Customer Reviews

AeroGarden 2500-01S Pro 100 with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a remarkable device, one that is a boon to apartment dwellers with no patch of garden, or to anyone who wants an indoor garden that's nearly foolproof.

The Pro 100 has a black shell, stainless steel plate and trim, and a newer feature called "adaptive growth intelligence" which is supposed to automatically monitor water, light, and nutrient delivery for maximum growth. I think it may be a complex timer that is keyed to what type of plant you choose from the front panel (ie, herb, lettuce, tomato) because it seems to demand water the same time every week, though I fill it up whenever I see the level dip below an indicator post inside. The Pro does tell you when to add new nutrient tablets and tells you what phase you are growing--sprouts, new growth or mature plant.

I have to say, I have probably a "black thumb." I can grow aloe plants really well, pothos (ubiquitous viney house plant) and I once had a good crop of morning glories but normally, my gardening efforts are pretty sad. I don't trust myself to keep an outdoor herb garden growing.

But I like to cook with fresh herbs, and I got really tired of trying to find chervil, let alone keeping basil and mint from going all black and soft in the fridge. After reading a lot of discussion about the Aerogrow and seeing a tempting sale, I decided to spring for one and try it out.

The device is a rounded vessel that holds a pump and water, and a light attached at the top. The surface of the lower vessel has a stainless steel plate with seven wells. You put plastic seed pods in these wells, cover with plastic "bio-domes" and add tablets of nutrient and let 'er rip. The pump feeds the foam in the plug where seeds are embedded. The light encourages the seedlings. Within weeks, you have a crop of various herbs or lettuce or flowers.

The "razor blade" of this device is the seed pod. It is a specially designed unit, like a small plastic frame rather like a thimble. It holds foam plastic, split in two. Inside the split, the manufacturer places some seeds and puts a paper collar with the name of the herb on top. The collar serves also to support the plant as it grows taller. The other "razor blade" is the grow bulb, which needs replacing after some months because lights grow dimmer as they are used. Eventually, the grow light is too weak to do its job and you need a replacement. I say "razor blade" because these disposables are unique to the unit and you must purchase them from retailers who sell Aerogarden products. There are master gardener kits with special pods you can use to insert your own seeds--probably a great idea for gardeners who need to get a real jump on the growing season, such as folks in New England where the season can be as short as 60 days.

I tried three kits so far: first, I used the gourmet herb kit. This had two types of basil (purple and green), mint, parsley, cilantro, dill and chives. I got a great crop of basil. Enough to share some baggies of this essential herb with my assistant at work. I got a bumper crop of dill, plenty of chives for breakfasts of omelets, and eventually, some viney mint that seems to be of the apple mint variety. Not enough to do tabbouleh salad, but enough to use in drinks and garnish fruits. Only the cilantro failed to grow. No seed even showed a sprout. I called the support number, and very polite folks immediately sent me a replacement and noted they felt it would take more than four weeks to sprout cilantro. Now, some of the herbs are slow to grow (parsley is notoriously slow) but neither pod ever showed a ghost of cilantro. I assume that the seeds supplied to the company might have been mistakenly irradiated food-grade spice seeds and not fresh crop growing seeds. In any case, I got absolutely nowhere with cilantro, a shame, as that is a very tender herb that doesn't keep well. The parsley grew too slowly to be of any real use, as well. But it did grow.

I eventually depotted the herbs into a kitchen flower pot (cutting off the plastic frame and leaving on the foam, into which the roots had really made a home.) Then I tried the lettuce. It sprouted in three days and in a month, I had enough to make some light salads and yes, share a bag with the assistant. But it seemed a waste to let the Aerogarden grow something as mundane as lettuce, and I prefer mache (cornsalad, feldsalat) or arugula to leaf lettuce, so I harvested the rest of the crop and started the French Herb kit. This is chervil, sorrel, parsley, chives, Marseilles basil, sage and savory. Everything sprouted immediately except the parsley and chervil, notable slow-pokes of the herb world.

I sure like having fresh herbs to hand on the kitchen counter. I can even see the attraction of having three or these mounted on an optional wall rack, but that is quite a luxury. However, a determined gourmet or gardener in a harsh climate or restrictive living setting could satisfy their green thumb with such an arrangement.

The customer support is fast and friendly. I have heard stories of failed pumps but mine is quite reliable, and I did have a light give up the ghost way early, and this was cheerfully replaced by customer service. The unit is attractive, easy to use (hey, my black thumb has yet to deter the Aerogarden) and it is a lot of fun to watch the plants grow taller and taller. I'd say this is a great idea for kids as well as cooks who like fresh herbs. As to the other kits, there are a number of them and more are being made available. I can purchase them at my local farmstand-garden shop and that's quite handy. Of course they are also available online.

