Week One: Tower Garden Update

   First of all let me shout out: my seedlings survived the first week!!!!! (all but the one that was damaged in shipment and I planted it anyway just to give it a chance). They looked a little sad the first day, when it got up to 98 degrees. However, within a few days the shock of their shipping seemed to wear off and their adjustment to Tower Living seems to suit them just fine.  So far Tower Gardening is so easy even I can do this.
     My chore list for my Tower Garden this week included: well, no watering, no weeding, no spraying for insects, ... the only chore I had was listening every day or so to make sure the pump was cycling on and off every 15 minutes. As an over achiever, I also watched my plants grow new leaves and touched the rock wool occasionally to make sure it was getting moisture.
   At the end of week one, I did have some official chores to do. Because it's been so hot, I topped off the reservoir with water from my garden hose to 3 inches from the top of the opening under the labeled plate. When you top off the water, you add nutrients part A and part B at the rate of 20ml/gallons of water added. I approximated about 2.5 gallons of water was added so I put in an additional 50ml of each part to the reservoir.
     It's recommended to check your PH once a week, especially when you add water and nutrients. So I dipped  5ml of water out of the reservoir and did a quick PH test. The PH was holding at 6.0! Perfect!
    This is the easiest gardening I have ever under taken. And it looks pretty awesome on my deck, too!!!

   Learn more about the Tower Garden at http://kbrixey.towergarden.com/  

We're up and Running!

     The seedlings arrived on Wednesday from Living Tower Seedlings, They were in pretty good shape except the watermelon vine didn't seem to make it so I snapped a photo of it and emailed it to customer service, They credited my account for my new order. They will also resend your seedling if you request but because we are starting so late in the season I decided to wait. 

     The seedlings come ready to insert into the Tower Garden nestled in their rock wool coat. I removed the stacks that held them in the packs and removed each pod. I carefully placed the pods into the water tray using the same map in which they were labeled when shipped. The pods will soak in the sunshine for 24 hours before I move them to the Tower Thursday evening. 

     I put all the supplies I will need in a tote. The only thing you need is a ph testing kit, ph up and ph down, and nutrient solution.

     I am  happy I ordered the  dolly because after filling the reservoir with water that tower wasn't going to be moving anywhere. The dolly offered by Tower Gardens JP+ fit the Tower Garden to a tee.






     After we filled the reservoir, I tested the pump to make sure it was filling the basket and draining through all the pod baskets.








   

     The next step was to test the Ph.











   It was a little high so we added some PH Down and retested. Adding a little more until it came exactly 6.0

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     Then all that was left was to add the nutrient solution Part A and Part B as directed, hook up the timer and make sure the solution was pumping through the system at a cycle of 15 minutes on and 15 minutes off.

    Then came the funnest part. We got to fill our pod baskets with our seedlings. I used our map to make sure the herbs were on top, then our leafy vegetables, then the bushes, and then on the bottom I placed all our the fruiting vines. 

The finished product: 

DAY ONE!!