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Heirloom Cherry and Golden Harvest tomatoes in a Farm Plus: nutrient burn recovery and successful harvest

Grow log by nick · Original thread

21 visual updates54 photos62 replies
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CropTomato
VarietyHeirloom Cherry, Golden Harvest
MethodAeroGarden Farm Plus
EquipmentAeroGarden Farm Plus, Mylar side panels, TDS meter
Plants2
AudienceAdvanced

What you can learnStrong troubleshooting case showing how excessive nutrient concentration, airflow restrictions, and poor pod flow can affect young tomatoes, followed by recovery and harvest.

Actions:8 Nutrients6 Solution3 Pruning2 Transplant2 Finished2 Harvest1 Planting
Useful practices
  • monitoring TDS and pH
  • reducing nutrient strength
  • rinse-and-refill maintenance
  • relocating plants to improve irrigation
  • pruning damaged leaves
Problems encountered
  • suspected overfeeding and nutrient burn
  • leaf curl and spotting
  • poor water flow from one pod position
  • Golden Harvest plant terminated and restarted

*The days were calculated automatically and approximately.

Day 123
UPDATE#21
Grower update

Update #21

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Actions taken

HarvestPulled the last ripe tomatoes from the plant.
FinishedEnded the Heirloom Cherry project.

N By nick

After pulling the last of the ripe tomatoes off of this plant, I think it’s done. There were only three small unripe tomatoes left and no new flowers. After I removed so many of the browning leaves I think growth just stopped. I’m not surprised for this one to end here, however. This is my oldest plant and was the only one that survived my early overfeeding mistakes. All things considered this plant was pretty strong. So that’s where this one ends. Project terminated.
Conversation
S
Shawn

May be terminated but once cleaned out I can not wait to see what replaces it

M
MaryL

That was a trooper of a garden given the challenges. Well done.

Day 110
UPDATE#20
Grower update

Update #20

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Actions taken

PruningRemoved a large number of leaves from the Heirloom Cherry.
HarvestReported two completed tomato harvests.

N By nick

I removed a ton of leaves on the Heirloom Cherry and intend on starting something else in this unit before too long. This was the status of that plant last night. I’ve had two harvests of about this size so far. Obviously a third will be ready soon.Meanwhile the Golden Harvest is continuing its steady growth. And I’ve got my first ripening tomato on that plant.
Conversation
S
Shawn

WOW, look at all that red! Way to Go

R
Rialle

wow those look fantastic! Can’t wait for mine to catch up.

M
MaryL

They’re all beautiful! Really inspiring!

Day 92
UPDATE#19
Grower update

Update #19

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Actions taken

PruningRemoved dead, brown, and crunchy leaves from both tomato plants.

N By nick

Well these plants were the ones that instigated The Big Prune incident today. I decided to move all the dead/brown/crunchy leaves since the AG tomato guide said I could. Now I’m really hoping I didn’t remove too many, but we’ll soon see. The Heirloom Cherry plant is absolutely loaded and I’m starting to see the earliest tomatoes turn ripe. Meanwhile the Golden Harvest is coming along nicely. It’s got several toms already (though I knocked two or three off today while pruning). If it grows as well as its neighbor I’m in for a real treat.
Conversation
S
Shawn

Now that is a lot of tomatoes. I have noticed with my pepper plants, when I prune off the old, darker and/or crispier leaves I tend to get a growth spurt or new buds and peppers. I believe removing those leaves sends energy to new growth. (That may be just in MY head, but hey if you wish it it may come true LOL )

Day 79
UPDATE#18
Grower update

Update #18

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Actions taken

SolutionPerformed a rinse and refill for the Golden Harvest.
NutrientsFed with GH Flora nutrients.

N By nick

The Heirloom Cherry plant is now covered in fruit. Just about everywhere you look on the plant you can find a cluster of tomatoes. The Golden Harvest was R&R’ed yesterday. Fed it with GH Flora nutes in a 2:2:2 ratio. It’s growing steadily and has its first tomato on the vine.
Day 72
UPDATE#17
Grower update

Update #17

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Actions taken

SolutionPerformed a rinse and refill for the Heirloom Cherry.
NutrientsFed with GH Flora at a 1:2:3 ratio.

N By nick

Today was an R&R for the Heirloom Cherry plant. Fed with GH Flora in a 1:2:3 ratio. The plant seems to have hit its stride now. All of the cluster it has developed so far continue to swell. The Golden is also coming along quite nice in the neighboring unit.
Day 64
UPDATE#16
Grower update

Update #16

Actions taken

NutrientsAdded Mooch to the Heirloom Cherry plant.
SolutionPerformed a rinse and refill for the Golden Harvest plant.
NutrientsFed the Golden Harvest with GH Flora.

