Complete Safe List Of Aerogarden Plants & FAQs About The Plants/Seeds

Aerogarden makes your gardening simple, gives you comfort and the aerogarden plants also provide a healthy feeding experience for you. With aerogarden, you can grow anything anywhere at any time. You don’t need gardening experience to grow your plants anymore, and it can guarantee you 100% success as long as you have good seeds and you do what’s necessary.

You may want to venture into this indoor gardening system, or you have done that already. but there is always the question of “are all seeds safe to be planted in Aerogarden? what is the safe list of seeds to successfully plant in the unit? can you grow anything on your Aerogarden?”

If you have an aerogarden and you are wondering what seeds are safe to plant and that would grow successfully, this post is for you. Here, I will show you the complete safe list of seeds you can plant in your Aerogarden and also the best answers to common questions aerogardeners ask about their aerogarden plants and seeds.

Can you grow anything in your aerogarden?

Yes and no. Yes, you can grow anything and it is always fun to experiment and try new things, but some plants are either going to be too big, or they really don’t like growing in water. For example, you can grow any variety of tomatoes in the Grow Anything Kit, but some will eventually get too large. If it is a dwarf variety, it will do great, if they are mega tomatoes, then you can start them in your AeroGarden, but it is eventually best to transplant them into your outdoor garden. Another example is spinach, it really does not like to grow in water, and many experienced AeroGardeners will tell you the same.

Safe Seeds You Can Plant In Your Aerogarden

There are tons of seeds out there. When you go seed-shopping, you might find a whole lot of them you might be interested in but you aren’t sure they can be grown on your unit. You can almost plant anything on your Aerogarden, but some plants don’t like growing in water, while some are going to be too big when they grow that they can risk damaging your unit. If you want to know what will grow successfully on your unit, here are safe seeds you can grow on your aerogarden that would be successful and not damage anything:

• Fresh Herbs:

Aerogarden can produce fresh herbs worth a whole lot within the space of a few months. You can plant Fresh herbs at any season in your Aerogarden. There are so many herbs you can plant in your unit and if you are a good lover of varieties of herbs, rest assured that you are covered. From Italian Presto, Asian, Gourment, Traditional herbs and lots more, there are just a lot of them to choose from. The different herbs that can grow in your aerogarden include Genovese Basil, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil, Napolitano Basil, International Basil, Rosemary, Curly Parsley, Thyme, Chives, Oregano, Chamomile, Lavender, Savory, Mint, Dill, and Italian Parsley, Mitsuba, Cilantro, Shungiku, Chamomile, Holy Basil, Sage and so much more!

Head over to this link to be taken to the Amazon page where you will see a wide range of aerogarden herbs to choose from.

• Vegetables/Salads:

Nothing is as sweet as being able to harvest your green salads right in your kitchen — no need to go to the market to get them when you are in urgent need. Green salad does fine and is safe when you plant them in aerogarden.

Just like herbs, the vegetables you can grow in your aerogarden are numerous. Some tasty salads you can plant safely in your aerogarden include Red & Green Leaf, Romaine, Butterhead, Upland cress, Kale (to an extent), Brocolli, Tatsol, Red sails, Beet Greens, Mustard greens, Mizuna, Deer Tongue, Firecracker, Marvel of 4 Seasons, Rouge d ‘Hiver, Parris Island, Black seeded Simpson, Arugula and more!

You can click this link to get to the page on Amazon where you can get a good salad seed pod kit that can give you the major salad greens you will need.

• Tasty Fruits:

Numerous plants can be grown in aerogarden, and your favourite and delicious vegetables are not an exception. Once your unit is ready, insert your seed into the spot and start the countdown to harvest. Tasty fruits you can grow in your aerogarden include Cucumber,

• Beautiful Flowers:

Aerogarden is an indoor gardening system, which gives you access to plant almost everything, including flowers. Growing flowers in aerogarden may be a little bit confusing since flowers don’t survive where there is not enough light, but the led light that comes with aerogarden helps in growing your flowers effectively to get them to blossom in no time.

