The first photo is our baby lettuce.   It's grown quite a bit.  It's the tiny sprout in the bottom-left corner of the photo from 4/17/2007.  It's far from mature, but it's growing nicely.  The lettuce continues to live in the MegaGarden (ebb-and-flow) because of the lighting.  We're running a 125W Compact Fluorescent over the MegaGarden, which is ideal for vegetative-stage plants (that aren't flowering).  This works well for wheatgrass and lettuce.

I've learned a fair amount about wheatgrass since the beginning of the hydroponics experiments.  I originally was having some major problems with mold, after the switch to organic seed.  I received a lot of good advice from the owner of www.wheatgrassman.com.  He's  a real naturalist, and isn't into hydroponics; but his advice was very good.  Here's what I was doing wrong, and how I corrected it:

• I didn't have much air movement in the room.  I added a cheap fan (clamped to one of the PVC lighting supports).  It's not big.  It's not strong.  It's just gentle air movement.  I think I spent $10 on it.
• I was flooding the ebb-and-flow far too often.  I used to flood once per hour.  Now I run six floods per day (15 minutes each).
• I wasn't soaking and sprouting properly.  It's very important to soak for 8-12 hours.  I had been soaking for 36-48 hours, which was drowning the seed.  Secondarily, I cannot stress enough the value of proper sprouting.  The seeds should sprout in the dark for 36 hours before moving into your hydro system.  They should be moist, but not underwater.  I keep the whole operation organized by using special "baskets".  I can sprout in the basket, then move directly to the hydro system.  It prevents me from disturbing the seed; and it's a perfect "one serving" size.  I wrote more about the baskets here.
• I was using way too much seed.  I've cut my seed use to almost 1/3 of original.  I used to "carpet" the bottom of the container.  I was overseeding and creating mold as a side-effect.

The second photo is also of the MegaGarden...  It shows a few stages of wheatgrass maturity.  The three trays contain:

• Sprouts (one day old)
• Young Wheatgrass (three days old)
• Almost Mature Wheatgrass (six days old)

Although it's only been a week, we are very pleased with the new aeroponic TurboGarden.  Thus far, the results have been pretty impressive.  It's difficult to determine the causes, as we have both a new system and a new lighting setup in play.  Thus far, we have tomatoes and strawberries in the TurboGarden.  Both are doing splendidly.

The tomato plants are visibly larger on a daily basis.  This fellow was two inches tall a week ago.  It stands at about 5 1/2" now, with stronger leaves.  It's getting to be much stronger. 

I'll admit that we didn't grow our strawberries from seed.  We bought them as adolescent plants, and transplanted them into the aeroponic system.  Cleaning dirt from roots is a delicate process; but I think we managed it with a minimum of damage.  They seem very happy in the aeroponics.  In fact, we got our first flowers this morning.  Apparently the "warm" light from the HPS bulb is working wonders.  At this point, I predict fruit in the not-too-distant future.

I'm pondering a new documentation project.  "The life of a seed".  I'm thinking about taking pictures and measurements each day of a seedling's life, just as documentation of process and results.  It's an awkward time however, as many sproutlings will soon be overrunning the beds.  Lettuce consumes much more space as an adult.  Hopefully, our five adolescents will keep growing well.