AeroGrow Reports

AeroGrow management deserves significant credit for their accomplishments since the launch of the AeroGarden.

Their success is the most positive news I've found in the rather moribund indoor plant market including both consumer houseplants and commercial interior plantscaping.

I wish them continued success in the future and hope that the AeroGarden brings new consumers who are comfortable with technology into the plants in buildings marketplace.

Accomplishments for AeroGrow for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 include:

-- Launching the AeroGarden products chain-wide with Linens 'n Things, including a Mother's Day promotion that featured the AeroGarden on the cover of 41 million Linens 'n Things Sunday newspaper inserts.

-- The launch of the new AeroGarden Pro 100 on April 29th on the world's largest TV retailer, where it sold more than $1.7 million dollars in just 24 hours. The Pro 100 features stylish stainless steel trim and Adaptive Growth Intelligence(TM) that monitors plant growth to give plants exactly what they need at each stage of growth for maximum plant health and yields.

-- AeroGrow expanded internationally into Japan through an agreement reached with Japan's largest TV direct response/retail distribution company, Oak Lawn Marketing Inc. ("OLM"), headquartered in Nagoya, Japan. OLM will sell AeroGarden products through a wide variety of retail outlets and television (including home shopping channels and infomercials) along with web marketing and public relations initiatives. Initial airings of the infomercial in Japan should begin in September 2007.

-- AeroGrow was approved for listing and commenced trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the new ticker symbol AERO effective at market opening on June 13, 2007.

-- AeroGrow launched a full-line, 16 page, full-color product catalog for database marketing to existing customers and purchased mailing lists. The new catalog features 31 AeroGarden products and accessories, including 19 new products. The new products included 9 new seed kits, 9 new accessories, and the new AeroGarden Pro 100.

"We are excited by the consumer acceptance shown for our AeroGarden products as evidenced by a 664% year over year increase," stated AeroGrow founder and CEO, Michael Bissonnette. "We look forward to continuing our growth with the addition of nationwide distribution at Sears, Macy's and Bed, Bath & Beyond in September and our initial product launches in Europe and Japan." Read more….

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AeroGrow Technology Launched into Space

Teach the children.

AeroGrow International, Inc. (NASDAQ: AERO) ("AeroGrow" or the "Company"), makers of the AeroGarden® kitchen garden appliance, announced that the NASA space shuttle Endeavour, launched yesterday from Cape Kennedy, Florida, is carrying an experiment using AeroGrow's proprietary Seed Pod technology. This experiment is intended to advance the science of growing food during long-term space expeditions and may further the development of heartier varieties of tomato plants for farmers and gardeners on earth.

The experiment was designed and built by BioServe Space Technologies, a non-profit, NASA-sponsored Research Partnership Center located at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The NASA space shuttle is carrying a set of experiments to the International Space Station in an educational effort involving thousands of K-12 students around the world. AeroGrow's Seed Pods are being used to study the growth and development of tomato plants in space which will be compared with similar experiments being conducted in K-12 classrooms, involving as many as 15,000 students and teachers. Read more….

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Something Old, Something New...

Number one on the TriniGourmet blog Amazon Hotlist for August 2007 is the AeroGarden. The second most popular is a Clay Pot Meyer Lemon Tree.

Perhaps one day in the future the lemon tree will arrive in a sub-irrigation container inside the clay pot and have a real chance of living. As it is, the lettuce from the AeroGarden may well have a longer life span.

1. AeroGarden with Salad Greens Seed Kit

Description:Enjoy fresh greens at every meal no matter what the season. With AeroGrow’s AeroGarden garden kit, it’s easy to cultivate lettuce, cherry tomatoes, herbs, chili peppers, edible flowers, and more in an energy-efficient, organic-based environment right in the kitchen.

2. Clay Pot Meyer Lemon Tree

Description: Amazon.com has this great lemon variety planted in a terra cotta clay pot ready to ship. Excellent for gift giving! Fragrant flowers produce thin skinned, juicy lemons year round. Different than conventional lemons in that the taste is more sweeter, and less acid. Rind is thinner and more orangish in color than typical lemons. Evergreen. Full sun. Growing to about 8 to 10 feet tall, or pruned shorter. Makes great tub plant. Indoors the blossoms will make any house smell good.

