AeroGrow AeroGarden Review - Read Before Purchasing

The AeroGrow AeroGarden is an aeroponic indoor garden built by AeroGrow International.

What is Aeroponics? Aeroponics is a dirt-free growing method in which plant roots are suspended in air within a 100 percent humidity, highly oxygenated growing chamber. The roots of the plant are bathed in ideal amounts of water, nutrients, and oxygen to create plants that are healthier, grow faster, and have a higher nutrient content than if grown in soil.

Aerogarden Parts and Setup:

The main piece is the base which contains the electronics. An extension arm with adjustable height settings plugs into the base. The next piece is the water reservoir with areas in the top where the grow pods are placed. Included are two grow bulbs or “daylight spectrum bulbs” which plug into the top hood piece. The underside of the hood piece has a reflective coating to scatter the light across the Aerogarden. The hood snaps into the extension arm. Setup was very simple.

The AeroGarden comes bundled with an herb seed kit which includes Italian Basil, Cilantro, Mint, Dill, Oregano, Chives, and Purple Basil.

AeroGarden Assembled:

Salad Greens Salad Bar Series Seed Kit Contents:

In the package are 7 grow pods with seeds that are seated between foam with openings for the leaves and roots to grow. Also included are 7 plastic domes to keep in humidity during germination. There is also a box that includes nutrient tablets, as well as an instruction manual. The kit contains 7 varieties of lettuce which include green leaf, green summer crisp, red leaf and red butterhead lettuces.

Planting - Grow Pod Closeup:

I placed each grow pod in each of the holes at the top of the water reservoir. I then pushed on the plastic dome over each.

Planting Finished:

The front of the water reservoir has a lid that you lift up to add water to the tank. In the tank is a water fill line. Since I have a water softener that makes the tap water too salty, I filled the reservoir with bottled water from a jug. I then added 2 nutrient tablets that were labeled as starting nutrients. I then made sure the extension arm was set into its lowest position as to keep the bulbs closest to the seeds.

The Starting Nutrients:

After adding the nutrient tablets to the filled reservoir, I plugged the Aerogarden in. The 2 grow bulbs lit right up, a green light lit up on the base, and the pump started up. The pump pulls the water up and drips it over the seeds it seems.

On the base is a select button. By pressing it you can select which type of plant you are growing. I pressed the button until the green light was beside where it said salad greens.

The lights stay on for 16 hours! and they are incredibly bright. The good thing is that there are easy to follow instructions included on how to set the lights to turn off at a certain time each day. If you want the lights to turn off at 11pm, wait until 11pm, press the button labeled “lights” and hold it down. The green light next to where it says “salad greens” will start blinking. When it does this, you just release the lights button. In about 9 seconds the 2 grow bulbs will turn off, and will now always turn off at 11pm.

4 Days Later:

All grow pods have sprouted. Some plants were close to touching the plastic domes so I removed them.

Closeup:

1 Week Later - Purple Spots Are Appearing:

Purple spots began appearing on almost all of the leaves. I figured this may be normal since there is red butterhead lettuce as one of the lettuce varieties. My other thought was that it could possibly some kind of infection or fungus in the plant. So I found the 800 number for Aerogrow and gave them a call.

Aerogrow Aerogarden Customer Service Experience:

I gave them a call to find out if the purple spots on the leaves was normal or not. However, no one answered the phone. It was the correct number, but it just rang and rang for 5-10 minutes. I hung up and decided to just send them an email and attach a couple pictures of the purple spots. I sent them an email on Jan 8th 2008, and didn’t receive a reply back until Jan 23 2008. Over 2 weeks to receive an email response back. On a positive note, the email response did answer my question fully.

Their response was that purple spots are normal. It’s just the red leaf and red butterhead lettuces and that in another week or so, differences in lettuce varieties should become more noticeable.

Built In Computer:

Every 2 weeks the base lit up to tell me to add 2 more nutrient tablets. The add water light also came on once, but since then I’ve been adding water daily. Once the tablets are added you just hit the reset button to start the 2 week countdown in the internal computer.

2 Weeks Later:

First Salad:

The lettuce tastes great, it’s crisp and very green too. A month after planting, based on growth you can easily have a side salad every other day. The extension arm continually has to be raised if you skip making salads as the leaves grow up to touch the bulbs. (Scroll down for Review Conclusion)

Other Seed Kits Available:

Herb Kits:

French Herb (Chervil, Sorrel, Marseille Basil, Parsley, Sage, Savory and Chives).

Gourmet Herb (Thyme, Chives, Italian Basil, Purple Basil, Dill, Mint and Parsley).

Holiday Herb (Includes parsley, oregano, thyme and sage).

International Basil (Includes Lemon, Thai, Napolitano (Italian), Marseilles (French), Genovese (Italian), Globe and Red Rubin.).

Italian Herb (including Basil, Garlic Chives, Mint, Savory, Italian Parsley, Oregano and Thyme.).

Japanese Herb (Mitsuba (2), Red Shiso, Green Shiso, Nira Chives, Cress and Shungiku (chrysanthemum).

South of the Border Kit (cilantro, epazote, globe basil, oregano, thyme, and parsley.).

Vegetable Seed Kits:

Cherry Tomato

Chili Pepper (2 kinds of Jalapeno (Mexican cooking favorite), two Red Fire (great for Asian dishes), and three Purple Super Hot (for color and punch) .

Green Beans

Salsa Garden (Cherry Tomato and Jalapeno) .

Snow Peas

Salad Kits:

Arugula

Baby Greens (Contains Tatsoi, Mizuna, Mustard, Kale and Komatsuna.)

Mesclun (Contains Mustard Greens, Endive, Mizuna, Tatsoi and lettuces.)

Romaine (Red and Green)

Salad Greens (This is the one I planted) (Green Leaf, Red Leaf, Red Butterhead and Romaine.)

Flower Kit:

Petunias (pink, purple, blue and white blooms )

Master Gardner Kit: Includes grow pods, domes, and nutrients. No Seeds. Allows you to grow any seeds you want supposedly.

Summary:

Pros:
Simple to setup. Easy to use. Fun. Quiet pump. Large number of seed kits to choose from. Fresh great tasting salad available to harvest a month after planting. No pesticides. No need to worry about E-Coli contamination you hear about in the news sometimes with bagged lettuce.
Cons:
Seed kits are about $20 USD. AeroGarden is around $150 USD. If your tap water is salty, water from store jugs is an added cost. Instructions state to replace bulbs every 6 months. Replacing two bulbs is $20 USD. The lettuce slurps up water quickly. The grow bulbs are insanely bright. Not an issue during the day, but at night, you really need some kind of curtain or cardboard box to block the light. Customer service seems pretty slow and unresponsive.

Conclusion: If you would enjoy watching food grow in your kitchen and the cost of the kits, water, and grow bulbs isn’t an issue, then I would recommend getting one. Its fun watching food grow in your kitchen. And knowing that it doesn’t have pesticides and such on it is great. The best place to get the Aero Garden would be amazon.com. Below is a widget linking to the product page:

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