05/28/09 7:58 PM

I added more nutrient tablets and added more water. The plants are drinking the water very fast. I also increased the light a notch. I have been trimming the Italian Basil and Purple Basil a lot because they grow faster than all the other plants and you aren't supposed to increase the light until all plants are close to it. All of the other plants are very well defined and you can identify them right away now. Mint has made an amazing recovery and is finally producing!



Italian Basil: 2.6 grams.
Purple Basil: 1.2 grams.
Chives: 0.1 grams.
Total Cost: $150

05/21/09 5:39 P.M.

Italian Basil is over four inches tall. I have trimmed it about three times now to keep it smaller. It's definitely producing the most crop for your buck! Purple Basil looks SUPER-healthy.  It's at three inches now and very Purple! It's hard to tell in the picture, but the dark tint on the leaves is all of the purple-ness! Parsley is still small, but steadily growing. Thyme is about two inches tall and VERY bushy! Chives are about equal to Italian Basil and I will have to trim them. Dill looks bushy and is doing quite well. Mint is now taller than Parsley even though it almost died...

Italian Basil: 0.8 grams.
Chives: 0.07 grams.
Total Cost: $150

05/18/09 5:17 P.M.

Italian Basil is looking great along with Chives. Italian Basil has a few more new growth nodes. Dill has finally reached two inches and is showing great signs of new growth. Mint has finally reached one inch. Thyme isn't growing straight up. It has some curves in it and looks almost vine-y. Parsley is still small, but Mint has caught up with it. I estimate another week or two and I'll have to raise the light to the next level. Purple Basil is almost as tall as Italian Basil and is way darker.

Everything is looking great!

Italian Basil: 0.3 grams.
Chives: 0.05 grams.
Total Cost: $150

05/15/09 5:09 P.M.

I trimmed the Italian Basil and a very small amount of Chives (see pics). Italian Basils roots are MASSIVE (as seen in pic below)! It will definitely be a power producer. It's so young, but has already out-grown everything else in the system. This is the second time that I've had to trim it. I hope it doesn't go crazy over the weekend while I'm gone! Thyme looks awesome, all bent... Mint is still struggling.. :0( Purple Basils leaves are getting big. Parsley is still small. Parsley is the one that's going to take the longest to become of height of the other plants. Once they are all about the same height, I will raise the light some to further the growth. Until that happens, I will have to trim all of them. 

Chives smells weird when clipped and Italian Basil - on the other hand - smells AWESOME! It's such a fresh and wonderful smell!!!

Italian Basil: 0.3 grams.

Chives: 0.05 grams.

Total Cost: $150

05/14/09 9:36 P.M.

I trimmed Italian Basil this morning. I just clipped the top leaves off because it is starting to get too close to the light. I gave the clipping to my friend who told me prior to this that he LOVED Basil. We determined it's weight to be 1/10 of a gram. It was really just an estimate. I super need to go get a scale to determine this stuff! I will probably trim it again tomorrow because I usually spend the night at my girlfriends house on the weekends.

One of the Chives plants are super-growing. I might have to trim that one too... Thyme is almost two inches tall and it is really bushy. It looks just awesome! It has a little purple tint to its leaves. Parsley is still small, but growing and defining it's leaves more. Dill and Purple Basil look great and are about the same size now. Mint is still recovering, but looks good.

05/13/09 5:40 P.M.

Chives and Italian Basil are over 3 inches tall. I'm going to have to trim them soon so they don't burn themselves at the light. Thyme appears to be bending towards the light. Purple Basils leaves have tilted towards the light. Parsley is still small, but its leaves are defined. Mint is bent towards the light and still small. I also pulled the dried up mint plants out of the coir.

05/11/09 10:14 P.M.

Italian Basil has reached an estimated 2.5 inches. Chives appears to be 3 inches tall. Thyme appears to be a little over an inch now. Purple Basil looks extremely healthy standing at about an inch and a half. Parsley is still small and starting to define its leaves. Dill looks very unique. Lastly, Mint had a bad outcome. Apparently, the water pump failed to get the water to Mint who sits in the top right. Some of it dried out, but others thrived until I manually fed it and poured more water into the resovoir.

05/08/09 4:58 P.M. CST

Italian Basil is doing the best at the moment. The leaves are about one inch long on top. I finally took the dome off of Parsley. There are two seperate sprouts. Dill reminded me of grass at first, but now it's starting to define itself. Thyme appears to be outgrowing Mint now. Mints leaves appear greener than Thymes. Maybe that's what's supposed to happen though! Purple Basil just looks... Well... Purpley... and Basily....

