Yoocaa 12 Hydroponics Growing System, Indoor Herb Garden with LED Light, Up to 19.4'' Height Adjustable Indoor Gardening System, Gardening Gifts for Women Mom(Grey)

I received this as a gift from my dad and, as a beginner, it was the perfect gift. There's definitely some distinct pros, but there's also some cons.PROS:-As seen in the first photo, this works amazingly to start seedlings! I ended up growing all of my sweet peppers for the season inside. I soaked the seeds for about 24 hours and kept them refrigerated and once I placed them in, they started to grow pretty slowly. I realized my room was not hot enough for sweet peppers, so I just grabbed some extra black fabric I had laying around and made a cover. I would definitely recommend this for everyone!! It's pretty bright in the first place, so having a cover also helped me sleep at night and nap before it turned off. The machine also generates a bit of heat from the lights, so it made my sweet peppers grow super quick when covered! The first picture is only around 10 days after planting (03/30/22), and the second is a month in (04/22/22). For the second and third picture, those do not include the 3 bigger plants on the first picture, since as seen in the last 2 pictures, I placed them into a topsy turvy!-Good height! As seen in the 4th picture, it raises pretty high-Good roots! This machine is amazing for root growth. Even the smallest of seedlings have incredibly huge roots, whether this is good or bad. For me, this is amazing as it gives me room for error incase I accidently cut off some roots when acclimating to the outdoors-Great for outdoors! As seen in the last two pictures, I ended up taking 3 of the sweet pepper plants and transplanting them outside. Due to sweet peppers being pretty sensitive, I had to acclimate them to real sunlight and outdoor temperatures in the span of a week. For 3 days, I took them in and out of the machine and into a tupperware container with warm water. The white holders that contain the "soil" were pretty difficult to keep straight in the container, so I had to stick some toothpicks in to hold them up straight. This worked out pretty well, and after 3 days, I placed them outside for increasing amounts of time for the last 4 days. I finally placed them into the topsy turvy, but I was a bit worried on how it would grow in soil. It was also basically impossible to take them out of their "soil" since the roots were so intertwined inside and the material is more like foam than anything. I ended up placing the "soil" with the plant into the topsy turvy with some vegetable soil. It's been about 2 weeks since I've done so, and they're doing pretty well. I'll let you guys know if I experience any root rot, put so far it makes it easier to tell if they need to be watered by sticking my finger in and feeling if the "soil" is wet.-Nice random accessories in the box. They give many refills of "soil" and some labelers and sticks for tall plants. They also have plastic covers for humidity for seedlings and black covers if there's no plant in one of the spaces-QUIET! They weren't kidding when they said the water motors were silentCONS-It stays on for 16 hours, so when I first got it, I had to wake up at 7am to turn it on just so it could automatically turn it off at 11pm. You can't set an off time. You can only turn it on at a specific time and it will auto turn off after 16 hours and come back on in 8 hours. Having the cover definitely fixed this issue, but I'm not sure what I'll do once the plants get big.-Flimsy. The entire machine is pretty flimsy, so I'm always worried I'll knock something over and the entire thing will spill out. I ended up taping the sides since the top where the soil goes is pretty bent. The machine works great, but I wish it was more sturdy. As shown in the pictures, I actually took the sticks they gave in the box for tall plants and put them on the 4 corners to add a bit of stability and to add shape so my cover wouldn't touch the seedlings.-Confusion with the foam. There's foam on the motor inside the machine, so I thought I had to take it out before I poured water in. After browsing, it turns out it kind of needs to be there. It didn't cause any harm, but was just a bit ditzy on my part.-Water gauge gets stuck. Make sure your machine is on a perfectly straight surface or the water gauge will be affected. Sometimes it will get stuck on its plastic shell, so you just have to take it off and put it back on occasionally.

[This review is NOT sponsored] I've been using three of these systems since November. I can't yet speak for the peppers, strawberries, and cucumbers I'm growing in here, except that all three are getting close to flowering, but I can speak for the success I've had with the tomatoes I'm growing. You can see the timeline of photos I've included. The very last one is whenever I transferred the plants to an AeroGarden Farm 12XL because they became too large for these systems (which is what I was hoping for!).The only problem is that the AeroGarden nutrients I'm using isn't enough for the plants to produce fruit after they flower, so hopefully switching to Cal-Mag tomorrow solves that. Speaking of which, I don't use the nutrients that the seller included. I have a friend who has had success with the nutrients, as it's sold alongside many other hydroponic systems on Amazon, but I just like to stick to AeroGarden nutrients - personal preference.Finally, I'd like to add that the seller was very responsive and went great lengths to solve a problem I was having - even taking the time to reach back out after a couple of weeks to check-in on things. Highly recommend!HOW I GROW:1. Change water every two weeks2. Add AeroGarden Liquid Nutrients every two weeks after water changes (Note: fruiting plants require a little more nutrients than leafy greens, so best to either dedicate a system to one type)3. Add 15mL of 3% H202 per gallon (these systems are about 0.9 gallons) to prevent root rot and algae4. [OPTIONAL] Add HydroGuard 72 hours after H202 for better plant health (make sure to wait 72 hours, otherwise the H202 will kill the beneficial bacteria in the Hydroguard, defeating the purpose)5. Between water changes every two weeks, top off the water tank whenever it gets low (I usually do every two days as habit)RESEARCH THE FOLLOWING FOR SUCCESS:-Pruning mature plants-How to identify "true leaves" in baby sprouts (this is the moment your plant is considered "mature" and can receive the normal dosage of nutrients)-Removing extra sprouts (if more than one germinates in a pod, you need to pluck them all except for one)-How to harvest your plant-How to pollinate-Indeterminate vs. Determinate varieties-Trimming/Managing roots + Identifying root rot-Pest control/prevention (which would be very rare in a system this small)-Having a backup plan to transfer the plant in case it "outgrows" the system.Good luck!

Grows herbs very well, I've been trying to grow a habanero plant, having trouble getting it to fruit, but I don't think that's an issue with the unit. I planted 2 pods of cilantro, and ended up having to get rid of them due to the shear amount of cilantro it was growing. I had the top controller burn out on me a few months into use. The seller was easy to work with and sent a replacement out after I sent a video showing the unit not working. The plant food that comes with it seems to work well, when I ran out I purchased one of the Aerogarden jugs on Amazon. The instruction book in my unit was in German, not sure if they're all like that, but you can get by very easily with just the photos for assembly, there really aren't many parts to it.The top to it extends up a decent way up which is nice when your plants get tall, though I generally trim them back so I can keep it under a cabinet.It has a mode for veggies and a mode for flowers, the color of the light changes, I don't know enough about gardening to know if there's a real functional difference between the lights.Overall it grows plants a lot faster and fuller than anything that I've ever had in an outside garden. I think this spring I'll use it to start seedlings for the outdoor garden.