Lettuce Grow Review: 10 Reasons To Buy The Farmstand (2023)

Lettuce Grow Farmstand Review: 10 Reasons To Buy

I tried an outdoor garden once, but weeds choked out all my plants. Some plants grew, but the bugs and weeds took over when I left town. We had hoped to grow our own food but were disheartened by the realization that gardening might not be for us.

Then we got our first indoor hydroponics system, and now we are proud home gardeners again! Whether you are interested in growing your own

And yes, you should grow some leafy green, including spinach and lettuce. So, here are the top 10 reasons to consider buying the Farmstand without further adieu.

1. Harvest Fresh Produce Right At Home

One of the absolute best features of the Lettuce Grow Farmstand is the ability to harvest fresh greens, herbs, and other veggies right in your own home. You'll never be at a loss for kale for a salad or a bit of cilantro for taco night.

As they are grown right in your own house, they are as fresh as you can get. No longer will you need to worry about herbs or greens wilting in the fridge before you ever get to eat them. With the Lettuce Grow, you can harvest as needed.

2. It's Not Just Lettuce

Despite the name, the Lettuce Grow Farmstand grows far more than just lettuce. You can also grow things like cherry tomatoes, green beans, and mini cucumbers.

If veggies aren't your thing, you can even plant flowers, such as marigold, snapdragon, and dianthus. You can choose the specific mix of veggies, greens, herbs, and flowers that you want on the brand's website. Otherwise, you can rely on them to cultivate a personalized mix depending on your needs and wants.

3. Locate Indoors or Outdoors

Don't have any space indoors? No problem! The Lettuce Grow can be used either inside or outside in the sun. It can be customized for what you need. Thanks to its low-profile tower shape, the Lettuce Grow can either sit in an outdoor space or even in the corner of your own home. You also have full control over how high the Lettuce Grow is.

Need more space? Just add more levels to the Lettuce Grow tower. Need less? Just take some away.

If you do plan on using a Lettuce Grow inside, you can use their grow lights to provide supplemental lighting to your plants. This is an excellent option if you live in a place where you don't get at least six hours of light per day or if it's in a dark corner of a room.

4. Easy To Maintain

Once the Lettuce Grow Farmstand is set up and running, there is very little you need to do to maintain it. Unlike traditional farming, there are no weeds to pull. If you keep your unit inside, you shouldn't have much concern with pests either.

All the system needs is for you to top off the water reservoir once a week. Every few weeks, you may also need to add a little bit of nutrient solution to the water. You can keep an eye on the nutrient level by monitoring the pH level of the water. That's it! Overall you are saving so much time with the Lettuce Grow as opposed to traditional farming.

5. Fun Activity For The Whole Family

The Lettuce Grow is so easy to care for and maintain that it can be enjoyed by the adults in the house, right down to the children. As kids will get to see plants start from a seedling and grow into something they can eat, it may help give them a greater appreciation for where their food comes from. Imagine the excitement of letting them harvest their own veggies as well!

6. Naturist Beauty

Not only is the Lettuce Grow functional, but it is also aesthetically pleasing. The minimalist bubble design is a striking feature in any home or garden. The beauty of this tower farm only grows when it fills out with the sight of lush, fresh greenery. All in all, it is a great addition to your home decor.

7. Relaxing Water Flow

In the same vein as its beauty, the Lettuce Grow farmstand also provides the soothing sounds of water as it runs. The Lettuce Grow runs hydroponically, meaning the plants are grown by pumping a water solution across its roots, which sounds like a gentle stream.

When you first get started, the sound of the trickling water will be a little louder than normal. As time goes on, the roots dampen the sound.

8. Great For The Environment

When you buy produce at the grocery store, how did it get there? In most cases, it was grown on a farm, put on a truck, and sent to the grocery store. The farm could be 10 minutes away or ten states away.

Meanwhile, your Lettuce Grow Farmstand is sitting right in your home, providing the very same fruits, vegetables, and leafy greens to your family without all the emissions of trucks being added into the air.

9. Low Water Usage

If you live in a place that is prone to droughts, no doubt you will have a hard time gardening in the middle of summer when everyone is trying to preserve water. As Lettuce Grow is a hydroponic plant grower, the same water is being pumped continuously through the Farmstand. Over time you'll lose some water to the plants drinking it or simply from evaporation.

In general, though, Lettuce Grow can use up to 95% less water than traditional farming. Not only is the water being recycled, but you won't lose water to the ground around it.

10. Built To Encourage A Healthier Lifestyle

We all know we could stand to eat more greens. However, when you go to the grocery store, you may not know what you want, and anything you bring home may be wilted before you can get to it.

Having Lettuce Grow in your home encourages healthier eating habits. Say you're cooking supper and are a little hungry? Go grab some peppers, cucumbers, or other yummy freshness.

