The Niwa next-generation indoor garden is coming--get in on the ground floor at Kickstarter

While this blog is dedicated to my adventures as an Indoor Gardener, you'll notice that most of the posts for the past six years have been about the AeroGarden. For good reason of course; the AeroGarden revolutionized in-home hydroponics. After a series of marketing missteps, they've recently found a marketing partner in Scotts and seem to be making a lot of great moves in marketing their products and getting them out to the mainstream.

Still, after six years of AeroGardening, there are signs that the AeroGarden has hit a wall. The latest straw for me was the failure of my AeroGarden ULTRA. Just to update you from my post a few days ago, I'm still in the process of seeing if I can get Discover to honor an extended warranty claim. But bottom line, for the unit to completely fail AFTER installing a so-called "fix", and only weeks after the one-year warranty expired (on something I paid hundreds of dollars for) is ridiculous. I'll keep you updated on my saga of trying to get a new AeroGarden ULTRA to replace my current one.

There are a few other things about AeroGarden I'm not thrilled with. While I started my indoor garden adventures thinking I'd be saving vast amounts of money by growing my own herbs indoors, this savings has been more than offset by the huge recurring costs of getting replacement bulbs and seed pods and motors and growth nutrients. As we've seen with my adventures trying to grow larger vegetables like tomatoes and lettuce, even the tall gardens have their limits. And of course, engineering missteps like corrosion on the metal parts of my AeroGarden 7, failure of the air stones in the AeroGarden VeggiePro, and the most recent issues with the AeroGarden Ultra are frustrating to say the least.

A few weeks ago I had the thrill of getting an email from Aga, an entrepreneur who is behind the idea of something that really has the potential to re-revolutionize indoor gardening: Niwa.

I was thrilled when I saw my first pictures of this thing. The most obvious thing is the design--it's beautiful and will be something you'd be proud to display not in a tiny corner of a kitchen but as a focal point in your living room, making it both a productive garden as well as an attractive houseplant.

Second, notice the size of this thing. Even on my tall AeroGarden unit the plants would regularly grow into the lights, causing the uppermost leaves to burn and block out the lower leaves. While they're still working out the specs, it looks like there'll be Niwas ranging from 19 inches to 35 inches tall or even taller. This means things like full-sized tomatoes, tropical plants, spinach, cauliflower, strawberries, and more.

Third, it looks like they've engineered the unit with advanced hydroponics: temperature control, light cycles, automated watering, and nutrient system. And being fully enclosed using greenhouse technology helps keep your plants safe from household dust, bugs, and other annoyances I've documented over the years.

Four, one of the most exciting "21st century" things is that there'll be an app to let you control the hydroponics system. This goes beyond just an app with rotating "tips", but a smart app that'll let you customize the settings depending on what plant you're growing, track and understand each step of your plant's progress, and even customizing the conditions based on what you're observing of the plant's grown.

Sound exciting? It sure does to me! You can read more about the story of how co-founders Aga and Javier came up with the idea here, and if you'd like to get in on the ground floor, they're launching a KickStarter campaign on May 12, 2014 (update, the Kickstarter campaign is now live), where you can get all kinds of bonuses by pitching in and helping fund the project as it goes beyond prototype stage into development and shipping.

If you're an indoor gardener, it's a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of what could be a new revolution in at-home hydroponics.

The Aerogarden Ultra dies, Pesto, and Old-school Indoor Gardening.

It's been a while since I posted an update to the blog, and it's for sad reason--my Aerogarden Ultra is dead.

It happened while I was away from home. I left the house for a week and when I returned, the unit's lights were out and a faint burning smell was coming from the bottom of the unit. Thank heavens the house didn't burn down.

Now if you "recall" (pun not intended, but it would have been a good one if it was :P), there was a notice from AeroGrow to AeroGarden Ultra owners back in June, warning that there was a problem with the design of the unit, but if you sent away from a free replacement for the base plate, that problem would be all fixed.

Well, as you recall from my post in June, I sent away for the replacement and installed the new base plate. But it looks like that didn't solve the problem at all, because all the symptoms they were describing of water overfilling and shorting out the unit seems to have applied in my case.

Worse, I was one of the first people to buy the AeroGarden Ultra back in December 2012, so my one-year warranty just expired not too long ago. But since I bought it with my Discover Card, and they have a warranty extension program, I called them up. They'll be sending me a claim form, which hopefully will help me get what I paid back for it, maybe I'll apply that towards one of those over-priced Aerogarden Ultra LEDs so I can review that for you. But I have to say, I'm not impressed by the engineering of the Aerogarden Ultra, nor of the "fix" that they put in place.

