- Joined
- Jul 15, 2020
- Messages
- 127
- Climate
- Temperate (all seasons)
This thing is about ten years old and has been sitting outside most of that time (and looks it). I was pretty sure it was a waste of time, but I bought a new pump for it, and I spent about two hours cleaning out the old rockwool and scale from inside. Plugged it in and BOOM - works like a champ! I am waiting on some fertilizer supplements to come in (as well as pH tester and balancer), but my hope is to grow lettuce (and such) this winter. I have just a regular shoplight over it for now, so no ambitious sun-loving plants. The Tower Garden is currently sitting in a utility room, in a corner. In the winter, the temps in there drop to about 50-60F, so it should be perfect for lettuce, spinach, and such.
In its heyday, I had this out on my deck and grew cucumbers and melons in this thing, so it can definitely handle larger plants, but they were a bear to clean out afterward, as the roots would almost fill the "tower" portion. Also, I didn't like having a water-filled tank sitting on wood all year, both for the moisture and weight. So I moved it downstairs and next to the house, and there it sat, waiting.
I am glad I got it up and going again. It wasn't cheap back when I bought it, and they are ridiculously priced now. I paid about $350 for it back then. I used it regularly for a few years, then it started plugging up because of the horrible water quality here, and it was a pain to clean out, so it got used less and less and then not at all. If it works well for me in this capacity, I won't feel like I wasted my money on an impulse buy (which, ten-ish years ago, I did).
I filled it this time with the same water as before (good water but HIGH TDS that clogs up everything over time), but I am hoping to do all top-offs with distilled water, to dilute out the solids. It is just too expensive to fill it the first time with bottled water.
In its heyday, I had this out on my deck and grew cucumbers and melons in this thing, so it can definitely handle larger plants, but they were a bear to clean out afterward, as the roots would almost fill the "tower" portion. Also, I didn't like having a water-filled tank sitting on wood all year, both for the moisture and weight. So I moved it downstairs and next to the house, and there it sat, waiting.
I am glad I got it up and going again. It wasn't cheap back when I bought it, and they are ridiculously priced now. I paid about $350 for it back then. I used it regularly for a few years, then it started plugging up because of the horrible water quality here, and it was a pain to clean out, so it got used less and less and then not at all. If it works well for me in this capacity, I won't feel like I wasted my money on an impulse buy (which, ten-ish years ago, I did).
I filled it this time with the same water as before (good water but HIGH TDS that clogs up everything over time), but I am hoping to do all top-offs with distilled water, to dilute out the solids. It is just too expensive to fill it the first time with bottled water.
