How fast will my Aerogarden grow with the Lights on 24 hours in a day.

Progress of the Aerogarden Growth

The Aerogarden is an amazing indoor hydroponic system that can be used to grow many different kinds of vegetables, herbs and flowers from the comfort of your own home or office. I purchased the Aerogarden Elite 6 for my father last year as a Christmas present.

He did set it up in his bedroom, which I don't recommend. After things started to grow really nicely he never tended to the plants properly and the dill and Basil started to grow crazy. This blocked the other plants(oregano, thyme and mint) light and caused them to not come up very well.

After a couple weeks he was frustrated and gave up.

The aerogarden was then boxed up and put in the closet like many of the other christmas gifts we got for him of the years.

Aerogarden after 2 weeks of lights on all the time

See all 4 photos

This is two weeks into the aerogarden growing with the lights on for 24 hours a day

What happens in the first couple of weeks.

The set up is really easy. I recommend the base to be placed close to the kitchen for easy harvesting. Sometimes you forget that you are growing fresh herbs at home if they are not nearby. Also you need room to raise the hood. I have one of my aerogardens in a book case. I tested to see the highest setting that the hood would be and planned the shelving accordingly.

After you plant the pods I don't think the lights need to be on right away. Feel free to turn them off when ever they go on for the first couple days. Only after you see the plants sprouting do you need the turn the lights on in my opinion.

Here is how the aerogarden after 4 weeks of the lights on all the time

after almost 4 weeks of lights on 24 hours a day this is how the aerogarden looks

Alot happens from week 2 to week 4

Things get "exciting" between the 2nd and 4th week. All the Herbs should be coming up. We had problems with the chives. Only 2 of the seeds made it. It seemed that the seeds were missing or fell out of the pod. I called Aerogardens customer service and they are sending a replacement chive pod. Aerogarden's customer service is great. They are very knowledgeable. I found out that they have someone working full time on make sure that the Aerogardens look amazing for the photo shoots.

after 6 weeks of growth

this is how the aerogarden looks after 6 weeks and the light on all the time

6 Weeks with the lights on all the time

I thought it would be a good idea to really get the plants going by leaving the lights on all the time. This is only recommended with herbs and some vegetables. Do not do this with flowering plants. Another word of caution is to right down the date you last dropped in the nutrient tablets. The Aerogarden has a setting that reminds you every 2 weeks, but if you unplug the unit I believe it resets it self and that reminder is off. What I do is write it down on a piece of tape when I should change it. This way if I know I will be gone I can pre-feed the herbs.

This is how the Aerogarden should look after a lot of TLC

This is how the Aerogarden should look after about 10-12 weeks. Lets see how I do.

after about 10-12 weeks

I'm hoping that my aerogarden will look this good after 10-12 weeks. Hopefully the necessary trimming won't take too much time. Like I said before they have someone working on this full time.