Ahopegarden Indoor Smart Planter Semi-automatic Countertop Mini Hydroponic System Setup and Review

Ahopegarden Indoor Smart Planter Semi-automatic Countertop Mini Hydroponic System Setup and Review

Buy it at Amazon: Ahopegarden Indoor Smart Planter Semi-automatic Countertop Mini Hydroponic System [Affiliate Link]
Buy Direct from Ahopegarden: https://ahopegarden.com/?ref=3zcpozWy [Ahopegarden Affiliate Product Link]

Takeaway: Simple and quick setup, self-contained, includes everything you need to get started growing indoors any time of the year.

You’ll receive the smart planter, quick start card, and a full illustrated instruction manual. This is the smart planter. It measures 11” W, 7” tall, and 6.5” deep. The height of the light on top is adjustable on a telescoping column, just be sure to hold the unit steady while raising it. The light should be raised as your plants grow larger and the max height of the light is 20.25” above the table or about 15” above the planting deck. There are four different kinds of LED lights in the lamp on top including full spectrum white, short and long wave red for photosynthesis and plant health, and blue for vegetative and flowering. Then you’ll choose from two different light modes to stimulate vegetative growth or encourage flowering and fruiting depending on the type and maturity of your plants.

The planter has eight holes for the planting pods and the ninth hole here, covered by a rubber cap, is the inlet for refilling the water tank below. This hole has a plastic tab in it, with a picture of a water can, preventing you from placing a grow pod in here by mistake. The rubber cap also has a water can on it.

The planting deck simply lifts off and inside you’ll find a pack of 8 grow sponges, these are not pre-seeded, an 8-pack of grow baskets, and an accessory pack with plant tags, humidity domes, hole covers, spare drain hole plug, plastic tweezers and 12 sticker labels.

In these boxes, you’ll find the wall power adapter with 5 foot power cord, and two different squeeze bottles of fertilizer pellets labeled A and B. At the bottom of the water tank is a water pump to keep the water moving and oxygenated, so that it won’t become stagnant. To its left along the bottom is the drain hole, which is pre-fitted with a water-tight rubber plug, that is removable for emptying the unit. The short power cord of the pump gets plugged into the top port, making the pump replaceable if needed, while the lower port is for the AC power adaptor.

At the front of the plant, the water tank has a clear window marked from 1-3 liters in half liter increments so you can monitor the water level and add more when needed. On top of the light is the control panel with the power button, water pump button, vegetative light mode and flowering and fruiting light mode.

The seeds I chose for my first planting are Greek basil, Buquinho peppers, Italian basil, cilantro, and Boston lettuce. The quickstart guide recommends soaking these seeds overnight prior to planting, so I’ll see you tomorrow morning. The next day, you’ll want to soak and rehydrate your grow sponges, and here I’m using 5, one for each of my plant varieties. They’ll rehydrate pretty quickly in about 1-2 minutes. Next, place each of the grow sponges into a hanging basket, then pop them into the holes on the planting deck, spacing them out as much as possible. If planting fewer than 8 pods, be sure to cover the open holes to prevent bugs or other contaminants from getting in the water tank.

Now, we’ll carefully place our soaked seeds into the hole in the center of the growing sponges. The included tweezer really helps with precision here. We’ll pop a humidity dome on top, then label the plant so we know what’s what.Rather than place the sticker on the dome, which will be removed after the seeds germinate, I’m just going to stick it next to the seed pod. And I’ll do the same with the rest of the pods. Once all the seeds are planted, fill the water tank with 3 liters, or about ¾ of a gallon of water. Be sure to fill up to the max fill line so that the water can keep the pods moist throughout the germination process, then cap the water inlet.

Next, we’ll adjust the light all the way down to the lowest level and plug-in and power the unit on. This turns on both the lights and the water pump right away, but if your seeds don’t need light to germinate, you can tap the light mode to turn the lights off. Just note that they will automatically turn back on 10 hours later and operate in a 16 on 8 off cycle. The same is true for the water pump. You can tap to turn it off but it starts up again in 10 hours and runs in 30 minute on/off cycles. I recommend leaving it on to avoid any problems with stagnancy like anaerobic bacteria or algae growth.

For now, we won’t be needing the fertilizers, which we’ll add after the seeds have germinated, but to use them, we’ll need to add 100 ml of water to each bottle and shake to dissolve the pellets. Once made, the solution is good for 5 months when stored out of direct sunlight. Both these fertilizers should be used together for optimal plant health and each of the plastic screw tops have measuring lines up to 15 ml so try not to lose them. You’ll need to add 5 ml of fertilizer from each of the bottles for every liter of water added to the tank throughout the growing process. If you’re curious as to the composition of the fertilizer, the labels have a detailed breakdown of each of the nutrients so you can refill and reuse them.

What I like about this product is that it’s all self-contained and the planter doesn’t have to be placed near a window because it’s got its own lights and timers. It’s also not so smart that you;ll need a smartphone or app to operate it. Once it’s setup the only thing you really need to do is refill the water tank when it drops below 1 liter and use the fertilizer after the seeds germinate. I hope you enjoyed this unboxing and overview Ahopegarden’s smart hydroponic indoor planter. I’ll put a link to the product in the description below. I’ll be posting updates over the next couple of weeks and months showing the progress of my little indoor garden right up through harvesting, so stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel.

Buy it at Amazon: Ahopegarden Indoor Smart Planter Semi-automatic Countertop Mini Hydroponic System [Affiliate Link]
Buy Direct from Ahopegarden: https://ahopegarden.com/?ref=3zcpozWy [Ahopegarden Affiliate Product Link]