AeroGarden - Farm 12 XL – Easy Setup - Healthy eating garden kit – 12 Salad Bar Pods included- App Capability - Black

. Summary: If you like gardening, or if you like the satisfaction of growing your own food or herbs, and you want to do it indoors (winter is coming), then you want an AeroGarden system. I can recommend it without hesitation. Even if gardening traditionally hasn’t been your thing, this isn’t exactly digging in the dirt, fighting bugs, and weeding. It’s simply turn-key planting and harvesting and even the brownest of thumbs will succeed and enjoy. Want to dip your toe in? Start with a small system, then graduate to a 'Farm.' The Farm 12 XL is ideal for taller plants like tomatoes. Pros: - Turn-key Indoor Reusable Gardening System - Easy to set up. Solid construction. Very stable. - Easy to use. Worry free automated system with a digital touch screen display/control panel and App (not required but nice) WI-FI. - Low power, low temperature LED lights - No dirt, no bugs, no weeding. Just add water (and plant food) - Upgrade path with different sized systems for other farming applications. - The tall size is ideal for taller plants. - Complete on-line ordering supplies for future re-planting. Cons: - The initial investment is substantial. It’s an investment in the long term. Nitpick: - The Farm 12 XL comes with standard lettuce and herb pods. Lettuce? That doesn’t show off the additional height. Suitable for: - Grows virtually anything. Yes, even ‘that.’ Maybe, given the high level of self-contained automation, pristine environment, and height, it is especially good for growing ‘that.’ Up front, we (wife and I) are such a fan of the AeroGarden concept/execution the Farm 12 XL is our third indoor farm. So this is both a review of AeroGarden as an indoor farm family and the Farm 12 XL specifically. Let’s address the green elephant in the room. You are probably wondering, 'but is it worth the money?' I know I was skeptical with the first one before we set it up. But short answer is yes, it is worth every penny. Nothing beats picking fresh tomatoes and herbs right in your own kitchen, especially when the effort is so minimal. You are paying for simplicity, low upkeep, re-use and quality plants. And you can go on vacation and come home to Eden. Our AeroGarden addiction started with the original small scale (end table) Harvest Elite (a Christmas present) where we grew the included lettuce and herbs. After the first harvest we switched to herbs exclusively. Right away we were impressed with how easy it was to use for indoor gardening, trouble and maintenance free. Input the appropriate light settings, turn it on and forget it. Plug it in, add water (and plant food), and watch it grow. And because the environment is so optimized, the plants grow faster than they commonly do outside. It’s a fully automated system, when it needs water it lets you know. It’s clean. It’s quiet. No dirt. No mess. Just magic. Kidding. But the AeroGarden botanists have worked out the science for you. From the table top system, we graduated to the family farm, 24 pod (individual plants) capability, two separate control environments, 24 inches tall, much much larger, and now it feels like a productive system not just a hobby. But the tomatoes rapidly grew taller than the 24 inches height. And so when a 36 inch tall system came on the market we jumped to expand our indoor farm. Which brings me to the Farm 12 XL. The rest of this review focuses on it solely. It’s 12, for 12 plantable pods in a 252 sq inch foot print (14 x 18 inch), and XL for 36 inches tall (versus 24 for the standard farm). It arrives in a well-packed, large box (see pics). One person can handle and assemble it, but it was fun and easier for the two of us to do. The system comes in modular components that were simple to bolt together, though you will have to consult the instructions. All in all it took us about a half hour in Total, but there were libations involved. Absolutely everything you need for assembly is included (including the hex key). There were two extra bolts that made us pause and think we missed something, but no, they were extra (really). Once assembled it is easy for one person to move it around (before planting). Good solid construction. The lighting system is LEDs, so low power, no heat. The touch screen for controlling the lighting sequence is intuitive. The water and food notices are easy to see. I can’t imagine how the system could be easier to use except for hiring a gardener. It comes with everything you need for your first crop, and anything you need for re-planting can be re-ordered for reasonable cost on the AeroGarden website. You will want to clean it thoroughly between plantings. The overall form factor will make it easy to place in your home. On the floor. On a table. Even, in a closet. It’s height is ideal for tall plants like tomatoes, roses, well anything tall and bushy. My college graduate son was particularly intrigued by the opportunities to take advantage of the height. For most crops, you won’t be able to rationalize getting it solely on cost. For example, you can buy tomatoes year round for cheaper. But not fresher. And not with the same sense of joy that comes from picking off the vine and popping into your mouth in the comfort of your own home in the dead of winter. You are buying it more for entertainment than production output. I have recommended the AeroGarden system to my father and friends, and without exception, they all thanked me. Sharing tips and crops has become a common activity for us all.