N By nick

This week’s Heirloom Cherry update features adding 10ml of Mooch and finding lots of new toms.Meanwhile today was an R&R day for the Golden Harvest plant. It’s at day 31 so it was fed with GH Flora nutes in a 2:2:2 ratio.
Day 57
UPDATE#15
Grower update

Update #15

Actions taken

SolutionPerformed a rinse and refill.
NutrientsFed with GH Flora at a 1:2:3 ratio.

N By nick

This plant is at Day 57 today. The height continues to grow at a snail’s pace, but it’s picking up. The plant seems to want to spread rather than grow up. It’s also extremely dense. There are probably 10-15 tomatoes growing in that dense foliage right now. R&R for this one today. Fed with GH Flora nutes in the 1:2:3 ratio.
Day 49
UPDATE#14
Grower update

Update #14

N By nick

I still don’t know if this plant should be taller than it is, but it looks healthy and now has several tomatoes forming.
Conversation
C
cheddachasa

Don’t worry about the height. I was led to believe I stunted them but here we are at 194 days:

Day 43
UPDATE#13
Grower update

Update #13

Actions taken

SolutionPerformed a rinse and refill.
NutrientsFed with GH nutrients at half the previous strength.

N By nick

This plant has really started to spread since I relocated it. It also seems to have recovered quite nicely from the early overfeeding. The older leaves that had spots from that seem to have “healed” and the new growth looks very good. R&R for this one today and switched back to a 2:2:2 ratio of GH nutes, but this time at half the strength I was previously using. Lesson learned!And what’s this? 🙂
Conversation
S
Shawn

Very nice and what a surprise.

M
MaryL

Ohmygosh, that looks FANTASTIC!

Day 35
UPDATE#12
Grower update

Update #12

Actions taken

PruningRemoved several lower leaves.
TransplantMoved the remaining tomato to the center pod.

N By nick

Yesterday I removed several of the lower leaves in this plant at Mary’s suggestion.Today I decided I’d relocate it to the center of the unit now that the struggling Golden Harvest plant is gone. It’s still shorter than I’d expect, but seems like it’s doing fine. The flowering on top continues. I’m going to let it be.I did make an interesting discovery when I relocated the plant. The open pod slot that it was in is barely dripping any water out when the pump is running. I suppose that could have had an effect on its growth, right? I verified that it wasn’t due to deck warping so I’m wondering if a root or something is lodged. I’ll find out when I disassemble it down the road. Now it’s in a slot where the water is flowing freely, so hopefully it’ll like that a bit more.
Conversation
S
Shawn

Nick, the deck does not have to be warped for this to happen although I would still check. But make sure the unit is level by placing a level on the deck to check. The tiniest bit can throw that off.

M
MaryL

Very interesting. I've had that happen to me before too. But the last time it was definitely due to warping because I had put the deck of my Harvest in the dishwasher.

Day 33
UPDATE#11
Grower update

Update #11

Actions taken

FinishedRemoved the struggling Golden Harvest plant and planned a restart elsewhere.

N By nick

I’ll be posting a lot more about this in my other posts, but this morning I had time to sit down and really examine the Golden Harvest plant that looked so bad. I decided to terminate that plant and restart another elsewhere. Meanwhile, I think the Heirloom Cherry plant actually looks fine right now. However, I’m getting flowers on top and it seems a little early for that to me. Am I wrong?Here’s a shot to give you all an idea of the current size of the plant. It’s about 30 days in right now.
Conversation
M
MaryL

Given the size of the plant it wouldn’t seem to be too early, but vis a vis the 30 day mark I’m really not sure. So I went back to my AG kit tomato garden to see and at 30 days it doesn’t look like I had flowers yet, but I didn’t take another picture until a month later when it had tons of flowers, so I’m afraid I can’t say when they arrived.I also had a Yellow Canary tom garden, and they seemed to flower somewhere between 30 and 42 days. But that’s not an AG kit seed.I wouldn’t worry about the flowers, but if you want to be conservative perhaps you could do what Mike does with his peppers: he always picks off the first flowers to grow a stronger trunk and to get a bigger yield later. I don’t know if this is equally applicable to tomatoes, but it kinda makes sense that it would.