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AeroGardening the Future

Searching for something else, I found my way to these photos on the Millennium Arts Academy (Bronx, NY) website. They are unmistakably AeroGardens. Scroll down on this page of photos that document their first graduating class this past June. You'll also see an aerial view schematic of the green roof they're planning.

When I find the time, I will try to find out how they acquired the AeroGardens. I’m wondering if AeroGrow International has some kind of program for educational institutions. If they do that would be great news.

The students who graduate with this kind of experience may well end up knowing more about growing plants in containers inside buildings than many of our college degreed horticulturists.

Perhaps there is hope for the future that we can get past the generations who have been stuck in the outdated world of drench and drain houseplant gardening. The level of understanding about some basic science such as capillary action is significantly lower than I ever imagined when I started this blog.

It gets very discouraging reading what I find in my blog research every day. However, I'm now receiving a stream of information via RSS instead of Google News Alerts and web searches. I just have to find the buried gold watches.

The best information about container plants in and around buldings is coming from blogs rather than the mainstream media where ill-informed garden writers reign supreme at this time. As with so many other things in life, this too shall pass.

In my opinion, the best hope of breaking through the soluble salts fear mongering is via commercial products like the AeroGarden and the EarthBox. These are becoming ever more popular in the new green world of sustainability and water conservation.

About the Millennium Art Academy from Wikipedia.

Millennium Art Academy (M.A.A) first opened its doors in September of 2003 in the Bronx. Originally located on the Herbert H. Lehman Educational Campus campus the Academy moved after its first year to the Adlai E. Stevenson Campus.

It is one of six small schools located on the Stevenson campus and enjoys the highest daily attendance rate of all - 92%. Its founder and current principal, a graduate of Cooper Union and former student of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, was named one of New York City's top principals when she was awarded a Cahn Fellowship Award for Distinguished Principals at Columbia Teacher's College in 2005. She and M.A.A have received awards for excellence in urban and intergenerational education.

M.A.A has appeared in the New York Times, on CBS evening news, and in numerous publications. Millennium Art Academy is one of many small schools established to help create a better school system in which students receive a better education through smaller classes, a high-expectations learning environment, and an intensive student support.

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News Alert! - Martha Endorses Melamine

There will be something other than cake mix in a set of these bowls er, planters from the new Martha Stewart Collection very soon. When there are plants in them, I’ll post photos here and on Flickr. Melamine is one of the best planter materials I’ve worked with.

No, you do not need a drain hole, even if your mother (or Martha) said you need one. Many of the plants in the Greenscaper Consumer Lab are thriving in melamine planters without drainage.

You don’t need to take my word for it. Just read from the Inside Plants Live archives (here and here ) and try them yourself. If you still have a question, don’t hesitate to ask. Just email me and I’ll be glad to help.

An elegant necessity to match your modern kitchen, this stunning set of six mixing bowls planters is styled in a gorgeous taupe gradation (and colors too). Not only impressive for their convenience, these bowls are also exceptionally durable. Limited lifetime warranty.

Via: A Martha fan

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AeroGrow Announces Quarterly Revenue Guidance

From CNNMoney.com

AeroGrow Announces Quarterly Revenue Guidance

Three Months Ending June 2007: $6.1 to $6.3 Million
July 30, 2007: 09:02 PM EST

AeroGrow International, Inc. (NASDAQ: AERO) ("AeroGrow" or the "Company"), makers of the AeroGarden® kitchen garden appliance, today announced its revenue guidance for the three months ended June 30, 2007, its first fiscal quarter.

AeroGrow anticipates revenue of approximately $6.1 million to $6.3 million for the three months ended June 30, a more than 650% increase over the $822,000 in revenue in the same quarter a year ago.

"We're excited to see that we're maintaining strong sales through June, especially through the quarter that we anticipated would be most affected by the start of the outdoor gardening season," said Michael Bissonnette, Founder and CEO of AeroGrow. "We expect to see accelerated growth in the coming quarters as we look to the beginning of the sell-in at retail for the holiday season and our expansion into multiple new retailers like Sears, Macy's, Linens 'n Things and Bed, Bath & Beyond."

About AeroGrow International, Inc.