The kits so far that I know of are the French Herb, Gourmet Herb and Lettuce I mentioned and:
Japanese Herb--two colors of shiso, mitsuba, chives, shungiku and cress
South of the Border: Epazote, cilantro, oregano, thyme, parsley, basil
Year Round Gourmet Herb (extra herbs like savory, sage, lemon basil, and the ones in the regular gourmet kit)
Holiday Herb (parsley, sage, oregano, thyme)
International Basil
Italian Herb
Cascading Petunia
Cherry Tomato
Salsa Garden
Beans
Snow Peas
Chili Peppers
More greens (arugula, mesclun, baby greens, chef pack, romaine)

And I assume more packs are in the works. All come with nutrient tablets and complete instructions.

I give this two (greenish) thumbs up.

I have had my garden for 10 days now. It is working great so far without any problems. I have the gourmet herb set and all but one so far have started growing in different stages. It is fun to watch it, it seems to almost grow before your eyes. I would recommend putting this in a room where the light isn't going to disturb your sleeping, if at all possible, it is very bright! Customer service at aerogrow is very helpful and curtious if you have any type of questions. I would recommend this to anyone really, especially if you don't have the "green thumb" or live in apt and can't have an outside garden.

Well It is now September 22 and I still have the two basils, thyme, and parsely coming on strong! I have had some problems with dill and parsley but aerogrow has been very helpful and even sent a replacement. The only thing I would recommend is that If you live where it gets real HOT during the summer and you don't run your a/c during the day all the time, consider getting something different. The herbs tend to look wilted at times due to the heat but other wise they are fine. Plan on using a little bit at a time or trying to dry it for later use in a larger amount. I am going to try the lettuce next then the strawberries to see how they do.AeroGarden Pro 100 with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit

This is a nice unit. I'm sure some people have had a part break on them, but that has never been the case here. This whole system is well planned and all the details worked out better than most any product I've ever seen. We followed the directions, and everything come out perfect. Seems like you would have to be really sort of 'slow' to mess up using this product. Sure, there is always a chance of a poor batch of seeds I expect. But after 4 'plantings' we've never had a single issue.
The seed pods are all nicely labeled. Every plant sprouted on exactly the day the instructions said it would. They tell you which plants to put in which holes so that they all get the right amount of light. They tell you when to add water and how much. It tells you when to feed it (drop in 2 pills.. how hard is that ?) If you trim the plants when and how it tells you, you can keep them even and they all will bush out into large nice beautiful plants that supply you with great herbs as often as you would ever want for a few months. Reading the other reviews we purchased a 2 pack of the light bulbs (for $19 total).. to have on hand, since several people complained they didn't last long.. well 18 months later.. we've had to replace one. Yes they are bright.. plan accordingly. Once I noticed the pump was having trouble... I stuck my hand in the water... moved the roots away from the intake.. fixed.. maybe a 4 second repair. We have been thinking about a second unit, since one crop last a pretty long time.. 4 to 5 months of harvesting (herbs).. and we wanted to have other stuff going at the same time. Also might use one to start a few things then transplant them outside. The unit does what is suppose to do perfectly. Seeds are too expensive... but they are just so easy... I'm working out making my own pods.. not only to save a little, but pick and choose my own plant types.

I always read these reviews with a grain of salt, so to speak. I've seen idiots out there that can make a mess of about anything. You could sell them a rubber ball and they would complain the ball didn't bounce well after they ran over it with a truck...and they called customer service, and customer service was unresponsive.. really. And with a little work, you could mess this unit up. At some point, you need to know how to screw in a light bulb, actually snap it in. I don't know how good the customer service is.. I've never had to call them. Seeing that you have a pump that pumps water through a mass of growing roots.. it will need attention there once in awhile.

If you want to grow 7 herbs indoors, or a few other things, this is a great way to do it. It's a little costly.. so is growing you own garden outside if you add it all up, tools and consider time spent. This takes very little time. Is easy. Is fun to watch, it can be right there in the kitchen with you. Makes a great night light if you want to cycle it at night...lol But if you do spend just a little time trimming the plants , how it says.. they tell you when and where to cut each plant depending on what it is... it's a great little system ! Useful and fun.

Easy assembly and directions, nice looking unit. The light is INSANELY BRIGHT - we put it on the bartop and it was like having the Arc of the freaking Covenant in the kitchen. It's good for eliminating Nazis from your cooking area as a bonus, I guess. I mean, it almost completely illuminated a 1 bedroom apartment. The pictures make it look like it's a nice, warm, soft and comforting glow; in reality, it's the glow of importing a firey stellar object made of nuclear gasses into your home. So... You may want to have a bigger space where you can put it someplace a little out of the way. Someplace like deep space, where you can bask comfortably in its rays and perhaps provide life-giving solar energy to another as yet barren, cold planet.

