iDOO Hydroponics Growing System Kit 12Pods, Gardening Gifts for Women Mom, Indoor Herb Garden with LED Grow Light, Built-in Fan, Auto-Timer, Adjustable Height Up to 11.3″, 12Pods-Black

Food producing machine
I’ve been growing Toy Choi which grows 8-10 inches high from Parks seeds in this black non wifi vs. 12 pod IDOO since February 2022. Since the unit has plenty of space I can use all pods. It germinated fast and grew wonderfully. When I ran out of nutrients since I have aerogarden nutrients I used them in the IDOO. I supplement all my gardens of different brands with Cal mg and Sea magic from parks. This crop is a heavy feeder and likes it cold so I top fill with cold water to prevent bolting.I’ve been keeping my crop going harvesting from outside in leaving center 4 leaves. The fan helps towards firm, crunchy taste that is mild and delicious. Of everything I own this unit yields a lot.I get 4-5 cups chopped a week. Yes I decided to measure last few times. Love it so much I got another. My price was $67 so therefore excellent return on investment. Very little labor other than top off water via easy to see little window, feed and harvest. I do a complete water change monthly and super easy and fast. If it goes on sale I may buy a couple more lol. The one thing I don’t see is extra pumps for sale so I bought an aquarium air pump to insert when pump dies. AlsoThe pods are pricey but nice and firm. My major issue is no cover for the pods to prevent algae so I either use aerogarden labels or makeshift tinfoil ones which work well but it’s more labor. So print , buy or make some labels or you will get green algae on top of pods. I never got any due to using covers. Last no major bells or whistles but mostly what you need.

Easy to set-up and start using!
Packaging: compactly packed, easy to assemble and set upProduct: while only time will tell if the product materials are truly of good quality, upon acquisition there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the plastic parts, the metal rod and the lights. So far my only complaint is that the power cord is too short. It’s ~45 inches, and for me to put it where I had intended, I’ll need to get a cord extender.Instructions: the user manual was actually pretty easy to follow (minor typos, no big deal) – probably the most confusing line of instruction would be that you should “split the sponge to take one seedling out and move it to other pot” so you only have one seedling (once germinated) per pod. I’ll have to wait and see how this works out.The manual mentions that there are refill pods and baskets available for purchase, but doesn’t actually include a link. I think it’d be really helpful for the system to come with some recommendations for what plants ARE good for hydrophonic systems. I’ve obviously Googled a lot and tried to do my research, but it’d be a nice touch from the manufacturer to include such tips. So excited to see what happens next though with the little pods I popped seeds into!Update:It’s probably been 1.5-2 months, and I’ve raised the lamp for the first time. Herbs and lettuces and kales are growing super well in this! Sometimes the fan is louder than usual, but aside from that, no sign of structure problems. The only thing to note: once your plants are beyond the seedling stage, they can suck up quite a bit of water. The baskets are too shallow, in my opinion, and even if you’re at 3.5L, the baskets won’t touch water – which means if you have any seeds germinating, they’re actually going dry. Something to look out for! I’ve never changed the water, but you do have to be vigilant about refilling it constantly. Once the roots grow, it’s less of a concern, but water consumption is high!Update 2:Changed water for the first time. Roots get entangled with each other, which makes for a pretty awkward operation. There’s visible fungi/mold growing on some of the substrate pods, and it seemed to kill off one of my stalks of basil (though the others are doing fine). Waiting to see if this issue might continue. I wish there were more information on how to deal with such situations.

Very successful!
It’s made growing plants so much easier! It’s also very easy to set up and usually a week into sowing the seeds, you will find some kind of growth. I’ve had it for about a year and I’ve already had so many plants grow. It may be difficult to grow smaller seeds and some types I’ve noticed won’t grow at all (like dandelion seeds and it’s harder to grow watermelon but not impossible!). The last picture is a little overgrown because I like to grow them at least to those sizes before I transfer my plants so they have a better chance of survival. Also I recommend the distilled water, because tap or spring might cause calcium to build up in the water space below and it’s hard to scrub off when you clean. Other than that I’m pretty satisfied with the product, and it’s well worth it. ✨

Bought this indoor planter for my partner for Christmas. After a couple of days of being skeptical that the planter wouldn’t work, all of her seed sprouted and are now growing at a fast pace. Picture above is 1 month in!Would recommend.