Founded in 2002 in Boulder, Colorado, AeroGrow International, Inc. is dedicated to the research, development and marketing of the AeroGarden®, the world's first kitchen garden appliance. The AeroGarden features NASA-proven, dirt-free aeroponic technology, allowing anyone to grow farmer's market fresh herbs, salad greens, tomatoes, chili peppers, strawberries and more, indoors, year-round, so simply and easily that no green thumb is required. See www.aerogarden.com.

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AeroGarden Wall

Some Flickr photo salad greens ready for the table. She blogs about it too.

And here's some swiss chard in an EarthBox.

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AeroGarden Catalog

AeroGrow International has launched its first catalog. I continue to be encouraged by the success of the AeroGarden. It gives hope that we're on a path to breaking through the clay pot and drain hole barrier.

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Science on the Hudson

This video about the Science Barge will be much more informative than my words. I'll just comment that based on my daily research we could use a few hundred more science barges.

Incidentally, this is where clay pot Martha would have spent her jail time if I had been the sentencing judge. It's unfortunate that she's so stuck in the past. She could be a powerful voice of change in the houseplant world.

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Cactus in IKEA Cups

Click to enlarge.

These are small cactus ($1 each on sale at Wal-Mart) sub-irrigated in sleeved 9 oz clear party cups inside IKEA pencil holders (under $2).

Ignore all the misinformation you read about sub-irrigation (aka self-watering) being for moisture loving plants only. People who either have no experience with sub-irrigation or simply don’t understand it write this stuff.

You can also read in houseplant books and on websites that you need to grow cactus in special cactus and succulent soil mixes. This is also misinformation!

Special cactus and succulent soil mixes are fast draining mixes used to correct the inherent problems with drench and drain top watering. It's a band-aid solution to fix the symptom rather than the problem.

These desert cactus plants (except for 2) are growing happily in Supersoil the same as I use for moisture loving Spathiphyllum (Peace Lilies). Two of them are growing in expanded clay pebbles (aka hydroculture). Can you tell which two?

If you doubt this, try it yourself. You'll soon discover it's true.

When I can see through the clear plastic that the soil has dried, I add 3 oz of water to the outer clear cup (the one without holes). Reinstall the cactus in the inner clear cup (it has holes poked in the bottom) into the outer clear cup. The water will flow up into the cactus cup by capillary action. You do not need a wick with this simple setup.

It takes longer to write this than actually doing it.

Never add so much water that it rises to the soil surface. If you see moist soil at the surface, know that you over watered the plant.

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Topless AeroGarden

Good drainage is crucial for whatever you decide to grow indoors, Carter said.

"Most houseplants are killed from over-watering. I use broken terra-cotta pots for my bottom layers as a drainer and then add the potting mix. Put plastic drip trays underneath to protect the windowsills."

The above is an excerpt from an Associated Press article. The accompanying photo is also from AP. It happens to be an AeroGarden (unacknowledged)...with the lamp removed.

Truth can be funnier than fiction. There's not one word of mention about the AeroGarden in the entire article. It's just more of the same old gardeners' yadda, yadda, yadda. It looks like someone has a severe case of technophobia. Hilarious!

I wonder what the AeroGarden folks think about this.

If you're not familiar with it, there are more AeroGarden posts here.

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New Hydroculturist

It was good to read that Gary Antosh of Plant-Care.com has become interested in hydroculture (clay-pebble sub-irrigation). We need more people like Gary involved with the conversion of soil-based plants to hydroculture. The more minds at work on this subject the more we’ll see the creation of new ideas for plants in buildings. I’ll be glad to help in any way I can.

I can also empathize with his frustration with shopping for indoor plants at the big box retailers.

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AeroGro now on NASDAQ

The success of the AeroGarden is one of the most significant events in my over 30-year involvement with plants in buildings. I view it as a significant, perhaps major, breakthrough for technology. Only time will tell if it will be a pathfinder for other technology products that facilitate year-round indoor plants whether they be for food, flowers or foliage.

There have been other fine products that were not able to gain a significant position in this consumer market. You can attribute that to a combination of techno-aversion in the gardening market, lack of marketing talent and insufficient funding.

For the first time we have a product that is adequately financed, marketed and managed by business people rather than “plant people.” It's good to see that it is being marketed to those with other interests besides digging in the dirt and those who don't own dirt to dig in. There is a huge urban market of people who live in homes without yards or decks. They have been largely under served by horticultural products providers and academia.

