AeroGarden Reviews : What you NEED TO KNOW!

After 3 years of experience using the AeroGarden, testing different types of plants (some with great success and some with great failure), I have determined that my favorite thing to grow in the AeroGarden is Basil. Here’s why:

1. Basil grows extremely fast in the AeroGarden
2. Basil is not as sensitive to nutrient or light changes that may occur in the AeroGarden
3. I think basil has the most variety of uses…from making pesto to putting on a cream cheese bagel (Mmmmm….)
4. In the AeroGarden, basil just keeps growing and growing and growing.
5. Nothing beats the aroma of fresh basil in the kitchen.

My all time favorite AeroGarden Seed Kit is the International Basil Seed Kit. It has 7 varieties of basil, even lemon basil that actually has a very strong citrus fragrance!

I recently started a new basil batch with the Master Gardener Kit, because there were a few other types of basil I wanted to try in my AeroGarden. So far I have Napolitano Basil (Big wrinkly leaves), Cinnamon Basil (cinnamon fragrance), Large Leaf Italian Basil, Thai Basil, Red Rubin Basil (purplish color) and in the other 2 spots I’m growing a few surprises that I’ll fill you in on later. So far they are doing excellent.

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Today I planted the Snow Peas Seed Kit for the AeroGarden. I will keep everyone posted on its progress.

NOVEMBER 14th, 2007 : Today I will continue my AeroGarden Review of the Snow Peas seed kit…so far so good! Here is a photo of the sprouts. I had to split the labels, and readjust some of the sprouts like I had to for the beans…but they look good so far.

NOVEMBER 29th, 2007 : Well, here’s the latest update. So far, the peas in my AeroGarden are looking healthy and good. If they are anything like the green beens, they probably won’t produce very much, but so far they look good in my AeroGarden. Here is the latest picture of the Snow Peas AeroGarden Seed Kit.

DECEMBER 19th, 2007 :Latest update…their DEAD! I killed them…it wasn’t their fault. I have this AeroGarden in my office, and I came down with a bad case of Strepp Throat and was out for a whole week. Needless to say I neglected to have anyone check the water level in my AeroGarden, and when I came back to work…the snow peas were wilted and dying. I tried to save them, but it was too late. I will have to try this kit again.

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I recently got an email notification that there was a new seed kit for the AeroGarden…GREEN BEANS! Now I just finished harvesting a bountiful crop of delicious stringless green beans and yellow wax beans from my outside garden…and as usual, it is a sad day when I have to tear them out of my garden as it means there will be no more fresh beans until next year. So I am excited to try this new seed kit! I have decided that it would be fun to start taking pictures of the AeroGarden Seed kits that I grow…so I will try to take photos at different stages and post them, so everyone can see what the kits look like.

I just planted the Green Bean AeroGarden Seed Kit on Wed, September 26th…so I’ll be updating this post shortly as things progress.

Progress Is Being Made…Oct 3, 2007

Well…talk about major progress! Here are some photos of the AeroGarden Green Bean Seed Kit so far

A couple of things about this kit so far:

1) One pod didn’t sprout at all. I pulled it apart and the bean seeds were actually swollen and looked rotted…so I simply pulled one of the “extra” seedlings (each pod is has 2 seeds, but you’re only supposed to leave 1) and transplanted it into the pod that wasn’t growing.

2) The beans pushed the labels and lids up and off. To fit the labels back on you have to cut a slit in the label, the place it around the base of the seedling.

3) In case you are wondering what the little green spirals are, they are the plant braces that come in the seed kit. You have to form them into a spiral and place them around the seedling to give it support as it grows.

Progress on October 9th…

The beans seem to be doing pretty well. Here is the most recent photo of the AeroGarden Green Beans Seed Kit:

Update to Aero Garden Green Beans Kit: November 8th, 2007

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on this kit. So here is a current photo of the kit in the AeroGarden. As you can see, it is rather bushy and takes up a lot of space. Many of the leaves on the underside have turned yellow and I’ve had to trim them off. To be honest, I thought I would see little beans growing by now…but I only see blossoms so far, and it seems like many of the blossoms are just drying up and falling off. I’ll post more hopefully next week.

November 14th, 2007 : WHOOOHOO! I’ve got beans, beans…they’re the magical fruit, the more you eat em’…the more they, er’ grow? Yep, the beans appeared out of nowhere today! I was putting water in my AeroGarden, and then all of a sudden I realized that there were actually 4 inch long green beans hiding under the leaves! They just need a couple more days to ripen, but so far they are doing really well!

