Bounty Questions

[heatherl]

Hi all...noob to this forum, but I'm on my second Aerogarden. I've had my Bounty model for about a year, and am about to restart my garden soon. I have a couple of questions:

1. How do I prevent the roots from messing up the water level sensor? This was a problem with my previous model as well. I learned quickly not to rely on the Aerogarden to tell me when to add water.

2. While I can get the unit to connect to WiFi, the app doesn't alert me when water is low or when nutrients are required. App seems useless for the most part.

3. Any tricks for keeping the roots from infiltrating the motor? They grow right through the filter.

4. I know that you can only prune up to 1/3 of the plant at a time (for herbs), but are there any guidelines for frequency? Sometimes I feel like I could prune every day!

Any advice is appreciated! TIA!!!

[Shawn]

Hello and Welcome!  See Answers in BOLD below

Jan 10, 2021 14:20:48 GMT -5 heatherl said:

Hi all...noob to this forum, but I'm on my second Aerogarden. I've had my Bounty model for about a year, and am about to restart my garden soon. I have a couple of questions:

1. How do I prevent the roots from messing up the water level sensor? This was a problem with my previous model as well. I learned quickly not to rely on the Aerogarden to tell me when to add water.

I often turn my plants every other day if not every day.  This forms a soft root ball.

2. While I can get the unit to connect to WiFi, the app doesn't alert me when water is low or when nutrients are required. App seems useless for the most part.

I THINK there may be a setting on the Bounty itself for Alerts.  It will beep.

3. Any tricks for keeping the roots from infiltrating the motor? They grow right through the filter.

See answer to Q1.

4. I know that you can only prune up to 1/3 of the plant at a time (for herbs), but are there any guidelines for frequency? Sometimes I feel like I could prune every day!

Prune if and when needed.  Sometimes I prune every couple of days and others not for a week or so.


Any advice is appreciated! TIA!!!

I hope the Above helps

[clumsythumbs]

I can not vouch for this, but early on getting started in AG, I recall people on here posting that they would be pantyhose over the filter?  I get roots in my filter, but just clean them out between gardens. It has never really been an issue. Shawn has good advice in terms of turning the plant every few days to make a root ball. You can also trim away roots as they get large. This will not harm the plants, so long as they still have some roots to get water. I often trim when I do an rinse and refill. 

My Bounty does not have the wifi/app capability, so I just rely on the reminder screen. I tend to add water every few days. Depending on the plant, I start to notice one machine is getting low more often, so will just refill every few days. 

Glad you are setting up your garden! Look forward to see what you plant and your progress.

[maskedsonnet]

On notifications, I’m not sure they’re working right now. For a while I got notifications for things I had turned off (like AG tips) and now I get no notifications at all, even though they’re turned on for water and nutrients. But the settings for it in-app is under ‘my account’ - ‘notification options’ if you want to check to see if notifications are turned on.

[Jay]

On the notifications: check permissions on your device. Android now has an option to turn off access to apps when they are closed, you have to physically go in and turn it on for it to push notifications to you. I'm not sure if Apple does or not.

This link talks about turning on and off permissions in Android.

On roots, I always trim mine when I rinse and refill. It helps reduce the chance of root rot and keeps the peskies out of the works. I usually trim them so they don't touch the bottom of the reservoir or anything around them.

[golddustpeak]

Do you folks that trim roots manage to trim larger plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplants?

[Jay]

Yes on tomatoes and peppers.

I take the deck off, sit in on top of a 5 gallon bucket and trim them. I can also rinse them that way if they look suspicious. 

[clumsythumbs]

Jan 11, 2021 8:28:13 GMT -5 golddustpeak said:

Do you folks that trim roots manage to trim larger plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplants?

I trim whenever roots either a) get unruly or large, b) the roots are filling up the tank, c) on longer projects to manage them. When I do a R&R it seems almost inevitable as whatever roots are tangled will get pulled off. So long as there are enough roots to be exposed to air and water, the plant will be fine.

[Shawn]

I will trim roots when too long and out of the root ball I form.