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Hydroponics

How to Transplant Aerogarden Plants & Herbs

If you’re reading this then hopefully you already know how awesome it is to grow plants year-round in your home using an Aerogarden. If not, man you are missing out and you should check out my post on Aerogarden tips for beginners. I grow tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and herbs year-round in my basement using my Aerogarden Farm Plus. Assuming you are currently growing hydroponically you may be wondering if you can transplant Aerogarden plants and herbs. Luckily you can! So stick with me and I will walk you through the dos and don’ts of the process.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Aerogarden farm plus

Reasons to Transplant

While you may have your own reasons for wanting to take your plants or herbs out of your Aerogarden. I have compiled a list of the top three reasons you may want to transplant some of your plants.

It’s getting crowded in here

So maybe you got your new Aerogarden and decided that if it had 6 pods that you would use them all. I made the same rookie mistake myself and I paid the price for it. I didn’t even do it once but twice! I planted all six pods in my Aerogarden Harvest and then when I got my Aerogarden Farm Plus I planted all 24! Talk about a disaster!

So if you have overplanted then it can be beneficial to thin the herd a bit by moving some of the plants from the Aerogarden to soil. I opted to do this and moved a bunch of the herbs out to my front garden. It was the beginning of my inspiration for my 5 Reasons to grow food, not lawns post.

Starting seedlings

You may have decided (as I do) to start your seedlings in the Aerogarden rather than in soil. The trick to doing this is to get yourself one of the Aerogarden seedling starting trays, they have them for the Farm models, Bounty models and Harvest models (just make sure it fits the model you have).

In this case, the transplanting will be easier if you are using the seedling tray. You can still use the Aerogarden to start your seedlings without a seedling tray (you just won’t be able to start as many). Regardless of which method you use, the steps are the same, except that you can skip Step 4.

Aerogarden Farm Plus Seedlings

Time to clean your Aerogarden

Maybe your big plants are done growing or you are in the middle of an apocalyptic algae bloom. In any case if it’s time to clean your Aerogarden but you still have some plants in it with some life left in them then you may want to move them to soil. If you need more information on cleaning your Aerogarden then you can find out more information here.

Aerogarden algae

What you will need

Step 1 – Select your pots

The size of pot you will need will depend on what you are trying to do. Do you want your plant to stay in a container? Are you planning to plant them in the garden? If the garden is your end game then you will just need a pot that is 3-4″ in diameter to let them adjust to getting nutrients from soil before transplanting them. If instead, you want them to live out their lives in a container then you can just move them to the container right away. Just make sure that any pot you have has adequate drainage so the roots don’t get waterlogged.

soil

Step 2 – Prepare the soil

As with anything you plan to eventually put in your belly, the quality of the soil is key. You will want to start them out with a seedling starting mix. Whenever possible I try to use organic soil (I like this one), I just think it’s a better choice. But you do you and use whatever soil you think is best. Add the soil to the pots filling them about 2/3 full and then moisten with water until the soil is damp. Make sure to leave a hole in the middle so you will have a place to put the plant.

Step 3 – Remove plants from Aerogarden

Depending on the age of your plant this can be easily or like banging your head against a wall. if you have young seedlings then you should be able to get them out easily and take the grow sponge out of the grow basket.

If however, your plant is fully established in your Aerogarden then we will have to take our time. You will want to carefully and slowly tease the grow basket out of the Aerogarden. Wiggle it from side to side while gently pulling up. This is slow…especially if you have overplanted as all the roots will be entangled. There is no point in rushing this as you run the risk of damaging the roots and then there is a good chance your plant will die.

If it is really stuck and you can’t wiggle it out you can try to carefully cut some of the roots to allow the basket to come free. But only do this if you have no other choice. Once you get the pod out you will notice that the roots are long, like long, long but not very wide! I was honestly shocked the first time I pulled out a basket, the roots were over a foot long! This is due to how the roots grow in the Aerogarden. In soil, the roots will spread out horizontally, whereas in the Aerogarden they have to grow down vertically to get into the water/nutrients.

Step 4 – Dealing with the grow baskets

So at this point, you have a decision to make. When you transplant Aerogarden plants they will have their grow baskets attached so do you leave them or remove them? This is only an issue if your plants are well established. Personally I always remove the grow baskets but some people definitely recommend against this. So it’s up to you what method you decide to go with.

Leave basket intact

The argument for leaving the grow basket intact is that by attempting to remove the basket there is a chance that you may damage the root system. Which in turn, could lead to the death of the plant.

Remove basket

This is my method of choice, to do this you are going to need a pair of good, sharp scissors. You are going to need to be careful so you don’t hurt the plant or yourself. You will want to make small cuts, only where necessary to free the roots from the basket. As I mentioned this is slow and tedious but I still do it.

Step 5 – Put plants in pots

Now it is time to get your plant situated in its new home. Set the plant (with or without grow basket) into the pot and as best you can spread the roots out. Then you will need to add soil to the container and gently pack it down over the roots. You will want to keep the top of the grow sponge in line with the top of the container. Add some more soil if it is needed

Step 6 – Give them some light

Once you have transplanted all your plants you will want to put them in a well-lit (but not sunny) place for about a week. After a week, you can move them to a sunny location or put them under grow lights.

