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Idiot proof gardening on sale

K

kr105

Well-known member
Hi,

I have an Aero Garden and love it. It's idiot proof gardening (actually a hydroponics unit with built in lights and timers.)

You add nutrient tablets, water, plug it in and walk away. Every few weeks you add more tablets and water (it will flash a light at you to do this) and walk away.

Some fancy kitchen places sell the unit for $200. Most places charge $150 for it (which is still pricey) but Frontgate has a 20% off sale right now by using the promotion key code XX48173 at checkout. That brings the cost down to $119.20. If you want to look at it go to Frontgate and click on the video to see it in action

http://www.frontgate.com/jump.jsp?s...AS=1&keyword=aero&itemID=6140&iProductID=6140


When I had the salad greens going they lasted for 3 months. Now we are not big salad eaters here so the plants became overgrown and I had to cut them back to 1/2 inch stalks twice and each time they grew back like a pack of weeds. The salad greens had some red leaf lettuce, some butter leaf and some others that I could not identify. The butter leaf was wonderful.

I'm currently experimenting with dwarf tomato plants. I used the lettuce pods and just stuffed some sponge into them (regular Excelo sponge cut up.) I then added seeds from Burpee and Aero grow sent me the nutrient tablets. At 1 1/2 weeks, I have 5 inch shoots coming up right now. According to their customer service department, they are bringing out a "grown your own seeds" kit and I look forward to that.

I'll let you know how my tomatoes do.
 
Re: Idiot proof gardening on sale

Thanks Kr

My mom has been wanting one of these, maybe I'll surprise her for Christmas.
 
Re: Idiot proof gardening on sale

When I started plants indoors I used 4' shop light fixtures ... with regular fluorescent bulbs; not grow lights.
The plants did just fine.
You do not need special expensive equipment to grow plants indoors.
I hung the fixtures, on long chains, from hooks in the ceiling in the basement.
I used 's' hooks to raise or lower the fixtures. They need to be 1-4 inches above the plants.
And I used a timer so the plants had a regular supply of light.
I did move the plants outdoors if the temperature went above 50 degrees during the day.
Sunlight is better for the plants. It's a lot of work moving plants around, but during a period of isolation, you may welcome the exercize.

I found a looong discussion about growing plants under lights.
There is a lot of useful info being discussed.
It's just too long to post here; here's the link:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lights/msg101913229751.html?11
 
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Re: Idiot proof gardening on sale

Gardening is not one of my talents. I have been known to kill even silk plants! I know I need to prepare for gardening but don't even know what I should be starting with.

Would some very green thumb individuals consider preparing a basic gardening prep list for folks like me? Maybe a general list as well as a urban list for our city members with limited space.

Sure hope someone(s) can contribute to this it would be a great help. I don't even know where to start to look for the good reproducing seed or what their names are.

Thanks
TM
 
Re: Idiot proof gardening on sale

T. Modesto,

I'm no expert but can contribute a little here on gardening.
If you want to perpetuate your crops, you need to start with non-hybrid seed varieties. Seed saved from non-hybrid varieties will produce plants like the parent plants. Seed saved from hybrids is unpredictable.

People generally choose the best plants for seed saving. Those that prove to be the strongest, highest producing, most disease resistant, best tasting. They choose plants with the best characteristics to perpetuate those traits.

Most garden plants are either annual or biennial. Annual plants will produce seed in the same season, but biennial plants will produce seed in the second season. A general rule of thumb is that most root crops and plants in the cabbage family are biennial.

Methods for preparing and saving seed vary by the plant too. There are many good books out there on the subject. Probably the most famous is Seed to Seed. One of my favorite books is Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. Although it contains a lot of information I will never need or use on livestock and such, it contains a oodles of information on gardening and preserving the harvest as well as saving seed.

Many old time gardeners who save their own seed have developed varieties that are better than the seed they started with because they selectively save seed from only the best plants.

While I've read on the subject, I haven't actually practiced it myself because it's been faster and easier to just purchase new seed each year.
Time to change though.
 
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Re: Idiot proof gardening on sale

It is definitely not large enough to be a mass producer, I have read in the reviews that it produces enough for 2 people, which may be a stretch. What has your experience been kr? I know you said you are not big salad eaters, but how many salads per week do you think it could keep up with?

I think the reason it sells so well is it is attractive enough to set on the countertop unlike the set up we used which was in the basement and once you set it up you can forget it until it reminds you to add water and nutrients, (which is perfect for my Mom ;)).
 
Re: Idiot proof gardening on sale

Be sure to start with heritage not hybrid seeds if you want to save seed from year to year.

Edit:Heritage seeds are otherwise known as heirloom seeds.
 
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Re: Idiot proof gardening on sale

MHSC said:
It is definitely not large enough to be a mass producer, I have read in the reviews that it produces enough for 2 people, which may be a stretch. What has your experience been kr? I know you said you are not big salad eaters, but how many salads per week do you think it could keep up with?

I think the reason it sells so well is it is attractive enough to set on the countertop unlike the set up we used which was in the basement and once you set it up you can forget it until it reminds you to add water and nutrients, (which is perfect for my Mom ;)).
Click to expand...

Curious what the setup you have in your basement?

I seen these areogardens but thought they were still kinda pricey for how much produce you get. We recently started some lettuce and spinach from seed. Which we will try to keep inside. Right now they are only very small.

When I was reading up on indoor gardening I read about a teacher in the states who gave his students the project of growing vegetables indoors. Can't find the link now. I'll see if I can find it later if anyone is interested.
 
Re: Idiot proof gardening on sale

I've had an opportunity to the use the Areo garden. It is convenient and a conversation starter for guests, but in an emergency situation I don't think it will produce enough. You will need an almost continuous source of electricity to run the pump and the wide-spectrum growing light bulbs (which are on for about 16 hours a day) and, of course, you will need water and the special growing nutrients. It could provide herbs for flavoring during the winter season, but if you have access to a patch of well lit ground or some place for container gardening, you will be able to grow a much larger quantity of produce.

An Aero garden is a good introduction to hydroponic gardening, but it is expensive relative to the volume of greens and herbs produced. An internet search will turn up a lot of references on how to construct and scale up your own hydroponic system. Providing you have a reliable power source (and supplies and lights), an indoor hydroponic system could be an option for year-around food production in colder climates.
 
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