If you want to really keep it simple so you get the hang of it with minimal effort, an effective, economical trial is a pack of Maxi Grow all-in-one powdered fertilizer, or the Maxi Bloom if the tomatoes are further along. When that's used up if you really get hooked you might consider a more adjustable 3 component southern vegetable mix or hydroponic special mix which comes in 25 pound bags and will make several thousands of gallons.

Oh yes!!! I’m hooked, the lettuce I’ve been snacking on it, Red Romain started in 12-05-13. The
Chocolate Cherry Tomato I need to cut the top off. Had one of the tomato that comes in a kit and
its only 1/3 high from the other tomato, the cucumber is getting bigger and more leaves it seems
like I’m watching it grow. So far I’m loving it. I’m open to any and all advice. Thank you so
much for your time!

Good luck, the all-in-one I suggested to begin with will make about 180 gallons or so. If you get the big one right off the bat, you'll also need about 25 pounds of soluble calcium nitrate and perhaps around 10 pounds of epsom salts to complete the mix for the entire 25 pound hydroponic fertilizer bag. The epsom you can buy at Walmart for a few bucks. You need a way to keep your fertilizer dry, too. Starting small is probably a good idea since cherry tomatoes are less demanding on the nutrient solution and sort of a separate category easily compatible with greens than beefsteaks and the like.

How long have you been using an Aerogarden? I hate to both you with so many questions!!! My
electric bill really made a huge jump, (probably because of the weather) can you tell me how
much they use ... 10 cents a day or 50 cent a day?? With the Chocolate Tomato I really need to
trim it up, I’m going to cut the top off, do you trim off the lower branches....suckers I
think.....What about compost tea if it was strain threw a coffee filter first? Sorry for all the
questions. Tried to garden in pots the last two years hasn’t worked out very well, tried to make a
green house it flopped. This year will be the year for some produce.

No problem, hydroponics is a relaxing and productive thing to do. I have never used an AeroGarden. Everything I do is home-made, which is the case of most of the frequent posters in the forum in the past year. If you want to compare notes with AeroGarden users specifically there might be someone else, or perhaps somehow through the company facebook page.

When I try to help with your AeroGarden, I am considering it a limited size infomercial version of a decently designed top trickle flow Deep Water Culture (DWC) system. There is really nothing "Aero" about it, other than it looks aerodynamic if you put a rocket engine and fins on it. The roots are in deep water with a gap of air in the upper root zone.

It will work on the same type of nutrients in similar concentrations as we use in all of our setups, and for light, the plants have their needs which has little to do with the hydroponic design. Yours comes with lights and you can buy supplemental ones to grow plants faster and with more light requirements. You need to check the total wattage - i.e. there may be supplemental lights added if you inherited the unit.

As for electric bill, that's easy. I think nearly every American has seen that same huge jump in December and it's a whole lot more than the puny AeroGarden. Just determine the wattage. Don't worry much about your pump, that is very minor, probably well under 10W. It's the lights. Lets say yours is running a daily average 60W and you pay 12 cents a kwh. That is extremely low light usage, but I don't know what version you have and some LED units may even be less. That is ball park for this sort of basic setup, according to AeroGarden which is very small once you get into hydroponics. That setup would add up to an extra $6 per month to your electric bill. If you run it for 18 hours accumulated on-time per day (6 hr off), then it will be an extra $4.50 to reflect it is being run 75% of the time.

Your question about pruning reflects a limitation of your AeroGarden. Most people will prune a lot of the suckers and train their plants into defined vines for the trellaces or supports they use, especially if they feel they have stong production in the main parts. Yours is quite limited due to the design. You have really no room to grow huge because the lights need to be close and it just outgrows the little herb-garden sized plot you have. So the best advice there is do your best and trim areas that will have low light exposure or simply get too big. It's a bit of artwork. Oh, and put it near a window to get extra real Sunlight if you are lucky to have such a place in the house.

Compost tea is probably too weak and potentially a source of bad bacteria and molds for this since it is indoors under weak light and probably not optimal airflow and humid. But heck people are creative and plants are adaptable, just their growth rates will reflect how much nutrient they get and how much light they get. The hydroponic fertilizers I suggested are profession products for relatively higher performance systems. If you want to do a home made compost tea, it's best to learn about all the fertilizer options out there first and then spend your time developing something to meet your personal preferences in the realm of sustainable and organic practices if this is important to you. That's part of the reason I suggested starting small with like 2.2 pounds of an easy powdered hydro fertilizer ... and just read and research a lot on the internet and you will see thousands of opinions that will be helpful to get you wherever you'd like this to bring you.

AeroGarden is a cute gift idea and a great way to be introduced to hydroponics. It is similar, but less expensive, in some ways to the Tower Garden in both gimmick marketing strategy and hype, but just look at what is under the hood and you will see these are just some designs of a huge spectrum of possibilities. As long as you are growing indoors, though it may be the best show in town for you over the winter. When springtime comes this list will become alive because that's when pure Sunlight is free and far more powerful than any economical indoor lighting and we can really do what we want without using the 1,000 Watt lighting systems that do make productions much more expensive.