Watch My AeroGrow!

What’s with South Dakota? July 23, 2008

Just a short, lighthearted post while I’m waiting for the new pump to get here…

I have had a visit from someone in every single state- except South Dakota.  I don’t know why that is.  Are Aerogardens illegal in South Dakota?  Have the turned off the water and electricity to the state?  Maybe they are such exceptional farmers that they don’t need gardening appliances?  Or maybe everyone in the state already has one, but they don’t feel the need to talk about it. 

Whatever the reason, I’d tell all the South Dakotans to come visit, but they’d never get the message since they aren’t visiting!   At any rate, we love you SD, and thanks to all the people who are visiting!

Pump dead July 18, 2008

Bah. My pump is completely dead. I think it’s still related to the fungus issue. It’s got a film all over the innards of the pump (there are directions on Aerogrow’s website that tell you how to take apart and clean your pump). I imagine the parts can’t move very well if they are catching on filmy, yucky stuff.

So, I wrote Aerogrow. Let them figure out how to solve this, because I sure don’t know.

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UPDATE: I got an email back from customer service already.  They are sending a new pump and a salsa garden seed kit, which wasn’t necessary, but is appreciated anyway.  I told my husband about it, and he said, “They really seem to take customer service seriously.”  I’ll second that!

Tomato and Pepper Update July 11, 2008

The tomatoes and peppers are doing just fine, as you can see below.

Also, there are some new updates in the Aerogrow store that I think are pretty cool.  There’s one thing that really attracts my attention, and that is that you can now buy the individual pieces separately.  For example, let’s say the arm that holds the light snaps.  Or maybe the bowl gets a crack.  You can replace any of the individual pieces.  They already sold the pump, sponges, and lights.  But now you can get the arm, bowl, base, and hood.  Great idea, Aerogrow!!

Finally, one quick note about what I write here.  Quilly once told me that it seems like I have had nothing but problems with this machine.  And I see how it can come off that way.  The main reason I started this blog is to talk about what you can do, might do, and shouldn’t do with an Aerogarden.  I wanted to experiment, and be as transparent as possible about the results, even if it wasn’t always favorable.  In other words, let me be stupid with my machine, so you don’t have to be.  lol  So if it seems like I’m a little down on the Aerogarden sometimes, you’ve got to remember that I’ve abused the hell out of it.  I’ve switched out the seeds, the sponges, the minerals, the labels, and I know how to do the lights.  I’ve poured in fish oil, fungicide, bleach, dish soap, and CLR.  I’ve disintegrated the sponge, used pantyhose in place of the sponge, cooked the lettuce while it was still alive, washed the roots, taken the top apart, and generally done all manner of messed up stuff to it.  And the best testament I can give is that it’s still growing plants.

If someone comes looking here for info about white, fuzzy stuff growing on their plants, they’ll know what didn’t work for me.  If someone is curious why the last two spouts aren’t pouring water, they’ll find out.  If someone wants to know whether they can put it next to the stove, I answer that.   Transparent isn’t usually very pretty.  So if you are thinking it sounds like a lot of trouble, trust me, it’s not.  Provided you follow the instructions, and don’t try to find out what happens when you submerge the part it says not to submerge. 

Pics July 3, 2008

As promised, although they are a little late, here are the pics of the tomatoes. I’ve also got a jalapeno that is *just* starting to come up. I don’t know if you’ll be able to make it out or not, but it’s there. The labels on these say “Salad Greens”. Don’t be fooled. As I mentioned before, I ordered some of the seed pod sponge inserts, and I’m reusing the plastic pods. The sponges came with labels, but these were firmly attached and clean, so I’m reusing them.

Also, no sign of the fungus problems from the last batch.  I’m keeping a pretty close eye on it, but so far, so good.

Tomatoes! June 30, 2008

I’ve got the first sprouting from my tomato plants.  I tried getting a pic, but it was hiding behind the label.  I’ll try again tomorrow.