The list of followers you can plant in your aerogarden include Calendulas, Phlox, Spring flowers, English cottage, Zinnia, Marigold, Stock flowers, Mountian meadow, Mini petunia, Gazania, Snapdragon, Coreopsis, Dianthus, Cascading petunias, Lots of lavender, Rainbow fire, Colourful coleus, Lots of dots, Love blooms, Gazania and even more!

The good thing is that when you buy a good seed of these beautiful flower varieties, they germinate in just days and provide weeks of blooms for your enjoyment. If you are ready to grow your own fresh, beautiful flowers indoors all year round, no matter the season, click this link to be taken to the page on Amazon where you can see a wide collection of flower seed pod kits which contain seeds of different flowers you would love.

• Fruiting vegetables (Tomatoes & Pepper):

For a desirable result, it’s advisable to use bigger indoor gardens like the bounty and farm model when cultivating tomatoes and pepper. The reason behind this is that they supply space to the plants, which will enable them to grow more prominent and also provide more light and water to them. Red heirloom cherry tomato, Jalapeno pepper, Chili pepper, Thai pepper, Purple super hot pepper, Mighty mini cherry tomato, Heirloom cherry tomato, Golden harvest cherry tomato, Poblano pepper, Shishito Pepper, Sweet bell pepper and more.

Check this page on Amazon to see one of the commonly bought tomato/pepper seed pod kits you can get for your aerogarden.

• Succulents:

These are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged; they also store water in leaves, stems, or both. They include cactus. aloe vera, jade plant etc. If you are considering planting any of these on your unit, yes, you can do that successfully as succulents thrive in the AeroGarden just fine.

You can go ahead to plant a full-grown succulent, a petal from a succulent, or even the seeds. If you are starting your succulent from the leaf or petal just cut a slit in your Grow Sponge and gently insert the leaf or petal and plant in your aerogarden. Give it some time and a new succulent will grow out of the base while the leaf will fall away.

One of the cool things about growing plants in your AeroGarden is that you are able to provide fresh, safe, healthy foods to feed yourself and your family all year long. It gives you the ability to grow your own fresh food while bringing you closer to knowing where it comes from, who has handled it, and how it’s been treated. And of course, you are sure they are healthy as they are grown with Non-GMO seeds, free from chemicals and any mess.

Common Seeds To Avoid Planting In The Aerogarden

While there are a lot of things to grow successfully on your aerogarden there are still others you need to keep far away from your unit. They can damage the unit in no time or simply refuse to grow at all as the environment is not convenient for it. Some of the seeds that do not grow in aerogardens and plants to avoid planting in your aerogarden include:

• Heavy fruits like apples, mango, avocado, watermelon, citrus fruits, etc
• Tuber plants like cassava, potato, etc.
• Hard vegetables like carrot, onion, pumpkin etc
• And some other seeds that can’t grow or survive in only water.

But, if you really want to plant these and have them as part of your collection, you can use your unit as a seed starting system for them instead. You can plant these seeds on the Aerogarden and transplant them as soon as they are big enough to be moved.

Frequently Asked Questions On The Lips Of Aerogardeners About Aerogarden Plants

No doubt, there are common questions about plants/seeds on the lips of many aerogardeners and not all of them know where to get the right answers to them. This can pose a problem for some as they can just go ahead to do things at their discretion and then find out too late that they got it all wrong. Well, we must not all learn through our mistakes, we can just go ahead and learn from other people’s experiences so we don’t feel frustrated by mistakes we encounter.

So, here are the common questions that aerogardeners have and the best answers to them all:

How to conveniently plant seeds in your aerogarden?

