Aerogrow Aerogarden Reviewed (Verdict: Unnecessary)
Video: A video I made a couple years ago showing how the Aerogrow goes together.
Farhad Manjoo, Salon's "Machinist blogger, takes the Aerogrow Kitchen Garden out for a spin.
Do you need an indoor garden? Most likely the sentiment's not "need," not the way you need shelter, food, fair elections or "Super Mario Galaxy." Fresh herbs aren't any longer very tough to get; even in the dingiest of cities in the bleakest of climes, the nearest big-box market is likely to stock at least cilantro, flat-leaf parsley and basil, if not marjoram, chervil and savory.I never got around to doing a proper review of the Aerogrow, but let me do it now: skip it. The herbs and plants you can grow with the kit are just as easy to grow in small pots. By growing in soil, they'll have proper root systems, allowing them to support any fruits. And $20 for a smattering of seeds and foam is ridiculous.That's the first line the skeptic brings to any discussion of the Aerogarden -- the device seems to fill a need you didn't really have. The second is this: It does so at much cost!
The Aerogarden sells for either $149.95 or $169.95 (The more expensive model is outfitted in stainless steel rather than plastic and includes a more advanced grow timer.) It ships with one seed kit; extra kits go for $19.95 each.
There's actually nothing wrong with the AeroGrow's design. It's quite well made. It just isn't necessary and no more easy to use than the old fashioned method of a few small pots in the kitchen window.
Kitchen gadgets: Do you need an indoor herb garden? [Machinist.Salon.com]
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I doubt anyone is buying these to grow KITCHEN herbs, but it does look like you could nicely propagate another kind of herb with this.
Agreed on all but one point: here, at least, fresh herbs (which are rarely even that) are priced somewhere between really good pot and really bad heroin. While they might not be tough to find, they're awfully tough to buy.
Actually, Farhad has it wrong; clearly he hasn't been to sufficiently dingy cities. Even the local Mall-Wart (which is a monstrosity of a SuperCenter, serving the nearest three counties or so) manages to bring in *either* parsley or cilantro, but never both, and you may as well sacrifice a goat or two to the herb gods if you're hoping for basil or rosemary.
Some of us live in basement apartments with north-facing windows, or windows with vertical blinds that don't allow for pots on the sill. Also, in my part of the world, herbs like cilantro and basil are hard to grow outdoors outdoors even in summer, and even parsley takes a long time to get established (and dies back in winter). Based on the videos on their website, plants grow much faster and more luxuriantly with the Aerogrow system than ones (under the same light) in potting soil.
I bought two ! so far i have had more cherry tomatoes than my family could eat and huge amounts of fresh heirloom lettuce,cilantro,basil,arugla,on and on we cannot eat as fast as the stuff grows! Its great fun for any gardener.If you buy herbs at the store they last 3-4 days.now i am making pesto of basil and cilantro butters! i wil start all my beautiful flowers indoors by seed.To each his own i love seeing all the growth possibilities!
There is nowhere near enough light in my apartment for a potted plant (I tried) but the Aerogarden does well. And you can plant your own seeds just fine with the kit that comes with the garden. I grew zucchini.
Hi I DON'T work for Aerogrow. You can build an entire growroom for your herbs for less than 150 clams. Just another yuppie money sucker.
We have the Aerogarden currently starting a variety of seeds while the STL spring is too cold to let them be happy. Once the time comes they will be planted in our outdoor garden. It actually started to grow 66 plants with minimal effort, while in previous years many indoor greenhouses and other seed starting processes ended with mixed results. Thus far, with only a week, this sucker has actually been resoundingly successful.
All these anonymous Aerogrow employees with their testimonies... I just don't know who to believe anymore.
A friend of mine has one and values it highly. I've been by and she does have amazing lettuce and herbs, and tons of it. I have a very brown thumb and never manage to grow anything so I'm actually considering one, but the price, my god!
One important thing to note, you can get reloadable seed pods so the seed-drm they have going is avoidable.
I bought one for my wife last year. She loves it and it works great.
The best part for her are the flashing lights that remind her to add water and nutrients. She is not a green thumb at all.
The only plants we have in the house are the hardy ones that aren't killed easily.
Who knew the Aerogrow could harbor such a bumper crop of AstroTurf?
Well the aerogrow kits have several advantages over pots in the windowsill. 1)light. many apartments don't have sufficient light, especially in the winter. 2)idiotproof. growing stuff indoors is much harder than growing things in the ground. this system controls a bunch of the factors for you - light, food, water - and significantly reduces the complexity. It makes success much more likely.
But I do agree - if you have sufficient light in your window (like, full sun, all day) and you aren't a space cadet and forget things all the time, growing in pots is much, much cheaper, and eventually more effective.