Watering

Step 7 – Watering

You will need to make sure that you keep the soil evenly moist for the first few days. Bottom watering is a great way to make sure the soil doesn’t dry out. This is important as they are used to being in the water. So when you transplant Aerogarden plants you need to ease their transition to the soil by keeping it as close as possible to the Aerogarden environment. After the first few days, you can switch to watering the plants when the top layer of soil is dry to the touch. Just make sure to check them daily as if the soil gets to dry the plants may wilt and become stressed and nobody wants that!

Step 8 – Hardening off (optional)

If your intention is to transplant Aerogarden plants in order to move them outside then this step can not be skipped unless you want to watch them die. I am assuming that you do not (because otherwise why would you have spent all the time to transplant them?). So you are going to have to take a second to make sure that they are ready for the cruel world out there. They have grown up in a cushy environment up to this point so we need to gradually introduce them to outside. To find out more about how to harden off your seedling check out this post.

Harden off seedlings

So there you have it, 8 pretty simple steps to transplant Aerogarden plants and herbs to soil. What are you currently growing in your Aerogarden?

8 Comments

  • Curtis Nelson
    April 24, 2020 at 3:53 am

    I am growing a bunch of herbs and lettice in the aerogarden seed starting kit. How long should i wait before transplanting. The lettuce has come up quick can I reseed after 2 week or should I wait longer? I relalize some plants germinate faster than others is there a rule of thumb you use for when to transplant them?

    Reply
    • Kir
      April 24, 2020 at 8:51 am

      Hi Curtis,

      That’s awesome that you are starting your seedlings in your Aerogarden! I find that it really speeds up the whole germination process. This really comes in handy if you lose some seedlings and have to start quickly from scratch! Typically seedlings should be ready to transplant outside in 4 weeks or less. It depends on what you are growing. The idea is not to let the roots get too long and entwined, which they will! Lettuce is definitely one that gets going quickly. Just remember you shouldn’t move your seedlings right from the Aerogarden to outside as there is a strong chance you could shock then and they may die. I always transplant mine into soil, let them adjust and then start the hardening off process. I have a post on the blog about how to harden off seedlings which you may find helpful.

      I hope this helped & happy gardening!
      Kir

      Reply
      • Diane Clemens
        March 3, 2021 at 9:55 pm

        Hi Kir –
        I have started some lettuce, Arugula, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, and Spinach in my AeroGarden Bounty Seed starting tray (50..)
        They are almost 2 weeks old – should I pull out the spinach/arugula/lettuce & move to small pots now, before the roots get entangled? How soon is too soon?
        Thanks!
        Diane Clemens

        Reply
        • Kir
          March 19, 2021 at 10:31 am

          Hi Diane,

          Apologies for the late response! I like to get seedlings out of the aerogarden after about 4 weeks. Plants grow quite a bit quicker in a hydroponic environment. Just make sure to keep the soil moist when you first put them in and don’t forget to harden them off! Wishing you all the best in your gardening adventures!

          Kir

          Reply
  • Sarah
    January 30, 2022 at 5:28 am

    Great post! Have you ever moved the aero transplants to a grow tent? I’m going to use your directions and give it a go. Any suggestions? The wattage of my Viperspar LED unit is 300, but luckily it has a dimmer on it. In my tents I’ve only grown cannabis clones and mature basil plants brought inside before frost. They have all done well.
    When I got my Bounty I was so excited I planted herbs and lettuce together. Fine for a while, but now I want to plant more lettuce and move the herbs outa there and eventually put them outside in a few months. I hate killing plants. I hope this goes well. I know I’ll be adding the larger Farm Aero in the near future. I need that.

    Reply
    • Kir
      January 30, 2022 at 7:06 am

      Hi Sarah,

      No I haven’t moved them to a grow tent as I don’t have one yet. But a grow tent is definitely on my wish list for this year! Your plan to dim the light seems like a good one. If you have a light meter I would take a reading from the AeroGarden light and then same from in the grow tent to get it as close as possible. Then I would gradually increase the light intensity over a week or so. Basically treating it like hardening off from a light perspective. If you don’t have a light meter there are some apps that would at least give you an idea that you should be able to download. Or you can just wing it (probably what I would do) and dim the light until it seems close to the AeroGarden and then gradually increase. Let me know how it goes and then when I get my grow tent I’ll have some tips from you. 😉

      Kir

      Reply
  • Carole
    March 12, 2023 at 1:08 am

    This seems like a silly question, but do you just leave the seedling in the grow sponge? What are they made of? Do they just break down in the soil? I know you can buy replacements, so people must not reuse them – I just wondered what happened to the sponge/plug as the plant grows. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kir
      March 12, 2023 at 2:38 am

      Hi Carole,

      Not a silly question at all! Yes I leave them in the pods, trying to take them out would damage the roots. Tomatoes might be fine handling it as they are pretty resilient but it kind of defeats the purpose of starting them in the AeroGarden then. The pods are made out of sphagnum peat moss, so they are fine to go in the garden.

      Hope that helps!
      Kir

      Reply

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