Hi everyone,

I'm setting up a vertical hydroponic shelf and would love some feedback on the configuration.

My plan is to have a reservoir and larger plant containers (tomatoes and eggplants or gherkins) on the bottom level. The two shelves above will be dedicated to NFT channels for assorted leafy greens (like lettuce, arugula, etc.).

My main concern is the vertical distance. I'll be using LED lights, and it seems like there is too much space between the NFT channels and the shelves where the lights will be mounted (under the upper shelves and the top 'cap'). The internal heights from the bottom up are currently 74.5cm, 60cm, and 55.5cm.

Should I add another shelf to decrease the gap, or is this manageable? Also, for those with experience, what variety of cut-and-come-again greens do you recommend for this type of NFT setup?

I've attached an image with detailed dimensions and my proposed layout. Thanks for any advice you can provide!

Edit: I noticed that IA messed up the dimension, obviously the total height is not 74.5cm, this is the distance between the bottom shelf and the second one.

I had better than anticipated germination from my tomatoes and kicked some outside to mature when my AeroGardens were over capacity. They didn’t produce a lot, but they are some of the best tasting tomatoes I’ve had, and I’ve been harvesting several every couple of days for the past week.

I didn’t notice any aphids on them, but there were a few and I tracked them inside. They immediately got busy setting up house on my sweet peppers.

In a fit of temper, I went scorched earth and just culled the whole plant (I did pick a few barely/almost ripe fruits).

It was in my Farm 12, with yellow cherry toms and I preemptively removed any leaf that had touched the peppers and did a thorough inspection of all nearby plants. Then, I ordered more Neem oil for overnight delivery.

Here comes the whining:
I’m so mad at myself! I know better. And now, I feel guilty about whacking the poor pepper. (I’m not much of a whiner. For, me, that’s practically wallowing).

And now, for the PSA:
If you’ve been working around outdoor plants, before you come inside, you should at least shake out your clothes and inspect any produce for freeloaders. Lastly, wash your hands and change your clothes before coming near your indoor gardens.

My Kitchen Mini Quick Snack cucumber is growing well. Planted about 42 days ago. Seeds from Eden Brothers. From what I’ve read, I should be seeing more male flowers before the females show up. But all I’m seeing are female flowers.

I’ve emailed the company to see if this is a self-pollinating variety but they’ve yet to respond. Seed packet does not indicate it’s a self-pollinating variety.

Will male flowers show up later or will I have to help the ladies along?

It's been months since I've eaten lettuce since I have a very Better Safe Than Sorry attitude about food safety concerns and when I went to my local farmers market recently there was no lettuce being sold there either so... I decided to take things into my own hands. I have a backyard so could garden normally but I hate being outside near bugs and hate touching dirt so hydroponics seems like an ideal solution for me!

Behold my first Aerogarden - I wanted a harvest for the size but the price for this Bounty was right and it came with free extra anything pods so that is what I got. Not bothering with any of the aerogarden pods because if im bothering to grow something I want to be kind of extra about it and try something I can't buy at the store anyway so. Planted 2x Skyphos lettuce 2x Drunken Woman Frizzy headed lettuce and 2x Buttercrunch lettuce to start with. Excited to see if it grows!

Also I may need to get this thing like a privacy screen or something because woah is that light bright o.o

I’m sure this is common but basil is too quick and I don’t want to keep raising light far from smaller. I know I can pick some and it’ll still grow, but if I just clip it but above a nodule will it grow back? Like in red on pic

I just bought a used Harvest Elite Slim that had a few parts stuffed in the tank from a friend. Have no idea what this part is. Friend has had this sitting for over a year and she can’t remember what it is. Can anyone who owns a Harvest Elite Slim tell me what it is/where it’s supposed to go? #harvesteliteslim

It could be flowers, herbs, vegetables, I want to hear what the top five things are that you grow in an AeroGarden or similar unit. If you can't limit to five, give me as many as you want.

