed" it every two weeks. The lights automatically go off for 8 hours to give the tomatoes their required darkness. But check out the website below and see what you think.
http://www.simplyhydroponics.com/aerogardens.htm

From the picture from 'Iliketoast', I see you didnt cut your tomatos back at the 5 week mark. Or you havent done it yet?

You need to cut them back as the booklet says,or you will have tons of plant, and next to no fruit. It makes them much more sturdy,and able t hold more fruit. Mine grew for over 5 months and got a lot of fruit off of them all. BUT you need to cut them back as the booklet says...or you will be very unhappy.

So after you use up the seeds and fertilizer that comes with it, can you use other brand seeds and nutes? What maintenance is involved? I've been thinkng about making a DWC system, but I am a small person and draining and disposing all that water looks like it's going to pose a problem for me.

My tomato Aerogarden did well this time with the "Deluxe" lights. I am nearing my last "harvest" so I'd like to include the links to 2 pictures. This is my first attempt to send pictures (via Photobucket) so I hope it comes out. Couldn't figure out how to paste image right onto the post.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn320/attymusic/Tomato_Aerogarden.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn320/attymusic/Tomatoes3_Aerogarden.jpg

We have four of the aerogardens with various things. One is the tomatoes. Our first crop did very well, but the second set of buds are right up at the lights in the highest position. I don't see how they can grow properly without the special higher 'stalk' light that they sell as an option. To tie them up, I drilled some small holes in the rim of the light hood and used small brass 'S' hooks to tie black shoe laces to which lead to the plants.
We won't be doing tomatoes again for a while. We love the lettuces and they grow like crazy! Also, the herbs are something we would otherwise not use because of the crazy prices at the supermarket (if you can find them). Love the herbs....

I just had my aerogarden 2 days back and have created an aerogarden community at Aerogardeners.com there you can share photos, swap seeds and most importantly swap tips and tricks about modding your Aerogarden !

I have started off with the Gourmet herbs to get used to the system but plan to grow one cherry tomato and two dwarf bell pepper trees in the next aerogarden season.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aerogarden Community

Any more pictures of your more mature plants to post? How many tomatoes in all did you harvest?

hi i have created a new aerogarden forum

and

i am looking for members to share their adventure with aerogarden

here is the link

http://aerogardener.boards.net/