Do you have an AeroGarden that you've loved for years, but now it looks too tired to live on? That happens. You grow hydroponic lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, and more, and it's great. Free fresh herbs and veggies! Then you take them down, clean them, and start another growing season. Rinse and repeat, cycle after cycle. But then you start noticing the grow deck isn't getting as clean as it once was.
Is it time to throw away the AeroGarden?
They certainly look dingy after years of use. AeroGarden recommends flushing the system with water and white vinegar to disinfect it. But that doesn't do much for the way the grow deck looks. I have used water and white vinegar with a sponge to clean the grow deck. It definitely helps, but after a while you'll swear you just cleaned an area and it looked better, until it dried and it's like the crusty nutrient residue comes back from the dead again. I was getting close to thinking it was time to part with my AeroGarden Farm, which I had used to grow as many as 24 plants simultaneously in over the years. But I knew there had to be a better solution.
How to revive your AeroGarden so it looks much better
Instead of throwing it away, wouldn't you rather do something that'll make your AeroGarden looks much better? Not only that, this same trick also makes it much easier to clean up after each growing season. And if you do this from the start, you may never have to deal with the nutrient residue and white blotches all over your grow deck. In addition, it'll also help your plants grow better. And you can do this in a matter of 5 minutes.
Just use some aluminum foil. I use the heavy duty kind, to avoid tears throughout the growing season, so you don't have to treat things so delicately. Pull out a sheet that stretches across the grow deck, with a little extra on each end (just enough to fold over the edges). The aluminum foil roll I use just so happens to be the exact width of my AeroGarden Farm grow deck, which makes it even easier. I tear it off at the right length, lay it over my grow desk with the shiny side up, then use some small pieces of Scotch tape to take it down. I typically use two or three small pieces of tape across each of the shorter sides, and three or four pieces across each of the longer sides. Then I take a scissors, opened up, and use one end to stab holes in where each of the pods go. then I fold the aluminum foil into the holes, making sure not to block the water spouts while doing so. I also poke small holes where my AeroVoir water reservoir feeds into the grow deck, and the other small hole where my air stone tubing feeds in. I keep the water refill corner covered since I use an AeroVoir water jug refill system. I find it helps prevent gnats later on for gardens that are around for a long time, with less open exposure to water.
Three things that this 5-minute AeroGarden trick accomplishes
So what does this simple, 5-minute trick do for you? Three things actually.
- It transforms your unsightly AeroGarden grow deck into a clean, pristine grow deck (and shiny too!). Or if you have a newer/cleaner AeroGarden, it helps prevent that issue from forming all together.
- It makes cleanup much easier. Just remove the tape, peel back the foil, and throw it in the trash. Usually a quick wipe of the grow deck is all you need beyond that, for any leaf crumbs that may have fallen in this process.
- As an added bonus, during the growing season, this also helps to reflect the light back up onto the lower parts of your plants. You know, those areas that often die out, that you don't see and thus don't end up cleaning up...and that often end up attracting gnats if left long enough? Yes, those. With the light reflecting back up, those leaves are less likely to die and get all nasty and cause that problem in the first place.
Another trick to make cleanup easier
Since we're trying to make cleanup and starting a new growing season easier for you, how about one more trick? If you use an AeroVoir to automatically fill your water reservoir from a water jug that's easier to fill, you may have noticed algae buildup in the rigid plastic part that gets inserted into the AeroGarden reservoirs. By the way, I've found a pipe cleaner (and some patience) helps to clean that out if that happens to you. But why not avoid it all together? Just take some paper towel and fold it over a few times to create a thick barrier. Then use some small binder clips to secure the paper towel over the rigid tube. This prevents the light from getting to the water filled tube, and thus prevents algae from growing inside. And while you're doing that, throw a kitchen towel over your AeroVoirs as well. This will prevent algae from getting into them, which the blue tint helps to prevent...but you'll find that eventually the algae builds up unless you block the light out completely.
