AeroGrow AeroGarden Garden Kit Review

This hydroponic indoor container gardening kit seems to have hit a real nerve, as it has become a quite popular choice for indoor container gardening. Many of them were sold at Christmas time in 2006, and I think the AeroGarden was even featured on QVC. As of this review there are over 35 customer reviews at Amazon, so you can get a pretty good cross section of customer reactions.

Most of the reviews are favorable, and several people have bought more than one.

The AeroGrow Garden kit’s attractive features include

Totally self contained, includes an adjustable height grow light.

It’s hydroponic, so you don’t mess with soil, or worry about soil borne diseases.

Because it’s hydroponic, the AeroGarden waters itself (it’s has a microprocessor to handle that chore) and you don’t have to worry about monitoring moisture levels like most container gardens.

The claim is that you can leave it unattended for up to two weeks, but that likely varies with what’s being grown. Like most indoor artificial lighting systems, it works better if it’s close to the plants, but needs to be raised as the plants grow.

Here is one of their promotional videos, which shows how quickly the plants grow. While I’m not sure how comparable the “soil” results are, the impressive part is how quickly you can get your salad fixings to grow in the Aerogarden.

Maintenance takes about 5 minutes a month, you need to occasionally add water, dropping in two nutrient tablets, and provide minimal tending to your plants. (The Aerogarden has a light that comes on to tell your that maintenance is needed.)

You use preseeded biopod seed domes, so the germination rate is high, and usually fast.

They sell separate seed kits for vegetables other than the salad vegetables that comes with the starter kit. For example, you can grow lettuce, cherry tomatoes, herbs, chili peppers, and edible flowers.

Cons: The biggest complaint in the reviews is the customer service. Apparently if anything breaks, it seems to be the pump on the unit, and there are a few complaints about trying to call the support line and get that resolved.

It comes in either black or white, and is usually discounted fairly heavily from the $200 list price. Amazon usually has the AeroGarden with Salad Greens Seed Kit for under $150.

It comes in white or black, and is available from Amazon among other vendors. If your are looking to start indoor container gardening, or looking for a low hassle way to start your outdoor seedlings, this unit can get you started with out a lot of work. Check out the comments on Amazon, and see if this is the unit for you.

Aerogrow Aerogarden Supplies and Seed Kits: Over at Amazon you can buy Aerogrow Supplies like the Cherry Tomato Seed Kit and Replacement Grow Bulbs to keep your Aerogarden productive for a long time.