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60 Days Risk Free TrialAeroponic Tower Garden Benefits
Designed for higher capacity than the GX – the ALTO Garden HX Aeroponic Tower can grow 40 pots of your favorite vegetables, leafy greens, herbs and fruits at home. The HX Tower comes with 8 layers with 5 pots per layer. Combined with a larger reservoir water tank and a more powerful pump, it circulates more water and nutrients to plant roots supporting even faster growth. The best part is it has a similar footprint as the GX – about 3 square feet. But yet, you have the growing capacity of a 50 square foot garden by growing vertically.
Equipped with lights that are 2x more powerful, you’ll experience faster grow times than ever before. The grow lights on the ALTO Garden HX Aeroponic Tower Garden are adjustable – you can place the lighting arms close to the plants when they are seedlings, and move them farther away as your plants grow. With its full spectrum lighting – you can have a healthy and robust indoor garden! And bringing your garden indoors as never been easier since the HX Tower does not use any soil. Using hydroponic and aeroponic methods – water is delivered directly to plant roots, which are suspended in air inside the tower supported by the included net pots. There’s no soil, no mess.
Watering
A common misconception people have, is that watering is run continuously for 24 hours a day. But with aeroponic towers it’s actually best to run watering on a cycle, for example – 15 minutes every hour. And not even for 24 hours. 12 – 16 hours is enough watering time throughout the day. An interval-based watering schedule means plant roots are more exposed to air, than they are to water! This leads to higher oxygen uptake by plant roots vs. burying them in the ground, resulting in faster growth times and greater yields. High oxygen exposure is one of the key benefits of aeroponic systems.
Watering is powered by a water pump which is placed inside the water tank below. The pump sends water up to the top of the tower. Water trickles back down into the water tank while watering plant roots along the way. This cycle repeats, recycling water like a water fountain. This closed-loop watering design is exceptionally efficient, resulting in 95% water savings vs. traditional soil-based gardening where most of the water is lost in the ground.
Watering the tower is automated through the use of timers. The water pump is plugged into a timer which you can set to run at times convenient for you. We like to run our towers for 15 minutes at the top of the hour, for 14 hours a day when growing indoors (watering is increased outdoors during warmer weather). We also light our towers for 14 hours a day too, which coincides with our watering times. So between 7am – 9pm, we run both our watering and lighting. We’ll touch more on lights below…
Aeroponic Tower Construction
The ALTO Garden HX Tower is 8 layers high with 5 pots per layer. This lets you grow 40 pots of lettuce, cabbage, kale, arugula, parsley, basil, peppers, strawberries and other fruits and vegetables. To maintain wide-spacing between the pots, tower diameter has increased from an 8 inch diameter on the GX to a 10 inch diameter on the HX. A wide-spaced pot design is essential so your plants can fully mature. Pots placed too close together leads to plants being cramped for space and competing for light. But with ALTO Garden towers your plants will have plenty of room to grow fully and thrive.
The HX Tower is made from the highest quality, food-grade material which is 100% BPA free. With a 360 degree, solid construction all around – there are no leaky seams or joints for water to pass which protects your floors. The tower walls are an industry-leading 2mm thick. Sturdiness when fully assembled is common feedback we hear with ALTO Garden tower gardens, and the HX Tower continues this trend.
2x More Powerful Lights
To accommodate a greater number of plants, the ALTO Garden HX Aeroponic Tower has been designed with lights which are 2x more powerful. We have also more than doubled the number of light emitting diodes (LEDs) to 168 diodes per arm for a total of 672 diodes (x4) for the entire tower. More light translates to greater rates of photosynthesis, which directly results in faster growth times.
However, don’t leave your lights on 24 hours a day! Just like humans, plants need their rest period too. And what's fascinating is… plants prefer a regular “sleep” schedule at the same times every day. After all – they evolved on Earth and learned to grow with natural day and night cycles. We find 14 hours of light per day to be around the sweet spot for most plants when growing indoors. At ALTO Garden – we light our indoor towers from 7am – 9pm daily with great results. The built-in timer on the light base makes it easy.
The LED grow lights can be adjusted closer to, or further away from your aeroponic tower garden. Bring the lights close to your seedlings while they are young to give them plenty of energy to grow. As they get bigger, move your lights back to give them room to mature. The tower lights can also be rotated around. With all this adjustability you can really fine-tune the distribution of your lighting so every plant receives what they need.