Are you making a sandwich and need a little crunch? Then grab a mini cucumber or some romaine greens right off of the Farmstand. Maintaining a garden in your home will ensure that you have safe, healthy, and nutritious greens right at your fingertips whenever you need them when you want them.

Bonus Reason: Zooey Deschanel

Zooey Deschanel and Jacob Pechenik founded the brand. You might recognize the name Zooey Deschanel since she is starred in hit shows such as New Girl. We are big fans, and we bet you are, too.

We are also big fans of the company's mission to develop sustainable food sources in an attempt to cut down on food waste and improve our access to healthy food.

Your Own Food With Lettuce Grow Farmstand

Lettuce Grow is a tower-based hydroponic growing system.

It starts at the base, where there is a water reservoir and a pump. Moving up from that are bubble-like levels where your produce is grown. Each level has several holes in it for your plants to flourish from as they are fed water and nutrition.

When the unit is fully assembled and operational, the water pump delivers water up to the top of the inside of the stand, where it trickles over the roots back down to the reservoir.

The great thing about Lettuce Grow is that you have full control over how big to make your tower, and even where to place it. A small stand has room for 12 pods, while a large one can handle up to 36 growing at one time. This makes it perfect if you are a single person, or even for a whole family.

You can also choose where to place your Farmstand. You can place it in your backyard in the sunlight like traditional farming or keep it inside. The optional Glow Rings (which act as grow lights) attach to your stand if you plan to keep it inside so that your vegetation still gets all the light they need while inside.

Maintenance is easy as you only need to top up the reservoir once per week. You will also need to top up the nutrient supply every few weeks. A Farmstand is a perfect option for beginners or those who don't have a lot of room. You can even order seedlings straight from the website that are already sprouted and ready to be placed inside the stand.

They offer a wide variety of options, from greens to herbs to vegetables to flowers. They even offer flowers!

As a company, they have a mission to make growing food more sustainable and easy. In modern supply chains, over half of the food is wasted by the time it reaches the market. The units help reduce the amount of waste and cut down on emissions from having to transport food from farm to grocery store.

Because of their mission to make growing food more sustainable, they donate a unit for every ten that are purchased.

What Is Hydroponic Growing?

The word hydroponic comes from two Greek words. Hydro, which comes from the Greek word for "water," and ponics, which comes from the Greek word for "work." Together, hydroponics describes how vegetation can be harvested without soil.

As the name might suggest, hydroponics is a way of growing plants with only water. There is little-to-no dirt involved. Instead, plants are held in a growing medium, such as rock wool or peat moss, and water is free to flow over the root structure unobstructed.

Nutrition is added to the water to make up for a plant's nutrition from the ground.

There are a few different types of hydroponic systems. The first is the deep water system. In this type, plants are suspended in a water solution, usually using a floating medium like a sheet of styrofoam.

A wick system has plants growing over a reservoir. The water reservoir has wicks running from the plants to the water, so slowly water and feed the plants via capillary action.

Ebb and flow systems involve a tray of plants being flooded with water at certain times in the day. After a good flood, the water is free to flow away, and the plants are left to dry out a little before the next flood. Drip systems use a system of tubes to drip nutrient water onto plants individually.

Dealing With Outdoor Insects

While the Farmstand works great indoors with the grow lights, so you may prefer to keep your Farmstand outside. We understand that, and there are certainly benefits to doing so.

Planting herbs and veggies on your back patio will definitely add a refreshing layer of greenery, but that also means you may have to deal with insects. Neem oil is very popular for addressing this concern.

Neem oil will keep the pests away, but it has low toxicity for pollinators (bees) and humans, which makes it a great choice to use as you plant outside. You still need to protect your eyes when you use it, but it can ve very helpful if you encounter any trouble with insects.

Adjust Lettuce Grow Water pH Level

Your water's pH level can impact the ability of your plants to absorb nutrition properly. The target pH value is somewhere in the 5.5 to 6.0 range, but don't worry too much if it is a little high or a little low. Many Farmstand users forget or neglect to test their water quality, so you are already ahead of the game.

Improving water quality may be a simple matter of utilizing the pH test kit and maybe adding a few scoops of pH down. Just be sure to keep pH down in a safe place away from children. If you are having trouble managing pH issues for your device, you can call the customer services team, and they will offer additional guidance.

Lettuce Grow Alternatives

Some people might feel like the Farmstand is too big and will fill up your room too much. For those that are most interested in growing an indoor herb garden, we recommend that you check out an AeroGarden or Click & Grow.

On the other hand, if your family goes through a substantial amount of salad, veggies, and other fresh produce, we recommend a larger unit, such as the Gardyn, Tower Garden, or Lettuce Grow.

Which Is Better? Tower Garden or Lettuce Grow?

Tower Garden is another indoor growing product that functions much the same way as Lettuce Grow. Despite both being tower-shaped, both have slight design differences and have a different way to go about handling seedlings and nutrients.