Aug 14 – I just recently received my 12 pod iDOO hyrdroponics package. It’s first go at trying this type of indoor growing. The box it came in was well insulated that nothing was damaged during the transport. I found putting it together was pretty simple and instructions were easy to follow. I’ve read some other reviews where dome folks found it noisy, but I didn’t think so. It’s no different from the humming of my fridge and since it’s sitting in my kitchen counter, they can make music together in concert. It doesn’t bother me at all. It sounded quiet to me considering there’s a small motor inside so water isn’t stagnant. To test it out, i used the back row for dwarf plants (ie: okra, cherry tomato, mini bell pepper, thai chili peppers), middle row for leafy greens that might potentially fit the limited width (ie: Tatsoi, Toy Choi, Choy Sum, 4 season Indoor lettuce), and the front row for select herbs I might wish to have fresh over the fall/winter season (ie: Parsley, Rosemary, Tarragon, Sweet Basil). This is so I can test different kinds and find out what works best. Planted them all on Aug 14, and I’m already seeing roots or sprouts on majority of them. Posted a pic & video. So far I know it works, and any seeds that don’t sprout might be due to the seed itself. The seeds I used are my own. I did select specific ones that will not grow too tall. I considered how high the lights can be extended when I made my choices as i wanted to fill all 12 pods. So far so good. I will provide another update as my test progresses. At this time, I’m happy with this purchase.Aug 31 – so far performing as per advertised. Grow lights, fan and pump working as intended and turning on and off as per the “vegetable” cycle with no added action on my part. All my seeds have sprouted, although I did replace one that was in mid-sprout with another seed due to plant preference. Some of the leafy greens are growing pretty fast compared to my pepper and tomato plant but that was to be expected. I did notice some greenish tinge to at the top of some sponges, so not sure if it was normal in this type of medium & hydroponics, but i simply lightly scraped it off. Problem solved! The roots on the plants are pretty healthy and the leaves very green. Excited to see them all keep growing and hopefully produce come winter time. I did hear the pump grow a bit louder at some point which was quickly resolved by topping off the water as per instructions. New pics posted to compare from Aug 14 when I started the seeds to now.Sept 11- Plants are doing really well, I had to increase the height of the grow light as my dwarf okra seems to have a mind of it’s own and have grown a lot taller in less than a month’s time. It also looks as if it’s starting to grow what look like okra pods or flowers pods??? (Don’t know. It’ shaped like a baby okra lol). Comparatively, the same type seed I grew outside during the summer had grown so slowly taking so many month’s to mature (could have been my soil). To take care of the small algae issue, I’m experimenting on these black circular plastic things I made from recycled Chinese take out containers to see if blocking the light out from the growing medium will take care of the problem. Maybe I could have used a black garbage bag to cut from but I was feeling crafty today. ;)Sept 12- got a response from iDOO rep today that what I’ve done to prevent that algae formation in the pod is what they recommend too, and that it is not harmful to the plant. Thanks for the quick response to my inquiry!Sept 25 – I didn’t anticipate maturity of my mini bell pepper plant would be a lot faster than if I planted in soil. Maturity should be 4-5 mos. I started it on Aug 14 and as of Sept 24, I already see little buds that will become flower. I’d like to promote it my changing my settings to “Flowers & Fruits” instead of “vegetables” setting, unfortunately, that might encourage my other leafy greens to start to flower, which I don’t want since I’m still harvesting their leaves and encouraging them to keep making more, or setting change might stunt the growth of newly started pods or plants that have a slower maturity date (Example: Thai Chili – 100 days, or 80 days for eggplant; Tatsoi 45 days, Iceberg Lettuce 50-90 days). Nothing against the unit. It works awesome. The only thing is, for a first time user of a 1 hydroponic unit owner, one has to really think about the type of seeds you intend to plant, consider maturity date (considering it might be speeded up in hydroponics). From trying a mix of peppers, tomatoes, herbs, leafy greens with varying maturity dates and harvest dates, I’m losing out on using full functionality of the 2 settings – “Vegetable” & “Flowers & Fruits”. It’s just something to consider for those that are thinking of only ever owning 1 hydroponic unit. Therein lies the challenge, and if you’re like me that can’t stop at just trying out herbs. The other thing to consider is how high you can extend the grow light to accommodate plant growth. I knew at the time of purchase to take it into my seed considerations, so I had only planted “mini”, “dwarf” type of seeds, or greens that won’t grow taller than the lights. (Pic posted of growing plants with grow light extended to max height for reference).Sept 28 – some plants have reached the height of the growlight to its max extension. As the plants do not seem to mind staying in it, I trimmed some top leaves to keep the plant growing under the grow light. The dwarf okra kind of got wilty and the buds never produced flower or veggie. It fell off. To save it, I moved to soil and it seemed it perked right back up. Conclusion: This unit seems to sprout anything. However, it’s still part of seed consideration, to look at the nature of the plant. Experimenting with seeds should be considered to know what works and what does not. Some plants seem to not mind hydro in germination and infancy stage, but need to be transplanted to soil at maturity. Some plants don’t mind staying in it getting free nutrients all through out. Hopefully it keeps to it’s healthy status and start producing flowers so I can pollinate it. I’m excited to see flowers and more buds soon. Especially the peppers. For the leafy greens, now I know how much space it requires and can plan ahead with spacers. I wish iDOO sold spacers. Will have to search for one that fits these holes.Nov 29 – new pics posted. I had to move the bigger plants that just kept on growing into bigger hydroponics unit (same brand, taller growlight, no pump). Started new seeds just to test some more. Using same type of seed, the unit with pump to circulate water and nutes, germinated faster compared to the unit without. Once the poor seed got moved to one with circulating pump, it germinated quickly. All 3 Fushimi test seeds are growing with varying maturity rates. Ofcourse, the one that was started from another unit is not the same height or maturity and behind (pic posted to compare). I also tested the fresh (i say “fresh” loosely) herb cuttings from the grocery store. Trimmed the leaves in the bottom, stuck it in the medium around Sept. I also did the same for Sage and Rosemary. The thyme seem to have done really nicely (pic posted), but the same can’t be said for Sage and Rosemary. It preserved it for longer but eventually died. No new growth whereas Thyme seem to have thrived. Will continue to test other seeds/herbs when opportunity exists.I’ve bought another similar unit to separate leafy greens from peppers or tomatoes etc. Things that just have varying height requirements just simply don’t work in the same unit. Herbs may work together with leafy greens if height is considered and how far the growlight can be to other plants once extended. Or…. Just simply move the plants once they’re more stable to another medium.Feb 23, 2022 – more pics posted, herbs, new set of leafy greens. Previous greens already harvested or eaten.March 20, 2022 – so my herbs continue to grow, to the point of growing past the grow light which has caused constant pruning on my end. Specifically (Mint, Dill, Curley Parsley, Tarragon, Sweet Basil, Thai Basil). I’ve finally filled in the last spot with peppermint so my unit is full. I did sprout it in a different unit that had a closer grow light and then moved it into it’ permanent unit. I hope it makes it fighting “nutes” with the bigger herbs. The Oregano, Thyme and Rosemary have not required pruning so far. I was hearing some whirring noise a week ago and I thought something was wrong with the fan. Actually there was… the “Sage” had grown so high that it’s leaves started to go through the fan slats. Lol! Had to prune again practically every other day or every 3rd day. It’s probably best to dry these herbs then crush them. However, what I did was froze them in ziplock bag. Will they be any good? So far I’ve used the Frozen Thai Basil in a stew, it wan’t as great as fresh but you could still taste it Thai Basil was included. The reality is I get a kick out of growing things. The herbs produce leaves faster than I can consume them, so I’ll freeze them (to test out how long they’ll be okay to use), and not dry them, as frozen is the closest to fresh herbs. I was able to even propagate more Thai Basil, snipping from original plant in iDOO, putting in water until they grew roots, and gifting them to someone who loves Vietnamese Pho soup. Now he’ll have his own Thai Basil to take care of and he can stop “eyeballing” my herb. Lol. (Pic posted of Thai Basil as of today)May 2022 – my Thai Basil’s flower had dried up. I cut the dried flowers out and crushed them on a paper towel and inside the little dried pods were the black seeds that I would normally purchase. Now I won’t need to. I can harvest my own. (Can’t post a pic. I’ve reached the max allowable pics to put). Lol.