Learned Something New June 26, 2008

Tonight, I had a minor catastrophe happen.  One of the spots (where a tomato plant is going to grow) was not sending out water.  The sponge was wet, but there was only a slight drip every now and then, and not the steady stream that is usually there.  I tried to clean it with a Q-tip, but that didn’t work.  So, I moved on to the screwdriver.

On the bottom of the Aerogrow, there are a bunch of little screws.  I expected a network of tubes to be running through here, but surprisingly, when I did surgery on my machine, I found out there wasn’t.  The top and bottom piece are made from molded plastic, and form a wide open area where water can run through.  Each spot for a plant has a ridge where that water gets in, travels around the plant in a trough, and then out through the hole.  Honestly, when you look at the bottom of your machine, it’s exactly like that, but about 1/8th of an inch deep.

There was a little gunk on there, probably from hard water.  Not too much, but I wouldn’t want to eat supper off of it or anything.  ;)  I cleaned this up, and used a Q-tip in the trough area, right before the water goes through the hole and into the plant.   After cleaning it, I put it back together and put it in.  This was a false start because I forgot to screw everything back in place, so I took it out and put the screws in this time.  But because it was so late at night and I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to realize that I forgot the screws, I figured out what happened.  I think, anyway.

When the screws were out, it was leaking water from all the screw holes, and the normal holes in the middle spots.  But it didn’t have enough pressure to get to either of the end spots.  What I think happened was that with all the cleaning and scrubbing, a screw on one side came a little loose.  And water being water, it took the path of least resistance and never got to that hole sufficiently enough to come out.  After tightening the screws, it seemed to help.  Now, even though I don’t think the gunk was a problem, cleaning it certainly didn’t hurt.

So there you go.  If you’ve got water coming out properly on all the holes except one, I’ll bet it’s an end one.  And if it is, try tightening the screw before you take everything apart.  I bet that will fix it.

Finally, and just so you can amuse yourself at my expense, I scrambled to figure out why it wasn’t working, and just grabbed the pods and set them to the side.  When it came time to put them back in, it took me a minute to figure out which was which. 

New Planting

Today I planted a new crop.  I decided to go with tomatoes and jalapenos because I wanted to do another test.  The first time I tried growing things on my own with a hack of the Aerogarden, I did tomatoes, jalapenos, and cilantro.  This time, I wanted to stick with something similar so I could compare results.

I am using the sponges and nutrients that come directly from Aerogrow.  If you remember, last time I experimented with using my own sponges (fair results) and my own nutrients (utter disaster).  The only thing unofficial this time is the seeds, and Aerogrow is very big on saying that you can use your own seeds.   So, I want to give it a shot.  Results and updates will be posted as they happen.

My arrangement is jalapenos in the middle front, and tomatoes on each of the back sides.

For those curious about the fungus situation, I ran a very strong bleach solution through for two-three days.  After this, I dumped and rinsed it, and ran water + fungicide solution for a day.  I rinsed that out, and now it’s just the water and nutrients.  If this doesn’t take care of it, I will submit my Aerogarden device to the nearest laboratory, where they can use it to create a horrible agricultural weapon.  (Just kidding, Mr. Government man!!)  I’m telling you, if it survives 2-3 days in bleach, that’s one mean fungus. 

Exactly as I feared June 22, 2008

Whatever has hold of my plants has a strong hold on them.  The fungus is back, despite spending a good portion of last weekend cleaning everything I could, including the roots.  I think it’s time to let them go.  They are not looking healthy, they are not growing, and it’s not worth fighting.  The last fungicide I got said it kills 130 different types, so I guess this is the one that it can’t handle. 

At any rate, I’m going to clean out my Aerogrow, and spend the next week running bleach through there.  I don’t want any shot at the fungus remaining and destroying my next plants, so I hope this works.  I’ve got some replacement grow sponges and nutrients on their way.