Aerogarden indoor gardening system makes use of aeroponics, which is a dirt-free growing system. It circulates nutrients, water, oxygen, and light to plants, which gives them the ability to grow faster than if they were in a garden. If you are new to this, here is how you can conveniently grow plants in your aerogarden:

1. Get your aerogarden clean and ready.
2. Fill your aerogarden with clean distilled water then place it in a safe place.
3. Get the seeds you want to plant and place them in the aerogarden as directed by the instructions on the seed pack, It’s also advisable to insert three seeds per pod for better success. But if all 3 seeds sprout, you can always remove 1 or 2 and let the other one grow. Just be ready for regular pruning though, in case they grow so big and start filling up spaces first.
4. From your unit’s instruction guide, program your smart garden system, the light, nutrient distribution, etc as these requirements vary from plant to plant.
5. Then cover the holes with Grow Domes and start the countdown to harvest.
6. Endeavour to check your aerogarden regularly to make sure everything works fine. The system will alert you when it’s time to add more water or nutrients. But you are the one to know when to raise the light and that should be as the plant grows taller.
7. You might encounter little plant problems along the way, but that’s okay. Feel free to refer to this post to learn about The Best Solutions To Aerogarden Plant Problems You Might Encounter.

How many seeds should you plant per pod?

Ideally, planting three (3) seeds per pod is mostly recommended for better success of germination rates. But some seed manufacturers would always have their own recommendations so it is best to reference the back of your seed packet for more information on that particular seed you got.

Keep in mind that most large seeds (eg squash) should only have one seed planted. And very tiny seeds (eg kale) can even be five seeds at once.

How many pods should you fill with seeds per garden?

How big the plant will get compared to the size of the garden should determine how many pods you need to fill with seeds. For example, if you are planting big plants like squash, you should only use one pod in a Harvest (6-pod) garden, two pods in a Bounty (9-pod garden) or 2-4 pods in a Farm (24-pod) garden. Big plants like squash cannot grow in a Sprout (3-pod) garden so you might want to skip that. This is to say that plants that grow big should have five or more empty pods around them when planted. This way they would grow successfully without damaging your unit or stunting each other’s growth.

On the other hand, plants that are smaller in size need to have one or more empty pods around them. But if you choose to fill up all the available pods with seeds, be ready for regular pruning and transplanting when they get too crowded. You do not want them to compete for light, air or space, thereby stunting their growth.

Easiest ways to harvest your aerogarden plants?

When your plants are ready to be harvested and you are wondering how to harvest them without ruining anything, let me show you how. It’s quite simple, easy and won’t take you long.

There are two common ways you can harvest your plants, namely:

• Haircut
• Picking off leaves
• Full harvesting

Haircut: This is a method by which you cut off the plants’ top, leaving the bottom alone. You are leaving the base alone because the root may still germinate again and provide more leaves. Or because you are not done growing the plants and you are looking forward to enjoying them till their prime.

Picking off leaves: When your plants start getting old and creating a forest of leaves, you can take off the larger leaves to create an even distribution of light and allow smaller leaves to enjoy the illumination. This method is called picking off leaves.

Full harvesting: When your plants are matured enough for a full harvest (not like the regular pruning you do to decongest the plants or use some), you can go ahead to do a full harvest. This can be when all the leaves of the plant are fully-grown and probably nearing their prime. To harvest this,s you will need to have a good pruner and start by clipping off the top plants down to the bottom.

If the plant has lived its full life circle already, you can go as far as harvesting every single leave of the plant, emptying the pod it was occupying, cleaning it up and starting a new planting circle.

How long will plants take to germinate/sprout in your aerogarden and get harvested?

There is no definite time a plant can take to germinate but there is an estimated average time you can use to judge how long your plants would take. Keep in mind though that some seeds that have one problem or the other may take longer to germinate or not even germinate at all.

Here are estimated timeframes for the germination of plants based on the general plant variety.

• Flowers take 7-12 days to germinate and they should blossom after about 40 days on average.
• Salads take 5-8 days to sprout.
• Herbs take 5-15 days to sprout.
• Fruiting vegetables like tomatoes and peppers, take 7-10 days, They can also take an average of 45 days to blossom, and then another week or two for those blossoms to turn into fruits if you are actually diligent about the pollination process.

And here are the estimated timeframes it would take before you can harvest them:

• Flowers take 40 days to blossom so you can choose to start plucking them out when they have reached the colourful state you want them in.
• Salads take 21 days before you can start thinking of harvesting
• Herbs take 21 days to get to harvesting time too.
• Fruiting vegetables can take up to 100 days because they first need to germinate, blossom and turn to fruits.

