Tag: aerogarden

Reviews

PART 3 AeroGarden Review – The First Three Weeks

sageandmi
PART 3 AeroGarden Review – The First Three Weeks

This post is part three of our AeroGarden review series.  In part one, AeroGarden: Going Green and Eating Clean – A Review, we discussed our reasoning for selecting the 24XL Farm Aerogarden model and the additional supplies we purchased. In part two, AeroGarden Review – Setup and First Planting, we shared our experience with constructing our AeroGarden and beginning our lettuce growing journey.

For part three, we are going to share about our first few weeks as Aeorogarden farmers.

When we began our garden, we expected it to take around a week to begin seeing our lettuce sprout.  We couldn’t have been more surprised or excited to see ALL of the seed pods sprouting just 24 hours later. The first few weeks were amazing with our new lettuce plants with, what we felt, was rapid growth. 

Rapic Growth – PART 3 AeroGarden Review

Then disappointingly, the lettuce appeared to stop growing and the leaves started becoming a bit burnt and brown around the edges. We did some research and realized the OceanSolution 2-0-3 Plant Food we were using did not contain all of the nutrients required by our lettuce to grow.

Browning Leaves – PART 3 AeroGarden Review

So, we switched our plant food and used the AeroGarden Liquid Plant food that was included with our purchase.  The plants became much healthier and began noticeably growing again in about a day.

Healthy Lettuce – PART 3 AeroGarden Review

Within the next week after switching the plant food, we were able to have our first small harvest!

First Harvest – PART 3 AeroGarden Review
Reviews

PART 2 AeroGarden Review – Setup and First Planting

sageandmi
PART 2 AeroGarden Review – Setup and First Planting

Welcome to the second article of our AeroGarden review series!  In our last post, AeroGarden: Going Green and Eating Clean – A Review, we discussed our reasoning for selecting the 24XL Farm Aerogarden model and the additional supplies we purchased. 

AeroGarden Farm 24XL with Salad Bar Seed Pod Kit

In this post, we will be sharing our experience with constructing the AeroGarden and starting to grow our first plants. When our 24XL Farm AeroGarden model arrived, we couldn’t have been more excited!

24XL Farm AeroGarden in Box – PART 2 AeroGarden Review

Our first step was, of course, setting up the AeroGarden. This process was both easy and complicated at times.

The simple part of the setup was that the instruction manual was very straightforward to understand and follow.  The steps listed were few in number.  Most were easy to accomplish.  The difficulty with the setup came in trying to screw in some of the bolts.

We found aligning the Aerograden so that all the bolts would fit was near impossible and ended up excluding several of the bolts from our installation.  Regardless, the model is still very sturdy.  The exclusion of a few bolts does not seem like it will be an issue for us during our growing experience.

After setup, we waited a few days and decided to start growing our seed pods.  We selected the Heirloom Greens Seed Pod Set.  The 24XL Farm AeroGarden model has two grow boxes that each can contain two gallons of water.  We filled each with a ratio of two-thirds filtered water and one-third tap water.

Setup and First Planting – PART 2 AeroGarden Review

We added 0.5 oz, of our Ocean Solution 2-0-3 plant food, per gallon of water.  

Keeping the Cats Out – PART 2 AeroGarden Review

Finally, we want to keep our cats out of the AeroGarden and lettuce plants, so we also set up our Expanding Willow Trellis.  It was the perfect size for the 24XL Farm AeroGarden model.  The trellis came with small, black zip ties which were the perfect size for and matched the AeroGarden perfectly.

Expanding Willow Trellis – PART 2 AeroGarden Review
Reviews

AeroGarden: Going Green and Eating Clean – A Review

sageandmi
AeroGarden: Going Green and Eating Clean – A Review

Aero Garden In-Home Garden System

In our latest effort to increase our own greenness and overall sustainability we have decided to try growing our own vegetables.  We want to be able to grow from within our apartment so a hydroponic growing solution seemed to be our best option.  After much research, we purchased an AeroGarden Farm 24XL. In this post we want to share why we selected AeroGarden over other hydroponic systems, the reason we selected the Farm 24XL model and other supplies we purchased along with the Farm 24XL. In future posts we will be sharing the latest about our AeroGarden adventure.

AeroGarden was our ultimate choice of a hydroponic gardening system due to it seemingly being one of the easiest models to clean and maintain.

AeroGarden Farm 24XL with Salad Bar Seed Pod Kit

We considered many different hydroponic garden models prior to making our selection.  The biggest determining factor leading to our decision was how easy the design of the AeroGarden models makes it to clean the device.  Other vertical hydroponic systems are challenging to clean; requiring a many hour process involving lots and lots and lots of work.  The second determining factor was the seeming sturdiness of the design as opposed to a few of some other taller models.  Visually, it was not the most appealing, we preferred the Gardyn. However, it does have a classic and clean look with stainless steel and black elements.   

The AeroGarden model Farm 24XL seems to best meet our requirements.  We eat A LOT of fresh organic veggies and hope our AeroGarden provides an almost continuous supply.

Our diets are very veggie heavy, especially with lettuce for salads.  Generally, between us both we eat at least two salads a day in addition to other assorted vegetables.  AeroGarden’s Farm 24XL provides the space to grow up to 24 plants total and is tall enough to allow larger grants to be grown.

AeroGarden Farm 24XL with Salad Bar Seed Pod Kit

Eating Organic is a huge priority to us.  We purchased an alternate plant food aside from the one provided with the AeroGarden.

OceanSolution 2-0-3 – Plant Food

Our purchase of the AeroGarden included the plant food AeroGarden Liquid Plan Food.  We want to make our eating as clean and green as possible so we purchased Ocean Solution 2-0-3 plant food.  It is organic and compatible with hydroponics systems.  Once we use the seed pods provided with our initial purchase of the AeroGarden, we also intend on purchasing organic seeds.

Our cats would really love to play in the AeroGarden… So we purchased a trellis to better protect our veggies.

Expanding Willow Trellis

The Expanding Willow Trellis is the perfect size for the Farm 24XL.  It can comfortably rest on the floor and reach the height of the beginning of the top portion of the AeroGarden.  The initial trellis is wider than the Farm 24XL, perfect for using garden clippers and removing the extra for use along the side.  We will be setting up our AeroGarden Farm 24XL in a corner, so we only required one trellis.  A second would be enough to fully surround the model.

Stay tuned for updates on our AeroGarden experience.