AeroGarden Unboxing to Harvest
Welcome to seed to life. I grow many herbs outdoors but many times I forget to harvest them during the daytime and then when I decide to use them, it is already dark outside so I can’t harvest them.
On this Thanksgiving, my husband got me an Aerogarden. It is one of the best gifts so far. My first choice always is to grow outside using natural resources as much as possible which means using organic soil, compost, and organic fertilizers. But such an indoor gardening system comes in handy during winter when the weather is not cooperating with you.
The model that we have in Aerogarden is harvest slim. It has everything in it that is needed to grow plants. It comes with the main assembly with a pot, grow lights, and a power plug, 6 seed kits that are seeds in a seed growing sponge, 6 lids, and liquid fertilizer.
It is very easy to set up the system. You just need to fill the water up to the watermark and add the liquid fertilizer. You can adjust the distance between the growing plants and the grow light with an adjustable bar. I added water, nutrient solution, and the seed pods and we were all set. The system is timer-based and the light stays on for about 12 hours. You also need to replenish water and fertilizer when the signal warns you to show a red light. So, it is hard to forget to not take care of the plants.
Within just 7 days of setting up the system, the seeds started sprouting except the Curley parsley. The germination times and the name of the herb are already placed on the top of each seed kit with a label. So, you know approximately when the seeds will sprout. All my seeds germinated successfully except the Curley parsley. I checked on the AeroGarden website that mentions 100% seed germination protection. They mention there that we can contact customer care if the seeds do not germinate. So, I’ll probably do that.
As the seedlings started coming up, I removed the caps from the seed kits letting the plans grow taller. Once germinated dill started growing very fast.
I use dill leaves mainly as a green leafy vegetable rather than as a herb. So, only a few of these plants are not going to be enough for me. I’m germinating more dill seeds in my regular germination system to grow more plants outdoors.
But I think this system is great for growing herbs. They grow very fast. I set up the system on December 12th and my first harvest was on January 23rd. So it is amazing that just in 4 weeks you can start harvesting. That is pretty quick. I love that the leaves are clean and you can just add them to your recipes after only gentle rinsing.
Basil plants grew beautifully. The sweet basil leaves are really big and healthy. As the plants grew taller, my Thai basil plants grew very close to the grow light. I noticed one day that the basil had already started developing some flowers. So, it is important to regularly harvest these herbs and snip the ends to maintain a distance of about 2 inches between the plants and the grow light.
I harvested a good amount of basil, mint, thyme, and dill leaves from these plants the first time. And after that, I regularly harvest the leaves. Today we are going to harvest more dill and basil leaves.
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