Hydroponics Growing System Kit, 17 Pods Herb Garden with 102 28W Full-Spectrum Grow Lights & 2 Fans, Indoor Garden with Water Pump, 10L Water Tank, Auto Timer, Height Adjustable (Black & White)

I am happy with this product
Why did you pick this product vs others?:This is a good starter for a beginner without breaking the bank. All vegetables grew extremely well.

This is a lovely product for beginners
I bought this product to help me understand more about hydroponics and find out how far a simple system like this would go in making fresh food. I have found this system to be easy to set up and to grow plants with and I have successfully grown leaf lettuce, swish chard, basil, and a few other things in it that made for great salads. Here are some things I learned about this system.First, it will not accommodate 17 plants to their final growing potential as plants grow to all different heights and widths. My first picture shows around 10 small plants in my first system, then I bought a second and divided the plants between them as seen in the other two. I then pulled out the kale into its own homemade deep water container due to its height.Second, the light pad is too small, it’s not as long or wide as it needs to be. It is actually a little smaller than the area of the plants which causes the plants to grow inward and creates some crowding issues.Third, a water pump is used to aerate the water instead of an air pump with stone. I’m not sure if this does a good enough job, but my plants did grow to full size and didn’t seem to struggle any. Maybe the reason for this is to keep it enclosed within the unit for simplicity’s sake.Forth, the cute little plant label stakes, I found, become useless as the plants start to grow larger. They just get in the way. Drawing a map of the plants positions worked well for me, but then again, I kept moving them to different positions as time went on so that wasn’t even reliable. But eventually it does become clear what’s what. ;)Anyways, in the end I have found this product to be useful in growing plants that i can eventually consume and it’s easy and fun to do. I’d buy this product again and in fact, I did.

I’m impressed as my Tomatoes just took 3 days to sprout watch the water level
I had purchase a smaller unit from another vendor on Amazon and liked the idea so much that I purchased this one although I only planted 9 of the 17 positions because I wanted tomato plants and they need more space as I understand. The fact that the pump was just there and didn’t have any tubing to circulate evenly across the system kind of bothered me however based on the results that didn’t matter. Eight of the 9 plants sprouted within 3 days, the remaining is Parsley which I found out has a 21 day germination period so I still have to wait. The tomato plants have become seedlings. It’s looking very good to me right now. Getting the light period right took a bit. I set it up at night and so it wanted the light to be on for 16 hours starting when it was plugged in. Using the light on/off switch does work, though do not hold it long and it will re-sync its time window, I would have like more explicit control.Update: 2024-03-17 One complaint is that the water level window is useless. I checked it an things looked good however it started gurgling so I peeked inside and needed 3 liters of water to refill. Now having to add about 2 liters every 3 days. The grow light is wonderful however my tomato plants have now grown to about 2 feet above, I had to pull them around the light so they do not burn against it. I planted arugala and romaine lettuce and all of them have sprouted and are growing (including parsely and thyme), only 2 holes in back not filled, now how to figure out the lighting. I will probably buy another one just for lettuce since plant height is a consideration.Update 2024-08-26: The tomato plants are the only ones to survive, the basil killed it self by flowering (always pinch off the buds). Somehow fungus gnats have figured out how to live in this though they are now white not black, using Neem oil spray to control them. It wants 3 liters of water per day for the 4 tomato plants which are now completely outside the unit and sprawling across the kitchen floor almost blocking the back door. I’m not certain what plants I could grow in this that would stay within the unit. I had tried some lettuce, parsley, and thyme seeds however those did not sprout. The parsley tried however I don’t think it was happy with the amount of light due to the tomato and basil forcing the light to be it’s max height. As soon as the plants detected real sun light they immediately started heading that direction instead of staying in the planter area.

Better choices out there.
Can’t use 17 pods as it crowds the plants. Only half the pods were usable. The water system isn’t great. I like my pods to get water when circulating. This system requires that the water never goes below the pods or it will not water correctly. I will stick with the aero gardens and pay a little more. I also dislike the little hole for adding water.

I’ve been using this hydroponic growing system for about seven weeks and so far I’ve grown lettuce, a few types of tomatoes, pepper, and basil. Overall, it works pretty well but there are a few things to keep in mind.Setting it up was easy and the screen is bright enough to read without any trouble. One thing that’s a bit off is the built-in day counter. It doesn’t really track the days accurately, so if you’re trying to follow plant growth closely, that might be a little annoying.The system comes with two types of grow lights and they seem to cover the plants nicely. You can choose how many hours a day the lights stay on, which is great. There’s no way to change how strong the light is though. The lights turn on and off automatically each day which I actually like since it keeps things simple.One of my favorite features is the overhead light arm. It’s super easy to move up and down and can go really high, which is perfect when the plants get taller.The fan speed can be adjusted, which helps with airflow. But both the fan and the water pump turn on and off every 30 minutes and you can’t change that setting. It probably helps save energy but it would be nice to have more control over that.So far there haven’t been any leaks and everything feels solid and well made.

This is an amazing starter kit for growing veggies. It takes no time at all to go from seed to ready to transplant stage. Going to have some great home grown veggies this summer.

So far all seems great. It has a large reservoir but it’s difficult to see if the water is meeting the bottom of the pods because there is no window and it’s super dark inside. That’s a draw back. Also there is no setting to turn light off but still run the pump so I guess I have to do that manually until the germination period is over. The fan isn’t super strong but it’s so close, I’m sure it will work I just don’t think it’s offering much value as a stronger adjustable fan can be added to my grow area easily. But the size of the unit is good for tomatoes and vining veggies. I’ll update more with photos soon.