Aerogardening

This morning I opened the AeroGarden and set it up to get some lettuce started. I was surprised to find that it came with a Seed Starting Kit for starting seeds to transplant into the garden. This would make it the same system as the one you posted, Sanderson.   

Nice!

Update today!

The only one not germinating is Marvel of 4 Seasons

I shoved some of my Marvel of Four Seasons seeds into the provided pod…just zero action. In fact, it looks like it is rotting?  Fuzzy.  I am tempted to do it again.  One more time?

How long should I do this?  I have some wiggle room.

sanderson wrote:Question:  Can you empty the pod and put in Mel's Mix and start fresh with seeding?

Don't think it would work. The "grow baskets" have wide spaces between the ridges and the soil would quickly fall out of the "basket".  The "grow sponges" are formed compressed peat that rests within the basket.  The peat "sponge" has a hole pressed into the top center of it to drop seeds into.

Interesting happening with the Aerogarden today.  It started making a faint growling noise. I lifted the top off of it to check it out, and discovered that some of the roots grew through the small pump filter and into the pump. Decided to transplant the Romaine Lettuce plants into 6" pots, and then completely clean the Aerogarden unit. After everything was cleaned a put back together, I planted some new lettuce seeds in the pods.  Never transplanted Romaine Lettuce plants before, so I'll see how they do in their new pots.

I think I am going to transplant my lettuce, too.  They are big and looking kinda bad!

sanderson wrote:OG,  Would a bridal tulle "filter" work to contain the MM?

That would probably be possible, though a little tedious I suppose.  A correction note to my above comment:  The Grow Anything kit that I bought indicates that all the pods are now coir instead of peat.

The "basket" isn't very big, so getting the fabric poked in, and then filled with soil would be a challenge. Possibly a piece of fabric could be cut in an appropriate sized circle, and then pushed down into the basket with a pencil or screwdriver. Then the fabric could be filled with the MM. The amount of peat or coir in the pod would not add much to the garden, though - I would guess it is less than a tablespoonful per pod. 

This picture shows the relative size of the "basket" and "pod"

At one time, I had 5 Aerogardens and quit using them when Scott bought them out.  When I found out that Scott was using 24D? for their compost and "new" grass seed, I sold my Aerogardens.  They used 24D in Agent Orange back in the 60s and 70s in Viet Nam.  Scotts was using it as a weedkiller but started adding it to their grass seed mixtures.  Scott also became a subsidiary of Monsanto.  When Scott purchased Aerogarden, I purchased their pods to continue my seedling plantings and started them the same way I did every year.  Every single pod and every single seed started growing "fur" and basically killed the seeds.  I called "Aerogarden" up and they answered the phone as "Scott's".  After that, I did some research and found out their connection with Monsanto.  The next day, I sold all 5 of my Aerogardens.  This was a while back (at least 6 years).  Since then, I've been using a SunBlaster grow kit.  Haven't had any problems with "fur" which I'm pretty sure was some type of mold.  Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads up if you have any problems with their products.

I think it was back in 2015.  Just do a search of "Monsanto Scott's Miracle Gro connection" and a few news articles will come up.  Like I said, it was a while back and I was really anti-Monsanto at the time because of what they were doing in food engineering.

On the Scott's 2,4-D, just search "2,4-D Scott's Miracle Gro".  I remember when I first read about it, the first thing I thought was: Who would want their children playing on grass that had been treated with this stuff?  I think it was in the herbicide spray they made and not in their soil mix.  All I know is once the two of them hooked up, the aerogardens started growing fur and killing seeds and that was using their plugs and seed kits.  

I think Sunblaster has this soil mix called "Wonder Soil".  It's supposed to be really good, but kind of expensive.  Uses all kinds of micro-biologicals.  I just use river bottom soil mixed with compost and a few other secret ingredients - plus my Texas Tomato and Texas Vegetable spray additives through the growth cycles.

