Tomatoes in January?

y family must be catching on that I like plants, because my sister got me this for Christmas.

Yeah, I was excited. Hydroponic? A grow light? Pre-planted seeds? I couldn’t possibly screw this up AND I could eat it. How cool is that?

We followed the instructions – said to hell with the electric bill – and started it up. So far so good. We’ve got one cherry tomato plant and it’s really taking off. The AeroGarden tomatoes are doing remarkably well.

The system works pretty simply; you put the prefilled pod that contains the soil and seeds in the holes in the top of the unit, fill it with water, add the liquid nutrient pack to the water and plug it in. The grow light is programmed to stay on for 14 hours per day and then turn off. In the unit is a motor, like a fish tank, that circulates the water and mixes in air.

Every day the plant seems to be getting larger, and the leaves are finally starting to smell like tomatoes! I’m optimistic that I’ll be eating homegrown tomatoes before St. Patrick’s Day.

The above photos were taken on 1/16/11. I'll have a post with current photos soon!