AeroGarden - Week 4

After a month of steady growth, it's time to move these herbs into the garden.

Movin' On Up!

 Well, after a month of steady and excellent growth, it's time to move my herbs into the garden.  Yes, the experiment is over - to great success.  I am completely sold on the AeroGarden and what it can do for me and my family when it comes to growing healthy food from the comfort of my own home.  It was worth every single penny.

This is what my AeroGarden tray looks like after I cleared out all the herbs.  Below, I go into detail as to what it took to get to this point.  So what did I learn from my experience?

1. Don't take out the seedlings too late!

Exactly! If you are planning on transplanting your seedlings from the AeroGarden, consider moving them early.  About the time when the first or second set of true leaves have emerged.  Why?  Well, if it isn't obvious, the root systems in hydroponics grow at warp speed, so after only a week or two some of your more aggressive growers will end up getting tangled around the planting holders and it will be nearly impossible to extract the seedlings without wounding them and throwing them into complete shock.

2. Find a mess resistant way to transport seedling tray.

Yes, this is important if you are transplanting.  In my case, I moved the seedling holder outside completely in order to have lot's of space to work and since I was transplanting to pots, this would keep me from having to bring dirt indoors.  So what I did was measure the unit and find a pot that fits the width almost exactly so that I could move all the seedlings without disturbing the root systems too much.  (Of course, none of this matters since I sent all the seedlings into shock when I extracted them.)

3. Find a suitable replacement for the seedling covers.

One thing I noticed as I was trying to remove the seedling sponges from the holders: the green cover which doubly serves as an algae deterrent and plant ID card is stuck pretty good to the plastic holders.  Another thing I learned was that since the hole the plants peek through are too small to fit anything but the stems through, I have to tear them in order to get them off.  I continue to use them as you will see later, but I think that in the future I will need something else to cover the area.

Here's a video on my process: