Not to lie, when I first turned it on, and saw the multi-coloured LED's light up, I thought it was just some sort of mood lighting, and wasn't expecting it to do anything more than rely on natural light and conditions. The seeds were slow to sprout with the provided domes, however once they did sprout, and got their little leaves up in the air to capture the light and nutrients from the air, they exploded. The plants started growing at a rate far exceeding what natural light they were able to get exceeding my expectations. The provided nutrients for the water worked better than another brand I tried with a second crop.
I'm no connoisseur of vegetable flavours, so I can't tell you about "how sweet/earthy" flavours of different plants were, however the dill tasted like dill, the cilantro like cilantro, and the lettuce grew appropriately thick and healthy.
The container is well sturdy enough for its job, I haven't had any sort of issues with it - pump is still running fine (even though I let the water level go a little low a couple times), lights are all still running, and its automatic cycle is working perfectly. Setting it up was extremely straight forward, pretty hard to mess up just looking at things, and just hit the power button to turn it on and do its thing. It runs an automatic 16 on 8 off cycle by itself, pump doing 30min on, 30 off cycle. Very low maintenance / attention. Just topping it off once a week with some nutrients every 2 weeks.
The cons i've found: The pump wire inside the container is looped upwards in the way of one of the pods, not letting it sit flat in the bed. The water gauge is not very useful, as it easily gets hidden by plant matter and is unmarked for level. Neither of these things are of real concern to me however - the plant in the bed above the pump wire grew perfectly fine, and I can both watch the water level, and hear the pump change when water gets low to take care of it.
For exceeding expectations of growth rate, well beyond what would grow naturally in the location with minimal natural light, I give it 100%, and would recommend it to someone looking for a mini-hydroponics system for herbs and (very) small non-tuber vegetables
| Manufacturer | Yoocaa |
|---|---|
| Parcel Dimensions | 42.9 x 20.5 x 15.4 cm; 1.8 kg |
| ASIN | B09FLCC995 |
