Cheaper alternatives for running your aerogardens

SPONGES: I have Rockwool cubes but have only used them outside in a hydroponic bucket. I read you’re not supposed to squeeze wet Rockwool because it crushes the little chambers that both hold the water and allow the roots to grow through them.  So I’ve not tried to cut the cubes either.

Several people here swear by the Park sponges. Both in terms of price and performance. They definitely cost less than AG sponges. I’d give those a try. 

CAGES: The cages, yeah, unless you have luck getting close to a workable 3-D print, we’re kind of stuck with the AG cages.  But I buy the big bag when they’re on sale, and like Shawn I reuse them when I can.  I also stick them in the dishwasher for convenience (upper rack for plastics).

Also, I’ve got a bunch of old AG seed kits that I swipe cages and sponges from, and just kill the AG seed that comes up with whatever I’m planting. 

NUTES: I’m trying the GH series, and for herbs and greens I have the Ionic Grow that Mike recommended.  The latter is buffered, I believe.  I don’t know about the first. But I’m not gonna fiddle with PH. Just not willing to go that extra step . (Lazy, here  ). And I raid the old AG seed kits for their nutes, too.  I have so many kits because I bought so many machines - even the used machines often came with a kit.

Edited to add:   LIGHTS: For the CFL I bought a set of the converters a long time ago when they were more plentiful, before the LED came out.  But as I understand it, the best bulb for the plants is no longer available. Hope I’m wrong. You’re welcome to my converters if I can find them. PM me if you’d like them.

Honestly I haven’t used it enough to know.  I used it when I first bought it on Mike’s recommendation, then forgot I had it until it came up a week or two ago.  I’ve since brought it back out.

I can say this, though:  it sure smells a whole lot better than the new AG formula.

As someone who has recently spent a fair bit of cash on AeroGarden products I've given a lot of thought to this in the last couple of weeks. I wasn't planning to talk about this until it was a bit further along, but since it came up I guess I'll go ahead and share.

I've arrived at the idea of designing an open-source garden system that would be compatible with the AeroGarden pods. I've done a fair bit of modeling for 3D printing in the last year and there's nothing about an AeroGarden style garden that would be too terrible difficult to design.

In fact I've already started on a version 1.0 model that'd be just a single pod garden. It's a very simple design that's only intended to be a proof-of-concept. It would use an airstone system and be similar to a Sprout, but smaller. The tank and deck models are done. Next I'd need to design the lighting portion. I have some ideas for how to use programmable LEDs and an Arduino microcontroller to facilitate the electronic portion of that. The Arduino could also manage the timer functions.

I think that if I do it correctly, the project could easily scale up to more complex gardens.

Having said that, there are some significant hurdles I see.

1. The biggest hurdle is that common 3D prints are not food safe. This isn't a big deal if you're just printing something like a lid or a cover, but anything that comes in contact with the water or plants would give me pause. The most common material for 3D printing is PLA. On it's own, raw PLA is actually perfectly safe. However, once dyes have been added it becomes harder to say. Worse, the 3D printers themselves introduce some toxic bits via their extruders and print heads. If you buy food-safe filament and use the right parts on your 3D printer it can be done though. I'm fortunate to have access to a lab where I can likely move past this, but I'd be worried about other people printing out the gardens and not caring. I do not want to be indirectly responsible for bad things leeching into people's food.

2. Getting the code right for the Arduino isn't complex, but it'll need to be just right to be reliable. That'll take some work. If the project goes well I'd want to scale this bit up to include a full web interface for control for the phone. (I suspect it could be better than the AeroGarden app. 😉) This would introduce more electronics (likely a Raspberry Pi Zero W) and more complexity, which means more work.

3. Most 3D printers that people have at home aren't large enough to print designs comparable to models like the Harvest, Bounty, and Farm. 

4. As it scales up the design would have to move past a basic airstone/bubbler concept and get into the full-on pump-based systems such as the Bounty and the Farm. Pumps would be a further level of complexity.

Again, this is just me thinking out loud. I'm barely down the road of the concept version of the smallest possible design. Still, I think it could be interesting and potentially cheaper if it's done well.

This is definitely a great project to be pursuing. My only suggestion would be to not fear simplicity. Even if it has no timer unit, it's like 5 bucks to get a simple light timer yourself. Most small commercial hydroponics kits don't even give you a light source.

Something as simple in principle as a single pod capacity, non circulating, for herbs and leafy greens, with an adjustable stand for a household light bulb would be a great proof of concept. Maybe throw in a built in air stone in lieu of circulation to keep the roots happy.

I'm going to continue studying and trying out other hydroponics methods and equipment to give me a better idea of where to go next.

Yes. Kratky is very interesting to me. I actually read the papers he published from his initial studies earlier this year and almost went fully DIY. There’s some really interesting stuff there!

I’ve looked at every type of hydro system and strongly considered the DIY route since this was going to be a new hobby and building systems appeals to me.

However, at the end of the day the AeroGarden won because of aesthetics and simplicity. I’ve got limited options for where to keep a hydro system indoors and I’m not going to make my wife suffer through me setting up a bunch of PVC or hacked up storage containers in the dining room.

I also know from building other kinds of systems that it’s very easy to create technical/support debt for yourself where you’re spending more time supporting the systems than getting what you want out of them. The simplicity of the AeroGarden lessens that a bit. Most days I’d rather troubleshoot my plants than why the code for my micro controller isn’t working right.

But obviously there’s a part of me that can’t help but tinker. I’ll keep pushing that forward, but as a side project. For producing real food I’m sticking with the AeroGardens.

I agree!
I also agree with Nick about the simplicity. It’s a lot more fun (to me) to tinker with the plants than with the hardware.

Mason jars are so iffy.  The light gets to the water and roots and pods and can get algae so easy.  I have seen people get black tape and tape the whole jar up to stop light from getting in.

I've used Park Seed sponges in the past and liked them.
But they're out of stock until December.