Got one of these as a gift with gourmet herb pods

>potting soil
>Hydroponics

Am I being trolled?

"You gotta have multitone led lighting, miracle group, add nutrients, train your plant, add epsom salts, add a cage, have 3-3-3-3 light cycles, special pots that are connected to wifi and sterilize your hands before planting or handling your basil."

Fert farmers PISS ME THE FUCK OFF.

Oh, of course they would be hydro and shoot my anger down. Well. Apologies. Add your ferts, but you shouldn't grow shit this way unless you have to leave for days at a time.

I still don't support adding chemicals to your plant.

I'm not talking about hydroponics. The whole point is that hydroponics are unnecessary complexity.

>Sterile dirt

Then nothing would grow.

Are people on here genuine ignorant on how plants grow?

Plants absorb nutrients and water in the soil, they do this by spreading their roots out wide to get more contact area to try and get as much food as possible from the soil. They also, of course, get a massive amount of their energy from the sun using photosynthesis.

So why use hydroponics?

Space, efficiency, control, heartier-healthier plants, disease is basically non-existent, and pest are nowhere near as prevalent because you control the environment and, of course, the biggest benefit is constant production because the food, climate, and everything is controlled.

You like organic farming with dirt, good on you, mate, keep at it, I don't hate you for it at all.

>Unnecessary complexity

Meh, they aren't overly complex. I do agree to some degree though. If you have the space and the means to just grow things in dirty naturally, you probably should.

i will ignore all those guys annoying you about how you should do this and that blah blah and answer to your question
herbs can be used in many dishes, virtually all. a few things i pay attention to: add them as late as possible, most of them lose lot (if not all) their aroma if cooked for prolonged time
try them out yourself, basil can go well with tomato stuff, parsley too, dill can work with fish stuff (maybe use it on a sauce to add something) but you should try them out yourself
dont be worried, they cant really mess up a dish since they are pretty weak
you can also use them to make some herb oil or butter, to give something more to the stuff you cook

>Herb butter

I did make some Dill and lemon juice infused butter to put on grilled pork once.

It was pretty banging.

i dont know what your favourite cuisines are but most of your herbs would get replaced in my kitchen
>Thaibasil, sweet basil, thyme
are decent choices, because you dont need huge amounts and they are expensive.
>mint/dill
i only use in large quantities (minttea,middle eastern food/fishsalads,sauces) which i find extremely cheap at a local arab supermarket

I would replace with rosemary and sage, because my main interest is to have the plants, of which i often need a very small amount of, at hand, while i buy things i rarely use or use in very large quantities (parsley,mint,...).
Chives are also nice if you eat eggs regulary

>Meh, they aren't overly complex

Sure they are. All you need to grow herbs is soil and light. Anything more than that (pumps, tubes, etc.) is an unnecessary complexity.

Herbs are easy as fuck to grow. Many of them are goddam weeds that require effort to prevent from taking over the rest of your garden.

It's baked, rotted mulch friend. I use powdered clay and ashes mixed in or watered on.

"Sterilized" means there are no pests, mold or mushroom spores, rocks, debris, fertilizer or literal poop in your dirt, and it has been heated to 500° to ensure this.

It does not mean that nutrients are gone. I mean that it's not going to produce dirty fucking poop plants covered in chemicals and fed chemicals to induce growth.

I don't deal with that shit or the people who do so. Selling organic produce is not acceptable with unnatural additives, including feces. Hydro plants are fed chemicals, they can not be organic or be proved to be organic. What does your dirt look like?
The strange material comes with these wildflowers and is inert, they're from one if those boxes, in case you spot debris.

Think about it like this: there are two main ways to use herbs. There are finishing herbs that are used either raw as garnishes or added at the very end of cooking and there are cooking herbs. All of the herbs on your list can be used as finishing herbs except thyme, which is a cooking herb (rosemary, sage and oregano are other cooking herbs). So add the thyme to stews, braises, the butter and whole garlic cloves you use to finish a steak and marinades. The Thai basil goes into spicy Asian soups, stir frys and curries right before serving. Sweet basil, parsley and dill are all great as garnishes and in various salads. Sweet basil transforms the simplest tomato sauce (olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and salt) into a great summer pasta sauce. It's also good for making pesto, as is the parsley and even the mint if your taste runs that way. The mint I'd use in drinks mostly. It's good in lemonade, sweetened gunpowder tea (Moroccan style) or in a julep.