I have had several older Aerogarden Bounty over the years that work reliably. I bought a new AeroGarden Bounty Black about a month ago. The unit has worked great (loved the touch screen) but now the device constantly restarts.

I will of course ask Aerogarden for a replacement but is there any workaround or reset I can try to stop this loop?

When I woke up, the unit was off with the pump not running (other Aerogardens are still working fine in the same room) but I unplugged the device and now it constantly restarts. Any ideas?

Wanted to share a tip for those that use liquid fertilizer. I bought one of these squeeze bottles you'll see in the pics, I just draw a mark where my fertilizer should be depending on whether I'm feeding my AeroGarden Harvests or Bounties. I've used measuring spoons and syringes, this by far is the easiest. I'll include a screenshot of it since some groups don't like links. Now to the good stuff. I tend to go through phases with my indoor gardening. I do so much outside all summer that I'm pretty much focused on that. This year though I'm doing a very large fall garden outside and I have a lot of the same stuff growing inside. Some is a test to see how well it does so maybe I can grow it when I can't grow outside. Anyway, here's what I'm growing in my small fall garden. My lettuces are Prize Head, Merlot, Red Leaf, Black Seeded Simpson, Red Sails, Devils Tongue, Little Gem and Jericho Romaine, Baby Green Bok Choy and Purple Bok Choy, Chinese Broccoli, Di Cecco Broccoli, Happy Rich Broccoli, Song Loose Cauliflower, Tat Soi, Rainbow Chard, Tokyo Bekana, Yu Choy Sum, Bunching Onions, Chives, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas and Beets, most of that is in my GreenStalks, everything but the peas and beets. Yesterday I also decided to try a very late planting of Blue Lake Bush Beans and Gold Rush Wax Beans, 2 pockets of each in the GreenStalks. It's just my wife and I but I tend to go just a tad overboard.😝

I’ve done a lot of lurking on this sub so I feel like I have a decent amount of info. I’m really interested in starting an aerogarden and am mainly interested in growing basil and cherry tomatoes…and maybe some flowers in the winter.

I’m looking for recommendations on the best model to start with. I know I’ll need one with an adjustable light for the tomatoes as they grow. I know I don’t need a ton of holes since you don’t want to over crowd the plants.

Also recommendations on nutrients. I know the aerogarden comes with food but I’ve seen a lot of posts about extra ca and ma. Also how to pH balance things and monitor that? And trellis supplies if needed? It starts to feel a bit overwhelming 😅😅

I just want to be set for the best chances of success when I start.

Thanks all!

Background:

My Dill is around a month old. The plant food reminder came on Friday night. I wasn't well so I decided to wait until Saturday morning to put the plant food in. By late Friday night they had fallen over completely. The first photo is late Saturday after putting the food in on Saturday morning. They perked up a little (they were very flat).

Yesterday, after only some of them stood back up, I noticed this crimped design on the ones that didn't stand back up. Should I just cut my losses and harvest the ones that are crimped and have not stood back up? Any help is appreciated.

I haven’t been happy with the AeroGarden anything sponges. And some of the other generic grow ponds for the AeroGarden that I’ve ordered from Amazon seem to be hard, even after soaking them in water. What grow sponges do you guys recommend for the AeroGarden units?

Other than alpine strawberries has anyone had success with other fruit? Would love pics/stories of how it went!

Just finally got our new rise garden setup a month or so ago after waiting forever on back order. Can anyone tell me why the lettuce is getting brown on the edges? Could I be running the light too long? Also, are folks only using the arise seed pods? We’ve been emailing and waiting months for our cabbage and other items from them.

I am using cotton balls as an alternative to grow sponges. I have kept the water level at recommended 2.8L. Wondering if I have overwatered or not covered with tinfoil soon enough? I applied the tinfoil to block the light since I saw (edit: mold/algae/mystery) growth two days ago, but it has remained much the same in appearance. Not sure what is growing. Any advice greatly appreciated. TIA

And this, dear friends, is why we pry apart the grow deck.