In the meantime, my Aerogarden 7-pod classic system (the one I installed the replacement bulb in for my last post) is doing well. I am down to one basil plant in it, but it's still going strong. I harvested a bunch of basil and made pesto for the first time in a while. All hand-crushed, the way it should be, using a mortar and pestle my sister got me for my birthday.

In other news, I work in Manhattan with an office that gets a LOT of sunlight every day--so much that it warms the office up, as Al Gore might say, by several million degrees. 

Two weeks ago I went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which has a fabulous plant sale every year. I bought a sage plant and a rosemary plant, and decided to bring them to the office, old-school style. 

I've never been able to raise rosemary indoors without killing it, so this will be a good test to see if I can get these to grow. There's a water cooler outside my office, so I'll be watering it with fresh spring water from Maine :)

Cheap alternative for Aerogarden grow lights - Adapters for regular light bulbs

I have to admit, one of the things I find most annoying about the Aerogarden is that the grow bulbs seem to blow out on a regular basis, and worse, the only way to get replacements is to go to Aerogarden's store.

Here's the problem--just one of these light bulbs easily cost upwards of $10-13. It's a clever way for Aerogarden to get themselves a regular source of revenue, sort of like the way Gillette never made money on its razors but on the razor blades. But for someone like me who wanted to get into indoor gardening partially to save money, it really doesn't make sense for me to be raving about how I save money by not buying fresh herbs, but end up paying triple the amount I would have paid in electricity and replacement bulbs.

Now for years I've been fastidiously buying from the Aerogarden Store, but when one of my grow lights decided to fail lately, I decided to bite the bullet and try one of these adapters I've been seeing on eBay. They look like this:

Here's how it works. You take a regular CFL or LED light bulb, the same kind you use around the house, and screw it into the adapter.

Then, you plug the adapter right into the Aerogarden. Note that certain light bulbs are going to be too big to fit, but the ones I happened to have lying around fit perfectly.

Voila--instead of shelling another $13 for a new light bulb from Aerogrow, I ended up using a $1.42 light bulb. While Aerogrow will tell you that its lights are "specially formulated to maximize growth", I haven't noticed any difference between the bright light that the Aerogarden grow light is putting out vs. the one that the regular light bulb is.

For your reference, Aerogarden replacement lights typically produce 1450 lumens of light and use 26 watts, so you'll want your CFL or LED bulb to output about the same.

One thing to keep in mind is that depending on what model of Aerogarden you have, you'll need to choose between two types of light bulb sockets.

Most Aerogardens that have three lights except for the Ultra, including the original Aerogarden Extra (not the "Miracle Gro" branded Aerogarden Extra), Aerogarden Extra Elite, VeggiePro, Elite+, Pro200, Deluxe, and Deluxe Upgrade Kit) use a light bulb that has more of a flat end, with two metal prongs coming out of it parallel to the shape of the light (model #100633).

Aerogarden Light 100633

All other Aerogardens, including the AeroGarden 3, AeroGarden 6 (a.k.a. Space Saver and Space Saver Elite), AeroGarden 7 (a.k.a. Classic), AeroGarden Ultra, and new Miracle-Gro-branded AeroGarden Extra use a bulb that has a more round end, with two metal prongs coming out of it perpendicular to the light (model #100629 or 100340).

Aerogarden Light 1000629 or 100340

Where to get them

Obviously, Aerogarden doesn't sell these on their store, but a good place to go is eBay. Just search for "aerogarden adapter" and you'll find sellers selling them for about $10-14 each; the price has gone up a little since I first wrote this post, but it's still a bargain considering the savings you'll get over time. As with everything on eBay, make sure to check that the seller has a good history and great reviews, and make doubly sure that you have the adapter for the right model. The seller I used, whom I was very happy with, doesn't seem to carry them anymore, but there are certainly plenty of others that do. Just make sure you're buying the adapter that lets you use regular light bulbs in the Aerogarden, not the adapter that lets you use Aerogarden bulbs in a regular light socket.

Now obviously this isn't sanctioned by Aerogarden, so chances are if you have a warranty on your product using one of these would probably invalidate it if they were to find out. On the other hand, if you're like me and have already sent hundreds of dollars of your hard-earned money to them, these little adapters are a great way to keep your gardens running. 

So...how's that "Chinese Cabbage" doing?

So, it's been a few weeks since my last update on the Chinese Cabbage. Here's an update.

In my last few posts you might remember I was confused over what AeroGrow meant when they said "Chinese Cabbage". The good news is that I've finally figured it out once and for all, now that I've seen it growing.

You might recall I was wondering if it meant Napa Cabbage or Bok Choy, the two most common varieties of cabbage that go under the name "Chinese Cabbage".