>Organic

Why is this considered a positive these days?

Everything was organic before because we didn't have a choice, we introduced modern methods of cultivation and production because organic was inefficient, less nutrient dense, and just all around shittier compared to what we have now.

It's like people bragging about their chickens never having anti-biotics in them. That's retarded. Who doesn't want healthy chickens? It is also equally dumb to brag about the meat not containing any anti-biotics when it available for sale because that is required by law anyway.

I blame yuppies. They ruin everything.

Use sweet basil to make marinara sauce (for meatballs and pizza). Alternatively, use it as a substitute for Greek oregano.
Use dill to make dill pickles, Slav soups (like borscht), and dill rice.
Use mint for Persian/Indian rice dishes & soups.
Thyme goes on any kind of (Western European) soup, stew, roast, and even steaks.
I've never used Thai basil, but I guess it can be used for Thai curry or something.
I have absolutely no idea what is curly basil supposed to be used for.

...

...

Throw it in the trash then get you to a mcdonalds

>It does not mean that nutrients are gone

It means that many of them are. Strong heating can literally burn off many things.

Also, plants thrive with symbiotic bacteria around their roots. Sterilization destroys that beneficial bacteria.

Organic as in natural pesticides and no refined petroleum based fertilizer for plants. So only manure and naturally decomposed materials in the mix.

The best way to describe this is during our company's attempt to be environmentally greenminded used a compost machine at our company, the sludge that we used for fertilizer was horribly greasy and even more detirmental to plant growth.

I think it was supposed to just be the counter to pesticides and all the things they were giving animals, but it was used as a misleading label. There was an organic pesticide that was giving farmers Parkinson's disease, so it obviously doesn't mean much. I'm all for technology increasing efficiency, nutrition, etc. but there are some problems with inorganic methods that should be addressed. People who want to regress entirely to old methods and forego any technological advancements are usually wealthy and don't have to worry about ever not having enough food anyway, and their arguments should be countered in logical ways when possible. You might not convince them immediately but you could later on, or convince other people who see/hear your arguments.

Ignore that imbecile. The use of the broad spectrum pesticide rotenone which he's referring to, in organic farming, was rammed into the USDA organic requirements by big agri so they could continue their scorched earth methods of large scale monoculture yet play in the organic field. Every time a ban on it is proposed, big agri blocks it since they own the USDA. Small and medium sized organic growers do not use broad spectrum insecticides - it defeats their other methods.

Furthermore, herbicides are not permitted and neither are industrial fertilizers which contain petroleum and other byproducts than just the nitrogen, potassium or phosphorous. Same with glyphosphate, the herbicide used on GMO's. The residual byproducts from the manufacture of Roundup, not glyphosphate per se, have been identified in peer reviewed studies to be carcinogenic as any simple google search shows. Coincidentally, it took scientists reverse engineering it to identify the byproducts since big agri blocked a requirement to list them on the label or identify them.

And anyone that thinks consuming antibiotics everytime you eat meat is a good idea, is braindead.

You're quite rude, and my point was simply that the organic label doesn't mean anything because of what happened with rotenone, which is true. Even if it didn't happen there are still other problems with organic methods like crop yields being lower.

There are problems with both organic and inorganic methods. I'm more interested in how vertical farming will change things. I'm not sure if vertical farming is considered organic or not, though.

>organic label doesn't mean anything because of what happened with rotenone

I will agree that if you buy big agri organic at walmart you're not gaining anything. It's not fresher and probably been raised in a monoculture environment that used broad spectrum neurotoxins. The idea that you can't get the same productivity for many vegetables grown based on the concept of building the soil and crop rotation without industrial chemicals is silly. You fail to calculate the energy, cost to the environment, and medical expenses associated with industrial chemical production. Grains, I don't know, but considering the majority of food products produced from our GMO grains, it would be a benefit if they were eliminated.

