I've been going back and forth on picking up an Aerogarden for 2-3 years now.
In truth, I don't have a great location for one, and one my kitties devours all that's green and within reach (which is everything, for him) ...
I've done dirt, hydro, aero & mist, and petri dish growing in times past - you name it, I've at least tinkered w/ it, surely ...
Doing the transitions between hydro and dirt is a lossy transfer, to borrow from other realms ...
So, you know, you can do as little or as much as you want ... I'm going to borrow some stuff from indoor growing, but living in Florida, I'm going to end up dirt, outside in the end ...
Last night I rejected the Aerogarden for the time being, even though I realize there's a lot more bang for your buck in the unit itself for the $, and went w/ their nutrients and a fluoro rig w/ a capillary mat ...
I don't feel like I need the best hydro nutrients anymore, just I wanted the easiest ... so I bought the Aerogarden nutrient mix for ease of use (limited ph testing and no ratios etc) in my little cups, and probably to use for the bottom-feeding via the capillary mat ...
Here's the little fluoro light rig:
http://amzn.com/B00AKMGPWU
And here's a helpful PDF w/ a nice cross-section etc:
http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aabf_prd/on/demandware.static/Sites-Gardeners-Site/Sites-Gardeners-Library/default/v1409663769886/Articles/Gardening/ProductsPDFs/38314.pdf
Folks can toss about whether it's worth it's cost, but it's highly subjective ...
What I'm planning to do, is start my seeds in the little cups (can be seen in prev post), placed in the little rig under the lights, and just let them do their thing in my house - which maintains a pretty consistent 73-74F ...
Once the little homies roots start to pop out of the rockwool spike or they bump their domes, I'll plant the RW spike in a small 2" x 2" x 2" or whatever those little one's I have outside (from previous CCN orders) are, and place them on the capillary mat, and fill the bottom reservoir w/ nutrient water.
I might even agitate said water - have pumps around from previous experiments w/ AACT etc ...
Once they are big enough that the wasps and lizards won't eat them (like last time) outside, I'll just repot from the small pots to the 1 gal root pouches and place them out on the edge of the carport where I plan to grow them this season, using reflected light ...
I would like to setup a raingutter system on the edge of my carport w/ a float, so I'll probably go forth w/ that part of the plan still, but I can do that whenever along the way ...
I don't know ... it seems like a decent plan ... anyone see a problem I'm not taking into consideration? ...
I'll be checking out aspirin this time around, too ...
http://www.plantea.com/plant-aspirin.htm
I've posted it before, but I never tried it ...
I shared that w/ HTH recently, I wonder if he tried it or not, because I saw he saved his cutting ...
It appears to finally have been studied, too ...
https://www.usc.edu/CSSF/Current/Projects/S1901.pdf
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625661/Problems-growing-tomatoes-Feed-ASPIRIN-say-scientists-fight-disease-boost-yield.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/9-Unusual-Uses-for-Aspirin/step6/Organic-gardeners-dream/
Check it out for yourselves a bit and feel free to share your thoughts ...