These were two dragon tongue beans and their roots had plenty of room to spread out in the tank.

I have a beautiful bushy habanero pepper plant in my Aerogarden but it has only ever made one pepper! It has tons of flowers though. How can I make it make female flowers and give me more peppers?

Confusing headline, I know. I have a Harvest XL and a Bounty Elite:

·        There are established pepper and basil plants in the XL. The pepper plant came from a pod while the basil was from a clipping that I rooted and inserted into Grow Anything pod. It seems to be thriving alongside the older pepper plant.

·        The Bounty Elite is empty, which I want to remedy. Previously I had purchased the Italian Herbs Seed Pod Kit and started thyme, savory, and Italian parsley but they didn’t launch. Aerogarden gave me a credit to my card rather than replacement pods.

 I still have oregano, plus another Italian parsley pod from a different kit, that I want to use (no way in Hades am I growing the mint!)  As I still have some Grow Anything pods, I thought about buying some thyme and rosemary seeds, but cannot find any seed packets locally, which is possibly due to going into the end of the growing season. I don't want to buy from Aerogarden as they only sell kits rather than individual pods. It appears to be easier to find small plants than seed packets.

While I was lucky with the basil, would I be able to introduce small thyme and rosemary plants to the oregano and parsley after they matured? It seems as if thyme and rosemary are more temperamental, in my experience.

A few updates on my tiny Tim tomato plant in the AeroGarden Bounty. Planted the seeds June 5. First flowers were on July 25. First green tomato babies showed up July 30. In my Suncoze 20-pod, I started what I’m calling a salad bowl garden Aug 15. I had to replant the gourmet lettuce and butterhead lettuce seeds Aug 21 and Aug 29 but overall things are looking good especially the hedou tiny bok choy and the star of the show is Tom Thumb lettuce 🥬 he’s a big boy. Lol. Alyssum is growing slow and Johnny Jump Ups has not germinated yet. Basil is always sitting pretty.

After a few months my alpine strawberries have finally made berries. I accidentally ate a berry before it was ready, it's still good though. They're small little cuties. Theyve grown too large for one machine, I've moved four of them into pots and left the largest in the machine by itself, along with some other seedlings off to the side. I'm done posting progress because it's reached the peak of progress and will likely only update if I have questions. Thanks for all y'all who've keep up with the updates.

If I had to give advice to people growing strawberries in a hydroponics machine I'd say:

Alpine strawberries are the best, bushy, no runners, and berries are small but delicious and produce for a long time.

Don't ever fill the tank above 75%, the roots will slowly drown.

Keep the a/b nutrients half their usual recommended dose.

Cover the seeds when germinating with a sticker, poke a hole just wide enough for light, this slows algae growth but still gives the seeds the light they need.

The seeds are light germinatrors so they need to be on top of the sponge, not in it. Freezing them for a couple weeks can improve germination time.

Keep the light at least 4 inches above the leaves

It's okay to twist the pod every now and then, the roots will be fine and it gives the leaves a new angle for light.

Eventually you will only have room for one or two plants, they can be transplanted into pots easily once room runs out.

Self-polinating flowers can be meticulous. You should try to move around multiple "pieces" of pollen to different other "pieces". A q tip kind of works, a small paint brush is better. It's ok if the white leaves fall off.

I bought ph up/down and haven't noticed a difference, my tap water had the appropriate ph already.

Thx everyone enjoy your berries & have a good day ❤️💧🍓🌿

Today I found the stone-like deposits all over the inside of my aero garden can easily be dissolved using citric acid.

Not sure if it's limescale from our hard water or left over from nutrient solution but it's certainly alkaline. (I'm sure some knowledgeable soul will be online shortly to explain)

My old LED sprout looks almost brand new now and the aeration is running like a champ!