As far as your hydroponic idea, you will have to have immediately water soluble compounds for absorption and if it's not held within a soil structure it will be produced through some method of refining, i.e. petroleum based and producing chemical byproducts. Exactly the same way big agri uses soil, not as an organic structure of nutrients, but a means to hold a root so it can absorb industrial chemicals. Then you tack on the additional energy expenditure of providing electricity for water circulation, temperature control and presumably, purification since water is becoming one of the most precious resources.

Rude? No. Honest and why you should turn to organic growing without big agri mandated organic insecticides.

>gourmet herb pods
so........ seeds?

I use a lot of savory (satureja hortensis) i cannot understand why it isn't more popular.

I cannot buy it anywhere, the only way to get it is by growing from seed.
luckily it dries well and one years crop is enough for about 3 years cooking

>Rude? No.
Yes.
>Ignore that imbecile.
You are clearly knowledgeable about the topic and you can discuss it without the name-calling. I believe most people want to learn and do better, but name-calling will just make some people completely ignore everything you have to say.

Antibiotic free is advertised because they are usually overused. If you use the fuck out of penicillin every microbe will be immune to it, moron.

reddit spacing: the thread
try again next time you fucking tourists

I grow a shitload of herbs in potting soil from the dollar soil in empty beer cans on the windowsill.

thats a good idea. im gonna try this.

use literally anything

Pretty much this. Still, this thing unironically looks cool

Use the Thai basil for basil chicken

In general though, Thai basil is just a more intense basil.

>This loser never leaves Veeky Forums
>He thinks people coming here are "tourists" entering his home

Damn. Nice, user

I've got a bunch of plants in this box, sweet basil, Rosemary , thyme, mint, a hot pepper plant, tomato and snap peas. The sugar snap peas are the only ones that aren't thriving. Any one have any ideas?

Ok, I can accept that criticism. It just pisses me off when I see the Veeky Forums willingness to accept the corporate blueprint of manufactured chemicals providing our food. Everything is already here. The earth started out as a cold rock in space and developed life which produced a functioning soil, and wala, paradise for carbon based life forms that replenished the soil. Now we want to burn it down so our only option is to run away to another inhospitable planet where we can survive until we can progress enough to get to a hospitable planet we can annihilate. Repeat ad infinitum. Yeah, that's what I call rude.

i live in one of the biggest cities in america. i have developed an extraordinary six sense to dectect tourists. even through posts on the internet they reek of tourism. the tourist is immunized against all dangers: one may call him a scoundrel, parasite, suburbanite, retard, it all runs off him like water off a raincoat. but call him a tourist and you will be astonished at how he recoils, how injured he is, how he suddenly shrinks back: “ive been found out." ive grown to hate them.

Green onions

Snap peas and English peas like cold weather. I'm in the south and I have to plant the seeds outside at the end of January. They died out 4 weeks ago after producing a good crop. But if you're growing them in temperatures peppers will like, it won't work.

So is this the thread where we pretend this isn't painfully obvious marketing and bot shilling and post along acting oblivious?

Welp GG me. Living in Virginia and our weather is up and down

>9000000

retard

Yeah. Seeds inside a sponge, inside a frame, with a cover to block out light.

...

Yeah I understand your point, but I did say there are problems with inorganic farming that should be addressed too. I also don't think the Earth was previously a paradise due to how much death was needed to get to that point, the fact that humans were nomadic and had to move to where they could find more food once they used up everything in the area, and that a lot of plants simply were barely edible in their natural state. I just view organic farming as sort of a regression, things weren't perfect before modern farming, but I also don't think the current system is perfect either. It would be better if we didn't need to use pesticides and things like that, of course, so I'm more interested in how technology will continue to change farming than trying to go back to how it was before.

Not OP, but I got one of those aerogardens as a gift as well. I'd prefer to have my herbs and stuff in regular pots, but I live in NYC and I don't have much outisde space and only a little windowsill space, so it works for me.