Gear

Aerogarden 2022 Review

AeroGarden Harvest 6-pod model

AeroGarden 2022 Review: AeroGarden Harvest 6-pod model

Use:

Grow herbs, vegetables, or fruits indoors in a small space

Pros:

  • Produce grows super fast
  • Built in reminders ensure watering and fertilizing happens on time and a built in timer ensures the right amount of light exposure
  •  It couldn’t be easier to set up and watch your plants start growing – which is fun and entertaining
  • The AeroGarden website has a lot of variety of plants to choose from
  • Manageable price point for the 6-pod size

Cons:

  • Space constraints limit your plant choice
  • If you like hands on gardening, the lack of soil and interaction with the plants is kind of a bummer
  • The light is super bright. Super. Bright.

Price:

$119

Get your own AeroGarden

Do you want to grow your own food? Is setting up a whole raised bed or containers too daunting? Maybe you don’t want to wait until spring to grow your own food? Or, maybe you want to grow your meals all year round. Or you could be like me, and have been intrigued by the AeroGarden commercials you’ve seen on TV or online for all these years!

I received an AeroGarden Harvest 6-pod system for Christmas and was delighted. It’s something I’ve always wanted but honestly did not want to spend money on. So, it was the perfect thing to receive as a gift. Here is my AeroGarden 2022 review.

Setting up your AeroGarden

The AeroGarden is easy to set up out of the box. The footprint of the Harvest model is relatively small – 6”x10.5” and gets up to 17” tall. To set it up, you fill it with water to the fill line indicated, add in the provided fertilizer, pop in the pods, cover them with the provided domes, and wait. The AeroGarden light stays on for 15 hours and then turns itself off. The light is incredibly bright, so to avoid having it on in the middle of the night you should set up and turn on your AeroGarden for the first time as early as possible in the morning. As the water level drops or the unit needs more fertilizer (based on a timer) the lights on the front change color. When you complete the task, you hold down the button to reset it. There is also a cycling noise as the pump turns on to keep the water inside moving.

Growing lettuce in an AeroGarden

Within days, our lettuce pods sprouted seedlings. The whole family was watching for the sprouts to appear. It is a fun thing for kids to watch the leaves break through the soil and the plants grow through the top of the pod.

Unlike a regular garden bed or seed tray you don’t thin the seedlings. Within the first 10  days all 6 pods were up with sprouts. As the lettuce pods put on their true leaves and got taller we raised the grow light so that it was 4-6 inches above the surface of the leaves. These lettuce varieties are all quick growing cut-and-come-again types, that formed multiple large leaves right away.

AeroGarden Harvest 6-pod model with light on

Harvesting your AeroGarden

Around day 21 we harvested  our first dinner salad from the garden. I tried to cut the outer leaves of all 6 pods to make the salad with my kitchen shears, leaving the centers to grow on more for later. The lettuce made a great salad and it doesn’t get fresher or easier than making a salad from lettuce you grew yourself.

After our first harvest, about 10 days later the lettuce was ready to harvest again. I ended up removing one pod that didn’t seem to thrive after the first harvest. However, looking at how the rest of the pods did, I probably should’ve left it as they all came back with robust growth.

What to grow in your AeroGarden

I think that this AeroGarden will be most useful for growing herbs, since we harvest fewer herbs for use at a time. That means we won’t have to wait for a new crop to grow before we can get use out of the plants. AeroGarden sells pods that you can use with your own seeds, so I’m looking forward to trying that next with some of the basil, cilantro, dill, and parsley seeds I have from last year’s garden.

Is the AeroGarden worth it?

The AeroGarden is entertaining, convenient, and easy. Buying an AeroGarden will not save you money. I think it is cheaper to buy lettuce at the store than buy their pods. After the initial sunk costs you probably break even eventually, but at the price point of $119, I could buy 23 1 pound containers of spring mix. Each pod kit costs about $13 – $15 on amazon and I figure I can get about half a pound of lettuce every other week – I’m not sure yet how long each pod’s lifespan is, but basically I think you will never save money versus just buying the lettuce at the store.

So it’s not cost effective but it is kind of fun to have lettuce growing in your kitchen. If you’re into plants and gardening it allows you to add to your hobby. It’s also an easy way to get your kids involved in growing (and maybe then eating) lettuce and herbs. I think it will be more useful for me to have herbs nearby for cooking than lettuce, which I can more easily buy at the store.

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