If you are thinking about an indoor garden system that produces plants year-round, you have most likely looked into buying a hydroponic gardening system.
Those are awesome and fairly easy to take care of.
There are many choices for planting hydroponic plants indoors, but today we wanted to focus on two of the more well-known options.
Is one better than the other, Tower Garden vs Lettuce Grow?
We will compare and you can make that decision!
What Is a Hydroponic Garden?
Before getting into the two garden options, we’ve taken a quick look at what hydroponics are.
Hydroponics literally means, “working water”, and that is exactly what a hydroponics garden system uses.
These gardens are dependable and simple ways to grow your plants inside using only water and never adding soil.
This type of gardening has been around for quite a long time but has been growing in popularity as of late.
With a new interest arising, many companies are making their own kits (or sets) and selling those interested users hydroponic gardening systems.
So today we are comparing only those two kits, the tower garden and the lettuce grower.
What Is the Tower Garden Hydroponic System?
A tower garden is a vertical garden that can fit into smaller spaces allowing you to grow fruits and vegetables just about anywhere.
The system uses aquaponics, meaning that no potting soil is even necessary, it’s just water.
How Does a Tower Garden Work?
This indoor growing system comes in three sizes, supports 20 plants, 32 plants, or 84 plants, and has a large water basin that will continually recycle water and nutrients for each plant throughout the entire growth cycle.
The plants will grow in the “growth section” of this tower.
These sections are columns that are placed in a stacked vertical column of Food Grade Plastic with growing ports (or holes) built into each.
The plants are held securely in the holes with Rockwool and netting, and the roots grow right inside the columns.
The roots of the plants will not grow in soil as the tower garden framework has water and nutrients constantly flowing over them.
What Comes with a Tower Garden?
When purchasing a tower garden starter kit, you will be supplied with everything you need to get your plants going:
- LED grow lights
- starter seeds (a random variety)
- Tower Garden’s mineral blend plant food and a measuring cup
- Pump
- Timer
- Drain tube
- Water monitor
- Germination tray
- Rockwool cubes
- Vermiculite
- Net pots
- Babygreens extension kit
What Is the Lettuce Grow Hydroponic Growing System?
Another hydroponic option for growing and producing plants in your home without taking too much space is the Lettuce Grow plant growing system.
The Lettuce Grow comes in sizes allowing you to go higher up, but not out.
You can purchase this product to accommodate for 12, 18, 24, 30, or 36 plants.
How Does the Lettuce Grow System Work?
This system is easy to set up and doesn’t take much time to get your garden going.
You will want to place the garden near an outlet to plug in the pump and grow light.
Aside from that, you will receive seedlings that are already a few weeks old, so getting them started is much easier.
Once you have plugged it in, you need to add the seedlings and fill up the water reservoir.
The automated water disbursement system does all the watering evenly to keep your plant’s stems moist.
Your choice: The Lettuce Grow system can be used outside or inside. If it is to be used in the home, an LED light will need to be purchased.
What Comes with This System?
- Water Tank
- Grow Cups (Teeny x 18, Tiny x 24, Small x 30)
- Farmstand Lid
- Tank Cap
- Gasket
- Pipe Coupler
- Timer
- Water Pump
- Water Diffuser
- Hose Coupler (for emptying your Farmstand)
- Pump Fitting
- Pipes (2)
- Growing Levels (Teeny x 2, Tiny x 3, Small x 4)
*Seedlings and UV light sold separately
Tower Garden vs. Lettuce Grow Similarities and Differences
The two hydroponic units are very similar in their growing processes and growing plants hydroponically, but there are differences to recognize:
- The Tower Garden is is a little more interesting to assemble because of all the parts and features you are putting together. The Lettuce Grow comes with easy components, and you can put together the units with little effort.
- The Lettuce Grow has a couple of different sizes, but their largest unit does not compare with the plants you can grow in the Tower Garden.
If you are looking to do a large indoor garden with tons of planting spaces, the Tower Garden is the appliance for you.
However, if you want something that would fit into a small office or use it for apartment living, the Lettuce Grow can fit as small as 12 plants.
Lastly, consider the cost. The Lettuce Grow option will run about $500 for the stand and kit for the 30 plant unit.
However, you have to buy the glow light and seedling for inside use so it will cost more (499.99 for the 5 grow rings and $75 for 30-plant) bringing your total to about $1000.00.
The Tower Garden will cost $970.00 but will come with everything you need to grow inside without any initial or future orders.
Our Final Opinion
Both of these products are excellent options for growing plants and produce within your home; we believe that while it is excellent to have the option of growing your garden inside or out with the Lettuce Grow, we do appreciate the whole package offered by the Town Garden.
The price points are just too similar for either to really make a decision just based on price, and both products are durable and can be taken inside and outside to grow plants.
At the end of the process, this is going to be a personal decision based on what you like and what fits your style, as well as how many plants you want to grow.