Seed Starter Grow Sponges for Aerogarden, PH-Balanced Refill-Seed Pods Replacements for Indoor Hydroponic System, 50 Pack, Brown

My husband’s daughter gave me a hydroponic growing system, and I just needed the extra equipment to go with it. This set had everything I needed and works perfectly with the system. The pods germinate well, the nutrients work great, and it makes the whole setup easy to use. I’m really loving this system!

A good kit at a good cost,

Worked as expected

I have had square hydroponic units, im on my second set. I start my garden indoors and move it to the outside. Ive had to cut some off. I grow lettuce indoors. Ive had to destroy some of my old ones when transplanting.

Fits excellent for my tank

Easy to use, assembly quite easy. Works well with my aero garden

I had 10 seeds ordered of heirloom herbs I wanted to grow. I used chives and parsley twice trying to get a sprout. Of the 12 herbs I planted using these pods, 2 are thriving, 1 is really good good , 2 decent, 3 are seedlings (sprouted but barely) and 4 didn’t produce (including parsley which is usually very easy to grow). I ordered aerogarden’s preplanted seed pod kit with 9 herbs. I’m setting it up today (have to clean my aerogardens first). I transplanted the herbs from this batch? Even if they just had sprouted, and have them under grow lights. The ones that were thriving/pretty good were transplanted weeks ago & are still doing well & continuing to grow. I think the problem with these pods is the sponge doesn’t fill the plastic pods high enough for the seeds to get light. I actually had an algae outbreak in one aerogarden, never happened before. The only reason I could surmise is light was getting through the space at the top of the pods where the growing medium didn’t come up nearly high enough. Empty pods were covered with aerogarden caps. I know algae isn’t supposed to “hurt” plants, but I can say 100% everything that had sprouted instantly stopped growing & a film of algae grew over the top of the sponge & new seedlings never grew. Then I noticed the water in my second aerogarden was green, even though algae hadn’t started noticeably growing in that tank or on the pods. I changed the water out, washed & cleaned both units as well as the pods using q-tips & toothpicks removing the algae slime from the top. But within a few days it had come back, so I scratched this batch. I transplanted everything that had even a small amount of root growth to see if it will survive, but I took apart the pods to inspect the pods that hadn’t produced. They didn’t stand a chance,. Seeds had germinated but algae had turned the seeds green. In addition it seemed like the sponge had collapsed in over some seeds before the algae covered them. The last time I used both units I cleaned them thoroughly. Even took the plastic casing apart around the motors to make sure I removed all biological material. I’ll see how these aerogarden pods do. Generally I’ve had success with all the preplanted pods. I’m also going to try growing the heirloom seeds I ordered in a traditional sprouting system indoors to see if there’s an issue with seeds, but they looked healthy & I seriously doubt they’re the problem. To make a short story long, I think it was the algae growth brought on by these pods allowing light to penetrate through the upper portion of plastic. And I don’t care what anyone says, once you have algae growth, plants in a hydroponic system aren't going to grow.

I bought these for use in my Aerogarden pods, because I had seed kit pods to re-use and spare stickers, but couldn't find the brand name sponges available for sale by themselves. They worked fine. Size was a little inconsistent, some of them were shorter and sit deeper in the pods, but my lettuce seeds still germinated in them, and are growing nicely.