For reference, here's what Napa Cabbage (scientific name pekinensis) looks like:

DSC04382 (Photo credit: snekse)

And here's what Bok Choy (scientific name chinesis) looks like:

Baby bok choy (Photo credit: dollen)

Our cabbage has been growing exceptionally well (making up for the anemic growth of all but the basil plants in the other Aerogarden).

A few weeks ago Lisa harvested the first batch.

She then prepared it the classic way: by chopping up some garlic and very, very quickly stir frying it in a very hot pan with a little oil until the leaves are slightly wilted and the stems soft.

One taste and I knew the answer--it's neither Napa cabbage nor what we normally call "bok choy". It's actually a third kind of cabbage that's common in Chinese cooking, but which most Westerners have never seen nor tasted. In fact, it's so foreign to Western palates that even Wikipedia doesn't explain it very well.

I have a decidedly Western palate, but my Lisa is from Taiwan, so she explained it to me. She also has a master's degree in speech therapy and linguistics, so I look to her for the authoritative answer.

The first thing to understand is the Chinese word "bai tsai", which depending on who you ask may be romanized as "bai cai", "pei tsai", "petsay", "bok choy", "pak choi", "bok choi", or "pak choy". The reason for the radically different pronunciations is that some of them attempt to transliterate Mandarin pronunciations, while others attempt to translate Cantonese ones. But all of them are the word "白菜", which literally means "white vegetable".

Making matters more confusing is that Westerners refer to chinesis as "bok choy" and refer to pekinensis interchangeably as "Chinese Cabbage" or "Napa Cabbage. But that's not what they're called in Chinese.

What we call "Napa Cabbage" is called "da bai tsai" in Chinese, or literally "large white vegetable". This kind of cabbage is commonly used in dumplings, soups, or stir-fried with pork.

What we call "Bok Choy" is called "bai tsai" in Chinese. This kind of veggie is most commonly steamed or stir-fried. It has a distinctive shape.

And so what's this stuff growing out of the Aerogarden called? Well, it's commonly called "shiao bai tsai" in Chinese, or literally "small white vegetable". The Cantonese equivalent is "siow pek chye". As for the English name, it's so rare to find in American supermarkets that I can't see a name for it other than "Chinese Cabbage", which is probably the same dilemma the Aerogarden copywriters faced (which is why the first line in their product copy is "this is not your traditional cabbage").

What makes matters even more confusing is that even in Asian countries they can't decide on a name to call these plants, but these are the most common ones.

As for the taste, this kind of cabbage has generally a taste that's a little stronger than Napa cabbage but is more leafy and has a little less pronounced of a flavor than bok choy.

As for the quality of the Aerogarden cabbage, Lisa's first comment when tasting it was that it was really fresh, not surprising since she cooked it 30 seconds after cutting it from the live plant. If you look back at the archives, you'll see that I was a little ambivalent about my experience growing Aerogarden lettuce mainly because it became a bit of a pain trying to decide what, other than salad or sandwich, to use the lettuce for. But I foresee a lot of great meals with this cabbage, and of course I'll share them here.

By the way, there appear to be some good recipes on Google, but all along the same theme of stir-frying them in garlic and in some cases oyster sauce.

We're averaging a harvest that can accomodate a side dish for two about once every two weeks now. I have to say, after yielding rather anemic results with the tomatoes and lettuce, the Chinese Cabbage is turning into what I imagined Aerogarden should be--a sustainable and consistent way to enjoy fresh vegetables from my own indoor garden.

Aerogarden Ultra with LED lights

I do have an update on my Aerogarden Chinese cabbage (including what the heck it is--spoiler alert--unlike what I wrote last time it's not Napa cabbage). But in the meantime I just noticed that there's actually a new Aerogarden in town that looks even better than the Aerogarden Ultra.

It's called the Aerogarden Ultra LED, and it retails for $349.95. To check it out, visit Amazon. This is basically the same as the Aerogarden Ultra, complete with the ability to support tall planets and the handy "control panel". The difference is that instead of traditional grow lights, they use LED lights. LED lights are a great solution because they draw less power, don't burn out nearly as often, and have a "coolness factor" that the regular florescent bulbs don't have.

As you can see, there's a "space age" quality about the Aerogarden Ultra LED. It sort of reminds me of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. According to Aerogrow, the red, white and blue LEDs aren't just there for show (or for patriotic reason), but actually are scientifically proven to stimulate fast growth (white), bigger yields (blue) and more flowers (red).