Day 31
UPDATE#10
Grower update

Update #10

N By nick

No improvement here. In fact I’m starting to see spots on the lower leaves of the previously healthy plant. (Marked with a red line.)
Conversation
H
Happy

Sigh. Maybe the people at AG can help.

M
MaryL

Hi Nick,I’m sorry I somehow missed this thread when I was last on. I was going to say that at first the drooping looked to me more like simply a different growth habit rather than drooping or poor health. But I see your subsequent posts and concern. Hang in there though, it may be just fine. I’d clip off those lower leaves though. No sense in continuing to give them your food’s limited energy. Between that and the R n R and placement change it may do the trick. Fingers crossed! Let us know!

K
Kate

Your new babies looked great, Nick! I wonder if it's the same issue as with the peppers. Maybe you DO have a bacterial problem.

Day 29
UPDATE#9
Grower update

Update #9

Actions taken

TransplantMoved the Golden Harvest plant to another pod position.
EquipmentRaised the lights slightly.

N By nick

I woke up this morning and just did not like the look of the Golden Harvest plant. I went ahead and moved it to a different pod in spite of saying I’d wait a bit.When viewed next to its neighbor there is clearly a problem.And the leaves have some yellowing on the edges.I’ve raised the lights slightly just to make sure it’s not burning the plant, but I don’t think that’s it. PH is at 6 currently. I don’t think the nutes are an issue or I’d expect the other plant to be in trouble as well.I’m really not sure what to do with this one right now.
Conversation
S
Shawn

In reading some pages elsewhere. Both over and under watering can be the issue. So maybe the spot it was in was not spreading water out the spout like it should have. I know if a unit is not level or if the deck has warpage the water may not circulate out the holes like it should. I found that in one of my machines.

N
nick

Just like my other toms...Out of an abundance of caution I just did another R&R and switched to AG nutes for this one. I also an an extra gallon of water through the tank in between the rinse and the refill to try to flush it out as much as possible.I’m not confident I’m using the GH nutes correctly so We’ll see if this corrects the curl. Fed with 24ml of AG nutes during the R&R.

H
Happy

If I remember correctly, Mike likes AG nutes for tomatoes.mike, is this correct?

Day 28
UPDATE#8
Grower update

Update #8

N By nick

Well, I’m not sure what’s up with the Golden Harvest plant. Drop continues even without the panels on. The Heirloom Cherry in the same bowl looks fine to me. I guess we’ll see what a rinse & refill will do for this one tomorrow.Droopy Golden Harvest:Heirloom Cherry:
Conversation
S
Shawn

Try moving it to a different pod. Sometimes location is everything. That may not fix it IF something is wrong but it may help I know I have had pods grow slower or not look well and I move them and then they flourish. Worth a shot maybe? Plus it is a different variety of tomato. Then again I have never grown them so I am of no help at all. Sorry.

N
nick

If I don’t see it perk up this week, I’ll definitely try moving it.R&R last night. Third feeding was 1:2:2:1 ratio of Mooch/GH Micro/GH Grow/GH Bloom.

Day 24
UPDATE#7
Grower update

Update #7

N By nick

Looking a little better this morning, but we’ll see what a day or two without the panels on does for it. They both look a little squat to me, but I have nothing to base that on since this is my first time around. If they are, I’m wondering if that’s heat related too.
Conversation
M
MaryL

AG used to make, or still does, a Mylar curtain that has vertical strips of Mylar so that air can flow. While this product is designed to increase the light shining onto the plants inside the curtain, it can also reduce some of the light coming out into your room. I just went onto their site to see if they still sell it but their new website is dumb. Under “Accessories” it won’t let me go to “Other” which is where you’d find it.

N
nick

I’d thought about trying those but I liked the idea of the panels being modular. Still not sure if Heat was the issue for these plants yet. The jury is out. Going to wait at least a full week to see how they look before I say it’s a real problem.

S
Shawn

What about only putting them up while you eat and then again when you go to sleep? During the day they can air out.

N
nick

Maybe. Sleep isn't so much an issue as they're on the first floor and everyone sleeps on the second floor.I find that I don't actually mind the lights that much. I was just trying to be courteous to people eating in our dining room. I suppose I can just reserve them for when we have dinner guests or I feel like being kind to my children.

Day 21
UPDATE#6
Grower update

Update #6

N By nick

A few days after feeding and these two are starting to look quite nice. The Golden’s leaves are a little tucked, but I think they’ll be okay.Heirloom Cherry:Golden Harvest:
Conversation
M
MaryL

Your photos are so clear. They look great.