Note that the average timeframe mentioned here does not stop you from pruning before the time if the plant needs pruning as a result of overcrowding or getting too tall.

How to pollinate your plants by yourself?

Many plants require pollination in order to produce fruits. Plants growing outdoors get this naturally as Mother Nature performs this critical step through wind, animals, bees and other insects. But for indoor plants, this task falls on you the owner if you really want to enjoy vine-ripened tomatoes in the middle of winter.

There are two types of pollination for fruiting plants in general, namely same flower pollination and multi-flower pollination.

• Same flower pollination: This covers plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. For these plants, the pollen just needs to be released from one part of a flower to another part of the same flower in order for pollination to occur. The wind is the most common pollinator here as it can literally shake the pollen loose. Insects, like bees, also help with the vibration of their wings or the physical action of their climbing on flowers moving the pollen around.
• Multi-flower pollination: This covers plants like cucumbers, melons and squash. These plants produce both male and female flowers and for pollination to occur, pollen must move from the male flower to the female flower. Generally, this is accomplished by insects flying or crawling from one flower to another.

But these 3 natural pollinators may not be present when your garden is indoors (i.e an aerogarden). So there is the need to perform these vital tasks ourselves.

If your plant requires the same flower pollination, pollination is fairly simple and can be accomplished in a variety of ways, they include:

• Gently shaking or vibrating the plants or individual flowers a few times a week (daily is best) after the flowers appear.
• Using an electric vibrating device like a kids’ electric toothbrush or the popular Be the Bee pollinator that is designed specifically for pollinating flowers by moving the pollen around in plants that may be a bit tougher, like eggplant.
• Directing a fan at the plants on your unit to increase pollination.

However, if your plants require multi-flower pollination, you need to move the pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers. Many plants will produce a large number of male flowers first, and then the female flowers start to appear. You can tell the difference between male and female flowers by studying them closely. Male flowers are smaller and you can often see the pollen as “dust” inside the flowers. Female flowers, on the other hand, tend to be larger and often have a small, unfertilized fruit at their base. If this fruit is left unpollinated, it will drop off. If pollinated, it grows into a full-sized fruit. With practice and observation, you’ll get good at telling the difference.

To fertilize these plants only require that you use a cotton swab or a small artist’s paintbrush to move pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers. You may not get it right at first but don’t panic as it can take some practice. With time you’ll know when you are getting good and will start enjoying the fruits of your labour, literally.

How long should plants stay/last in the Aerogarden?

In many ways, growing in an Aerogarden is similar to growing plants in any environment. Plants have a lifespan and a life cycle as they grow and mature. When growing any type of plant, the amount of tending and care you put into it is going to make a big difference, as well as, also impact the life expectancy of the plant.

In case you are wondering about the life span of the plants you have, Here are some estimates of what to expect with different types of plants growing in your Aerogarden.

• Flowers: Some flower varieties can grow for 3-4 months while some may only last as long as 2 months. But the bottom line is, your flowers are due for full harvest after 4 months (at most). Before you can start consider cleaning the unit out and planting new seeds to begin another circle.
• Lettuces and salads/greens: The average lifespan for lettuces and some greens is about 2 months. While some may last up to 3 months. However, when your lettuces and salad greens start to taste bitter or starts bolting (show signs of flowering), this is a sign that the plant may be coming to the end of its life cycle. And it’s time to clean out your unit and start the circle afresh.
• Herbs: Some herbs typically grow for about 3-4 months. Herbs like basil can last longer than that, especially when they go through regular pruning and harvesting.
• Fruiting vegetables: Fruiting vegetables on the other hand have a longer lifespan than flowers, lettuces, and herbs. Fruiting vegetable plants like tomatoes or peppers will start to flower and set fruit after they reach a level of maturity. Keep in mind that the average lifespan for fruiting vegetables can be as high 9 months. But that comes with continued tending and care to enable the fruiting vegetables to maintain plant growth for a long.

