Aerogarden Harvest Elite Slim w/ Heirloom Salad Seed Pod Kit (Stainless Steel) Expired

So, for those on the fence, here is my take on this...

Bough this for the wife 2 years ago for Xmas when I think it was $130 at BestBuy. We have it setup on the counter top in the kitchen. Ours was also the lettuce one, which is what this is from the description.

First, don't expect immediate results. They are still plants, and it does take a bit for them to be ready to harvest. That said, when we had the salad setup I believe we had some usable stuff within 2wks or so? Maybe it was 4wks, but it wasn't like a crazy long time at any rate. Once it gets "established" was was honestly making more lettuce than my wife and Daughter could eat in a week. We were trying to find creative ways to use it. At one point I think we were supplying the neighbors.

All that ended when I got a little TOO carried away trimming them back one harvest. The instructions do say you can be "aggressive" in your trimmings, but I had waited too long as I think we were on a week-long vaca and it had gotten out of control. I whacked it back to stubs, thinking it'd grow back, but several did not. That's when we decided to switch to Basil because, well, we just use it in everything.

Basil is basically a weed. Literally all I did was go to my local grocery store, picked of one of their "live" basil plants, took a decent-sized snipping off it, and stuck it into one of those grow plugs. Within a week it had sprouted, and within a month we were back to producing more than we could consume. I think the "sweet spot" would be 2-3 basic and 2-3 something else, but you need to get strategic on where to put the basil as it will block out everything else.

So, what I like about it...
- My wife and I are not good at keeping care of plants. This is VERY fire-and-forget. I just have to put in water or plant food when it has the red light on
- Same for the light...it comes on when it needs to and goes off when it needs to on it's own. You just tell it what type of plants are in it and set the time of day.
- I get fresh basil (or whatever plant I decide to put in it) for cooking, which is nice
- It mostly looks cool sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Lots of neighbors/friends have asked about it.

Things I don't like:
- The plant food ends up making this yucky crystalized mess in all the cracks/crevices, and it's hard as hell to clean when you do decide it's too much
- Speaking of plant food, when you run out, the Aero-brand stuff is kinda pricey IMHO. I think last time I bought it on Amazon it was $13 or so, and it's cheaper to buy it with the little brown grow pods than by itself, so now I have a bunch of those pods that I probably wont ever use. I need to research if there is a decent alternative other than their brand

- It does not seem to have a battery backup for the time. Every time the power goes out, I have to remember to reset the time too
- The lights are HELLA bright, which is good for plants but not-so-good for napping/watching tv/etc