I took the time to read the bios of the management team on the AeroGarden website. It caught my attention that Sylvia Bernstein, Director of Plant Products and Accessories has an MBA from the University of Chicago among her other significant achievements.

If you take the time to read the other bios, you will find that these are experienced and well-educated business people. I wish them much success and hope that other boats will rise on the incoming tide.

I have no financial investment or relationship with AeroGrow International, Inc.

BOULDER, CO -- 06/12/07 -- AeroGrow International, Inc. (OTCBB: AGWI) ("AeroGrow" or the "Company"), makers of the AeroGarden(TM) kitchen garden appliance, announced today that its common stock has been approved for listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market. AeroGrow will commence trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the new ticker symbol AERO, effective at market opening on June 13, 2007.

"AeroGrow's acceptance by the NASDAQ Capital Market is another significant milestone in our maturation as a public company," stated Michael Bissonnette, AeroGrow Founder and CEO. "The NASDAQ listing increases AeroGrow's visibility and accessibility to the investing public, research analysts, retail brokers and institutional investors, which we believe may lead to increased individual and institutional ownership of our common stock."

"We think our listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market will bring AeroGrow to the attention of investors who aren't aware of what we have achieved in the last year since the launch of our first product," continued Mr. Bissonnette. "For these new investors, we offer the following recap of AeroGrow's key milestones and accomplishments to date." Read more…

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Dracaena Janet Craig Compacta

Click to enlarge.

Four little 4” Dracaena Janet Craig Compacta plants were combined in a glass bowl to create this tabletop plant. Okay, I’ll tell the truth it took the 4” pot size plants a while to grow this tall. The one in front was installed in clay pebble hydroculture in April 2006.

I’ve never seen a Dracaena like this in my local San Diego market. So, one way to create plants like this is to buy 4” and 6” plants and create your own combinations.

The glass bowl was a $6 clearance item from TJ Maxx, Ross or Marshalls. I don’t remember which. The chip is hardly noticeable.

As previously mentioned, that’s where I find a very good assortment of bowls from around the world at bargain prices. Okay, it’s not like shopping at Nordstrom’s but the price is right.

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More AeroGarden Feedback

Here is some more mostly positive feedback about the AeroGarden on Chowhound.com. I monitor a number of indoor plant (houseplant) forums. Reading some of the misinformation posted can sometimes be an ugly job. If you're familiar with the subject, you can usually tell who's making up answers. If not, let the reader beware.

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AeroGarden Launches in Japan and Taiwan

It’s good to read about the continued success of the AeroGarden with their product launch in Japan and Taiwan. Few know that Dr Bill Wolverton, author of the best selling book How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office elected to market his planter invention in Japan rather than the U.S. where he is widely known (more about this in a future post).

Techno-averse, American garden writers and bloggers continually quote and review his book without ever mentioning his recommendations about hydroculture and sub-irrigation rather than drench and drain watering. Imprecise drench and drain top-watering offsets whatever air cleaning properties houseplants may have.

I suggest that they either don't read well or they're being disingenuous. In any case, it's a disservice to their readers who have a right to assume the writers have done their research thoroughly.

"We're excited to be launching internationally into Japan and Taiwan, markets that we believe have sizable potential for the Aerogard," said Michael Bissonnette, founder and CEO of Overgrown.

"We believe the same factors that have made the Aerogard successful in places like New York City, specifically large, dense populations with no room to garden and a strong interest in emerging trends that promote a healthy lifestyle, will also make it successful in Japan (the second largest economy in the world).

Of Japan's nearly 128 million people, approximately 66% (or 84 million) live in densely populated urban areas with little to no land. Of Taiwan's 23 million people, almost 69% (or 16 million) live in dense urban areas. By contrast, only 38% of the U.S. population resides in urban areas. (Source: U.N. Common Database, Taipei Times)

If ‘only’ 38% of the U.S. population resides in urban areas, that represents about 114 million people, a sizeable market to say the least.

With that said, this is still a misleading figure considering the ever increasing cost of single family home ownership. Multiple dwelling housing is becoming ever more widespread even in smaller cities. So, who knows what our real ‘urban’ population is as defined by those who do not have a yard with room to plant a traditional outdoor garden.

Products like the AeroGarden and many others serve this urban market well. The mainstream outdoor gardening media would be doing a public service to write about them with more frequency, objectivity and accuracy.