December 19th, 2007 : Well. I must say that this kit was a dissappointment. So far it has only produce just a handful of beans…and a huge mess. I don’t know if I did something wrong with this AeroGarden kit or not, but it continuously shed dried up buds, flowers and leaves all over the place. I expected to see a little more production from this kit.

 Overall AeroGarden Seed Kit Rating for Green Beans: C-

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As a big fan of salsa and spice, I couldn’t wait to try the AeroGarden Chili Pepper Seed Kit. For this kit I actually purchased the new “AeroGarden Pro100 Stainless Steel” unit. At a price just $20 more than the older black and white models, it was a no brainer when choosing. Besides the upgraded look of stainless steel, it also has “adaptive intelligence” that automatically adjusts everything based upon the growth of the plant…pretty cool huh? (I don’t really know how it works

Anyways…the kit sprouted right on schedule just like the last ones and seemed to grow just as quickly. I followed the directions in the AeroGarden tending and harvesting guide and trimmed back the plants when they were about 2 weeks old. After another week I could already tell that trimming the plants made a big difference and encouraged much more leaf and stem growth. At about 4 weeks my chili pepper plants began to flower! I was excited. With the Chili Pepper Seed Kit, just as the Cherry Tomatoes and other flowering kits, you have to pollinate the flowers by hand once they bloom, otherwise no peppers will develop. I didn’t want to risk growing a pretty plant with NO fruit, so I used a trick my grandpa use to use on his tomatoes. I got an old small paintbrush and actually brushed the pollen of the flowers onto each other. This way, I could ensure that each flower would produce a pepper.

Signs of Success:

Sure enough, shortly after I pollinated the flowers I began to see small little bud (baby pepper fruits) forming which quickly grew into full blown chili peppers and lots of them. It was a blast to watch the peppers change colors. I have to admit, that even though I like salsa and spice, the chili peppers in this kit were a little to kickin’ for my taste, but none the less it was a beautiful kit to grow. It basically served its purpose as a beautiful, decorative house plant. Everbody that came to our house commented about how much they liked it.

Overall Summary:

Overall, the Chili Pepper Seed Kit for the AeroGarden was a fun kit to grow. Although the peppers didn’t really get used due to being a little too hot & spicy, they provided an attractive and unique accent to our home and were very fun to grow and look at.

Overall AeroGarden Seed Kit Rating for the Chili Pepper Seed Kit: B+

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After we used up our Salad Greens seed kit, my wife wanted to try the International Basil seed kit for the next round in the AeroGarden. Normally I’m not a big herb and basil fan, but I’ve got to tell you, I was very pleasantly surprised with this kit.

After just a few short days, about 2 days earlier than they were supposed to, the basil plants started sprouting up…and up, and up! In a little more than 2 weeks I even had some plants big enough to start taking leaves from. And what a variety! There was lemon basil, napolitano basil, genovese, globe, thai, and purple basil! All of them grew very well. This time, unlike the problems I experienced with my cherry tomato kit, I followed the AeroGarden directions for pruning the basil plants, and it made a world of difference. Pretty soon, the plants began to branch out and they looked beautiful, not to mention the wonderful smell! All I had to do was drag my hand through the leaves and it would release a delicous aroma through the whole kitchen. It was incredible.

I soon began to realize that the AeroGarden was producing a lot (and I mean A LOT!) of basil! I wasn’t quite sure how I would use all of the basil from my AeroGarden, so I began to try new recipes and ideas.

Basil Recipes from the AeroGarden:

1) The first thing I tried was the Genovese Basil. I cooked a fresh bagel and put cream cheese on it, then just laid the basil leaves on top of the cream cheese…believe it or not this was delicious!

2) A while back I signed up for the newsletter from www.Hydroponic-Home-Garden.com (The store where I purchased my AeroGardens). Each month they send out an email with a featured recipe using one of the AeroGarden seed kits. One of the newsletters contained a recipe for “Pesto Pasta” that was phenomenal! The recipe called for 2 cups of packed basil (this would have cost a small fortune from the grocery store) so I started picking and packing the basil from my AeroGarden. The recipe didn’t mention a specific basil to use, so I mixed and matched all of them…it was the most flavorful pesto I have ever had! It made me love the AeroGarden even more!

3) My family loves bruschetta, and one of the main ingredients is basil. We ave been alternating the different flavors of basil in the bruschetta’s we’ve been making and everyone has absolutely loved each one. So much so that we are sharing the basil with our friends and family, and the AeroGarden is STILL producing!

