AeroGarden - Farm 12XL with Salad Bar Seed Pod Kit - Hydroponic Indoor Garden - 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.

This item was much better than I expected. Very easy to assemble and even easier to plant. I did have to buy some more supplies/seed pods as it did not come with any that would have taken advantage of the extra height this model offers.

Excellent product. While it was helpful to have a second person assemble this large, 58 pound unit, and get it upstairs (unbox where you will use it), the instructions were easy to follow. Set up on Saturday, seedlings popping up in four days! App working well. But I lost out on Black Friday sale price.

I am so in love with this machine. It does everything that it says it will. The digital interface superceeds my expectations. It allows me to see how full each water tank is and exactly when I am supposed to put more nutrients in it. The whole process with AeroGarden is fool proof and I'm so glad I bought this. I planted Peppers, Poblanos, Cucumber, Tomatoes and Eggplant seed 5-6 days ago and I am already seeing the sprouts through the top of the cup. Can't wait until they blossom and fruit!

This is our second AeroGarden product, and really love it - The tomatoes it produced look awesome and taste great. The app needs some help, but is good for keeping you updated on water level and feeding schedule. Just have to remember to move the light up so it doesn't cook the leaves at the top!

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.

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!