The Aerogarden is a self contained indoor hydroponics gardening system. It includes everything the
plant needs to thrive in an almost ideal environment. There is a light hood that is illuminated for about 15 hours a day. There is support for the plant. There is a nutrient rich water that is cycled to the roots where the plants need it. There is plenty of air around the plants and as it is used indoors the plants have the warmth they need to grow.
When you buy the Aerogarden from new it comes with a seed pod kit, making it very easy to get up and running…
Just the final assembly of a few parts, pop in the pods, add the water and switch on….
Your indoor garden is starting…
Once the first crop has finished then you are faced with a decision…
Buy another seed pod kit or don’t….
What is the aerogarden seed pod
The aerogarden seed pod is a support structure and substrate ideal for growing plants in the aerogarden
unit.
You have the plastic basket which fits snugly into the holes in the grow table.
There is a grow sponge that is preseeded within the basket…
And a cover to prevent the growth of algae under the grow lights…
Once fitted into the grow table a clear plastic cover is added over the top to create an ideal germinating environment for your plants.
Can you use the aerogarden without pods
If you define the aerogarden pod as one of the preseeded kits then yes….
Aerogrow do a kit that is a grow anything kit ( within reason)…
This includes the baskets, grow sponges, covers or labels, clear plastic grow domes and nutrient ( liquid plant food) for 6 months…
Basically everything bar the seeds…
So you need to use your own seeds…
The number of these pods required differs with the different models you are going to be adding them to…
What i have found is if you are going for this solution then go for the maximum number and you can always use the ‘spares’ in the future…
You will save money doing it this way…
What parts of the seed pods can be used again
What if you don’t want to buy another kit…
What can you do…
If you are careful when you remove the plants after their grow cycle is complete then you can recover the grow basket…
They will not last forever, but you can reuse them a few times…
Until they disintegrate at the bottom and are not a able to hold the sponges…
The clear plastic cover can be saved and used again as a greenhouse for seed starting…
The sponge and cover are the parts that need to be replaced…
You can buy replacement sponges and you can make your own little covers to protect the seeds from algae.
How to make your own aerogarden pods
What about when the aerogarden baskets disintegrate…
Well in another post i have shown how to replace the aerogarden seed pods …
You use a mesh pot and cut a section out of it to create a basket.
Then you can use a rock wool cube instead of the aerogarden grow sponge to plant your seeds…
Creating an ideal moist but not saturated environment for your plants.
What are the best seeds for the aerogarden
The aerogarden can grow anything…
But is it sensible to grow large root veg…
Not really…
Or plants that are going to grow huge…
Way bigger that the light hood can move …
Again not really….
Saying that …you can start the plants off in the aerogarden and then transfer them to their final growing place…
So what are the best seeds for the aerogarden…
Any that will grow within the light hood range…
As most of these , other than the farm models, are around 12″ tall then it is worth restricting your plant height to this…
I have grown taller, but this was in an older aerogarden when i could remove the light hood…
The modern led lights hood are not removable easily….
What i would also plan out is the lifetime of the plants…
You don’t really want a fast cycling crop mixed in with a very slow growing crop….
The reason for this is that you need to remove the roots along with the plant and most of the time they get intertwined and are very difficult to remove without damaging the other plants….
So if you try rosemary with coriander…
You will find the coriander gone over before the rosemary has given up its first crop of leaves…
You could match lettuce or salad leaves with coriander as both will take around 30 days on a cycle…
Or sage, red chillis and parsley….these herbs do last for years if you only harvest what you need….
Or looking at a cherry tomato, and i would grow these on their own…maybe with a Genovese Basil…
So always check on the seed packet what the final height of the palnt will be and how long it takes to grow and when the harvest is…
With the hydroponics within the aerogarden then you will be harvesting earlier that it says on the packet as it is an ideal environment…
What do you need to grow in your aerogarden again
So once you have gone through a crop cycle then you need to remove the plants, empty out the nutrient ( your other plants, indoors or outdoors, really like this as an extra boost)…
Then clean the aerogarden…
You may need to split the grow table down to remove any roots which have crept into the flow chambers ( where the nutrient is fed from the pump to the plants)…
After cleaning and drying then you are ready to go again…
If you have left overs in the kit you are sorted and within minutes you are growing again…
If you need to set things up you will need
- Grow baskets
- Grow sponges#ad
- Covers or labels
- Clear lids or grow domes
- And most importantly seeds…
Just check the date on the seeds and make sure you don’t need to soak them overnight to give them the best chance of germinating…
So the sequence is …
If you are using rock wool…soak them in clean water
Fit the sponge into the grow basket and make a little hole for the seeds in the center…
Drop one to three seeds into the sponge and fit the cover …this has a hole and four slits in it to allow the plants through and to grow…
Pop this into the aerogarden grow deck and cover with the clear lid…
Add water to the grow bowl…
Select the growing cycle you want…
And off it goes….
So i hope you are now thinking of what you can grow in your aerogarden next and then planning while still growing what will be in there next….
And don’t forget to use the overspill of light in the spring to start your outdoor seedlings early…
Let me know what you are growing together in your aerogarden in the comments…
Thanks for reading
phil
I have been growing plants hydroponically since 2009. For years before that i was reading books and looking at systems and saying ...no way...
But once i had taken the plunge with the tomatoes outside, then there was no stopping me.
I tried out most of the systems and started to refine them, getting the plants to grow more efficiently.
Now I am more interested in indoor hydroponics and the challenges it presents. Being able to control the environment, feeding the correct nutrients and giving the correct length and type of lighting....