What Is an AeroGarden? Models, Pods, and Prices

Disclosure: Microgreens Guru may earn a commission if you buy through some links on this site. It does not change what we write about a product.

An AeroGarden is a countertop hydroponic garden. In the maker's own words, "Each AeroGarden holds a nutrient-enriched water reservoir. Seed pods sit just above the waterline," "a full-spectrum LED replaces the sun," and "a pump keeps the water the roots are growing in oxygenated" (ScottsMiracle-Gro, AeroGarden gardens listing, read September 26, 2026). On that date the store sold eight models holding 3, 6 or 9 pods, with list prices from $49.95 for the Sprout to $274.95 for the Bounty Elite. It is built for herbs, lettuce, salad greens and small vegetables grown to maturity. If microgreens are your main goal, a tray is the more direct tool, and the sections below explain why.

How an AeroGarden works

You drop pre-seeded pods into the deck, fill the bowl with water to the marked fill line, and add the measured dose of AeroGarden's liquid plant food. According to the maker, most plants germinate in 7 to 14 days, are ready to harvest in 4 to 6 weeks, and can keep producing for 6 months or longer (AeroGarden FAQ, ScottsMiracle-Gro Help Center, read September 26, 2026). Those are the manufacturer's figures for its general garden use, not a measured trial.

Each pod holds a grow sponge in a small basket. As the plant grows, its roots push down through the sponge and basket into the reservoir below. A built-in pump runs on timed on and off cycles; the FAQ says water "runs through the pump and drips through the tray deck," and that the pump or aerator "keeps the water oxygenated." Roots sometimes grow through the nozzles on the grow deck, which is worth knowing when you clean it. Pump cycles vary by model, and the Bounty and Farm models let you customize them.

The LED grow light runs on an automatic timer. The FAQ gives a 15 to 17 hour light cycle in general, and says the light on the Harvest, Harvest 360 and Harvest Slim stays on for 15 hours a day once you set its on time. The current Harvest Elite page says its light cycle can be adjusted from the control panel for different plant types, and Bounty and Farm models also allow custom light cycles. If you want exact hours for a particular plant on a particular model, check the manual for your unit.

The control panel also tells you when to feed and water. On the Harvest, the plant food light flashes every 14 days, and the maker says to top off water every 1 to 2 weeks. The FAQ recommends emptying the bowl and refilling it with fresh water and plant food every 4 to 6 weeks.

Hydroponic, but not aeroponic

It helps to know what kind of hydroponic system this actually is. The University of Missouri Extension defines aeroponics as roots suspended in the air and exposed to nutrient solution through microsprinkler or fogging nozzles (University of Missouri Extension, Controlled Environment Agriculture: Hydroponic Farming, revised July 2024). AeroGarden's own documentation describes something different: roots growing into a pump-oxygenated reservoir, with water dripping through the deck.

AeroGarden calls its product a hydroponic garden and does not name a formal category. The same Missouri guide describes deep water culture as plants held in net cups or floating panels with their roots in nutrient solution, aerated by simple pumps. With its reservoir, net-style pod baskets and circulation pump, an AeroGarden resembles a small recirculating version of that. That is a fair reading of the hardware, not a label the maker uses.

The current AeroGarden models and prices

The store has moved. Old aerogarden.com product pages now either redirect to scottsmiraclegro.com or show an offline page, so any price you find on an aerogarden.com link is out of date. The current range lives on the ScottsMiracle-Gro AeroGarden gardens listing, which on September 26, 2026 showed 14 results covering colors and bundles of eight models.

The sale column needs a caution. The store banner that day read "Prime Day Deals are Live! Save up to 40%," so those discounts are temporary and the list price is the better number to budget from. If a sale price is what makes the purchase work for you, check the page on the day you buy.

The Harvest Lite is the old Harvest 2.0 under a new name; the same product pages sold it as the Harvest 2.0 until at least November 2025. Note that it comes without a seed kit or plant food, so add those to the cost. Among the six-pod models the practical differences are light output (15 W on the Lite, 20 W on the Harvest, Elite and Elite 360, 25 W on the XL) and the XL's taller grow height of up to 18 inches. The two nine-pod Bounty models step up to 40 W and 50 W.

For what these gardens cost to run after purchase, including pods and plant food, see how much an AeroGarden costs. The Bounty review covers the nine-pod line in more detail.

Models you may still see for sale

Three names show up in older listings and resale ads but are not in the current store range: the Harvest Slim, the Bounty Basic and the Farm 24 Basic. A June 2025 archived Farm 24 Basic page showed $349.95, "Limited Inventory," room for up to 24 plants and two 60 W LED grow lights (Wayback Machine capture, June 26, 2025). Treat that as a 2025 figure, not a current price. The Farm line is covered in the AeroGarden Farm review. The gardens listing's size table also names a 12-pod Farm 12XL without selling it or giving its wattage.

Who owns AeroGarden, and what happened in 2024

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company owns the brand. Its company history says it fully acquired AeroGarden in 2020, after earlier investments in 2013 and 2016.

In 2024 Scotts wound the business down. Its fiscal 2024 results, filed with the SEC on November 6, 2024, record $29 million of fourth-quarter charges "driven by excess and obsolete inventory write-offs associated with the previously announced wind-down of the AeroGarden indoor growing unit business" (Scotts Miracle-Gro, Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K).

Then it came back. A later Scotts statement, which carries no date, says "AeroGarden is not out of business," that it is "back in business" because of demand from fans, that seed pods, accessories and gardens are "fully stocked," and that the brand "just moved into a brand new, easy-to-use digital home" (ScottsMiracle-Gro, Fresh News: AeroGarden is Back in Business). The store is live, but a sales listing does not tell you which models are still being made rather than sold down. If long-term pod and part supply matters to your decision, read whether AeroGarden is still in business before you buy.

