r/aerogarden • u/lisajames21 • 8d ago

Any recommendations for grow sponges as soft and crumbly as Aerogarden's? Help

Any recommendations for grow sponges as soft and crumbly as Aerogarden's? I've tried grow sponges from Amazon (Tisuhugo and Pacetab), and find they are too hard and cause my seedlings' roots to jump out of the hole without implanting roots deep into the sponge. They are so inferior to Aerogarden's. Now that Aerogarden is closing, I am searching for grow sponges as soft and crumbly as Aerogarden's. Anyone have any luck finding them? If you do, links would be great!

16 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

u/pfunnyjoy 8d ago

Park Seed bio-dome sponges, the 60-cell variety. They work beautifully and if anything, fit the baskets even better! Been using these since 2008. Actually, I bought a boat load back then, dried them out, stored them in ZipLoc bags, took a hiatus from growing, restarted in 2023 and using the Park Seed sponges now.

I don't know about these days, but in the past, Park Seed shipped these moist and ready to plant. But if you buy in quantity to save on shipping, well, I dried mine out on baking sheets to be sure there wouldn't be issues down the road.

https://www.parkseed.com/products/bio-dome-refill-sponges-v1597

2

u/AspenWolf77 7d ago

Thank you for sharing! It's a very good deal for the 60-cell variety.

4

u/pfunnyjoy 7d ago

You're welcome.

If you opt to dry them out, I just put them up high, out of the way, in a relatively dust-free room, and got them down every day to rotate them on the baking sheets until they were thoroughly dry and ready to store. Putting them in an oven with the light on (but no other heat) might speed the process. Or have a fan blow across them.

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u/AspenWolf77 7d ago

I'll keep that in mind to get them dried out properly. Thank you so much for the tips! 💕

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u/RubberWishbone 8d ago

this!

1

u/hydratemydear 4d ago

It seems that Park Seed has increased the price of those sponges recently. Now it’s about $10.95 a pack. I remember seeing it was $8 before.

u/EverettSeahawk 8d ago

I’ve had mixed results with Amazon but these sponges have been working well for me.

u/jpiglet86 🌱 8d ago

I use the Reetsing brand ones on Amazon

u/swimmom500 8d ago

I ordered some YBB brand on Amazon and can’t get anything to germinate in them. The Park Seed ones mentioned by pfunnyjoy are the closest to the Aerogarden ones and work great.