ALTO Garden grow lights have been laboratory tested to provide full spectrum, end-to-end lighting ranging from 380 to 760 nanometers (nm). This means your plants will have the complete spectrum of light to support their varying stages of growth – from the seedling stage all the way to harvest.
Growing Video
Assembly Video
Product Specifications
- Tower dimensions with LED Lights: 72” x 22” x 22”
- 40 pots: 8 layers x 5 pots per layer
- Made from food-grade, BPA-free polypropylene
- Weight with LED Lights: 34 pounds (empty)
- Reservoir tank capacity: 12 gallons
- Tower cylinder diameter: 10”
- Tower wall thickness: 0.08” (2 mm)
- Net pots: 2.0” (inside diameter)
- Horizontal distance between net pots: 6.5" (center to center)
- 1 year warranty on parts and defects
What's in the Box
- All tower components
- Reservoir tank w/ wheels
- Broad spectrum LED lights w/ built-in timer
- Water gauge
- Water pump
- Timer for water pump
- Net pots (x40)
- Rockwool cubes (x50)
- A + B plant nutrients (16 oz each)
- pH test pen
- Germination light
- Vermiculite packet
- Measuring cup (100 ML)
Product Downloads
FAQ
The main difference is planting capacity. The HX Tower has 40 pots while the GX Tower has 24 pots. The greater planting capacity is achieved by the HX design of 8 layers x 5 pots per layer, vs 6 layers x 4 pots per layer on the GX. As a result – the HX Tower with lights is slightly taller (6’ 0” vs 5’ 6”) and the individual tower sections are slightly wider (10” vs 8”) than the GX model.
To support the additional plants – other differences include 2x more powerful LED lights and a stronger water pump for faster circulation.
Yes it is. Aeroponics is a growing method underneath the hydroponics umbrella. Hydroponics simply means, gardening without soil. Aeroponics introduces a wrinkle, that plant roots are also suspended in air. This is where the term “aero” comes from.
There are several advantages. First – with the HX Tower you are growing vertically which takes less space. You can grow 40 plants in about 3 square feet. This makes tower gardening vastly more space efficient, and it's a great solution for those with limited space.
Studies have shown aeroponic towers to grow 3x faster than growing in soil. This is because plants receive more oxygen, and nutrient delivery is targeted straight at the plant’s roots. Other advantages include exceptional water efficiency, since water is re-circulated up and down the tower. Lighting and watering are controlled by timers so it’s highly automated. And because there’s no soil involved, the system is cleaner and easier to maintain.
Yes you do. Nutrients are included with all ALTO Garden towers so you don’t need to buy them separately. You will receive both Type A + Type B nutrients with your package (16 oz bottles for HX Towers, 10 oz bottles for GX Towers).
When growing in soil, roots stretch out to absorb nutrients from the ground. These nutrients include nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and some others. Because hydroponic systems do not use soil, these nutrients should be added to your reservoir tank.
No. Shipping live seedlings is actually quite risky, since they are very sensitive to temperatures and rough handling. Plus, they are expensive and often come with monthly subscriptions.
Planting your own seeds costs pennies and gives you the freedom... to plant whatever you want! 50 rockwool cubes and a germination light come included to help you get started. Follow the steps in our germination guide and you’ll be on your way. Germination is easy to learn - it’s a skill you’ll have for the rest of your life.
For indoor growing – 14 hours a day is a good place to start for both lighting and watering. While lighting is continuous during those hours, watering is interval-based. 15 minutes every hour is sufficient for indoor watering.
At ALTO Garden – we set our indoor towers to run from 7am to 9pm. Lighting runs continuously. Watering runs for 15 minutes at the top of the hour, during those times.
Although watering and lighting is automated, there are still some manual actions you should handle to ensure your tower is working in peak condition:
Weekly:
- Check water levels to ensure there's enough water in the reservoir tank.
- Measure water pH. Adjust as necessary. The optimal pH is between 5.5 and 6.5. Yellowing leaves are an indication that your pH may have drifted out of range.
- Trim roots dangling into the water tank to prevent the pump from clogging.
Monthly:
- Keep the shower cap holes clean and free from debris. You can use a toothpick to clean the holes.
- Clean the water pump. Unplug and remove the pump from the water tank. Remove sponge filter and rinse parts under running water.
Semi-annually:
- Disassemble the tower, and clean the tower sections, shower cap and pump with warm soapy water and a sponge.