It's very quiet, though. Has a nice little water trickly noise if you're nearby, not enough to be distracting whatsoever.

The seed kits are a ripoff hands-down. I ordered an extra one, the "salsa" cherry tomato and jalapeno kit - twenty dollars nets you three pods with seeds and four plastic spacer plugs to stop up the other slots. For twenty dollars I can buy enough tomatos and jalapenos to live on a really boring but spicy salsa for like a week solid, even with organic produce. As an aside, they forgot to include any of the actual nutrient tablets with my extra kit, so I'll be calling customer service. Finally, they greatly over-packaged the seed kit in an attempt to make it look like it's really more than it is for the money.

After all that, for being a holy object, the source of all life on Earth, a made-for-TV scam, and the potential bringer of small quantities of edible greenery, it's kind of a neat toy, which is really why I bought it in the first place. Make of that what you will. I give it a noncommittal three stars, possibly to change dependent on herbal outcome.

I bought this despite all the complaining here on the Amazon reviews about any number of things.... pretty much all of which I would disagree mostly with.

the new 100 model is very nice looking and very well-built. I have stainless steel appliances and it fits in with my decor better than the original models. Everything is packaged very well.

I've read complaints about the documentation and am stunned for this little machine comes with some of the best documentation I've ever seen. Perhaps these people got older versions? Not sure -- but what I received is top notch with full color illustrations and photos. Not a thing is left out and each seed kit comes with a wonderful book as well that reinforces basic use as well as herb specific instructions.

The pump is NOT noisy. In fact standing next to it you can barely hear it. I'm not sure what the problem people have with this. There is a soft trickle that is rather soothing actually.

The light is bright -- get over it. It has to grow plants, duh. But what I didn't know is that you can set it to go off at a specific time just by pressing a button and it will go off at that time every night. Then it comes on around dawn the next day. So -- how is this a problem?

I've had mine for about a week now and the plants have come up right on time. I had one pod that the top was not glued on and had to glue it down but other than that no problems so far.

We'll see how the herbs turn out but so far I'm thrilled with this well-made product.

(I called customer service once and they were quite helpful -- I just had a question but so far my experience is good with them.)

Highly recommended!

High Promise, Less Delivery
I started growing tomatoes with my AeroGarden about two months ago. I got my first flower a few days ago, the first step towards tomatoes. Unfortunately, the pump on the device stopped working the next day.

The FAQ on their web site advises me to open the device, take it apart, and clean the pump. They provide seven (7!) pages of instructions to follow and the process requires the use of a flat head screwdriver, small pliers, butter knife and soap. You also have to provide containers to put the liquid in and find a place for the plants that require their roots to be maintained under water. They claim the cleaning will take 20 to 25 minutes on the first attempt.

It actually took about 15 minutes to complete, but then my pump was perfectly clean! The problem was not the pump, the problem was that the root system became so extensive after two months of growing, that the mass of roots blocked the pump intake located at the bottom of the tower.

When your pump stops working, I suggest before you go to the bother of taking the pump apart, that you first try trimming the root system around the bottom of the pump tower. That is a MUCH EASER REPAIR compared to taking the whole thing apart. At any rate, I put everything back together, and the pump now works.

I have several suggestions for AeroGarden management. Number one suggestion, do something about your NON RESPONSIVE CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Perhaps they answer the phone, but if you send them an email, don't expect a response. Its been one week since I sent them a question about the pump failure... no response to this date. Email communications is worthless with this company, so if you need help, call them. From what I have read about their phone customer service, you might want to have a few snacks at hand and use a speaker phone so you can do other things while you wait.

Number two, I suggest that management learn a bit about a concept called "Maintainability". Its related to designing a product so its easy to maintain. Apparently the pump on these things need to be maintained. A little point that is not mentioned in the sales literature. Having to take the thing apart to get at the pump so you can clean the filter is silly and reflects a lack of design competence. It would be a cinch to design something better this. I hope potential competitors are listening.

Number Three, add to your pump failure instructions the fact that the root system could be blocking the water intake at the bottom of the pump tower. If your pump stops working, the first thing you should do is to move the roots away from the bottom of the pump tower. You can trim the bottom of the roots with a scissor if you are careful. If that works, you have just saved yourself a lot of trouble that you did not need to go through.

Number Four, the growth feeding tablets are hydroscopic. That means they attract water. Keeping them in the little plastic bag provided will, in time, result in their merging together into a large amorphous mass. Management should provide a more water vapor resistant plastic vile to keep the growth feeding tablets in. Of course, that might cost five cents, so its not likely going to happen. So at the minimum, I suggest that users of the thing supply the necessary vile.

In Summary, we have an integrating product, where little attention has been devoted to maintenance design. We have incomplete instructions with respect to trouble shooting in the event the pump stops working. We have non responsive customer service, so if you do have a problem, and you expect to save your current plants, you are pretty much on your own.

