AeroGarden Strawberries

Strawberry Flower Power!

Personally, I think one of the slickest things about aeroponics is the wow factor you experience when you come home and see how fast your plants have grown.  I encountered this in full force today when I returned from work. Check out the following photo of the flower that just popped it’s head out in the last post:

What a difference 48 hours makes!

Not only is the first flower growing like mad, but two of the other plants have started to show the first little signs of flowerage.  I can only assume that we will be seeing more strawberry flowers before the weekend.

You can just make it out in the center of the plant.

The best part is, I get to keep this little white and gold flower because this particular strawberry plant has seven leaf sets.  According to the AeroGarden Strawberry Patch Planting, Tending & Harvesting Guide, cutting off the early flowers will aid in yielding a large quantity of strawberries.  You will know it is too early when your strawberry plant has less than 6 leaf sets.

What is a Leaf Set?

A leaf set is simply a stem of the strawberry plant with three leaves.  In a future post, we will explore how to prune your flower when your plant has less than six leaf sets.

The Strawberry Patch’s First Flower

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our first start of a flower.  The back row, far right plant takes the prize for the most gain so far.  After watering the strawberry plants earlier tonight, I took some more photos and inspected the plants condition above the growing surface.  These babies are definitely making progress. 

Time to Water the Strawberries

I came home today to find the Water Level Low light was blinking on the AeroGarden.  It is amazing that even though these plants do not appear to be making large amounts of progress above the growing tray surface, they have managed to suck up a large portion of the water in the bowl.  The rate of consumption is much higher compared to my first AeroGarden Gourmet Herbs Kit.  I opened up the door and added another pitcher of water to the AeroGarden’s bowl.  While it was open I snapped some photos of the strawberry plant roots.  They have made some excellent progress over the last few days.  Check out those root structures!

AeroGrow Sells 100,000 AeroGardens!

Picked this up off Market Wire:

AeroGrow International, Inc. (OTCBB: AGWI) (”AeroGrow” or the “Company”), makers of the AeroGarden(TM) kitchen garden appliance, announced today that the AeroGarden has just passed the 100,000 unit sales milestone. The Company began selling the AeroGarden in March 2006.
“It’s been quite a launch. We expected a high level of consumer acceptance, but going from zero to 100,000 gardens sold in less than a year has been a powerful market confirmation of the AeroGarden’s appeal,” said Michael Bissonnette, Founder and CEO of AeroGrow. “The AeroGarden appeals to a wide range of demographics and interests, both men and women, young and old, cooks and gardeners and it’s a hot gift item as well. Our consumers are forming their own chat groups, sharing photos of their gardens and getting involved with the product in ways we couldn’t even imagine when we started.”

In addition, sales of the Company’s Plug & Grow Seed Kits recently surpassed 270,000 units since the launch in March 2006. AeroGrow’s Seed Kit line, soon to be expanded to more than 18 different plant kits, allows consumers to simply and easily grow a wide variety of herbs, vegetables, flowers and fruit in their AeroGardens.

Congrats AeroGrow!  I am looking forward to seeing the new plant kits!