FPT. It's too bad your marginata had/s Scale. Unless your other plants have bugs, scale/eggs were probably on the plant when purchased. BTW, did you isolate your marginata? I don't know if you want to spend time ridding scale, return or replace with variegated marginata. ???? People here have different methods ridding insects. Some work, some do not. There are two things I do to prevent/kill insects. I dislike chemicals, avoid using as much as possible. Therefore, my plants are sprayed w/a home-made insecticide. Since your plant has scale, I'll explain what I do to rid and avoid those brats! lol Did you ever hear of Fish Emulsion? FE is an organic fertilizer, high in N. It also works, as an insecticide, by spraying foliage. Kills Scale, big time. The owner of a Citrus Nursery in FL once told me they spray their trees w/FE as a Scale preventative. Because my plants never had scale, I half-listened. lol. Then, in 1999, I ordered an Olive Tree. On Day 2 while misting plants, I noticed a brown bump on an olive leaf. I approached the Olive, and discovered, not one, but hundreds of brown bumps. That's when it hit me...SCALE! I immediately phoned the Citrus nursery owner, asking the proper dossage of FE and water. (BTW, olive was purchased elsewhere.) She said, one capful of FE to approximately 16oz water. I mixed FE and water in a 16oz spray bottle, shook thoroughly and sprayed away. 1-2 days later, all signs of scale were gone. A week or two later, 'can't recall,' I applied a second application. FPT, I swear to God, since that day, my plants never contrated scale again. Ever. 2. Every 2-wks during winter, my plants are sprayed w/natural ingredients such as garlic, hot pepper, citrus rind and a few other things. Once a month FE is added to other ingredients, then sprayed. Works like a charm. Forgot to mention. The Olive tree sat between two Citrus trees. Citrus closest branches were loaded w/scale. The morning I sprayed olive tree, neighboring plants were entirely sprayed, too. Can't hurt, right? And, while spraying leaves to rid insects, the plant is also foliar fertilized. The only con about FE is an odor. It has a fishy smell that lasts 2-3 days indoors. There is an odor-less type, but I've never used it so can't comment. Fish Emulsion cost is about 7.99 for a 32oz bottle. Good luck, Toni

T5s are significantly more efficient than T8s, and, because of their size, much easier to fit with efficient reflectors. There's a reason they're being used growing coral. A lot of research I've seen show the tremendous gain with T-5 over T-8. The T-8 were being used on magnetic ballast and the T-5 were on electronic ballast. These are sales pitch for the much more expensive T-5. The research I looked at was supposed to be "unbiased" with nothing to sell by friendly gardener growing under lights giving advice. The way stats are measured are almost always slanted to the researcher agenda. My own cost analysis showed me that T-8 Beats T12 hands down, and obliterates T-5,. I'm using CFL's in bathroom mirror strip lights and will go to LED's when these burn out and Fluorescents of any kind are dinosaurs. I will research this again to see if I am right. Don't invest in T-5 The LED's will direct the light !00% on the area you want. NO REFLECTORS NEEDED and the're coming soon. I am in charge of the lighting of an organic micro greens farm and I have to keep current if I am to keep my boss on the cost effective cutting edge in his business. I also have to add a correction to what I said last time. My trees get their dark time from when the sun sets, to when turn on the lights when I go to bed. This dark time is important. The more sun your tree gets, the less important the temperature of the bulb. If Your current fixture is a electronic ballast with T-12 bulb, you can use T-8 to get about a 1.5 x increase in light. The pins for T-8 & T-12 Are Identical. The T-5 are different. To check out the ballast pick it up, If it is lightwieght-electronic Use T-8: Heavy-magnetic don't swap bulbs. I believe I recognise your fixture and I think its electronic With the current set up, you may get enough light with a white window shade pulled behind the tree. The picture below gives access to my photobucket display of my 13 month old meiwa kumquat tree from seed. This tree is grown with sunlight and the bucket set in my last entry for cold months

Good luck with your grow! I am growing tomatoes in a similar setup as yours and find 100w of LED COB's for a 2x2 area works very well. I have been eating tomatoes for a month or so now and they are delicious! With that said, I found the biggest problems I have run into with my tomatoes in soil is you really need big pots. I didn't have room in my grow area for larger than the 6" pots I ended up with and found they are geting pretty root bound. They are still producing tomatoes but plants stopped growing and leaves are pretty sick looking. I have begun switching everything over to hydroponics (Kratky) under the same lights and the difference is pretty amazing. Tremendous leaf growth and lots of flowers- should have tomatoes shortly. I have 4 plants in my 2x2 area and yes they are getting pretty crowded but a little pruning this weekend should keep them under control hopefully. Keep us posted on your results!

Sorry, been busy with Christmas. I just kept searching the internet for blogs of many different people, putting in keywords, like aerogarden, (couldn't find as much as I thought I would) african violets in aerogardens, etc. Alot of them started growing them and posted pictures, but didn't follow through and tell you how it was going a few months later or whatever. Most just said the leaves failed. One lady's husband built her a homemade one, big flat of growing spaces with holes, water underneath, pumps, aeration, LED grow lights panel, etc. She didn't report alot of success either. I can't remember the blogger now, and she dwindled off and stopped writing too. I seem to remember she mainly went with other plants. I think my biggest worry, I guess, is there isn't much space. I want to grow more than a few leaves. Lol. But we can start out small and see how it goes. Please let me know how it goes for you. In theory, it should be so much quicker, no waiting forever for those little mouse ears. Ha! I think, if you cut the grow sponge like you said, then even score it some for roots to be able to break out the sides easier might help. I was thinking you'd have to plant it about the time the plantlets start showing so they get light, but they grow under water if started in a glass, but they do get light. Quite a dilemma to think about, as you said the light is the main factor in their growing so quickly. The Aerogrow tries to keep that light away from the water to keep algae down, so it sure won't reach the plantlets Hmmmm...