You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

-- Buckminster Fuller

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New Hydroponics Definition

Apropos of the Aerogarden post (below) I read this today about a new definition for hydroponics. If you read the full page, you’ll find no mention of the hydroculture method of hydroponics. This is consistent with most of what I read on commercial hydroponics sites.

I believe this is because there isn’t any high profit fancy equipment to sell using simple hydroculture. Using my methods, all you really need are expanded clay pebbles and maybe some mesh pots.

Hydroponics was originally defined as “the cultivation of plants in water”, however, with the successful use of the technique for cultivating plants in air and other media besides water, the definition was changed to the more inclusive - “the cultivation of plants without soil.” Hydroponic techniques have proved effective for commercial cultivation and also in home gardening. Hydroponic techniques and systems have greatly benefited agriculture especially where, conventional soil cultivation is not possible due to unavailability of agricultural land, resources or other factors.

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Aerogarden Scorecard

This is the latest reviews scorecard from Amazon. While the Aerogarden may not have iPod popularity, it's encouraging to see consumer acceptance of this technology.

Along with new lighting technology and the eco-green movement, it provides some encouragement that we can move on from the incredibly techno-averse sides of the home gardening and academic horticulture worlds.

Amazon and Flickr are two of the best sources of current information about the Aerogarden. These are Flickr photos and this is a Flickr Aerogarden group.

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Ficus Beanjamina

Click to enlarge. Remember this bean idea ? Well, the little black “bean pebbles” have been sprouting. No harm, no foul, I’ve been trimming them off with no harm to the bean cover.

Then, I decided to share the unexpected sprouting and let them grow for a new portrait. The little tree has been on my desk and it’s been like time-lapse photography to watch the beans sprout and grow. Like grow, as in fast! So, I have renamed it Ficus beanjamina. Bear with me; I’ve gotta find some fun in all this.

Remember it wasn’t my idea, it’s all Danny Seo’s fault. Just kidding. The beans are still a good idea if you like fresh bean sprouts.

NASA Aeroponics

Here’s some news from NASA about hydroponics/aeroponics. Nice to see NASA referenced in this way rather than yet another article about the exaggerated and misleading stuff about houseplants acting as air purifiers.

Rather than fault NASA it's more appropriate to attribute it to the overblown promotion of Dr. Bill Wolverton's findings by the interior landscaping industry.

Soil. Water. Say that plants don't need them and people may think you've traded your cow -- and your good sense -- for a handful of beans. But NASA-sponsored plant experiments prove that you don't need soil and lots of water to grow a beanstalk that would make Jack proud.

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Aeroponic Connie

All right Connie! You go girl! Let’s hear it for a 77 year old who’s living the life of a pathfinder. No clay pots and saucers for Connie Lorraine.

She’s growing vegetables in her house in expanded clay pebbles under artificial lights. What’s more, she’s selling these aeroponic systems at trade shows. Here is her website.

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Home Hydroponics

Is this a peek into the future of hydroponics in the home? Read about it here on popgadget.

The Vege was designed by Teeravit Hanharutaivan, a Thai student, for the Electrolux Design Lab. Yes, it’s only a design prototype but put it in context of the highly popular Aerogarden.

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Clear Glass Hydroculture Containers

Clear glass containers work for hydroculture but I’ve stopped using them for two reasons.

1. Algae – It is a continual maintenance chore to remove the plant, clean the pebbles and container to remove algae buildup. This is particularly true for high light requirement plants. Algae prosper in high light.

If the objective is to make interior plant care as maintenance free as possible cleaning algae is counter productive.

Incidentally, tinted clear glass significantly reduces algae formation

2. Availability of natural looking expanded clay pebbles – It appears that Hydroton now dominates the U.S. market. My local hydroponics store no longer carries the B’Cuzz Grow Rokz or a similar product.

The uniform ball shape and terracotta orange tint of Hydroton pebbles does not look natural to my eyes. Of course, it makes little or no difference to growers of tomatoes or pot. Incidentally, I see irregular, more natural looking clay pebbles (on the left) when I visit hydroculture websites in Europe.

A solution for decorative interior plants is to use opaque containers and install a ground cover such as polished pebbles or a vine like Ficus pumila (Creeping Fig). Or as mentioned previously use tinted glass containers.

