Habits of Successful Tower Gardeners: Are You Doing These 6 Things?

While Tower Garden simplifies traditional gardening, it does require regular attention. Once you transfer your seedlings to the Tower Garden, it's important to properly maintain your system to ensure a plentiful, healthy yield.

1. Turn daily.

If only part of your Tower Garden receives sunlight each day, rotate the reservoir lid 1/4 turn in the same direction daily to achieve uniform plant growth. The Tower Garden dolly makes this task much easier.

2. Monitor weekly.

Check your Tower Garden 1-2 times a week to ensure:

• pH level is between 5.5-6.5. pH may fluctuate as plants grow. After adding nutrients, measure pH with the testing kit that came with your Tower Garden, and adjust as necessary. Helpful hint: Yellowing leaves are often an indication the pH is not within the recommended range.
• Water temperature is between 65-85 degrees. To reduce heat transference from the ground, place your Tower Garden on a dolly, doormat or something similar. On hot days, you may add frozen water bottles to the water reservoir or move your Tower to the shade.
• Reservoir is full. When adding water and nutrients, keep in mind a Tower Garden full of small seedlings requires only 200 ml of Tower Tonic A and 200 ml of Tower Tonic B starting out. When your plants grow large with lots of roots, check water levels twice a week.
• Plants show no signs of pests or diseases. Check plant leaves for things like holes and mildew. If you notice a problem, reference our growing guides to identify the solution.

3. Clean monthly.

This step is important! Your pump filter and shower cap need monthly maintenance. Neglecting this task can actually introduce plant disease as the pump showers decomposed material over plant roots.

• To clean the pump filter, unplug the pump, pull the pump up through the access port, and remove the pump cover. Flush the filter with water to remove debris.
• Clean the shower cap by removing the shower cap lid, and using a toothpick to clean the shower cap holes.

4. Trim periodically.

You’ll be amazed how quickly your plants—and their roots—grow! Prune plants (especially tomatoes) and trim roots for a healthy garden:

• Prune plants to remove stressed or damaged foliage, encourage new growth, and improve air circulation and sun exposure. But be careful to not cut back more than 1/3 of the plant.
• To keep roots away from the pump, cut long roots in half.

5. Help when necessary.

Plants are relatively self-sufficient, but sometimes they need a little help:

• Train larger vining plants—such as tomatoes, squash and green beans—to grow on a trellis or tomato cage.
• If your fruit-bearing plants (e.g., squash, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.) aren’t producing, the problem may be a lack of pollinator activity. Try hand pollinating.

6. Harvest when ready!

Once your crops are ready (in 3+ weeks, depending on what you are growing), check your Tower Garden often for fresh fruits and vegetables to enjoy.

For even more tips, reference Page 10 of the Tower Garden Growing Guide (PDF).

Your Turn

What habits do you recommend for a successful Tower Garden experience?