AeroGarden 2101-00S Classic 7-Pod with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit, Silver Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a remarkable device, one that is a boon to apartment dwellers with no patch of garden, or to anyone who wants an indoor garden that's nearly foolproof.I have to say, I have probably a "black thumb." I can grow aloe plants really well, pothos (ubiquitous viney house plant) and I once had a good crop of morning glories but normally, my gardening efforts are pretty sad. I don't trust myself to keep an outdoor herb garden growing.
But I like to cook with fresh herbs, and I got really tired of trying to find chervil, let alone keeping basil and mint from going all black and soft in the fridge. After reading a lot of discussion about the Aerogrow and seeing a tempting sale, I decided to spring for one and try it out.The device is a rounded vessel that holds a pump and water, and a light attached at the top. The surface of the lower vessel has a stainless steel plate with seven wells. You put plastic seed pods in these wells, cover with plastic "bio-domes" and add tablets of nutrient and let 'er rip. The pump feeds the foam in the plug where seeds are embedded. The light encourages the seedlings. Within weeks, you have a crop of various herbs or lettuce or flowers.The "razor blade" of this device is the seed pod. It is a specially designed unit, like a small plastic frame rather like a thimble. It holds foam plastic, split in two. Inside the split, the manufacturer places some seeds and puts a paper collar with the name of the herb on top. The collar serves also to support the plant as it grows taller. The other "razor blade" is the grow bulb, which needs replacing after some months because lights grow dimmer as they are used. Eventually, the grow light is too weak to do its job and you need a replacement. I say "razor blade" because these disposables are unique to the unit and you must purchase them from retailers who sell Aerogarden products. There are master gardener kits with special pods you can use to insert your own seeds--probably a great idea for gardeners who need to get a real jump on the growing season, such as folks in New England where the season can be as short as 60 days.I tried three kits so far: first, I used the gourmet herb kit. This had two types of basil (purple and green), mint, parsley, cilantro, dill and chives. I got a great crop of basil. Enough to share some baggies of this essential herb with my assistant at work. I got a bumper crop of dill, plenty of chives for breakfasts of omelets, and eventually, some viney mint that seems to be of the apple mint variety. Not enough to do tabbouleh salad, but enough to use in drinks and garnish fruits. Only the cilantro failed to grow. No seed even showed a sprout. I called the support number, and very polite folks immediately sent me a replacement and noted they felt it would take more than four weeks to sprout cilantro. Now, some of the herbs are slow to grow (parsley is notoriously slow) but neither pod ever showed a ghost of cilantro. I assume that the seeds supplied to the company might have been mistakenly irradiated food-grade spice seeds and not fresh crop growing seeds. In any case, I got absolutely nowhere with cilantro, a shame, as that is a very tender herb that doesn't keep well. The parsley grew too slowly to be of any real use, as well. But it did grow.I eventually depotted the herbs into a kitchen flower pot (cutting off the plastic frame and leaving on the foam, into which the roots had really made a home.) Then I tried the lettuce. It sprouted in three days and in a month, I had enough to make some light salads and yes, share a bag with the assistant. But it seemed a waste to let the Aerogarden grow something as mundane as lettuce, and I prefer mache (cornsalad, feldsalat) or arugula to leaf lettuce, so I harvested the rest of the crop and started the French Herb kit. This is chervil, sorrel, parsley, chives, Marseilles basil, sage and savory. Everything sprouted immediately except the parsley and chervil, notable slow-pokes of the herb world. I sure like having fresh herbs to hand on the kitchen counter. I can even see the attraction of having three or these mounted on an optional wall rack, but that is quite a luxury. However, a determined gourmet or gardener in a harsh climate or restrictive living setting could satisfy their green thumb with such an arrangement. The customer support is fast and friendly. I have heard stories of failed pumps but mine is quite reliable, and I did have a light give up the ghost way early, and this was cheerfully replaced by customer service. The unit is attractive, easy to use (hey, my black thumb has yet to deter the Aerogarden) and it is a lot of fun to watch the plants grow taller and taller. I'd say this is a great idea for kids as well as cooks who like fresh herbs. As to the other kits, there are a number of them and more are being made available. I can purchase them at my local farmstand-garden shop and that's quite handy. Of course they are also available online.The kits so far that I know of are the French Herb, Gourmet Herb and Lettuce I mentioned and:
Japanese Herb--two colors of shiso, mitsuba, chives, shungiku and cress
South of the Border: Epazote, cilantro, oregano, thyme, parsley, basil
Year Round Gourmet Herb (extra herbs like savory, sage, lemon basil, and the ones in the regular gourmet kit)
Holiday Herb (parsley, sage, oregano, thyme)
International Basil
Italian Herb
Cascading Petunia
Cherry Tomato
Salsa Garden
Beans
Snow Peas
Chili Peppers
More greens (arugula, mesclun, baby greens, chef pack, romaine)And I assume more packs are in the works. All come with nutrient tablets and complete instructions. I give this two (greenish) thumbs up.