We’ve kept a small vegetable garden in our backyard for the past couple years with varying results. My wife really likes gardening, though the space and amount of light we have for it is not ideal. The AeroGarden could not be a simpler way to get going with indoor gardening and we were seeing results within days of planting. It’s a great all-in-one solution that takes most of the guesswork out of gardening and I’m really excited to see how the plants continue to progress over the next few weeks and months. For me, with some help, the total unboxing, assembly and setup experience took about 2-3 hours in total. Assembly was simple, but not completely effortless. Even with the holes completely lined up I ended up needing to use a ratcheting screwdriver to get a few of the screws to take hold, so I’d recommend something a little more robust than the included hex key. Thankfully though all the screws at all points of assembly are the same, so you only need the one toot to complete the entire assembly. I would recommend assembling this with another person’s help; attaching the LED lights to the hanging points would have been particularly challenging for me to do on my own. Besides a couple minor hiccups though the whole thing was very easy to assemble and the instructions were clear. Once everything was assembled we set off on planting the included seed pods.Each of the 2 water bowls needs to be filled with 2 gallons of water, so having a large watering can to cut down on trips to the sink is handy. The touchscreen interface will take you through a step-by-step for each side of the garden to set up the type of vegetables or herbs you are growing. For the herbs and tomatoes that were included it appeared that both of these worked out to the same 15 hour light cycle, but there may be some additional nuance with the watering there that I’m not seeing. The small touchscreen at the top does a good job of giving you an at a glance status of how everything is doing and lets you adjust a lot of different settings so you can dial it in exactly how you want it. The LED lights are motorized and can be individually raised and lowered as needed. The included magnetic trellis is nice and gives you quite a bit of flexibility with how you want to position it, but if things get too out of sync one side does have a habit of pulling the other side down; not a huge criticism, but something to be aware of when you’re working with it. After getting everything planted it was mostly just a matter of watching it work. It’s been about a week and every seed pod that we planted has sprouted and most of them to the point where we could remove the plastic covers. It’s at a point that would normally take 2-3 weeks outside and I’m blown away by how quickly everything's coming in. The AeroGarden does connect to WiFi so you can use the app, which is mostly just the touchscreen that’s on the device itself, but it will notify you when it’s time to add water/food, etc. It looks really nice just about anywhere, but at full brightness the LEDs can be a bit distracting in some environments. We ended up putting it in a spare bedroom closet and set the light cycle to sync up with our sleep schedules, but you can temporarily turn the system off when needed and it will automatically go back to its programmed schedule later on. I was a little concerned that this might uncomfortably warm up the small room that it’s in, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. Overall I’d say you should have more than a passing interest before jumping into this, but if you have a passion for gardening I don’t think you’ll be let down.

Great way to enjoy a garden in the comfort of your own home and with such little work to tend to. I think it’s amazing! Pods started sprouting within 2 days.

Its heavy and expensive. Could have more substantial threads to accept bolts for assembly. Threads are short and don’t align well. Hopefully this will supply high quality lettuce and tomatoes but time will tell as this is day 0.

I love this. I'm able to grow indoors all year around.