How tall will aerogarden plants grow?

Most times, the estimated plant height of every pre-seeded pod is shown on the body of the pack you have. The thing is, short plant varieties are bushier than others and can probably only grow 4inches-5finches tall. The medium plants can max out around 8inches of height. And the tall plant varieties can sometimes grow without limits. They can grow as high as 2 feet tall or more if not pruned well.

Let’s categorize the plants according to their varieties and heights, to have a look at how high the plants can grow:

Herbs average heights

• Herbs that grow tall: Dill, Holy Basil, Genovese Basil, Marseille Basil, Napolitano Basil, Lemon Basil, Lime Basil, Savory.
• Medium height herbs: Sage, Rosemary, Chives, Cilantro, Chamomile, Purple Basil, Thai Basil, Italian Parsley, Lavender, Mint, Mitsuba.
• Short herbs: Marjoram, Oregano, Thyme, Globe Basil, Curly Parsley, Lemon Mint, Lemon Balm, Chervil.

Flowers average heights

• Tall flowers: Celosia, Coleus, Zinnia, Stock.
• Medium flowers: Snapdragon, Coreopsis, Dianthus, Lavender, Marigold, Polka Dot (Hypoestes), Petunia (Cascading), Petunia (Mini, Pink), Gypsophila.
• Short flowers: Gazania, Calendula.

Vegetables’ average heights according to their seed kits

• Mighty Mini Tomatoes are very prolific tomatoes that are produced on dwarf-sized plants (usually between 5inches- 6inches) that bloom early and keep producing month after month. You can comfortably plant them in the 3-pod Sprout garden and all other gardens without running into any issues with height later.
• Red Heirloom Tomatoes, Golden Harvest Tomatoes, Jalapenos, Thai Pepper, and Purple Super Hots are tall plants that can be grown in all of the aerogardens except a 3-pod Sprout Garden. Just make sure to trim and prune regularly them in whatever garden you plant them.

There are some vegetable kits that are labelled “Tall Garden Kits”. These can only be grown in gardens that have expandable grow heights of 24inches or more, like the Harvest, Classic, Bounty or Farm model of aerogardens. These plants need more height to fully mature and bear fruits and include.

• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Mega Cherry Tomatoes
• Anaheim Peppers
• Cayenne Peppers
• Poblano Peppers
• Banana Peppers
• Shishito Peppers
• Jumbo Veggies
• Fairy Tale Eggplant
• Fajita Peppers

All Salad Greens varieties are medium in height. That is, they can grow between 4inches-5finches tall at most.

What are the best aerogardens to plant different seed pods?

Most seed pods can be planted in all the aerogarden models available. But some will not do well in the 3-pod Sprout garden. Generally, Tomatoes and Peppers need more height than the 3-pod Sprout garden can provide. In fact, all plants that fall in the “tall heigh” category will not do well in the 3-pod Sprout garden. The medium-height plants can be planted in the 3-pod Sprout garden but you have to be ready for regular pruning. Short plants, on the other hand, can be grown comfortable in the 3-pod Sprout garden. So, here is the breakdown of the best aerogardens to plant different seed pods:

• the 3-pod Sprout garden: Short plants and some medium plants that can withstand regular pruning without dying off.
• the farm model aerogardens: all plants from short, medium, and tall heights can successfully grow in any farm model as long as you place the light at the right angle.
• Harvest, Classic, Bounty: all plant models. But the very tall ones would need regular pruning if you have a model with a light hood that can’t stretch too high to accommodate the very tall plants.

Also, keep in mind that a 6-pod seed kit can easily be split and used in two 3-pod Aerogardens, or two 3-pod seed kits can be combined and used in one 6-pod AeroGarden (provided both are the same type: Vegetables, Salad Greens, Herbs, or Flowers).

A 7-pod seed kit cannot be used in 3-Pod or 6-Pod Aerogardens because the seed pods are not long enough to reach the water in the bowl. 3 and 6 pod kits can be used in 7 pod gardens, but will not fit all the way down in the two back corner holes.