What an AeroGarden grows well

AeroGarden says its gardens are designed for herbs, vegetables, salad greens and flowers. Its product pages name herbs, lettuces, salad greens, tomatoes and peppers, and the FAQ lists snap peas, cucumbers and wildflowers among the things owners grow from their own seed. These are plants you grow to size and keep cutting, and the whole design, from the pod spacing to the light timer, is set up for that.

If you want to plant your own seed in the garden, that is what the Grow Anything kits are for. The FAQ is candid that growing from your own seed "can be a bit of an experiment," and AeroGarden does not guarantee germination for seed you supply. Starting seedlings to move outdoors is a different product, the Seed Starting System, which swaps the standard grow deck for a seed-starting tray.

Can you grow microgreens in an AeroGarden?

AeroGarden has sold microgreens kits for some models; its 2024 store menu listed "MicroGreens" among its seed kits. Compatibility was narrow. On its Harvest 2.0 page, AeroGarden answered on August 8, 2024 that the Harvest 2.0 "is not compatible with the Harvest MicroGreens kit," and on September 25, 2024 that the kit "works only with the Harvest 1.0 and Harvest Elite gardens" (Wayback Machine capture of the Harvest 2.0 page, November 18, 2025). Since the Harvest Lite is the renamed Harvest 2.0, assume that answer still applies to it.

As of September 26, 2026, none of the current garden pages or the FAQ mentions microgreens, and a store search for "microgreens" returned no microgreens kit. If you already own a compatible garden and want a kit, contact AeroGarden support and get a dated answer before you order anything from a third party. The model-by-model detail is on can you grow microgreens in an AeroGarden.

Pods versus a tray

The bigger question is whether a pod garden suits microgreens at all. A pod is one planting hole meant to carry a single plant toward maturity, so a pod count tells you how many plants the garden holds, not how much growing surface it has. Mature herbs and lettuce need room above and around each pod, and the maker's 4 to 6 week harvest figure is about those mature plants.

Microgreens work the other way. The University of New Hampshire Extension shows them in a simple tray, sown densely across the whole surface, and grown only to the "true leaf" stage (UNH Extension, Hydroponics at Home, August 2023). Because the seed carries enough nutrients to reach that stage, UNH says no fertilizer is needed, and the slightly stretched seedlings can often be grown with only the light of a sunny windowsill. It suggests setting up a few trays and sowing one a week for a steady supply, and notes that you will need many more seeds than in other growing systems. You harvest the whole tray at once rather than cutting a plant over months.

No controlled comparison of an AeroGarden against a microgreen tray for days to harvest or grams harvested has been published, and the "5X faster than soil" line on some AeroGarden pages is the maker's marketing comparison, not a microgreens result. If you want to compare the two, grow the same seed in both, measure the growing area, and weigh what you cut from each.

For microgreens as the main crop, a tray setup is cheaper and matches the crop. See hydroponic microgreens systems for tray-based options, the countertop units review for how pod gardens stack up for this use, and AeroGarden vs LetPot if you are choosing between countertop brands.

What extension services say about countertop units

UNH Extension addresses ready-made home units without naming brands. It says they "range from small table-top "pods" to large free-standing towers," that most include lamps and many sell their own fertilizer, and that "while these may cost more and be less expandable than a self-built system, they have great ease of use and set-up." It also reminds you that any hydroponic system still needs its water level watched and its nutrient solution replenished or changed, and that indoor light is often not enough without a lamp. That is the trade you are making with an AeroGarden: you pay for convenience and a built-in light, and you still do the upkeep.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I buy an AeroGarden now? Gardens, pods and accessories are sold through the ScottsMiracle-Gro store at scottsmiraclegro.com. Old aerogarden.com links redirect there or show an offline page, so do not rely on prices from them.

Do AeroGarden seed pods fit every model? AeroGarden says its seed pods are compatible with every model. Accessories are a different matter, and the Harvest MicroGreens kit, for example, did not fit the Harvest 2.0.

How often do I add plant food? AeroGarden says every two weeks, and the Harvest flashes its plant food light every 14 days to prompt you. It also recommends a full water and nutrient change every 4 to 6 weeks.

Does an AeroGarden need sunlight? No. Each model has a built-in LED grow light on a timer, which the maker describes as replacing the sun, so you can place it on a counter away from windows.

The short answer

An AeroGarden is a reservoir, a pump, a timed LED and a deck of 3, 6 or 9 pods, sold today through the ScottsMiracle-Gro store for $49.95 to $274.95 at list price, with temporary sales below that. It suits herbs, lettuce and small vegetables grown to size. If microgreens are what you want to eat, start with a 1020 tray, some seed and a windowsill or a simple light, and keep your own record of what each tray gives you.

Sources

Prices, stock and specifications are as the linked pages showed them on 2026-09-26.

• ScottsMiracle-Gro, AeroGarden gardens listing
• AeroGarden FAQ, ScottsMiracle-Gro Help Center
• Harvest Elite page
• University of Missouri Extension, Controlled Environment Agriculture: Hydroponic Farming
• Sprout
• black Sprout
• Harvest Lite
• Harvest
• Harvest Elite 360
• Harvest XL
• Bounty
• Bounty Elite
• Wayback Machine capture, June 26, 2025
• company history
• Scotts Miracle-Gro, Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K
• ScottsMiracle-Gro, Fresh News: AeroGarden is Back in Business
• Wayback Machine capture of the Harvest 2.0 page, November 18, 2025
• store search for "microgreens"
• UNH Extension, Hydroponics at Home