Homemade Aero Garden

Hello. new to the site but i have been seeing people talking about aerogarden... seeing the price made me think i could just make it for... virtually no cost... testing it with the salad greens, of course i bought the nutrients but it seems to be working...

no 'green' yet but this is what i came up with.
metal bowl, filled with the amount of water used in the aerogarden.
plastic plate with holes cut out for the pods.
and a lightsource. simple, and it works.
unless the water needs a bubbler which i couldnt find on the aerogarden...
anyway... pics:




if you look closely.... you will see its actually growing.
so i think my homemade aero thing is working.

feedback n tips wanted.

im new to this stuff, obviously.

Wow, interesting, I guess that goes to show you the versitility of this plant...
So youve got the seed kit but wheres the aerogarden?

Peace
-Tek

You need a way to get oxygen to the roots -

The Aerogarden has a submersible pump that sits in the reservoir - it pulls water from the tank up through tubing and dribbles/drips it on the growing medium.

A cheaper alternative is an air pump - just put air pump outside (above) the reservoir with tubing into the water, making bubbles - airstone or tube with poked holes will improve oxygen output.

They wont last long without oxygen to the roots.

Its growing just sitting in the water?

What sprays the nutes and water?

The aerogarden doesn't spray anything, it is more of a heavy drip system. I believe they call this a NFT.
The nutes is mixed in with the water in the reservoir and then pumped into the pod holes.
If you want to go aeroponics you need a mister or a fogger , that you can get from most garden centres. Then really the gap between water and pots should be higher than what you have so you can place the mister/fogger above the water spraying the roots.