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I got a new AeroGarden Bounty today. I am trying to figure out what these two thingies are. They came rattling around inside the bowl, now lying on the bottom. Did they fall loose from somewhere? Where should I put them before starting putting in the seed pods?

Edit:

A big thanks to both Graham Chiu and stormy. Graham Chiu's answer is right on the mark. I posted this question last evening, because by the time I took this monstrosity out of the box, customer service had already closed. I have just called today after following Graham Chiu's suggestion. The translucent object indeed is a float with a magnet sensor that indicates water level. I almost got it upside down. It's really annoying that they do not include these objects in their list of components or instructions.

see these One of these parts has words that read "fill to here"

Eddie Kal
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  • Fill To Here? Is that for water or soil? Interesting. Have you looked it up on the Internet? Didn't it come with instructions? – stormy Apr 20 '18 at 03:20
  • maybe it's a float which rises as the water rises to let you know when you've provided enough water. – Graham Chiu Apr 20 '18 at 03:56
  • @stormy I forgot to mention I had read through the manuel and their website, plus seen Youtube review/intro videos before posting here. These are not mentioned anywhere. – Eddie Kal Apr 20 '18 at 05:20
  • Hi Eddie Kal! I'm glad you got what you needed regarding this growing system. I hope you'll still say with us and have fun here! – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL Apr 20 '18 at 21:44
  • @Sue Thanks Sue! It seems a very nice and rookie-friendly place here. Will definitely stay and learn to be a better green thumb. – Eddie Kal Apr 20 '18 at 21:48

2 Answers2

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My guess is that the translucent object on the right with the metal inside slides into the black hollow cylinder. The metal end is bottom down, and the top end is the float. The black cylinder then holding the floating switch must sit on a something of the same diameter inside the box, probably that incomplete cylinder we see to the right. The gap is to allow water to enter the black cylinder.

When the water falls below a point, it must allow the metal part, a magnet possibly, to contact a switch magnetically at the bottom inside the box to advise that you need to refill with water.

Graham Chiu
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This is a mini hydroponic grow thingy. This site should give you some instructions. aerogarden

Have you ever grown anything in regular soil? Learning to grow hydroponically as one's first introduction to plants, in my mind is just weird, Not that you are weird I am trying to say that although I know plants inside and out I just wince thinking about growing plants in water only. Hard enough to learn just in good old soil. Can't imagine learning by doing hydroponics. But I sure hope we can help you be successful.

The instructions should be more complicated than a brand new expensive 3 D printer! Those instructions should be at the store you purchased this little system from and surely here on this site. This should generate even better questions. One thingy looks like an extension to the air input of your...pump? To be able to have deeper water? The other thingy must be a cleaner outer of that tube?

Try this internet site and see if what you need is available. Otherwise, I'd take this right back to the store, or get the internet site where you purchased it and have them send you THE MANUAL of instructions. Good luck...

stormy
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  • Thanks for the tips. I do have some limited exp with regular soil gardening. Used to get herb seed packs from Amazon or ebay and fill my entire balcony with plant pots. Well, AeroGarden's manuel doesn't have much useful info. There's no mention of the black cap or the other thingy... – Eddie Kal Apr 20 '18 at 05:25
  • Really? Your little AeroGrow will work well with all your other plants in pots. Fun experiment but my goodness NO DIRECTIONS? I would most certainly go bug that company...there should be no 'thingy' things without instructions. I was hoping you'd call this company! Grins! You should be able to find any and all instruction manuals for anything on the internet. This is just too weird. Are you on well water? Or tap/city water? I use the word thingy an awful lot...too. – stormy Apr 20 '18 at 21:24
  • I called 10 minutes ago and got my question answered! Was about to come back and report, but you beat me to it :D There are directions, but there's no mention of these two objects. I guess they assume these would never fall off, but they did in my case. I am on tap water. – Eddie Kal Apr 20 '18 at 21:26
  • How funny...tap water has lots of icky chemistry that you should know about; chlorine (a good thing and dissipates quickly), fluoride is just below Mercury for toxicity, very very bad. Are you growing plants to eat? If not, the plants seem to manage with tap water. Otherwise, fluoride (hydrofluorosilicic acid PLUS) builds up in the plant material and when you eat it you just get more of this industrial waste built up in your bones. I like Graham's deductive reasoning about your...thingies, grins! Let us know how this contraption works for you. This might be great first hydroponic lesson. – stormy Apr 20 '18 at 21:58