By the way, why is this thing called an "Aero" garden? Its a hydroponics garden so it would seem that "Aqua" or "Hydro" or "H2O" garden would be a more appropriate name.

Would I recommend it? I bought the device because I wanted to learn more about hydroponics gardening. I expected little, so my expectations were met. Its a thought provoking gadget, but given all of the faults in conjunction with non responsive customer support, I have to rate it more in the un-met promise category... that's two stars. I can't justify higher ratings when you have a company that provides customer service at this level of ineptitude.

I love having fresh herbs to cook with, but they are very expensive in my market. (Hate spending $8 for a bunch of fresh basil, using 3 leaves and throwing away the rest.)

But I've never been able to grow herbs in my kitchen window or in my garden. They always become heavily infested with aphids and I either over or under water them. Death is the result (of the plants, not my family).

My Aerogarden Pro 100 is wonderful! I've enjoyed every minute of watching my herbs sprout. Every morning I wake up and run into the room in which I have the Aerogarden to see that my herbs have grown dramatically since the previous day! The owner's manual is very comprehensive and clear, showing exactly how to prune and harvest each type of herb.

The Aerogarden provides a perfect environment for plant growth. After 7 days every herb had sprouted and after two weeks the basil is almost ready to start harvesting. Chives, mint, thyme, purple basil, green basil, parsley, and dill are all up and vibrantly growing!

Some of the problems folks have had with this unit are addressed in the current user's manual:

1) Roots can grown into the water pump, so check it and trim them away.

2) Tomato plants will not flower if they don't have a certain number of DARK hours a day, so adjust the light cycle to provide a dark period. (For example, don't have it sitting next to a window where it gets sunlight and have the lights running all night.)

3) Yes, the unit puts out a lot of light. Don't put it where the light will bother you. Mine is actually in an upstairs bedroom that I use for an office so I can close the door at night and let it glow away on its own. (During the germination phase for herbs, the light is on 17 hours a day.)

The AeroGarden arrived in mid October and was started a few days later. Within a week the pump started to make noise. The company immediately shipped a replacement with no questions asked. It has been quiet ever since. The booklet that comes with the herb seed kit has a theoretical schedule of the stages of the plants life. Perhaps it is because we live in Arizona but the plants grew like weeds. In three weeks we were harvesting large amounts of the herbs. Two months later we are still harvesting and have given bags of fresh herbs to friends. The unit was placed in the kitchen and makes a very bright night light but you can change the schedule of the light to accommodate your needs. We plan to try other seed kits if the herbs ever stop growing and die out.

No doubt about it: the lights on this unit may come as a shock to you if you live in an apartment. I live in a large two bedroom apartment and while the Aerogarden doesn't light the entire thing, it's not exactly a small nightlight either. But that is really the only bad thing I have to say about this product.

I received this as a Christmas present this year, fired it up (so to speak) New Year's Day and I've been "harvesting" herbs since Feb 1. Not bad at all. One of the pods didn't flower but it was cilantro, which I never use, so I didn't bother to ask for a replacement. Otherwise, even the most disaster-prone gardener can handle this. Put in the pods, add water and tablets, plug it in. That's it.

A final note about the lights. In the "initial growth" stage (about 2 weeks) the lights are on for 20 hours a day. After that, they're on for 18. If you are bothered by lights when you sleep and you can't put this unit in an area where the light won't be visible from your bedroom, this may not be for you. On the other hand, if you're having a dreary winter like we are here, the lights are a nice bonus. It's like your own little Seasonal Affect Disorder fighter and garden all in one.

I have to say I'm not thrilled with my Aerogardens. I purchased two of the Pro units. One I set up with the Salsa mix...two tomato plants and one pepper plant...not much for $20. The second unit I started with the salad greens. I was thrilled when they germinated in two days and grew rapidly. They did great for about a week and then one by one they all died. I called customer support. The representative wasn't very enlightening...she said they had never had that happen before (I find that hard to believe!). The pump, lights, etc were all in working order and I'm anal retentive about following directions so I don't know what happened and they had no clue either. They did send out another kit no problem. Since it wasn't going to arrive for several weeks, I cleaned the unit out and planted the snow peas kit. Well, no problem with them growing. They have outgrown the unit. The directions say nothing about trimming them. The plant supports provided proved woefully inadequate as some of the plants are now close to two feet long. No flowers yet, but I'm keeping an open mind. My first unit's pump stopped working. Thanks to another reviewer's advice, I cleaned off the pump port and yea, it started working again. I wish they would mention that somewhere in the instructions. So far, I'm very underwhelmed with these units. It appears a lot of folks really love them and it was based on their reviews that I purchased my Aerogardens. I hope time will change my opinion.