Aerogarden

Today is a day of great wonderment and joy for this marks the first week of a new Aerogarden kit, and all is well. 

All of the pods have germinated, and as expected the three basils have outpaced the rest and so they are relieved of their germination domes. Thyme is also uncovered, but for now the oregano, the mint and the dill will remain covered for moisture retention. This is a holiday herb kit, there are seven seed pods in this unit. Not bad at all for just seven days, eh? 

I haven't been counting, but this is probably the fourth or possibly the fifth round of herb kits this particular Aerogarden has produced. Not all of them were Aerogarden kits. There is another identical Aerogarden in another room but it remains shut down presently because there is only so many herbs and vegetables a regular guy can reasonably keep up with.

The last round of Aerogarden pod plantings was not an official Aerogarden kit but rather they were seeds purchased from Park Seeds. They did not work very well. Only a few germinated and those were mostly mint. So the Aerogarden became devoted to mint, which wasn't so bad for awhile but eventually wore thin. Basil also grew and so did parsley. Thyme also grew but it was virtually useless and it was never used. Four types of seeds never germinated and so were replaced with mint which did germinate reliably. Plus the company took way too long to fulfill the order and even then it was incomplete with a backorder that languished for months then finally came lollygagging in after it was way too late to be of any use. So the whole thing was a disaster except for the mint which thrived. And thrived. And thrived. and thrived until eventually I got sick of it. I wasted a lot of mint on experimental mint-related junk. I just now threw away all those Park seed packages in a pique of utter disgust. I'm like that sometimes. I do not recommend them. 

So, given that the unit was used several times, and eventually trashed, to make sense I must start the description at the beginning of the end of the middle. 

This is what the center portion of the unit looked like when I finally got sick of all that mint. You can see the mint has bolted, and that suited me just fine. Not shown are the base of the unit and the armature that supports the lamps, and the lamps. This is the bowl that holds the water and the pump, with the seed pods seated in the flat lid.

The developer of the Aerogarden unit (actually a hydroponic unit, but let's not quibble) who was also the original owner of the company, Michael Bissonette, from Boulder Colorado, sold his company and presumably made his millions, I would hope so, and now the company is managed by others. The new management team of this fast growing company have made several significant changes, chief among them, changes to the seed kits. This is the new style of seed kit. You can tell right off the packaging is pared down. This bodes well for keen managerial insight. 

The shape of the seed pods have changed, the material that fills them has changed, and the plant food has changed.

Originally the pods were shorter so that the water had to be almost filled or else the bottoms of the pods might not reach diminishing water level which isn't so bad once the plants have roots but disastrous until that point. The pod material used to be sponge, now it is organic. The plant food used to be tablets, now it is liquid.

Scrub-a-dub dubby. I don't know how my unit gets so messy. It's not like it's outside or anything. This unit sits atop of the refrigerator, a particularly stupid place to put one since the ceiling of the kitchen is lowered by one foot, a critical amount for a unit placed so high. It is not practical, but it's still the best option for my situation.

New pods inserted into their spots and extending down into the bowl ↓.

Without being an actual horticulturist, I try imagining which plants will grow tallest and put those in the back. It helps if you know about plants and about flower arrangement or at least a sense for design. I suppose that it's hard to go terribly wrong. 

Pods with their little germination domes in place ↓. 

When the bowl is placed in the base then electrical contact is made with the armature and the pump inside the bowl is activated. It is a tiny pump of the sort used in aquarium power heads, that is, a submergible motor with fins attached to its rotor. Replacement pump, if it ever gets to that, is about $10.00. It's adorable. 

Here is the unit in its place on top of the refrigerator. The lamps act as supplemental kitchen light. 

This is the same unit one week later.

This post will be updated as the weeks progress. I have a feeling this is going to be growing full blazes rather quickly. There is not much that can go wrong from here.