05/06/09 4:57 P.M.

Parsleys dome is almost ready to come off. Thyme, Mint, and Italian Basil all look very bushy. Parsley is also showing three sprouts. Dill, Purple Basil, and Chives all look healthy. All of the plants look and smell great. Very fresh! Chives has a very strong smell to it.

05/05/09 5:31 P.M.

All of the herbs look extremely healthy. A young child could use this system without much understanding or comprehension of how it works. It's a great way to market and educate, while providing someone with something that will produce veggies and herbs. On to the update!!

Parsley is finally starting to peak past the label, but it still has the seed shell on it. If the shell doesn't come off on it's own in a few more days, I will "help" get it off. Italian Basil and Chives look the strongest right now. I estimate that I am going to have lots of Italian Basil and Chives in the long run... We will see!

*Just a note for myself to reference*

So future predictions: I will have a larger yield from Italian Basil and Chives.

05/04/09 5:10 P.M.

As you may or may not have noticed, all of my recent blogs were posted today. I have been documenting everything in writing and have been having some PC issues recently, so I couldn't blog. I also added some nice pics to all of them as well. I will try to keep the updates coming with pictures! :0) Now let's get to it!

Chives are now over two inches tall. Dill looks super healthy. Purple Basil looks good. Mint is flourishing. Italian Basil looks GREAT. Parsley has just started coming along. Thyme is looking good. Mint and Thyme are about the same. I also removed the domes from Thyme and Mint. Only Parsleys dome remains!

05/03/09 5:31 P.M.

I took the dome off of the Chives. I also took the dome off of Dill. Italian Basil is now taller than an inch. Purple Basil looks great. It has a purple tint to its leaves. Mint and Thyme look the same. Parsley has barely sprouted, which is right on time at 8 days. All of the plants except Parsley are showing roots.

Oh yeah.. All of the pictures that I list on here have been taken by my G1 phone. :0)

05/01/09 6:02 P.M.

Chives are doing awesome! I removed the dome from the Purple Basil. Parsley and Dill have germinated, but we still are awaiting the sprouts. Dill, Thyme, and Chives don't have much longer time in the domes... 

They aren't using a lot of the water yet. I have not anymore nutrients to the water either. I will keep you updated on that! :0)

04/30/09 8:00 P.M.

Chives and Mint has sprouted. Italian Basil is doing great, and it looks like it's almost ready to live outside it's dome!

8:30 P.M.

After reading a bit, I decided to take the dome off of it and let it live it's life in peace on it's own. Dill and Parsley are the late bloomers and haven't even sprouted yet!

04/29/09 5:12 P.M.

Mint has started to sprout. Purple Basils leasves have a dark hue to them. It looks like there are 3 - 5 different Italian Basil sprouts. Thyme is looking awesome. Chives is slowly growing out of its shell. No noticeable change to Dill.

04/28/09 5:17 P.M.

Italian Basil is looking GREAT! Thyme has sprouted and it took only 3 days. There has been a small difference in Chives, and Purple Basil has sprouted in 3 days instead of the normal 4 days. No noticeable difference in the others.

04/27/09 at 5:00 P.M.

I checked on them and the Italian Basil has already sprouted! That's only two days!!! :0)!!! 

There appear to be no other differences in the others.

04/25/09 Approximately 5:00 P.M.

I started the Gourmet Herb Seed kit today (04/25/09). The seeds that came with the seed kit are as follows: Thyme, Chives, Dill, Mint, Parsley, Italian Basil, and Purple Basil. According to the seed labels;

Thyme sprouts in 5 - 10 days. 

Chives sprouts in 5 - 10 days. 

Dill sprouts in 7 - 14 days. 

Mint sprouts in 6 - 10 days. 

Parsley sprouts in 8 - 15 days.

Italian Basil sprouts in 3 - 7 days.

And Purple Basil sprouts in 4 - 7 days.

Aerogarden!!!!

Well, as I stated in my other blog, (www.trance104.com) my one and only bought me an Aerogarden. It's the Classic Aerogarden and it came with an Herb garden seed kit. I plan on documenting my entire grow process with as many updates as possible.

I will be comparing the cost of the kit plus anything else I have to buy vs how much it is producing of each herb and whether or not you can save money from it (in the long run). I will check the local grocery stores to see how much each different herb costs and how much comes with that package. I have started documenting everything on paper, so I will have to catch everything up. I did however document the date and time of each entry, so I will in fact be posting that, just so we can establish some sort of timeline.