AeroGarden Indoor Garden Needs No Sun June 12, 2008
Read more Entertainment , Gadgets , Gizmodo UK
Living in a city can make growing your own fruit & veg a bit of a challenge but the AeroGarden promises to make it a snap, no matter what kind of concrete jungle you're holed up in.
The AeroGarden indoor hydroponic garden is big in the US with regular folk and - it had to happen - the potheads on YouTube, but it really is quite a system. It looks like a mini-sunbed that's comprised of a tray with plugholes instead of a messy soil tray, an internal irrigation system and a series of bulb-lights that automatically monitor themselves to make sure whatever you're growing gets just what it needs in terms of water and simulated sunlight and heat.
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
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If it's a hydroponic system then those 'soil plugs' won't be soil at all - because the definition of hydroponics is growing in a soil-less medium - so those plugs are more likely to be some kind of medium made from a composite of organic materials. Nowadays a kind of spongy, processed tree bark is popular as a propagation medium.
Furthermore, it looks to me that this system is actually an aeroponic system - aeroponics is a type of hydroponics which use almost no medium whatsoever to support the roots, instead having the roots dangle straight into a nutrient solution which is often highly oxygenated.
In aeroponics - and indeed all other hydroponic techniques that use a grow media with low buffering - it is important to control both pH and nutrient strength of the solution in the tank, and I'm a little surprised this seems to be ignored in what otherwise looks to be an ok starter kit. It is these two things which can make hydroponics seem complex and fiddly, and therefore difficult for the beginner.
Some nutrient solutions / powders / tablets contain pH buffers which can help here - but better results can always be obtained if the grower takes this into their own hands by purchasing the necessary meters and some pH corrective fluids (acid and alkali). Worth noting that these substances are hazardous and care should be taken when handling.
Furthermore, better results may be achieved if the initial seeds or cuttings are propagated in a more suitable environment (such as in a heat controlled propagator) rather than putting them immediately into the system from day one. This - along with using a longer photo-period (i.e. having the lights on for a longer time each day) and/or using more light - can help reduce the stretch that is seen on their leggy seedlings in the videos. ;-)
I also see that one of the videos shows the use of LED lighting - this is a somewhat new field in horticultural lighting, and, to date, tests have shown that better results will be obtained by the use of the compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) as seen in the other videos. But nonetheless it is interesting to see LEDs in use for this already, even though it's early days for this technology in this field.
Aside from all of that, it is worth noting that whether with hydroponics, aeroponics or soil gardening, that environment is nearly everything - that is to say that if the surrounding ambient temperature and humidity are not in a healthy range for the plant you wish to grow, then no amount of good light or nutrient will make your plants grow well.
In short, this looks to be a good beginner system offering a simple introduction to hydroponic gardening - but it really only touches on the tip of the iceberg, and is by no means a complete system.
(I manage a UK-based hydroponic retailer)
That's seriously old news, was thinking of buying one last year, but decided I didn't like plants that much.
So that's for student skunk farming then :)