AeroGarden Harvest Bedienungsanleitung Seite 9

GERMINATION
• Some seeds germinate in less than 24 hours. Some take 24 days or more. Most labels give an estimate
of how long your seeds will take to germinate but many factors impact germination.
• As a rule of thumb, if you are comfortable, so are your plants. However, plants are impacted by
temperature. Cold weather plants like Salad Greens germinate better in cooler weather. Heat lovers like
Tomatoes and Peppers will germinate faster in warmer temperatures (above 21o). But don't sweat it!
While they may take a bit more time, your seeds will germinate.
• If you are growing your own seeds, plant 5-6 seeds per pod and check the seed packet for information
regarding temperature and days to germination.
• You can set the light cycle to 24 hours for the first month to give seedlings the best possible start.
PRUNING
• Lower your plants, don't raise your lights! You will achieve more compact, beautiful growth and bigger
harvests if you prune plants to keep the lights closer to all plants.
• Fast growing plants (like Basil) make gardeners want to raise the lights hood too soon. Resist! Pruning
the plant just above a new leaf set (Diagram A) and leaving the lights down low will ensure that slow-
growing and low-growing plants in your garden get all the light they need to flourish.
• Not pruning is the number one mistake made by new AeroGardeners! Prune early and often and enjoy
the small harvests!
• Prune often to maintain a healthy garden, but never take more than 1/3 of each individual plant at
a time.
• Plants compete for light. Left untended, more aggressive growers can actually block enough light to
suppress growth of their slower growing neighbors, and eventually they can die off due to lack of light.
Spreading leaves must be trimmed (Diagram B) to make sure that slow growers get enough light to
thrive and produce big yields.
• Finally, pruning = harvesting. Each time you prune you get to enjoy fresh herbs in a salad, soup,
on pizza or a sandwich. And, a full, bushy garden looks much better than one giant, spindly plant
surrounded by straggly, light starved neighbors. Pruning also releases a wonderful scent. So prune!
WATER
• Plants grown in the AeroGarden are designed to thrive with most municipal tap water. If your water is
especially hard, improved results can be seen with distilled water or reverse osmosis water, but this is
not needed in most cases.
• Do not use well water or softened water. Most well water contains a high amount of dissolved solids
that upset the balance of our nutrients, and softened water adds sodium. This can result in plants
suddenly browning, or just not growing well.
• While the AeroGarden water level indicator will remind you when water gets low, best results are
achieved by topping off water regularly - before the Add Water indicator activates.
9