The AeroGarden

I’ve noticed some confusion around the web reguarding the labels on the AeroGarden “grow pods”, to be honest I had a few minor difficulties with them as well.

Usually within a few days of starting a new seed kit you will notice the plants are starting to grow, what sometimes happens is the plants get stuck on the top of the label and then either push the entire label off or get trapped inside the grow pod.

Some people have solved this problem by removing the labels however this can cause problems. You see the labels are their to keep light from shining into the water, when to much light enters the bottom of the AeroGarden you have a high chance of developing algae problems… Which are a pain to clean and can damage the plants.

The easiest and in my opinion the best solution is to watch for these growth problems and once the plant appears to be trapped inside the grow pod, it’s time to nudge them through yourself. That’s it, thats all. If you don’t catch it in time or the plant pushes the label off, simply nudge it back down. As long as the label is preventing light from entering the bottom of the AeroGarden you should be fine!

One question I get asked a lot from visiting friends and families is “How much hydro does the AeroGarden use?”. This is a perfectly understandable question, especially since electricity prices are going up and we are constantly being reminded to be more environmentally responsible.

Well to answer your question. Not very much, here in Canada I pay 8.7 cents per kilowatt hour (1000 kilowatts) during peak times and as low as 2.3 cents on weekends and during the night. So assuming you have an AeroGarden Classic, you are using up roughly 32 watts per hour, if you have the AeroGarden Deluxe or any of the more recent Pro models then you are using 64 watts per hour.

This breaks down to:

AeroGarden Classic : 31.25 hours of use for 8.7 cents of hydro (assuming maximum price)
AeroGarden Deluxe & Pro: 15.62 hours of use for 8.7 cents of hydro (also assuming maximum price)

For arguments sake let’s say your garden has it’s lights on for 13.75 hours a day, 365 days of the year. This gives us a total usage of 5018.75 hours. Ok, we’re almost done so don’t fall asleep on me yet!

The Classic model would use 160.6 kilowatt hours costing me $13.97
The Deluxe or Pro model’s would use 321.30 kilowatt hours costing me $27.95

Overall it’s not a very scary number.

Aerogrow International, the maker of the AeroGarden, is definitely following the time honored business tradition of selling a product at or below cost and making their profit off refills and supplies. The plant’s come in special “bio-dome” pods so you can’t use your own seeds, also you must purchase the nutrient tablets or plant food from the company so the true cost of the AeroGarden is a bit higher then the initial price of the AeroGarden.

However that’s about as bad as it gets, the actual product is very well constructed and actually sells for a pretty fair price. While I would have much preferred the AeroGarden came with the ability to grow from traditional seeds I have found that the seed “bio-domes” do give a harvest of about 4-5 months. As well if you shop around you can find them fairly well priced as low as 9.95 each instead of the $29.95 when buying direct.

If your like me and don’t really care to have an outdoor garden and kill pretty much any plant besides the cactus then the AeroGarden can be a great investment. Most of the time when I buy fresh herbs at the grocery store they go bad before I use even half of them. But with the AeroGarden you can pick the herbs you want and the plant keeps the herbs fresh when you’re not using it and grows more herb to replace what you’ve used.

It’s one of those rare things I’ve bought from a television commercial and actually delivered on it’s promises!

Well as much as the company claims the AeroGarden is “space age” technology it actually uses some long standing technologies and ideas. As I mentioned earlier the AeroGarden is essentially a customized hydroponics kit. It looks far better and takes up less space then pretty much any other kit on the market.

Instead of using organic compounds in soil to break down fertilizers into plant food the hydroponics use fertilizer in it’s purest form that can be absorbed from water thus negating the need for plants to be potted or any soil to be used at all.

There is some debate as to whether hydroponics are actually considered organic and both sides make very convincing arguments however test have shown that hydroponics fertilizers are in many cases purer then those used in even the strictest organic farms. But this review is not the place to engage in debate, there are many studies and articles to be found online to help you make you own judgments.

A number of benefits of using AeroGarden’s hydroponics are:

-Plants grow more than twice as fast.

-Automated lighting control using energy efficient bulbs.

-Automated watering.

-No dirt, mess or gardening experience required.

Bio-Dome Seed Kits

The seed kits available for the garden are designed to provide near rainforest like conditions for the seeds in a self contained “pod”. These kits are where the magic happens and they operate on a “plug and play” design you can simply mix and match the “pods” from various seed kits to give you the type of harvest you’re looking for.

Inside the “pod” is a pre-seeded grow sponge that helps to balance the water and air levels during germination. Each “pod” is also designed to maintain the right humidity level for each plant.

Nutrient Tablets

Perhaps the easiest way to describe the nutrient tablets to call them fertilizer, depending on your seed kit every week or so you will have to insert some tablets into the AeroGarden.

The tablets contain not only the nutrients but they also work to ensure the pH balance of your tap water is perfect for the plants to grow. What’s in the tablets? Well that one is a bit of a company secret, however I can tell you they contain some elements of seaweed.

Glow Bulbs

In order to provide the type of light required to grow plants, the AeroGarden uses a full spectrum light bulb to simulate sunlight. My first concern was how much electricity the bulbs would be using but rest assured the bulbs are energy efficient bulbs that don’t use much more energy then other light bulbs around your house.