AeroGarden lettuce

AeroGarden lettuce is a popular indoor garden hydroponic salad garden crop. Fresh homegrown lettuce can be harvested at baby-green size as soon as two weeks after planting. Larger salad-sized leaves typically take 3-4 weeks to mature before harvest begins. AeroGarden offers a number of different pods including famous heirloom varieties and modern hybrid lettuces.

AeroGarden lettuce basics

Lettuce is one of the most popular plants to grow in an AeroGarden. Lettuce grows extremely quickly in AeroGardens, making it easy to grow your own supply of fresh lettuce right in the kitchen. This hydroponic lettuce is grown from non-GMO seeds and the indoor garden system is free from pesticides and herbicides. AeroGarden lettuce is known for being both quick and easy to grow.

AeroGarden offers many different types of lettuce in their pre-seeded pods including mixed varieties and single variety packs. The most popular AeroGarden lettuce pod seek kit is the Heirloom Salad Greens Seed Pod Kit. These pods are known for producing flavorful lettuce varieties well-suited to gourmet salads and fresh sandwiches.

AeroGarden lettuce growing tips

Most of the basic instructions for how to grow lettuce apply to indoor-grown hydroponic lettuce as well. Here are some basic tips for growing AeroGarden lettuce:

• Position your AeroGarden in a cooler indoor location. Lettuce is a cool-season vegetable that grows best when air temperatures are in the range of 55-70°F (13-21°C). While growing lettuce pods, try to avoid placing the smart garden in a sunny window or close to an indoor heat source.
• Keep the LED grow lights about 4″–6” above the plants. The lettuce will grow more quickly if the light is closer than ~4″, but this can cuase the plant to “bolt” and grow seeds instead of leaves. Once the lamp arm reaches maximum height, trim the tops of the leaves to keep them about 4″ below the lights. This will delay bolting and keep the leaves from contacting the lights and browning.
• Indoor-grown lettuce is quite tender. For crispier, crunchier lettuce, let a small fan blow over the AeroGarden as the lettuce grows. The plants will produce stronger crispier stocks to resist the wind.
• Baby lettuce greens can be harvested off the plant when the plant reaches 3″ tall. Use clean sharp scissors to trim a few of the bigger leaves off the outside of each plant. Do not remove more than 1/3 of the leaves on one plant at one time. Baby leaves are great on sandwiches or tacos.
• Larger lettuce leaves will be ready for harvest about 3-4 weeks after planting. By this point the plants are larger and are growing quite fast. You can continue to harvest 1/3 of the plant’s leaves at a time, or simply cut off the entire plant at its base. Larger leaves are perfect for salads.

AeroGarden lettuce pods

AeroGarden offers quite a variety of different lettuce pods. You can buy a prepackaged lettuce seed pod kit or put together your own variety mix using the Custom Salad Garden order page. Prices for the lettuce pods range from $13.95 for a 3-Pod Seed Kit to $16.95 for a 6-Pod Seed Kit and $21.95 for a 9-Pod Seed Kit.

Here are the available salad greens and lettuce seed pod kits for AeroGardens:

• Heirloom Salad Greens Seed Pod Kit (6 Types of Lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson, Deer Tongue, Parris Island, Marvel of 4 Seasons, Rouge D’Iver, Red Sail)
• Salad Greens Seed Pod Kit (4 Types of Lettuce: Green Leaf, Red Leaf, Romaine, and Butter Leaf)
• Mixed Romaine Seed Pod Kit (Red Romaine Lettuce, Green Romaine Lettuce)
• Salad Bar Seed Pod Kit (For Farm Models)
• Great Greens Seed Pod Kit (For Farm Models)

Custom Salad Seed Pod Kits are also available for order with your choice of different lettuce varieties as well as other salad greens, including:

• Little Gem mini romaine lettuce
• Tom Thumb mini butterhead lettuce
• Black Seeded Simpson lettuce
• Red Sails lettuce
• Deer Tongue lettuce
• Marvel of 4 Seasons lettuce
• Parris Island Romaine lettuce

Read all about the different categories of lettuce for more info about the wide variety you can grow at home.

AeroGarden seed pods are made of a plastic outer frame grow basket with a peat soil sponge inside. The pods are free from pesticides and herbicides and the seeds inside are GMO-free. If the pods don’t germinate and sprout, AeroGarden offers free replacements under their “100-Percent Germination Guarantee”.

How to grow lettuce in the AeroGarden

Here are detailed instructions for growing AeroGarden lettuce:

1. Ensure the AeroGarden is clean and fully assembled. Here are instructions for cleaning your AeroGarden between plantings.
2. Place the garden on a flat, dry indoor surface where air temperature is in the range of 55-70°F (13-21°C).
3. Plug the garden in. The best time to plug the garden in is first thing in the morning. The garden then will be “on” for 15 hours and “off” for 9 hours each day. You can reset the timing by holding the light button down for 3 seconds. To reset the plant food reminder and the light, you can start a new planting by holding down the leaf button for 5 seconds. The light will flash 3 times to confirm a new planting has been started.
4. Add water to the “Fill To Here” water level indicator.
5. Add the liquid plant food to the water tank bowl following the instructions on the bottle.
6. Place the lettuce seed pods into the circular openings on the grow deck.
7. Cover the top of each seed pod with a clear germination grow dome.
8. Observe the lettuce every few days to watch for small green sprouts appearing at the top of the seed pods.
9. Continue adding water whenever indicated and adding plant food according to the schedule on the bottle.
10. As the lettuce grows, move the lamp arm upwards so that the light plate stays about 4″-6″ above the top of the leaves.
11. If you prefer crunchy lettuce rather than tender lettuce, direct a small fan to circulate air across the grow deck of the AeroGarden. This will encourage the plants to grow stronger, crispier leaves.
12. Start harvesting baby greens when the lettuce plants reach 3″ tall. Use clean sharp scissors to trim a few of the bigger leaves off the outside of each plant. Do not remove more than 1/3 of the leaves on one plant at one time.
13. Larger lettuce leaves will be ready for harvest about 3-4 weeks after planting. By this point the plants are larger and are growing quite fast. You can continue to harvest 1/3 of the plant’s leaves at a time, or simply cut off the entire plant at its base. Larger leaves are perfect for salads.

Best AeroGarden for lettuce

Lettuce grows well in any AeroGarden model. Lettuce plants will typically grow faster in larger models with more powerful grow lights, but this may also encourage it to bolt and go to see quite quickly. Lettuce is a versatile indoor crop that’s well suited to any model of AeroGarden.