Are there any Aerogardeners here?

To who this may concern: I'm talking about the the registered trademark, three part growing system produced in China and sold here by Aerogarden International in Colorado? We often get lumped in with aeroponics and other larger scale growing systems but we're much different.

We have a reservoir that only holds 112 ounces of nutes. Our growing height restriction is preferably 24 inches, but there are some non upgraded models with seven planting holes that only go up 12 inches. For MM/J I've found those to be to small. The smaller models have two flat CFL's and the upgraded models have three on the taller arm/light stand.

We have uniquely different problems and I'd like to commiserate with them.

 

Sonnenschien: I'd like to get the Aerogardeners together in a sub heading like they do at Rollitup.com's forum so we can commiserate. We have problems that are unique to Aerogardens and we waste a lot of time wading through irrelevant material. We could be much more specific in helping each other. What do you think of the idea?

 

ImissQuazzimoto: That's exactly what I'm talking about. We have unique problems that other growers don't have to face. We have a compete, compact, computer controlled growing system but you have to know what the hell you're doing. Do you know another system that has timed adjustable lighting allowing plant growth up to up to 24 inches or a reservoir with only 112 ounces? A lot of the advice and proposed solutions form other types of growers usually don't do us any good.

I've had my A/G for almost five years and I've faced a lot of the problems you're talking about. Roots are a bitch in that little reservoir! You can do a few things though to minimize their negative effect.
1. protect your pump with a pump sock from your local hydro store for ten to fifteen dollars or steal a pair of short nylon socks from your sister, wife, girl friend or mistress. The short kind they wear with flat shoes. The pump filter won't keep the roots out but a sock will help prevent them from getting in and frying your pump. Stretch it very carefully over your pump and tower assembly.
2. You can remove the two spars in your reservoir. With a lot of roots they make it a bitch to take it apart and service it like we need to. Customer service told me, "They're only there to keep its shape during manufacturing and shipping." I removed mine over a year ago and servicing the reservoir got a lot easier.
2. Believe it or not, you can prune the roots but there are two thing to consider first. First, is A/G's rule of never remove more than 1/3 of a plant has to be followed. Get them stretched out and quickly cut off a third then immediately rinse them and get them back into your nutes filled reservoir. Second, add some vitamin B-1 for shock. I use Technaflora's "Recipe for Success," and it has a lot of B-1 in it so it's never been a problem for me.

These are a few tricks we could share with one another if we had a home in this forum. They've sold over a million Aerogardens so I suspect that we're no the only two growing M/J in ours. The biggest value would be not having to wade through a lot of irrelevant information when we have a problem.

 

We are all learning my friend.