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Enjoy fresh greens at every meal no matter what the season. With AeroGrow's AeroGarden garden kit, it's easy to cultivate lettuce, cherry tomatoes, herbs, chili peppers, edible flowers, and more in an energy-efficient, organic-based environment right in the kitchen. This compact chef's tool includes everything the indoor farmer needs: a preseeded bio-dome grow pod, two daylight-spectrum bulbs, nutrients, and a helpful tending and harvesting guide complete with recipes. Just follow the simple instructions to set up, and the growing process starts immediately, with germination occurring within 24 hours and a mature plant that is ready five times faster than if grown in soil. The AeroGarden system monitors itself to create ideal growing conditions for each plant and alerts you when it's time to add more water and nutrients. No dirt or natural light is needed, so even low-light spaces are suitable. Plug kits for many kinds of plants are available from AeroGrow.

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Superthrive Pint -Plant Vitamin- hormone supplement Review

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(More customer reviews)I used this to perk up some plants that were not doing very well and WOW! I now use it once a week on all my plants inside and outside. This stuff is wonderful. Highly recommended.

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A classic vitamin-hormone supplement, SUPERthrive has been used for decades. Its consistent results as a plant stimulant and tonic are famous.

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AeroGrow AeroGarden 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)Purchased this for my Mom as a birthday gift. The basil grows extremely well and produces an abundant supply. The chives are barely growing at all, and if you are only going to have 3 types of herbs, there are plenty of other more popular herbs they could have picked besides thyme.
Unlike the larger aerogardens, this one has been simplified and does not have different plant growing settings (lettuce, herbs, etc.). It also seems to be noisier than my Aerogarden classic (7 hole).
If you can afford the classic aerogarden with 6 or 7 holes, I would go with it. This model seems overpriced for how limited it is both by its 3 hole size and stripped down features.


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Good Morning America calls the AeroGrow AeroGarden, "One of the top new consumer products." The AeroGarden 3 lets you grow abundant herbs, greens, or vegetables for your family 365 days a year in the comfort of your kitchen. No gardening experience or even dirt is necessary. It\'s a mess-free, user-friendly, low-maintenance process that you don\'t need a green thumb to use. About the size of an everyday coffee maker, the AeroGarden 3 rests on your kitchen counter and fits into your décor. The AeroGarden 3 uses NASA-tested aeroponic technology to grow plants in water, nutrients, and air. Aeroponics is a dirt-free growing method in which plant roots are suspended in air within a highly oxygenated growing chamber with 100% humidity. The roots are bathed in ideal levels of nutrients, oxygen, and water, allowing the plants to grow significantly faster, become healthier, and have a higher nutrient content that plants grown in soil. With 3 pods in which to grow food, the Advanced Growing System with computerized Adaptive Growth Intelligence uses high-efficiency lighting and a quiet, low-maintenance chamber that provides more oxygen to the roots. All you have to do is add water, drop in the pre-seeded grow plugs, turn on the AeroGarden 3, and watch the plants grow in the 3 pods. The grow lights turn on and off automatically, and the computer reminds you via LCD display when to add water and nutrients. You can achieve up to 30% more plant growth. All plants are organically based and 100% natural. A Gourmet Herb Seed Kit and a grow bulb are included. The AeroGarden 3 measures 20 x 9.5 x 11 inches and is covered by a 1-year warranty.

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Hydrofarm EMSYST Emily's Electric Garden System Review

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(More customer reviews)I chose this unit after reviewing all the options for trying out hydroponic gardening, and now 30 days after receiving it and 29 days after starting seeds, I'm very pleased with the results. I've posted a picture so you can see how nicely everything is growing. Everything you need but a plant light and seeds is in the kit, and I started out with just 3 fluorescent bulbs and a southeast window, and salad garden seeds left over from last year's outdoor garden. The manufacturer makes commercial hydroponic systems, so I figured they would do a simple home system right, and they did. I'm thinking of buying a second one next winter, as this unit only takes up half the length of my plant light.
What's not to like? The air pump does not fit its recess well, and I had to tape it in and pad it to keep in place without buzzing. They don't tell you whether to set the pump on "high" or "low"; low, I figured, and it seems to work fine. The system is all plastic, and one of the pots already had a minor chip in it when I got it. Finally, the instructions are awfully sketchy (just a single sheet) for a beginner, though they were enough for me, an experienced outdoor gardener who had already researched the subject on the internet.

