My friend loved the garden for her winter soups

First, I must mention that I have grown thousands of awesome vegetables in dirt. The majority of those have been started from seed in row trays, plug trays or flats filled with a medium like promix & sat on heat mats. But I have never grown anything hydroponically & was excited to try. At this writing it has been 5 weeks since setting it up.

I chose this unit over others due to the good reviews & the fact that I could use my own seeds. And I was fascinated by the thought of seeding plants in cork plugs in water.

So I did a bit of an experiment by starting spinach, arugula & parsley both in the Idoo and in their usual trays. The arugula sprouted in 1 day in the Idoo but never was able to establish roots before it died. As usual it came up in 2 days in the plug trays & has already been transplanted to the soil. The spinach was started twice in the Idoo & just would not germinate so I took a couple seedlings from the traditionally started seeds & transplanted them into the Idoo pods. They took & are growing slowly though again, those outdoors are out performing. The parsley took longest to germinate & I must say that the hydroponic parsley has been pinched & used twice already whereas the outside parsley is less mature.

Black seeded Simpson lettuce has grown extraordinarily fast & is fun to watch. Romaine & butterhead are struggling. The basil is weak & 1 has died though it did start easily from seed. Same with dill.

Overall I believe I can keep parsley & maybe basil growing as a snipping herb garden & will still experiment with lettuces & greens.
It's really fun to watch & would be great for kids or those who live in apartments or otherwise can't plant outdoors. And if I can keep a few out of season herbs I will be happy.

My husband suggested 2 stars becuz he is 6'4" & found it all too tiny & awkward to work with. (The little signs fall over are worthless. I drew a map of what was seeded & hung it on the wall behind it). I decided on 4 stars since there was no 3.5 becuz it really IS fun & educational & I do believe it can be put to practical use.

Bought this for my wife so she could get into hydroponics. She's been wanting something she could grow culinary herbs in and went with this unit. I'm so glad I did. It came with literally everything we needed to get a small herb garden going except the seeds. I also opted to get some PH Up and Down separately to make sure our water was within spec. This thing is super simple to setup and get going. The net cups are perfect along with the growing medium. It expands to fill the entire cup which is awesome to prevent light from getting underneath keeping algae at bay. I did 3D print my own small dry erase signs for each plant as the included signs were huge. The lights are on for 16 hours and off for 8. Once you put your seeds in the pods, most everything else is done for you automatically.

In just a few days, we already had seedlings.

The only things I can even mention that could use improving on (may even just be nitpicks):
-The screw that locks the led light panel to a certain height has a knob that is really small and somewhat hard to turn. Not a big deal, but I have a hard time gripping the knob properly.
-The signs that are included are really big and don't fit into the slots very well. They work, but I 3d printed my own smaller signs.
-The pump and light cycle is controlled automatically so when you first turn it on, that is when the cycle starts. No way to set when the lights come on and turn off. I wanted the lights to be on during daylight hours and off at night to ensure the plants rested properly. I reset it at around 6am so it would turn off the lights around 10pm. Not a big deal, but wanted to make sure you were aware. You can turn the light off, but I think after 10 hours the light comes back on automatically.

It really is just about as perfect as we could have asked for and can't wait until we can start using fresh herbs from it in the next few weeks!

Have been using this for 6 months. It works well. No issues. Connects to my phone via their app. Plants grow well. You can set your on and off times. The food that came with it works well. I did try a different kind of food that was cheaper but it did not work as well. So went back to their food and much better growth. Just remember to drain it once a week and put in new water and food. Herbs and lettuce all grow well.

Reviewing the new IDOO Hydroponics Garden

My Christmas list definitely had a hydroponics garden on it. My dear sweet hubby came through, and after doing some research, he chose the IDOO Hydroponics Garden. This compares to the Aerogarden, and in my last post about hydroponics, I mentioned both. You can read all about hydroponics at nanwilkinson.com. So, without further ado, here's my full review.

