Fresh Herbs

[esgunn]

I just can't believe it. I got an Aerogarden as a gift for Christmas. I plugged it in that day and filled it up - it is a hydroponic system and came with an herb seed kit. So it has been growing for 5 weeks. This is my second harvest (End of January!!!)



Left to right Dill, Mint, chives, thyme, basil and parsley.
There is also purple basil but I didn't cut that this time. It is not a huge amount like you might buy in a store but I should get that much every week, if not more!

[bjcotton]

I want one! Can I Google Aerogarden and see it?

[esgunn]

www.aerogrow.com

They are not inexpensive. My inlaws gave one to my husband and I as a Christmas/birthday gift. I had been eyeballing them in catalogs for a while. I've also seen them in BB&B and Macy's but they are at least $50.00 more.

[cjs]

How neat that is - we bought a grow light to start some herbs for the winter. What a bust! finally Roy brought home a bunch of basil (from the produce dept.) with the roots still attached and I planted that...we'll see.

[Mare749]

Erin, you must have been reading my mind because I was just going to ask you about this. Last winter, I had planted a hydroponic table top garden that I had resurrected from my inlaws basement. It was a lot of fun and I had pretty good luck with it, but your unit looks far more superior to what I was using. I've had my eye on this for a while also. I'm glad you are having good luck with it. What a nice project for your children as well.

Can you tell me how long can you leave your plants in the aerogarden? At some point will they need to be replanted in pots? Also, is the aerogarden hard to keep clean? The downside to the tabletop unit that I was using is that the white stones get dirty, and eventually the whole unit has to be taken apart and cleaned and that was a nuisance.

Maryann

[esgunn]

I can get that basil - I always kept it in a glass of water on my windowsil. It usually keeps for about a month depending on how cold it is. Let me know if planting it works. I think they come from a farm on Camano Island.

[esgunn]

Maryann,

They say that the plants will live for 4 to 5 months. Continuous harvest for 4 months. They say the plants will be pretty much done at that point. You just take the little pods out - throw them away, rinse of the unit and water reservoir and replant. The seed kits come with nutrients and the pods are already seeded. You just pop them in, fill with water and set the lights. They are on an automatic timer that turns them off at 11pm and they come on at 6 am. There are no rocks, just a pump that circulates the water through the plant pods. It is soooo easy.

My Brother in Law always plants tomatoes in his sunroom and uses a system with rocks. He loves it. The plants grow 6 to 7 feet tall!

[Lorraine]

Wow! Look at the size of the basil!!! This is certainly something to look into for Virginia, he has a sunroom that would be great for herbs!

[eab1005]

I got an Aerogrow for my birthday a little over a year ago and I just re-planted mine after Christmas so our plants are about the same size right now.

You will get alot more harvest in a few more weeks. The garden at full growth will be touching the lights (when it is up all the way) and the plants will all be touching. When I did the thyme it was growing over the side and out onto the counter (the kit I have now has cilantro instead of thyme). Just a hint if you do this kit again. I didn't put the basil pods in until the rest of the seeds came up, it just grows to fast and shades the other seedlings. The basil is now the same height as the other plants and everyone is happy!

Also, I didn't like the lettuce kit. It didn't yield enough to be worth it. And the lettuce bolted to soon. I've also heard that the cherry tomatoes only produce one or two that are "ready to pick" a day.

Elise.

[esgunn]

Thanks for the tips! Those are great things to know - especially about the basil. Yeah - it grows fast - the purple doesn't seem to grow as fast, but between the basil and the dill I am having a hard time keeping them out the lights so the other plants get enough light to grow bigger.

Please let me know how the cillantro does. I was curious why they replaced with the thyme. I have never had much luck growing cillantro from seeds so wondered if that was part of the problem. Anytime I have it just goes straight to seed and never really produces any eating leaves.