N
nick

Thanks!All of my most recent pics are from my new iPhone XS. I color correct each photo in Adobe Lightroom Mobile on my phone before I post because the lights can wash everything out in purple/red sometimes. The camera on the Xs is incredible.

S
Shawn

Great Pictures!

U
Unknown

This looks to be a great project. Nice healthy looking plants.

N
nick

So if you look back at the second picture in my last post you can see that the leaves were curling under a bit on the Golden Harvest plant. When I got home today I noticed that this was the case for both plants and a bit more obvious than what was happening in that photo.From what I’ve read on the web I believe my Mylar panels are to blame. I think there’s too much heat from the low lights/Mylar and not enough air circulation because the panels make the Farms enclosed. I suspect this is also why my lettuce isn’t growing quite as quickly as I’d expected it to. Tonight I removed the panels on the side of the tomato Farm where these two plants live. I also removed all of the panels on the Farm with the lettuce plants. I suspect that in the future I may only be able to use them during the germination/seedling stage. Guess we’ll be wearing our sunglasses at dinner now. 😎

S
Shawn

Ahh, you may be on to something. I never thought of that. I do have enclosures on all my units however they all have space. My units in my one area I use a black cloth. I purchased fabric and made a curtain so to speak. I finished the edges and have clips to clamp it on around some trifold I have against the wall. I wonder if you can use fabric and just have it up for dinner or nighttime. This give the ability for air. In this picture I used trifold for the background. I clipped it together to make one piece and up the sides. At night I clamp the "curtain" from the top corn of one side to the next for light blockage. There is so much space as it is not right up against the units and air flows thru the front. So maybe fabric with some extenders around the farms may help?

Day 16
UPDATE#5
Grower update

Update #5

N By nick

More of the same from these two after their R&R/feeding on Saturday.
Day 14
UPDATE#4
Grower update

Update #4

Actions taken

SolutionPerformed the first drain and refill.
NutrientsFed with GH nutrients and Mooch.

N By nick

First drain and refill for this garden today, which means it was also time for a feeding. These plants are eating GH nutes and today’s feeding was a 2:2:1 ratio. 10ml of Mooch was added.Plants haven’t changed much, but there’s definitely been healthy growth since the last photos.
Conversation
M
MaryL

Yep you’ve got your 2nd set of true leaves!

Day 13
UPDATE#3
Grower update

Update #3

N By nick

I think they’re looking well so far, but this is my first time around with toms. Maybe someone else can verify if I’m on the right track. 🙂
Conversation
S
Shawn

I know nothing but it looks good

M
MaryL

Yup they look right and healthy!

Day 6
UPDATE#2
Grower update

Update #2

N By nick

I almost left for work this morning without checking on these. I didn’t see any green when I checked them on Wednesday evening so I thought it’d be a bit before I saw sprouts. I was wrong!I’m wondering if their rapid sprouting has anything to do with the removable Mylar panels I added to the Farm Plus on Wednesday night. I’ll post about those in another thread.
Conversation
M
MaryL

Yaaaay!!! They are likely going to be very robust seedlings!

N
nick

Since the sprouts for these have reached an inch in height, I thinned them back to single plants this morning. There were four (!) sprouts in the Heirloom Cherry pod and three in the Golden Harvest pod. The fourth in the Heirloom Cherry pod is just starting to poke it's head out, so I couldn't cut it yet. Soon though. These plants seem to be on their way.

S
Shawn

I wish you a bountiful harvest of Tomatoes!

M
MaryL

If they have enough little leaves, (and if you have spare machines) you could root the cuttings in a little vessel of water and then plant them. It’s like getting 2 kits for the price of 1.

N
nick

Noted for future plants!

S
Shawn

How are the plants coming along?

Day 1
UPDATE#1
Grower update

Update #1

Actions taken

PlantingPlanted Heirloom Cherry and Golden Harvest tomato pods.
NutrientsAdded an initial dose of all three GH nutrient bottles.

N By nick

As noted in the thread about my pump problem, I decided to plant the Heirloom Cherry tomatoes and Golden Harvest tomatoes that were included in the seed kits as part of the Farm Plus package. I’ve only planted two to see how that looks in the Farm Plus. And clearly I was out of spacers, so foil coverings for empty baskets are subbing in until I get more. I’ll be growing these with GH nutes. First round is 5ml of all three bottles for the two gallon tank. We’ll see where that gets us.
Conversation
M
MaryL

Wonderful, Nick! Nice custom watering hole plug there, too.

S
Shawn

Yes, our member have ingenious ideas.

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