Ah well.  It was worth a shot.

But now I need your help.  What should I grow next?  I have loads of seeds, but I think I’d like to do some sort of herb or vegetable.  It has to be short enough to grow in the Aerogarden, and it has to be a plant that can grow in there (no carrots or potatoes).  Other than that, I’m game for anything.  Let me know what you think!

Last Ditch Effort June 15, 2008

In the next few days, I suspect I’m going to have to make some very hard decisions regarding my Aerogarden.  The fungus is winning, but I still have to decide what I want to do with the herbs.  Are they safe to eat?  Do I want to eat them after seeing the cess-pool down below?

Quilldancer, said to get some fungicide.  Did it.  Organic too (though they didn’t have the specific brand she mentioned).  I’m forever going to wonder if I should have forgotten about the organic and gone with the nuclear stuff.  My herbs seemed to get MUCH worse after I used the fungicide, which I imagine is not supposed to happen.

There’s just no delicate way of describing how bad it looked in the water reservoir.  Somewhere between a mold covered orange, a pool of water that’s been overtaken by slime so thick you can stand on it, and cottage cheese.  Stephen King has written stories about this stuff!!  And I discovered when I decided to give it one last try that this stuff was slimy and kind of oily, and really hard to get out of the roots and off the sides of the water reservoir.  I took everything apart, soaked it in bleach (not the plants, obviously), and it still seemed to be stuck on there pretty good.  I went so far as pulling each of the herbs out, washing out the roots meticulously, and doing the best I could with the sponges.  They are currently sitting in some fresh water in my sink.  I noticed the difference on the roots that it had attacked, and could see exactly which roots were dying off, and which were still fine.  Most of the roots were black, but a few in each plant were a healthy looking tan color.  And the plants that have a sort of waxy coating on the roots survived better than the ones that didn’t.  Basils were particularly hard-hit.  But the dill and chives did pretty well.

Time is of the essence here, and I must get those herbs back in the Aerogarden, but I think I’m going to try some CLR on the reservoir before putting it all back together again.  Bleach is good and all, but with the scaliness that’s on some of this, I think CLR might be needed.  Then, I’ll try the bleach again, run it for about an hour, rinse, run fresh water for a while to clear out the bleach, and then put the plants in.  I haven’t decided whether I’m going to try the fungicide again.  On one hand, it may be able to tackle it now that there isn’t a raging fungus monster in the Aerogrow.  Then again, it may just be ill-suited for what I need.

Here’s what I suspect will happen.  I think that these efforts will do a lot to help the herbs.  I think that they will experience a minor set-back from all the moving and pulling, and scrubbing on their roots.  After that, I think that they will grow for a little while longer, but ultimately, the fungus will get them.  It’s next to impossible to clean the sponges, and if I could soak them in bleach, it would probably help a lot.  But if I soak them in bleach, I’m going to be soaking my plants in bleach too.  So it’s really not an option.  Eventually, I think it will knock them out.

With any luck, I’ll be wrong and they’ll grow just fine.  If not, I’ve already placed an order for nutrients and sponges.  There are enough nutrients for 3 months, and enough sponges for 3 cycles (of 7 plants).  So, I’m set for at least a year on the sponges.  I think I’m going to grow some more herbs using my own seeds, but I’d like your input.  What would you guys like to see me grow?  Herbs?  Tomatoes?  Peppers?  Cilantro?  Suggest something for me.

Losing my herbs June 9, 2008

I think that all of my herbs (possibly with the exception of the dill) has got this fungus problem that plagued my basils. I tried the solution they suggested on the site, but it still seems to be affected.

So far, the mint has gotten the worst of it. The stems are dried out and looking awful. Everything else still looks good, but doesn’t seem to really be growing much at all. So, I’ll keep it going as long as possible, and then move on to the next seeds once this one gives in. It’s frustrating, but there’s not much more I can do.

By the way, the herb of the week is dill.