In what section? And please don't say hell. For a hobbyist who wants to grow his or her own meds it's a great system. I don't see any posts from Aerogardeners in the Micro grow section in which we should qualify and we aren't really aeroponic. I realize that we're a small minority but there must be a few of us out there and we certainly have our own specific problems and concerns. Rollitup.com has a sub heading for us and there the information is much more specific and useful. The real big issue is time so we don't have to wade through a lot of irrelevant material. Please don't get me wrong, I love your forum but I think you could make it a lot more useful to Aerogardeners.
YBSmoker: It really isn't. And i think that's the confusion here. I hope this will help the power that be here to better understand our plight. The Aerogarden is designed to grow kitchen herbs and it is a uniquely compact, complete growing system but it's really only an active hydroponics system. Pumped nutes are dribbled down onto growing cages and pods via a manifold distribution network. The seeds are continuously irrigated by drip irrigation until the roots reach the reservoir level then it's nothing more than an active hydroponics system. The aero part of the name comes from the nutes being dribbled down on the cages and the assumption that the nutes are picking up oxygen in the fall from the nozzles. The lighting and feeding schedules are computer controlled. Aeroponics is a much more sophisticated system and it usually grows a much higher volume of plants. With a 112 ounces in our reservoir we can only grow two plants. Three is pushing it. We're strictly hobbyists.
UBsmoker: Don't feel bad my friend, you're not the only one. Sadly a lot of people buy them, don't know how to use them and then they end up bad mouthing the Aerogarden for their failures. I've have them for five years now and frankly I love mine. They're really user friendly if you take the time to learn how to operate them. That's what I mean about them being uniquely different. They're not designed to grow weed and you do have to know what you're doing. Take a look at their web site because everything you ever wanted to know about the Aerogarden is there. If you stay withing their design parameters it's not hard to love them.
I love mine, one has herbs [genovese basil, 2 mint plants, 3 thyme plants] one has lettuce, and one has tomatoes and peppers [the 'salsa mix' came with it but I grow russian black krim tomatoes instead] I started out with just the herbs, but got the other 2. The herb one is my bedroom light, it turns on and wakes me up without an alarm, and keeps me from getting seasonal affective disorder =)
hydroponics i would think.. maybe make an official aerogardener thread or something... where y'all can all share your grows, and tips etc.. i'm sure that if it took off and there was a good amount of traffic, the mods would look into a subforum or something.
I think it would depend on what type of grow you are doing... Both of these sections would be appropriate...imo I grew in an Aerogarden once, but hadn't planned very well and ended up taking off the light and using only the base with cfls for light...grew 2 3ft plants. In this case I would go for the hydro section. If the grow concentrates on keeping the plants short so they fit within the system, I think the micro grow section would be more helpful... Have you grown in an Aerogarden before? If so, did the challenges come from keeping the plants in the system or did they come from dealing with the resevoir? Which section do you think would be more beneficial for future Aerogarden growers? This is a great idea... Happy growing
Ignorant Fool: Thanks for the suggestion. I may have to start a couple of threads in different places to get something going. We are definitely hydroponic and I don't know what it would take or how much work it is to put the Aerogardeners together in a sub heading like another site does. We're not aeroponic unless you believe Aerogarden's advertising hype, and that's only until the roots hit the water in the reservoir. From then on we're definitely an active hydroponic system thanks to the pump in the reservoir. By sheer size I think we're micro growers. The Aerogarden reservoir only holds 112 ounces of nutes in comparison to my friend's 18 gallon bubble tub. When I spilled mine on the way to the wash tub it wasn't a major disaster. A couple of bath towels sopped it up nicely but when my friend's bubble tub sprung a leak while he was gone on a long weekend it was a disaster. It not only flooded his apartment but it ruined the ceiling of the one down stairs. Needless he didn't get his security or cleaning deposits back and they evicted him. Our arm/light stand only goes up 24 inches. It's surprisingly compact, and that's a good point for people who don't have a lot of room. Aerogardens are very economical to run. The three flat high intensity CFL's draw the same amount of current as a sixty watt incandescent bulb. On the internet we have a lot of people who buy Aerogardens but they buy the wrong models for what they want to grow. Then they go ahead and try to grow their meds but unfortunately most of them don't know what the hell they're doing. Like Cervantes said in his bible, "Stoners always make simple things so much more complicated." I've seen them try to modify their Aerogardens and when it doesn't get them the results they wanted they toss it aside and bad mouth it. I was curious enough to learn as much as I could before I got into it. I was lucky enough to meet a couple of Aerogarden enthusiasts who were kind enough to help me along and answer my questions. In my Ag class at the community college I don't get much help because they're growing commercially on a much larger scale than I want to get involved with. If and when they pass prop 19, (hopefully next year), I'd like to move up to some thing bigger that fits in 25 legal square feet. But for now I'm happy with my miniature Aerogarden and my two or three two feet tall plants. They keep my sugar bowl full for times like this when mother nature gets pissed and goes on a rampage and makes my arthritis flare up.