This blog was archived from May 2, 2019.
Written by: Jeff
Let me start off and make sure that it’s clear that I do not have a green thumb.
I took this journey as it was advised that this is essentially "fool-proof" for growing. We are using the Tower Garden.
Amelia and I (Seb dropped out pretty quickly) started with placing our rock wool into the Enviro-dome germination tray. We choose the seeds/vegetables ( seeds are non-gmo & organic ) that we used the most often. We put as many of the rock wool cubes as we could fit without overcrowding as we wanted to make sure that when the roots came out that they would not entangle with the surrounding roots.
The seed packets that we received had specific instructions on the back detailing how many seeds to put into each cube of rock wool, how much vermiculite to cover the seeds, roughly how long for the seeds to begin to grow, etc. We also made a chart to help us remember where we planted each seed/vegetable. We made sure to check daily and add/make sure there was about a 1/4 inch of water at the bottom of the germination tray and kept the tray in sunlight for at least 8 hours a day- generally leaving it out on the balcony. Whenever there were strong winds or inclement weather, we would bring the tray in and leave it near the window. Some seeds will germinate quicker than others so we moved them to a separate tray and continued the same routine with water in the tray and sunlight. Once we could see leaves sprouting, we transferred to our Tower Garden and actually wrote with an erasable marker on the tower itself what vegetable/plant was going in each spot so that we could easily see what was where.
For filling the water basin, we have harsh water where we live so we use a rv filter. We added the pump to the inside of basin when building the Tower Garden. You will also need to test the Ph balance of the water inside the basin to ensure proper balance. Everything was included in the package we bought- the Tower Garden growing kit and of course we bought a bunch of accessories the dolly, the indoor lights, the extension kit, etc.
We also have timers set for the water and lights to go on/off. This I played around with as I didn’t want to water them too much as the TG stays inside the house so the temperature is controlled , if this was outside I would have the water on with closer increments as the weather is dry and hot. Within a few weeks almost everything took off. The celery and Swiss chard is a little slow but the gourmet lettuce, kale and bok choy are growing pretty rapidly. I feel like the lettuce grows overnight. It’s pretty amazing to see it grow so quickly.
We are excited to keep you updated on this! Soon we will share the clean-up process for this. :)