Earthstone

Wouldn’t it be cool if one day in the future we were growing our interior plants in a media made from recycled glass bottles? How green is that!

It’s a possibility if we can bypass the reactionary drench and drain gardening lobby.

The bottles are crushed and ground into an extremely soft powder. It’s so soft, it feels like flour. That’s because the average particle size of the “flour” is one-fifth the size of a human hair.

The flour is the main component (up to 99%) of Earthstone materials. Natural foaming agents and additives customize the material’s properties for different applications. Customization can create a material that is more or less abrasive, harder or softer, stronger but with controlled breakdown, or more or less porous.

The finished product probably needs to be a more natural earth tone color, but it's a good start.

Visit Earthstone to learn more.

Hydrotip.de

Clearly the best website I’ve found so far on the subject of hydroculture is the German website Hydrotip.de. I have only scratched the surface of the knowledge base on this site. I am in awe and humbled by what I read. It’s that good. Incidentally, you will also find interior horticulture information beyond the subject of hydroculture.

Like Inside Plants Live, it is a non-profit website and free to publish critical comments and reviews. Note that neither site even carries Google ads.

Couple Hydrotip.de with Plants-in-Buildings.com and some hands-on experimentation and you can teach yourself to be a very well informed practitioner of interior plant installation and care. In my opinion, you’ll learn more about modern methods on these sites than you will by attending any ornamental horticulture (or floriculture) program here in the U.S. I’m quite familiar with what they teach. Sadly, most of it is long out of date.

Unfortunately, Hydrotip.de is in German with no English version as an option. With that said it is well worth your time to explore this site using Babel Fish as outlined here. Use either Babel Fish or a German-English dictionary to help clarify some of the quite rough translation. Let’s hope that Google is allocating a lot of their resources to language translation.

After you have translated from German to English in Babel Fish, click on “The bases” (i.e. the basics). There are 63 data records (11 pages). All of them are worth reading but I suggest starting on page 4 and then click on “I would like to begin with the hydraulic culture. What do I need?” Be sure to read about “changing over “(soil to clay pebbles).

You can also click on “Sitemap” and find the same information and much more.

If you’re keenly interested in the subject of hydroculture as applied to plants in buildings, you will spend a lot of time on Hydrotip.de. Bon voyage…but do come back. Please tell a friend, or two or more what you have found here. It’s my only compensation and much appreciated. Thanks!

Water Level Indicator

Click for an excellent water level indicator graphic on the Leni Hydroculture website. Scroll down and click on the links for more information. This is a link to Leni Home Design a well designed website with a lot more information. Be sure to check out the fountains under the "Water features" icon.

After reading a tip on Hydrotip.de, I have adjusted the amount of water I add to hydroculture plants. You may know that I use a pipette tube arrangement. I now wait for the pipette to indicate that there is no water in the planter.

Previously I had been using a level of about ¼” as the refill level. The planter can remain empty for a few days since there is still moisture in the porous clay pebbles. This provides a margin for error.

There was also discussion of potential problems with water level indicators. Evidently, they have a track record of sometimes getting stuck. That make sense if you understand how it works. It’s merely a plastic float inside a tube. Foreign matter (a small piece of clay pebble, an insect) can get inside the tube and jam it. One recommendation is always to tip the planter to make sure the indicator is free to float.

My opinion is that the pipette tube is a better method for non-commercial use. There is no way that it can fail to give you an accurate reading of the water level other than if you inadvertently drop a pebble down the tube. You’ll know if that happens because it feels and sounds very different when you insert the pipette to the bottom. And...pipette tubes cost next to nothing as a readily available DIY device.

An afterthought...leave a pipette in the tube of each plant rather than using one pipette for all plants. If there's a 1/4" dia. pipette in each 1/2" dia. pipette tube there's no way for a pebble to fall into the tube.

Hydroculture – Double Potting

Click to enlarge. Someday there may be two-piece planter sets similar to these available at retail. That is if we can get the word about modern indoor plant care techniques beyond the “garden wall” and into the general population. There are estimated to be well over 200 million non-gardeners in the U.S. What an untapped marketing potential.

“Double potting” (a grow pot inside a decorative container) is a sub-irrigation method that works equally as well using soil or expanded clay pebble media (aka hydroculture).