Pros: * Grow 12 things at a time in only 2 square feet of floor space. * Plants can be up to 34“ tall before hitting the lights. * Useful color touchscreen for control and status. * WiFi control from anywhere with the useful app. * Motorized light height. * Magnetic trellis provided. Cons: * Bundled seed kit doesn’t take advantage of expanded grow height. * Automated light height would be nice. Review: I’ve been a satisfied owner of AeroGardens for years. I’ve always loved the ability to grow herbs and vegetables inside, wherever I had counter-top space. My last garden was the Harvest Touch which supported 6 plants at a time and had a convenient color touchscreen. It wasn’t connected at all (no WiFi or Bluetooth) but worked well anyway. Given its size, though, it really couldn’t grow anything too large. The lights ranged from 4.5” above the pods to as high at 11”. That means that once your garden really gets going, it usually hits the lights and the tips get burnt, or you have to trim them to keep the growth below the lights. Regardless, it was fun growing lettuce and herbs year-round, but given the height restriction, you really couldn’t grow things like tomatoes or peppers that grow taller. This AeroGarden Farm 12XL takes everything great about my older Harvest Touch model, adds WiFi for remote monitoring, and vastly expands the grow space. This model can fit 12 pods at a time and the motorized lights now vary from 7.5” above the bed to a whopping 34” up! That’s more than enough headspace for the tall guys like tomatoes, peppers or just about anything else you want to grow. Let’s start with the color, WiFi-enabled touchscreen. It shows the basics at-a-glance; like when the lights are due to turn on and off by their set schedule, how the water tank level is doing, when the plants need more fertilizer, and how long since the garden was first started. You can easily set up notifications to the phone app for when the water is low, the plants need some food, or other issues arise. The iOS app that I used was essentially a mirror image of the screen that’s on the unit itself and both worked well and stayed in sync. I had no trouble getting the Farm connected to my WiFi or having the app connect to it. The water tank in my old Harvest Touch didn’t hold much, so it needed frequent refills; especially after the pods got going. This unit holds twice the plants but also seems to hold more than double the water. Plus, AeroGarden added some nice touches. For example, the tank is not easy to pick up and move to a sink to empty if you ever need to, but they provided a convenient hose and a way to drain the tank by running the pump. As I mentioned above, the light height is controlled by the touch screen and is motorized. Touch the “up” or “down” buttons to raise or lower the lights from either the touch screen or the app. It would have been nice if there were a sensor to detect overall plant height and adjust the lights automatically, but it’s still a lot more convenient and nicer than pulling up on the lights manually like with the smaller units. There are convenient storage spots on either side of the top of the unit for keeping the drain tubing, tools, or anything else you’d like to store. The build quality is really nice and it feels sturdy and stable. Assembly took about 30 minutes but nothing was terribly difficult; just a bunch of bolts to install with a provided Allen wrench. I can’t really find anything that I don’t like about the Farm 12XL. One puzzling thing, though, was that the bundled seed kit was salad greens and herbs. Sure, they probably grow well and most people like them, but they really don’t take full advantage of this unit’s expanded capability to grow tall things with ease. It would have been nice to throw in some tomatoes or peppers, but you can always get those as your first kit purchase after you’re done with the bundled stuff. My kit has been set up for about a week and all of the lettuce has sprouted and a bunch of the herbs are just starting. By the way, you can also stack these gardens. Imagine two of the Farm 12 units stacked on top of each other and those next to this 12 XL. You could be growing up to 36 plants in only 4 square feet of indoor floor space! If you live in an area where it’s not easy to garden outdoors, or you just want to grow some healthy and fresh veggies in the comfort of your own home, you can’t go wrong with the AeroGarden Farm series. It really does allow you to grow just about anything wherever you have a bit of free floor space.