 Since it's been less than a year since I plopped down over $200 for the Aerogarden Ultra, I can't see myself buying this new unit for a while. But if you're in the market for the top-of-the-line Aerogarden, this new one is definitely a huge step forward. From a cost savings perspective, it's about a wash--you pay $100 extra for this unit, which could pay for a couple years of replacement grow lights. But if you want the newest and coolest technology, this is the way to go. 

UPDATE: Since I wrote this post, most reviews of the Aerogarden LED have been overwhelmingly positive. The one recurring problem has been that early adopters of the unit reported that their clock would run fast and jump ahead, sometimes by minutes, sometimes by hours. Evidently this was a weird situation where the design of the hood and the LED lights caused interference with the clock, which of course wreaked all kinds of havoc with germination and feeding schedules. Aerogarden has since come up with an updated design, and has been offering a replacement hood for Aerogarden ULTRA LED users free of charge. If you've been affected and haven't been contacted by Aerogrow yet, be sure to call them at 1-800-476-9669 and ask for a replacement hood.

Chinese Cabbage Doing Well, Other Herbs Not So Much

So, remember those pods I planted a month ago? Here's how they're doing now.

 Here's the Chinese Cabbage growing in the Aerogarden Deluxe:

As you can see, it's growing amazingly well. I was actually curious about what "Chinese Cabbage" was, as the Aerogarden site isn't too specific--there are at least two varieties of plants that go by that name, one being "pekinensis" (a.k.a. napa cabbage or white cabbage) and the other bring "chinensis" (a.k.a. bok choy).

From what the leaves look like, it's pretty clear this is napa cabbage, which is great for us because we use it in cooking all the time. It's great stir-fried with pork, for example, as well as great for making dumplings, spring rolls, soup.

Hopefully the garden will produce enough for us to cook all of them. I'll of course post recipes and pictures as I start harvesting (which unfortunately I have to figure out how to do, as the documentation from Aerogarden doesn't really help). And I really, really hope that I don't have to deal with bugs, at least for a while. Here's the other Aerogarden with the herbs.

What a difference. While the basil is doing well, as expected, none of other other pods are growing. And no, this time I don't want to deal with the trouble of trying to ask for replacement pods. I suppose this is par for the course with Aerogarden--some batches of seeds are just sitting around longer than others, so whether a pod will grow or not can be hit-or-miss. I attempted to salvage these pods by clearing out the bad seeds and the fuzzy mold that invariably grows around them and planting new seeds. We'll see if that helps.

 In other news, I got an email the other day that Miracle Gro is now an investor in AeroGrow. They didn't buy them outright, it seems, but they invested enough that all Aerogarden products are now being co-branded with the Miracle Gro logo. AERO's stock price has shot up to about $2.20 a share, small consolation for me who in 2011 exuberantly bought a bunch of shares at $5 and took a big loss when the stock became a penny stock--but good news for the future of the company--and for people who bought when it was a penny stock (yes, I know, if if's and but's were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Xmas).

Modern Sprout: a new player in the indoor gardening world!

As much as I've enjoyed hydroponic gardening with the Aerogardens over the past five years, I have to admit that as much as Aerogrow has tried to make the Aerogarden units prettier to fit into home decor (even going so far as to making one unit look like a ladybug), the big gurgling plastic monstrosities tend to be somewhat of an eyesore. Plus, I really don't like how you have to buy proprietary seed pods, motors, nutrient at ridiculous prices just to keep the thing moving.

Well, it seems there's a new kid on the block. There's a husband-and-wife team in Chicago who have a new start-up called Modern Sprout. As so many innovative entrepreneurs do, they went onto Kickstarter to tell the world about their idea, and the Kickstarter community embraced it enthusiastically.

The couple, Nick and Sarah, faced the same issues and frustration in their Chicago apartment that I've talked about on this blog and on indoorherbgarden.org that I've faced in my New York apartment, namely, wanting to grow healthy, vibrant plants, but not having a balcony or real windowbox I could use.

Their ingenious idea was to create a "windowbox" planter that sits inside and runs on hydroponics.  They put a lot of thought into their product.



Here's what the product looks like--notice they have designs ranking from modern looks, to wooden boxes, to chalkboard boxes.

They'll be selling a few different models on their site at various prices.
$129 – Plug-in model planter in chalkboard, high gloss white and weathered gray
$159 – Plug-in model planter in reclaimed wood
$219 – Solar powered in chalkboard, high gloss white and weathered gray
$249 – Solar powered in reclaimed wood

If the product works as beautifully as it looks, I think Nick and Sarah are going to do very, very well, given the number of you who's written in over the years to share your thoughts on the need for an indoor herb growing solution that actually works and won't break the bank. Hopefully I can try one of these out someday and let you know how it works, but if you've been able to use one of these, please leave a comment and let us know what you think!