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Hydrofarm hydroponic systems have been a consumer favorite for over 25 years. We offer simple, easy to use, garden systems which will give you a tremendous harvest of vegetables, flowers, or herbs -- faster than you ever thought possible. This 16" x 24" x 6" garden with six individual planters allows you to rotate or add new plants as you please.It will fit just about anywhere -- on a bench, a shelf, table or out on the patio.

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AeroGarden Classic 7-Pod with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)see update at end of review
******************
I was lamenting about only having frech lettuce, herbs, chives, and tomatoes from may garden during the long fall-winter-spring parts of the year. The refrigerated stuff from the grocery store goes bad right away and does not taste as good as the fresh stuff from the garden, either.
Then I saw a Time Magazine page on the new AeroGrow AeroGarden, and I just had to try it out. After reading the AeroGrow website before making the purchase, I realized that buying one garden would not work for me, as the tomatoes cannot be grown in the same garden as lettuce & herbs. This is partially due to the large amount of room taken up by the tomatoes, and also because the lamp/watering cycle is different and finally because the nutrients are different.
So, I bought two gardens, along with the Salad Greens seed kit and Cherry Tomato seed kit. Each garden comes with a mixed herb kit, so I figured to mix in a few herbs with the other seeds, and if they did not work, no big loss.
The products came quickly and the instructions for assembly were very clear and well written with excellent diagrams. I came to realize that this somewhat pricey product at least comes from a company that produces a classy product (a rare thing these days). I found a space on a shelf beside the basement stairs, and placed both assembled gardens there. I also bought and placed a digital thermometer with maximum/minimum temperature memory readouts ($10 at Radio Shack), because I was unsure of what temperature extremes the plants might experience in that location (68-72 as it turns out).
The seed kits contain pre-seeded planting pods. Each pod is basically a plastic cup shaped frame with two pieces of foam rubber inside the cup part, like two slices of bread with the seeds sandwiched between them. They simply insert into the seven holes in the top of the garden's water tank. The Salad Greens and Herbs come with seven pods per kit, while the Tomatos come with three pods plus four hole plugs-the plants are bigger so three of them take up thw whole space available. The hole plugs prevent evaporation of the water through the unoccupied holes.
The water tank holds exactly one gallon of regular drinking water. Well water is not recommended, presumably because of impurities, and since I am on a well I bought two one-gallon plastic jugs of 'drinking water' at the store for 50 cents each and filled the tanks with their contents. A pump in the tank takes water and pipes it to the rim of each of the seven holes in the tank's top, and here the trickle of water flows into the foam sandwich of each seed pod. The foam stays moist and the rest of the water drips back down into the tank. The garden's 'computer' cycles the water flow on and off according to the amount recommended for the type of plant being grown. A water level sensor turns on a flashing red light when it is time to add more water to the tank.
The top of the garden is a reflector with two compact-fluorescent lamps, of the variety that has the special ultraviolet (UV) coating that causes the emmitted light to resemble sunlight. The reflector rides on a vertical pole that extends up from the garden's base, so you can raise and lower the lamps as required to keep them the correct distance above the plants. The garden's 'computer' also turns the lamps on and off according to a schedule tailored to the type of plant. If using the gardens in a place where the light might be a problem at night, you can syncronize the computer so that the lights are on only during the daytime and off when you are trying to sleep.
The seed kits come with little clear plastic cups that cover each pod until the seeds have germinated, then you can dispose of them. The kits also come with a bag of nutrient tablets, which you add to the water tank when the computer prompts you to by flashing a red light. The nutrients are tailored to the type of plant being grown, and there are enough of them to feed the plants during their anticipated life span.
I planted one garden with five salad green (leaf lettuce) pods, plus one pod each from the Herb kit, chives and parsley. The other garden got the threee pods from the Cherry Tomato kit; two reds and one yellow variety.
Each seed pod has a label that tells you how many days to wait for plants to appear after germination. All of my plants appeared like clockwork.
I have had the gardens for about six weeks now, and have been enjoying salads containing lettuce, parsley and chives plus other odds and ends from the fridge, for the last two or three weeks. The lettuce and herbs are all beautiful, with no problems from bugs or too much/too little water, excessive temperatures, etc. No need to wash the plants or check for bugs or pick off bad spots, everything goes straight to the salad bowl. What a joy! Even with only five lettuce plants, I have to eat two meals including salad each day to keep up with the growth. This would easily feed two people, and if all seven salad green pods had been used, three people.
The tomatoes are all doing well ahnd have been pruned according to instructions. It will be some time yet before they produce flowers, and then fruit. But based on the health of the plants, I expect a good yield.
Each seed kit comes with a full color manual/booklet that covers all aspects of 'planting', germinating, feeding, pruning (if required) and then harvesting the plants. There are also photos of plants where things have gone wrong (leaves burned because the lamps were not raised up as the plants grew taller, etc) with clear instructions on how to recognize problems and correct them. Harvesting instructions clearly tell how much can be taken at a time without killing the plant, and so on.
The AeroGrow gardens are a well designed, well built product with excellent documentation. All my visitors are amazed at how well the product works, and many have gone out and bought their own. I anticipate years of improved eating because of this product.
*****************
Update November 2007
I used my two gardens all Winter (2006/2007) until it was time to start getting produce from my real (outdoor) garden in the Summer, at which time I put the little gardens to rest for the season. During their use, I got a large crop of cherry tomatoes, all of which were beautiful. I went through on crop of lettuce and salad greens, and when the lettuce finally bolted, I replanted with only lettuce (no chives, etc this time) and got another couple of months worth of lettuce. I have now fired them up again in the Fall, and have nice little plants popping up. Aerogrow has more seed options available now, so I have planted a more interesting kind of lettuce.