Packaging:
First, it all was packaged very nicely, and the items were sorted in sealed bags. It didn't take an engineer to put it all together either. The box comes with the base, a 12 hole lid, and a grow light. The bags are net pots, seed sponges, caps for the seeds, and two fertilizer bottles. The hardest thing to do was to figure out where to plug the cords in. You'll see the two slots underneath the lamp. All I needed were the seeds. I did read the directions and found some online. While reading the directions, remember this is manufactured in China, and there are several grammatical errors on the directions (to instead of too). So, you'll have to remove your English teacher hat and go with it.

Planting:
I researched which seeds to plant, and because I didn't want to take a personal trip to the nursery, I decided to try this out with what I had. I chose cherry tomatoes, dill, lettuce, spinach, parsley, and thyme. I have no idea how they will grow or if I will have a tangled mess, but, it's all science to me.

The first thing I did was fill the base with tap water. You have to use tap water and not softened water because the minerals are needed for the pump. Our water is very hard, though, so I will have to keep an eye on the pump and research how to clean it. Next, add the minerals. You have to mix water with the minerals in each bottle and use 5ml per liter of water. I figured I had close to 5 liters of water, so I used 25ml out of each bottle. I am not sure what is in the bottles, but one looked very much like Miracle Grow. As I use up the fertilizer, I'll have to look into other things you can use. I do love Dr. Earth's liquid fertilizer.

Once you have the water in, you can turn on the pump. The cord is pretty short, so you will probably need an extension cord. The manufacturer recommends replacing the water every week and checking it daily. You don't want it to drop below the 4 liters.

To plant the seeds, drop 2-3 seeds in the center of each seed pod. Once they germinate, you will need to remove the seedlings down to the strongest ones. Some of my seeds were older, so I put in several hopes at least one will germinate. The pictures in the directions show the seeds sitting on top of the peat pod. I used my powers of deduction and figured that's why they put the little holes in the middle of the pods. Once the seeds are planted, place the cups on top and turn on the light. It says to put the light 2"³ above the seedling. However, it only goes so far down and is not 2"³ above the dome at its lowest point. I assume it will still work.

It does come with 12 seed markers. I first thought I could stick them in these little holes on top, but they didn't work. So I just removed all of them and made a chart out of an index card. I would recommend the company create one of these that can be written on with a wipeable marker or several with the kit. A slot on the front would work to hold the card.

Lastly, turn on the light. It will go on for 16 hours and off for 8. If you want to shut off the light early, you can press the button, and it will return to the timer, so there is no worry about leaving it off. There are two modes on top "“ vegetable and flower. The vegetable has more of the blue spectrum light and the flower more of the red spectrum. The light is a full spectrum and is quite bright. My one concern was if the light fades the fabric near it. I noticed my bedspread was fading from the grow lights in my guest room/nursery. If this is the case, I can build a box around it. However, all my research states this has not happened to anyone.

Maintenance:
As shared earlier, the company recommends changing the water weekly. This will use a lot of fertilizer, so I did a quick search, and any liquid fertilizer will work. You'll also want to keep an eye on the water. The pump should never be run under 1.5 L. There is supposed to be a noise to protect the pump from alerting you that the water is low. The peat pods are supposed to be reusable, but I wouldn't recommend it. I've tried to reuse others, and you have to clean out a lot of roots, plus they fall apart. I'll let you know if this one is reusable. They do recommend pruning consistently to make sure your plants don't get spindly. After all, dill can get very tall. This wouldn't work in this little container. Thus, plan on lots of little harvests.

Final Words
Other than simple maintenance, I am hoping this is pretty carefree. The manufacture has really set this up to be foolproof. Hopefully, this fool will do well with it. But then, some seasons, I can't give enough crops away, and others my vegetables even out to cost about $100 a pound. Maybe, this will be my answer, and I'll buy a few more.