Double potting is essential when planting in potting soil media. Direct planting in clay pebbles works because of the large inert particle size and pore spaces but it doesn’t work well in potting soil.

You’ll more than likely overwater the plants if you direct plant with soil. It’s also messy if you need to remove or repot the plant. It’s easy with clay pebbles however. They’re inert, reusable, and easy to handle. It’s not a hygienic problem to work with them in the kitchen sink.

The planter on the left is a 12” melamine bowl from Party City. I’ve also found this size melamine bowl in the supermarket from time to time. The Mainstays (Wal-Mart) clear plastic microwave food cover fits into a 12” melamine bowl as if made for it.

It needs a series of holes around the periphery at the lowest point of the bottom (1/2” apart is good). You can drill them or use a hot poker. I use a metal kitchen skewer heated over my gas stove. Just as in the direct planting method, I install a pipette tube when using expanded clay pebble sub-irrigation (aka hydroculture).

Note the scrap cutting of polyester batting inside the cover. There is a circular piece of this material to fit the bottom of the food cover. It facilitates capillary action. I call it an AquaPad .

Here are more photos of plants installed in microwave food covers. I use them primarily for bonsai-style tabletop trees (Ficus and Dwarf Schefflera). Use your imagination to create other miniature landscapes.

The ceramic planter on the right is from IKEA. One of the good things about IKEA’s plant department is the array of decorative planters without drain holes. However, one of the annoying things about many IKEA ceramic planters is that a 6” grow pot will not fit into them. A solution is to repot the plant into a clear plastic container that fits or into a 5” mesh hydroponics basket.

The net pot in the photo is 5” dia. x 4” h. It fits perfectly into IKEA planters made for tabletop 6” plants. The ½” pipette access tube is fastened with a twist tie to the side of the basket.

AeroGarden Critical Review

After reading this critical review of the AeroGarden, I posted it for feedback from other owners on the Flickr AeroGarden group.

The web can be a powerful consumer communication channel. Note that there is provision for comments at the end of the review. Hopefully there will be other points of view expressed by AeroGarden owners.

Previous AeroGarden posts.

Hydroculture Comments

Better oxygenation - One of the surprises of converting half the Greenscaper Consumer Lab plants to expanded clay pebble sub-irrigation (aka hydroculture) was to find it necessary to increase watering frequency for many of them. The bonsai style desktop trees and other small plants now require weekly watering rather than bi-weekly.

The good news is that this is indicative of better oxygenation of the media. I believe there is more evaporation of the water, particularly with the bonsai style trees that have a larger surface area. There is also larger pore space between the pebbles.

Larger tabletop plants (equivalent to 8" pot size plants) in hydroculture are still on a two-week schedule along with other potting soil media plants.

One ¼” pipette rather than many – I included a ¼” pipette in the access tube for each planter in the photo for illustration purposes. This is not necessary. You only need one longer pipette to use as a tool for checking the moisture in all of your plants. It doesn’t need to reside in the access tube.

Also, you will find that the clear plastic clouds up with precipitated salts over time. Merely clean the pipettes with vinegar or a product like Lime-A-Way.

Hydroculture - Direct Planting Method

Healthy Root Ball

Click to enlarge.

The small tree with small leaves was converted from soil media to expanded clay pebble sub-irrigation (aka hydroculture) a couple of years ago. I used a direct planting method since I didn’t have a clear plastic grow pot to fit inside the blue bonsai pot.

This is what the tree looks like out of the pot. You might think the clay pebbles remain loose in the planter. Not so. Over time, roots envelope the expanded clay pebbles and create a root ball. This, of course, is what happens in potting soil except in this case the media particle size is much larger.

Notice that the roots are black. Conventional gardening wisdom would say that they’re unhealthy. Au contraire, they are very healthy witness the obvious health of the little tree.

Pipette Tubes

Click to enlarge. The key to success when using this direct planting method is the pipette tube. It is a virtually fail-safe method of checking the water level. Merely insert a ¼” clear plastic pipette tube into the ½” receptor tube. Hold your finger over the tube end and withdraw from the receptor tube. The exact water level will show in the pipette tube as long as you maintain the vacuum.

It’s a good idea to anchor the bottom of the pipette access tube. The pipette tube assembly is simple. I recycle plastic caps from milk and juice containers. Drill a half inch hole in the center. If you don’t have a drill motor you can punch and enlarge a series of holes with a hot poker to create a half inch hole. The plastic caps are pliable so that you can force fit the tubing even if the hole isn’t perfectly round.