Of the two, Lettuce Grow seems to be the better overall. For one, Lettuce Grow is much easier to maintain. The nutrients don't require any calculations and are safe to handle even with bare hands. The Tower Garden requires you to wear gloves when handling the nutrients, and you need to calculate how much to add per gallon of water.

Based on this alone, you start to see why Lettuce Grow reviews are generally positive.

Second, the Lettuce Grow seedlings are certified organic and are planted in peat moss pods. The peat moss is easier to break down and is even compostable. On the other hand, The Tower Garden does not guarantee organic seedlings, and they use a rock wool base. Rock wool is fine as a seedling pod, but if you ever want to compost your plants, you will need to remember to remove the rock wool first.

Other parts of the two products, such as the overall design and the function of lights and trellises, are much up to the buyer's preference. In those cases, neither is superior to the other. That said, we like that the Glow Rings on the Farmstand are optional so that you can use the unit inside or outside.

Aeroponics includes a new element of air into the mix. Rather than using just water, plants are suspended in the air and are sprayed with a nutrient mist. These types of systems are often grown vertically so that they take up little room for a lot of plants.

Lastly, we have the nutrient film system. This is the type of hydroponics that Lettuce Grow uses. While the plants are being held in the tower, a pump moves water to the top of the Lettuce Grow, where it is then free to flow back down over the roots of the plants being grown. In this system, the nutrient water is continuously flowing over the roots.

The great thing about hydroponic systems is that they usually use less water than traditional water. The water being used is often recycled through the system and only needs to be topped up occasionally.

Hydroponics also requires that food is added to the water, as there is no soil for the plants to get nutrition. Adding nutrients to the water is very similar to adding fertilizer to the soil.

Is A Lettuce Grow Worth It?

The Lettuce Grow Farmstand is worth your investment. It takes up a small footprint in your yard or home, is simple to maintain, and provides continuous fresh greens. The Farmstand creates a controlled environment in which the plants have plentiful water and nutrition, and the Grow Rings provide optimized lighting.

As an added benefit, if you're already a gardener, you'll be saving on your water bill as

Is Lettuce Grow A Subscription?

Lettuce Grow offers an optional subscription service to make your growing experience even easier. With the membership, you will be sent a selection of seedlings and nutrients every month. This membership will be charged through a recurring monthly fee.

If you opt not to join their membership program, you can still purchase all the supplies you need from their website at the regular price. This includes any seedlings you may want to buy, nutrients, and Lettuce Grow parts.

While the company does not recommend it, you could start with your own seedlings and use your own nutrient mix. This option is not for beginner growers, however, as handling the nutrient needs of plants will take a bit of research and calculations.

How Much Electricity Does Lettuce Grow Use?

The Lettuce Grow Farmstand is efficient with electricity. When operating as recommended (about 14 to 17 hours a day), it will only cost you about 15-19 cents per day on your electric bill. This amount will vary slightly depending on if you are using grow lights and your provider rates.

How Long Does It Take For Lettuce To Grow?

Lettuce is a very fast-growing plant, though the actual growing speed depends largely on the variety being grown.

Lettuces (like romaine and kale) can reach full size in as little as 30 days. However, when growing your own produce at home, you don't need to wait until the leaves reach full size for your first harvest. You can harvest the leafy greens whenever it's at a size that you like.

Other vegetables, such as beans or bell peppers, may take longer to mature. Peppers may take up to 8 weeks to mature. Similarly, other vegetables will have other growth times as well.

Can You Use Your Own Seeds In Lettuce Grow?

Yes, you can! Once you have the growing cups (which you can purchase separately from Lettuce Grow), you can absolutely use your choice of seeds. This may take a little more gardening know-how, but it is fairly easy.

You will likely need to start your seedlings somewhere else first, such as in a covered tray. You could start them right in the growing cups for easy transport later or in a pod-like medium. One option is to find peat moss pods like Lettuce Grow used for their seedlings. You could also try a rock wool medium or Jiffy pods.

Once your seedlings are a couple of inches tall and have a couple of true leaves, they should be ready to move into the stand.

The brand seedlings are a little more convenient, as they are ready to pop right into the tower and, in theory, will be harvesting in as little as 30 days. Growing a plant with your own seeds may take a little more time but will certainly be more cost-effective.

So, yes, you can try growing from seed for a new challenge, or if you want to grow something unique.

Fresh Vegetables Galore: Lettuce Grow Review Summary

It is always better to purchase Lettuce Grow directly from their website. While other retailers, such as Amazon, have it listed, you may run into some support issues by purchasing through another retailer.

The unit is easy to set up, and once assembled, the next step is simply to fill it up with water. Salad will never taste as delicious as it does when grown with your own hands.

Based on our review, the Farmstand is a wonderful way to garden your own fruits (tomatoes) and vegetables at home. The glow rings provide the perfect amount of light, and the unit is easy to maintain. If you go through a lot of spinach and other leafy greens, it just makes sense to avoid the grocery store as much as possible.