Anyone have an aerogrow?

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Aerogrow

i) Does this thing really work well throughout the year?
ii) What is the maintained cost on these things? And what exactly would need to be maintained?
iii)Can I use my own seeds or do I have to buy theirs?

 

[Crono]

While that looks cool, I think you could achieve the same results with a regular (cheap) pot with soil and a grow light.

 

[Oceandevi]

Or even you know, sunlight. It is free btw.

 

[Isocene]

l

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Oceandevi
Or even you know, sunlight. It is free btw.

Assuming you even get light coming into you house. This apartment's natural lighting is awful, just due to placement of the windows. I had a jade plant when I moved in; it slowly died from light starvation, turning all gangly and white.

 

[SP33Demon]

It's good for apartments and places where you can't have a garden. The only bad thing is that you have to buy their seeds. Still probably cheaper than buying from the supermarket after time.

One other thing I read in the Amazon reviews before buying one is that tap water will mess up its pump, so only use filtered water.

 

[CrackRabbit]

My roommate has 5 of them, they work great if you use distilled water in them.
The herb one did ok but the Basil tends to try and take over the entire thing and has to be trimmed often.
One he has a Jalapeno plant, produces TONS of peppers and they are quite HOT.
Another he has cherry tomatoes, tons of tomatoes, but I'm not big on cherry tomatoes...

The only other advice I can give is don't plant two larger plants (like a jalapeno and tomato) in one they fight for the available light and don't produce as well.

 

[spidey07]

Yes. Works incredibly well. Very good/fast growth. I use them to germinate my seeds as well.

 

[Leros]

How bright are these? I can see my kitchen from my living room, would it be distracting while watching TV and such?

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Leros
How bright are these? I can see my kitchen from my living room, would it be distracting while watching TV and such?

They're pretty bright. Enough to light up a room. The bulbs are on for 16 hours I think and you can set when they start. So you could just have them turn off at dark and come on at like 4 in the morning.

 

[SoulAssassin]

My buddies wife has one, everytime I go over it's pretty crazy how big the herbs or tomatoes are. I wonder if anyone has put a kill-a-watt on it to see how much power it uses and the cost.

edit...whaddya know:
"Lastly, I brought the Kill-A-Watt over to the newest device in our kitchen: the AeroGarden. Running with its two fluorescent lights on for nearly 18 hours a day raised some concern about its novelty. To my surprise the device only drew about 40 watts with the lights and aerator on (aerator is similar to a fish tank bubbler). Given the ?on? time of the device, I determined it costs about $4.50/month to run."

http://louisabate.com/wordpres...s-with-the-kill-a-watt

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
My roommate has 5 of them, they work great if you use distilled water in them.
The herb one did ok but the Basil tends to try and take over the entire thing and has to be trimmed often.
One he has a Jalapeno plant, produces TONS of peppers and they are quite HOT.
Another he has cherry tomatoes, tons of tomatoes, but I'm not big on cherry tomatoes...

The only other advice I can give is don't plant two larger plants (like a jalapeno and tomato) in one they fight for the available light and don't produce as well.

5?!? Wow... so your ummm... "roommate" here is pretty serious about growing "plants"....

 

[amicold]

They work decent, I have a pothead friend who grows lowryder strains with the XL one.