In Summary:

The International Basil Kit for the AeroGarden is my favorite kit so far! It grows quickly, it’s beautiful, it has a wonderful aroma, multiple uses, and it produces a TON of basil! You could probably pay for the entire AeroGarden itself just by growing the basil in this kit. I would recommend this kit to anyone.

I would rate this AeroGarden Seed Kit with an A+ !

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Well, I was very excited to begin the Cherry Tomato seed kit for my AeroGarden. Just the thought of plucking fresh, juicy red cherry tomatoes was making my mouth water and I couldn’t wait to get started.

First Impressions :

When I first opened the kit I was somewhat surprised that only 3 out of the 7 growing pods contained seeds. When I called the place I bought it (The Hydroponic Home Garden.com) and asked them why, they told me that the tomato plants get fairly large, and that there is not room in the AeroGarden to support 7 tomato plants. If they included 7 plants, they would block the light and space and prohibit all from growing properly…so that made more sense.

During the Growth Cycle:

One of the mistakes I made with this kit was leaving town for 2 weeks…while I was gone, I neglected to trim the tomato plants as indicated in the “AeroGarden: Cherry Tomato Harvesting Guide” which, as it turned out would ruin my entire crop. When I returned home, the plants were growing nicely, and I was excited to begin harvesting the juicy ripe tomatoes…however, I would be greatly dissapointed.

First Blossoms, and First Sign of Trouble:

As the first blossoms, and fruit began to appear, I realized that I was going to have a big problem…due to my neglecting to trim the AeroGarden’s tomato plants as directed, the plant were now at the maximum height in my AeroGarden, and still growing. I had 2 choices, either trim them back (which would mean cutting off my flowers & fruits) or I could let them keep growing and risk them getting too big for the AeroGarden.

I chose the latter, and sadly watched as my flowers and fruit began to be scorched by the AeroGarden’s light hood. The plants had grown too large for my garden. I gave the plants a couple more weeks to see if they would produce, but alas, all I was able to get was a small handful of the yellow tomatoes. None of the others produced.

In Summary:

I have no doubt that the Cherry Tomato seed kit for the AeroGarden would have been a great kit had I simply followed the instructions. But, because I didn’t I pretty much wasted the money for the kit, as it did not produce as I had expected. I will likely try again in the future, but overall I must admit I was dissapointed.

Overall AeroGarden Seed Kit Rating:  B-

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When I first purchased my AeroGarden back in early 2006, it came with the Salad Greens seed kit included. The Salad Greens kit was also the one featured in the AeroGarden vs. Soil comparison video…so naturally I was excited to get it planted and see the actual results. I must admit that I scoffed a little when I noticed the label on the seed pods said that the seeds would sprout in 1-2 days. But none-the-less, I placed each seed pod in its proper place, filled the tank with water, plopped in the starting nutrient tablets, and plugged the unit in…anxious to see the seeds sprout in 1 day as promised.

Sure enough, the next day I peered into the little grow sponges and to my amazement there were tiny little green seedlings appearing! “No way” I thought! When I had planted lettuce before in my “outdated” soil garden they almost always took at least 4-5 days to sprout. Needless to say I was excited.

Over the course of the next 5 or 6 days, the seedlings grew very fast and before I knew it I had to remove the protective clear “bio-dome” lids because the little lettuce leaves were pressed up against them. It made sure to check my AeroGarden’s progress each morning before I left for work, and each day the plants grew more and more. Three weeks passed and the lettuce leaves were already large enough to use!

It was finally time…I couldn’t take it anymore…I had to try and eat them. So I did! The leaves were surprisingly soft and tender, and had great flavor. I used the lettuce from my AeroGarden in everything from dinner salads to sandwiches and they were all delicous. I am a big salad and greens eater, so I went through the production of the AeroGarden fairly fast, and I must admit I was a little dissapointed at how fast it dissappeared, but other than that I have no complaints about the Salad Greens seed kit for the AeroGarden.

In Summary:

The Salad Greens kit for the AeroGarden is probably one of the more entertaining kits. It grows extremely fast, and produces a lot of lettuce in a very short amount of time, so it is fun to watch. If you are any kind of Salad Eater, you will likely go through the lettuce pretty fast…so don’t expect to get months of home grown lettuce from this kit. But it’s perfect if you’re only gonna use it a couple times a week.

Overall this is a great kit! I give this kit B+.

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