AeroGarden Update #2

Wow I guess it has been a while since I've posted anything here. We'll things have still been growing. We have harvested over 400 grams of herb's from our AeroGarden. We also added some chive seeds to the chive seed holder since they didn't sprout. I think they must have gotten knocked out or something.

We ran out of the AeroGarden nutrients after we had collected about 300 grams. I think we probably would have gotten a lot more except for the fact that this has been grown in Alaska in the winter. If this would have been grown in the window during the Alaskan summer I'm sure it would be a hole different story.

I went down to the local hydroponics store and picked up some hydroponics nutrients and a ph/ec/tds/temp meter to help see if we could extend the season. The dill has gotten to tall for the planter and has fallen all over and is starting to go to seed but everything else is growing very nicely.

Since we have started adding the liquid nutrient I've noticed that the mint leaves are significantly larger. I don't know if this is due to the nutrient or the change in ph though. Since we got the meter we've been able to pay more attention to these levels.

Below are the results of what we have harvested and other interesting pieces of information.


Conclusions thus far:

• With the provided tablets the savings from using an AeroGarden are questionable. By supplementing with nutrients from your local hydroponics store the economics becomes quite reasonable.
• Maintenance has been very easy. The biggest problem I have is that the unit is in my classroom at school and not at my house. Because we are measuring everything that we harvest from it, I've missed a few good opportunities to enhance the flavor of my sandwiches. Also some of the herbs that have been taken home have gone bad because I didn't use them up quickly enough. If I had the AeroGarden at home I don't believe that I would have had this problem, that this is a personal problem not a problem with the AeroGarden itself.
  

Aero Garden Update #1

The Aerogarden has been doing well so far. Here are the current totals of what we have harvested.

• 7.99 g Basil
  
• 0.91 g Mint
• 0.81 g Thyme
• 0.44 g Oregano
• 3.80 g Dill
  

Totaling 13.95 g

We've used over 10.21 KWH of electricity. This is measured using a KillaWatt meter purchased from NewEgg.com.

The basil really grew fast and we've actually had to prune it back three times now in order to let everything else catch up to it. At this point the basil and dill seem to be doing the best. The mint has really started to take grow now. Looking under the hood it has a pretty significant root system. The oregano is probably the slowest growing of the bunch. Maybe everything will start growing better now that it has all been pruned back a little bit.

One improvement that I would really like to make to the system is to put a little fan somewhere to help them grow stronger. I think that this would also help some of the lower vegetation to get some more light and promote stronger healthier plants.