If you want to reuse the plastic baskets that come with the seedling kits you can, they are however pretty cheap to buy online as is

As far as medium for them, just a round plain foam circle cut down the cente so you can put the seed in the middle pretty sure i got some laying around will take a photo

Re the pump, on the front side of the puml there should be a small square foam piece, this minimises the debris and roots getting in there, that being said, I found the pumps get noisy oretty quick and pack it in, i think I have about 5 spare pumps from when i was using it non stop.

Nowadays, i just use them to create warmth to germinate my seedlings, once i get two genuine leaves i will transplant

Example, 60 carrot seeds i planted in the mix this week, i just set the other one up today with beetroot seeds

Here we go, two after market versions you can go with

The long type like original aerogardens and some shaped peat, next to that smaller cage and foam insert, works fine



Installed view, the long one fits better, the smaller ones rock a bit as they dont really click into place



Pumps, and pumps, never ceased to amaze me how many pumps would fail

Picking lettuce weekly from the Aerogarden now. Nice to have fresh lettuce close at hand. (That is Genovese Basil growing in the flower pot.)

For anyone wanting to get started with an AeroGarden for winter growing of herbs or other greens, Sam's Club has the "AeroGarden Harvest 360 Hydroponic Garden Bundle with Extra Seed Pod Kit and Recipe Book" on sale through December 24th for $87.98 (regular price $109.98).

https://www.samsclub.com/p/aerogarden-recipe-book/P03010420?xid=plp_product_8

Starting my Aerogarden today with the Herb pack.  Excited to have some light in here!

Noticed at Sam's Club yesterday they have the AeroGarden Harvest 360 in the store on sale for $49.91.  It includes two seed pod kits - Herbs and Cherry Tomatoes - and a recipe book.  The price of that really surprised me since the list price of that unit is something like $110 without the extra seed pod kit or recipe book. Then this morning I looked at the Sam's Club on-line site and found that if the same unit is ordered for shipping it is $109.98, a little over twice as much.

I have the Elite model, which has the LCD display and offers more programming options than the standard model.  But, the Harvest 360 Elite is much more expensive, too.  That model at Sam's Club comes with the seed starter kit, which is a nice addition.

OhioGardener wrote:Noticed at Sam's Club yesterday they have the AeroGarden Harvest 360 in the store on sale for $49.91.  It includes two seed pod kits - Herbs and Cherry Tomatoes - and a recipe book.  The price of that really surprised me since the list price of that unit is something like $110 without the extra seed pod kit or recipe book. Then this morning I looked at the Sam's Club on-line site and found that if the same unit is ordered for shipping it is $109.98, a little over twice as much.

I have the Elite model, which has the LCD display and offers more programming options than the standard model.  But, the Harvest 360 Elite is much more expensive, too.  That model at Sam's Club comes with the seed starter kit, which is a nice addition.

My local Sam's club online shows this Jarvest 360 Elite set with tomatoes and basil for $49.91 pickup ... And the same $109 for shipping.

Clarification, please. This is not the seed germination model??  

That's also in the Sam's site, for 159$.

Soose wrote:
My local Sam's club online shows this Jarvest 360 Elite set with tomatoes and basil for $49.91 pickup ... And the same $109 for shipping.

Clarification, please. This is not the seed germination model??  

That's also in the Sam's site, for 159$.

The one in the store here is the AeroGarden Harvest 360 with herb & tomato seed pod kits for $49.91, or shipped for $109.98.  This is not the Elite model, and it does not include the seed starter kit.

https://www.samsclub.com/p/aerogarden-recipe-book/P03010420?xid=plp_product_1

The Sam's Club AeroGarden Harvest 360 Elite with the seed starter kit is available only on-line, and it is $159.98.  This is the model I have, which was $89 when I bought it a few years ago.

https://www.samsclub.com/p/aero-garden-harvest-elite-platinum-360/prod26680825?xid=plp_product_24

I had to go see the photos myself to catch the nuance between seed POD kit vs seed STARTER kit.  It's the latter that is for germination of seeds. But from the photo here on my phone, I can't tell what's so different. Just a grid with holes drilled? 

husband has an aero garden, I believe it has 7 holes.  How would I turn it imto a seed starter/germimation version?