What is the best way to arrange seeds in an aerogarden?

Seeds need to be planted (together) according to their heights to avoid one growing so fast and overtaking the others. This single act can force you to trim very regularly even when you don’t want to, just to keep them all at the same height. It can even tempt you to raise the light in favour of the tall one but to the detriment of the short ones.

It’s best you don’t combine “short” plants with “tall” plants for these reasons. That is, you shouldn’t do Parsley with Mint or Basil because mint/basil tends to grow tall pretty quickly. If you do them together, your parsley would look tiny next to the others and this can bother you if you do not know the problem. Also, if you aren’t careful, the mint/basil would begin to block out the light from reaching the little parsley.

So, before you toss seeds into your unit’s pod, try to find out which ones grow to equal heights and plant them together. Place the tall ones in one unit and the short ones in another unit. The medium ones can go in with any of them but definitely not with the ones that grow tall very, very fast.

You can also try to group your pods by plant type per unit. E.g one for tomatoes/peppers, one for herbs, one for lettuce, etc. But be sure that they stay according to their heights.

What to do if you have only one aerogarden and different seeds?

In situations where you have only one aerogarden unit and you want to use it to grow different plants, that’s okay. But keep it in mind that they have their different heights and this may not be an easy venture for you. But if you really want to go ahead to use one unit to grow plants with their different heights, you can choose either of these:

• plant all the short ones first, then when they exhaust their life circle, do a full harvest, clear them out from the unit and plant the next batch (medium height). Once the medium ones reach their lifespan, you can also harvest in full, clear them out and do the tall ones.
• plant the tall ones in the back, plant the medium ones in the middle and the short ones in the front. You are doing this so that the short one won’t have any problem getting air or light. But be ready for regular pruning of the tall/medium ones so that they don’t get too crowded and block out air and light from getting to the short ones. This arrangement will depend on the model of aerogarden you have though, but you need to have a model with nothing less than 6 pods so you can leave 3 holes free.
• you can plant the tallest one on one end (left or right), the medium one in the centre and the shortest one on the other end. But this setup is not always the best because the tall plant can block air coming from one end to getting to the other end. If you must use this arrangement, the best thing to do is plant the shortest one at the side where the airflow is coming from.
• to just buy a new unit and plant them separately so that you do not put yourself through too much stress of regular pruning and the like.

What are the things you can do with your excess plant harvest?

Do you have some harvest left after consuming as much as you want? Are you bothered about what to do with them? Let me share with you the best things you can do with your excess harvest so that you don’t watch them go to waste or try to force yourself to eat them even when you are full. Here are some things you can probably do to them:

• Sell off your excess harvest:

Your aerogarden can produce fresh herbs worth more than $150, so if your product is in excess of what you can consume, then it’s an opportunity for you to make some money. You can sell them off and get back the money you ever spent on the unit itself. Places you can take it to sell off include supermarkets, stalls of farmers who sell fresh produce, yardsales, to neighbours/friends/families, etc

• Give them out to those who might need:

Of course, there would be people who would appreciate the fresh yields your plants produced. If you have people you know it won’t be right to sell to them, give the harvest to them for free. Who knows, they might invite you in for their next dinner which they would probably make with what you gave them. Besides, there is always the joy that comes with giving freely which you would definitely enjoy.

• Dehydrate them to preserve them for a long:

If you know you will still need them later and you are not up for selling or giving them out, you can still preserve them. All you need is a good food dehydrator, toss your excess harvest in and dry them evenly before bringing them out and placing them in a container that can hold them till when next you need them.

Conclusion

No doubt aerogarden makes your plant grow faster than when they are in the soil garden; as long as you plant the right seeds that can grow in them, you are sure to get the best from your unit.

Now that you know the safe seeds you can successfully grow in your aerogarden and also found answers to some common questions about the plants and seeds, go ahead and rock your aerogarden to the fullest. Do the necessary things after planting and you are sure to enjoy every bit of harvest you get from your aerogarden.

Questions? Suggestions? Comments? Feel free to leave them in the box below.