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Enjoy fresh greens at every meal no matter what the season. With AeroGrow's AeroGarden garden kit, it's easy to cultivate lettuce, cherry tomatoes, herbs, chili peppers, edible flowers, and more in an energy-efficient, organic-based environment right in the kitchen. This compact chef's tool includes everything the indoor farmer needs: a preseeded bio-dome grow pod, two daylight-spectrum bulbs, nutrients, and a helpful tending and harvesting guide complete with recipes. Just follow the simple instructions to set up, and the growing process starts immediately, with germination occurring within 24 hours and a mature plant that is ready five times faster than if grown in soil. The AeroGarden system monitors itself to create ideal growing conditions for each plant and alerts you when it's time to add more water and nutrients. No dirt or natural light is needed, so even low-light spaces are suitable. Plug kits for many kinds of plants are available from AeroGrow.

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Mini-Garden Stacker- Stackable/Hangable All Season Planter- Indoor/Outdoor Stacking Flower Pot- Great Gardening Gift Idea For A Gardener. Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased three mini-garden stackers and love them! Two have strawberries growing in them, and the other has herbs. They are heavy when full so if hanging, you need something sturdy to hang it from.

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Great For the Creative Gardener! Stackable. Portable. Hangable. Includes Hanging Chain. All-Season Planter. Imagine on your deck, balcony, Window Sill, Countertop or in your home entryway a cascade of colorful flowers, tasty herbs, strawberry patch or tomato patch beautifully displayed in a planter that

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Hydrofarm MGSYS Hydroponic Megagarden System Review

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(More customer reviews)I received this item, although I thought I had ordered the smaller system (Emily's hydroponic garden system) which has only 6 plants. I was a little hesitant at first since it was much bigger than I expected, but after putting everything together I am very satisfied. The instructions for assembly and use are excellent, but missing teeny details here and there (for example: in order to install the pump you have to cut a very small hole in the red plug). Otherwise everything you need to start a hydroponic garden is included in the box (minus a light source, of course, and an acid solution to adjust the pH of your water if necessary). I have started many seedlings and other small plants in the system and I am planning on transplanting some plants from my outdoor garden as well. The seedlings are growing faster than I ever imagined, even without a light source! I have the system set up near a window, but do not have a light hung over it yet. All in all, it only measures about 2'x 2' and it is incredibly easy to use. I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking to start their first hydroponic garden! I am very excited to continue growing throughout the winter!

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Whether you\'re a new urban farmer or an old-school green thumb, raising your own plants is easier, faster, and more fun than ever with this hydroponic gardening system. Hydrofarm Megagarden Hydroponic Gardening System features a 4-square-foot garden space that produces 5 times the yields of a standard garden its size. That\'s right. This 10-inch-tall garden system grows lettuce, herbs, vegetables, orchids and more, indoors or out--5 times faster than the standard garden--and does it without using soil.
The Megagarden works great indoors, or outside in hobby greenhouses when illuminated with a Hydrofarm Sunburst Series grow light (not included), or any grow light. At the heart of the Megagarden is a super efficient flood-and-drain pump irrigation system that ensures optimal moisture control for healthy roots. The system works by pumping nutrient solution up from a reservoir to a water tray where water levels are precisely controlled. Plants are watered uniformly on a timed cycle for optimal moisture control and healthier roots.
The soilless Megagarden\'s removable grow tray measures 23 inches by 23 inches square and holds fifteen 5-inch, plastic grow pots filled with, not soil, but either the included fired-clay or pebble grow media. The system comes complete a 7-1/2-gallon reservoir, submersible pump, timer (capable of up to 12 flood settings per day), rock-wool starter cubes, 16 ounces of Hydrofarm All-Purpose Nutrient, a pH test kit, and complete instructions.

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