Where to begin... well AeroGarden is: The. Next. Big. Thing! 5-Stars hands down! :D Think, this is sustainable, ecologically friendly, and good for you! There is no greater satisfaction than seeing some small budding seedlings poking out through the green foil stickers and taking immense pride in having cared for these plants that can either be used for your kitchen or for their aesthetic appeal by their flowers or fruits/vegetables. This Farm 24XL system is comprehensive and well designed to keep your new and beginner gardener in mind. Do not feel intimidated at anything other than the slightly competitive price because setup is well illustrated in the directions and the design is intuitive to a point that it’s not overly difficult. Perhaps you might have to work a screw in slightly but beyond this there are no hidden surprises or complications. For use and practicable implementation, after setup, use is a breeze! Simply navigate via high-resolution touch screen or download the App via App Store (iPhone) or Google Play for Android. There is a plethora of settings that you can make minute tweaks too but if you’re just simply starting out, the Quick Plant option easily walks you through what to do so that you’re an instant gardener in minutes (<10-minutes after installation). To capitalize on those user adjustable settings for the mild or professional home gardener you can: adjust light cycles, light intensity, pump settings, plant pod type, and more! The user friendly interface is loaded with touch friendly and aesthetic menu options with 0-lag or that latency akin to non-smart screens. As for the gardening experience itself there is a full comprehensive system in the box alone BUT! a completely open and customizable setup that you can certainly add on too but not required to. For instance, you can grow enough lettuce on one side of the 24XL and still feed a small family of 3-4 about twice a week initially. On the other hand you can also grow a budding set of peppers on the other side and have enough to dry and use while still having an ample amount to spare. User experience will vary but your satisfaction is almost guaranteed, trust me you will enjoy this thoroughly. For additional support and guarantee, the customer service team is top-notch and we must keep some consideration in mind that they are beset by big orders constantly still from Christmas, COVID-19 staffing reductions and shipping impacts but they are doing their best. They stick by their product and will warranty and help by meeting and exceeding your expectations if you can just be patient. The only people being negative are ones that are maintaining unrealistic expectations of a quick turnaround time of 1-2 day resolutions. In an Amazon-esque first world, I think maybe having a bit of patience and temperance will instead enrich your experience rather than dampen it. If you can wait 1-2 weeks for their shipping resolution in the event of the rare instance you have a problem then I’m sure you’ll be happy in the long run. As far as price on return on investment (ROI), obviously this is their most expensive system but it has the best ROI because it is the most hands off and hands on version available. For instance, hands off, it can be connected via voice app to Amazon Alexa but also navigated and adjusted via app. What this means is, you don’t have a simple “dumb” vacation mode that simply cuts light cycle time and instead you can adjust light height, light on/off time, pump cycle time, and more ALL REMOTELY! Additionally, for hands on experience, the sheer volume of price-per-pod is the most competitive of all of AeroGarden systems because believe it or not, this is the cheapest option for price per pod since you get all the premium luxury options as well, essentially for free. Between me and my girlfriend and our families, we have 6-Farm 24XLs and we love them! One last thought for consideration for those on the fence, the 60-Watt LED light panels have a life of approximately 5-years and can be replaced. Their energy efficiency has been mapped via AeroGarden website and basically, if I can enjoy this system in Hawaii of all places at a minimal impact upon electricity (where it is the most expensive in all 50-states) then I’m certain you can make this the least of your problems. So do pick one or two up (buy the stacking kit if you want to save room like we did!) and start gardening today! Check out the Reddit r/AeroGarden for a whole community and network of individuals who have also taken part of this journey as well. Enjoy and happy gardening!

I don't exactly have a green thumb and I love fresh produce. The current health scare is also weighing heavily on me. I've enjoyed the design of AeroGarden's products since the very beginning, but never bought one because the price. I'm glad I got over that. My AeroGarden is lovely, educational, and so fast! The box it came in is pretty large, but manageable (I can lift 50 pounds well enough, 75 if I need to, 100 if I'm feeling it). The shipping company did their level best to damage things, but the packing held and only the outer box and the interior packaging were torn and bent. The packaging is almost all recyclable, which is important to me. Putting it together took about an hour, but it's well engineered and the directions made sense (except for one step, but that might just have been me and was easily figureoutable). The computer controls were very simple and in nearly no time at all, I had my 12 seed pods placed and basking happily in the the grow lights. We have a salad collection, which included 9 varieties of leafy greens and 3 different herbs. It took only TWO days to see our first sprouts appear. We've had it now for a week and the original sprouts have grown so much that we've had to remove the protective grow-domes on 5 of our pods and all of the pods have sprouts. So far, this has been a ridiculous success. We're excited about growing food year round and looking forward to trying other vegetables. We're also considering getting another AeroGarden since they seem able to stack and having more variety is always good. If I have one complaint about the AeroGarden, it's that the AeroGarden website is poorly designed, hard to navigate, and clearly just an advertisement for the product. I would much prefer it to be an easily searchable clearinghouse for growing tips, exciting innovations, and, sure, recipes. TL/DR: The good: Easily set up Stylish Producing very quickly The bad: Poorly thought out website (that you don't really need to visit, but should want to visit) I would enthusiastically recommend this to friends and do.