When you pour the clay pebbles around the pipette tube the caps will do a good job of anchoring the tube.

It’s been a matter of trail and error to gauge the full and empty levels. It isn’t an exact science but I use a rough fill level measurement of about ¼ to 1/3 the height of the container. I refill only when the water level has dropped to the bottom or close to it.

Clear Glass

Click to enlarge. Some use clear glass containers exclusively so that they can see the water level. This limits usage to clear containers. Further, the expanded clay pebbles are clearly visible. This is not always aesthetically pleasing.

For example, I would have used an opaque heart shaped container instead of clear glass for this Happy Valentines Day planter if I had one. The pebbles are distracting to my eye. Incidentally, I install a pipette tube even in a clear glass planter because it’s a more accurate means of water level measurement as compared to eyeballing it.

Bonsai Style Containers

Click to enlarge. Back to the little tree. You can see that it is living in a so-called bonsai pot, which is relatively expensive. Further, bonsai pots have drain holes which need plugging. I use clear Goop.

There are containers in the style of bonsai pots that are widely available. You can find soup and rice bowls with an oriental, bonsai-style motif in the kitchen and housewares department. They’re readily available in the $3-5 dollar range. The rectangular planter on the right is a baking dish.

Commercial Water Level Indicators

As previously mentioned, a means of checking the water level is essential. Commercially available hydroculture planters have a built-in water level indicator. They have a red floating indicator to tell you when to add water. Note that you need a water level indicator of the right height to fit the height of the plant container.

Since I prefer to plant in a wide variety of containers, a more readily available method is desirable not to mention lower cost. The pipette tube costs next to nothing and can be easily cut to fit the height of any plant container. It’s a convenient and very accurate hydroculture accessory.

AeroGarden Group on Flickr

Click icon. There is now an AeroGarden group on Flickr. There are only a few members but it just started on February 5. There are also now over 150 photos. Flickr seems to be an excellent resource for information and consumer feedback if you’re thinking about buying an AeroGarden.

It’s good to see a product like the AeroGarden having such success in the mainstream marketplace. They are a public company and if you read their executive profiles, you’ll see that experienced business people run this company. Incidentally, the International Housewares Association recently recognized AeroGarden with a “Best in Category” award.

AeroGarden is marketed as a consumer product rather than a “gardening” product per se. The original product positioning was as a kitchen appliance targeted to home and professional chefs.

I’ve long believed that maintenance of plants in buildings is much more like cooking than gardening. Measurement of light and water is the key to success. Unfortunately, the use of digital foot-candle (or lux) light meters, digital scales, and soil probes is virtually unknown in the rather techo-averse “houseplant” gardening world.

I own no stock in AeroGarden nor have I purchased one yet. At some point in time I probably will buy one but indoor vegetable growing is not a top priority just now.

Update Thursday, February 22, 2007

Boulder, CO – February 22, 2007 - AeroGrow International, Inc. (OTC BB: AGWI) ("AeroGrow" or the "Company"), makers of the AeroGarden™ kitchen garden appliance, announced today that the AeroGarden has just passed the 100,000 unit sales milestone. The Company began selling the AeroGarden in March 2006.

Read the full press release.

Small Tree, Small Leaves

Click to enlarge. Note the small leaves on this little tree. I’ve been collecting 6” pot size Ficus benjamina plants with small leaves since starting the Greenscaper Consumer Lab in 1998. I’ve been rooting cuttings from these little trees.

The small leaves are desirable because they’re more in scale with the size of a tabletop tree. This one was made up from rooted cuttings in October 2001. Several cuttings were tied together to create a thicker trunk.

Whenever I’m plant shopping I look for Ficus benjamina plants with small leaves. It’s like a treasure hunt. They have no tags identifying them as small leaf trees. Incidentally, I have not found one for a long time.

All of the tabletop Ficus benjamina trees you see here in this Flickr.com photo set were either grown on from 6” pot size plants or made up from rooted cuttings. They are all small leaf trees.

So, why can’t we buy them as such at retail with labels identifying them for use as tabletop trees?

Happy Valentines Day

Click to enlarge.

Lucky Bamboo - New Shoots