Top 10 best hydroponic system 2022 ForGrowing Smarter

Reviewing the new IDOO Hydroponics GardenMy 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″ above the seedling. However, it only goes so far down and is not 2″ 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 WordsOther 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.

4/3/2022We ordered this system almost exactly a year ago. First off, it doesn’t come with a reservoir, so we built one for it ourselves. Second, the sponges it comes with didn’t work at all. We tried them in the first planting and all that happened was they developed algae which killed the plants. As a result we cleaned the system and switched to rock wool. Rockwool worked better, but only in the top row. We haven’t had much success with anything in the bottom two rows and we have tried moving it to different places around the property to try and get it better light. The algae problem also came back, building up in the pipes due to the white pvc letting the sunlight through and water flow issues. We clean them out after each algae outbrak, which is also difficult due to the shape and nature of the pipes. In an effort to avoid this difficulty for the next season we decided to try and replace the white PVC with black, as this has worked in preventing algae growth in our other systems. However the PVC size is not standard and we haven’t been able to find any matching sizes in stores and as a result we had to get more creative. Having seeds that are ready to be transferred into the system, and at this point having no system to transfer them into we decided to use black contact paper around the pipes to see if this helps. We are currently waiting on contact paper to arrive. Another note is there are no covers for the seed plugs, I tried to find some that would fit online and failed. Meaning the rockwool, or sponges if you’re using those, is completely exposed to the light until your plants gets a little larger. We lost a lot of lettuce due to the algae issue that this caused, but I fashioned some myself by cutting plastic dividers to the correct lengths and slipping them around the plants to help prevent algae growth in those areas. I would suggest using EVA foam if you’re going to do this yourself. My efforts were temporarily successful, but the growth of algae began happening within the tube itself, even though I had managed to prevent it in the rockwool. This season I’ll be making covers out of EVA foam to try and prevent this, we will be covering the pipe with black adhesive vial or black contact paper, and we will be moving the system to a place with more sunlight to try and encourage the plants on the lower levels to live. Lids would do wonders for the parts of the system that we have nothing growing in. As it is I usually cover the empty holes so that sunlight cant get in, until the plants are ready to go in. As we have a mixture of crops we’ve tried to rotate in and out. Things which do better in the winter vs the summer. We’ve had the most success with black seed lettuce, though many types have grown well. Currently we are taking it apart again for cleaning before the next crop goes in. We’ve been using the leaves of the lettuce in the image all winter. However, as you can see in the image the hose pump has been corrupted with algae, and we’ll have to either replace it or find a way to clean it. This is one of the most difficult things to fix as the material seems to have shrank around the pump, meaning it will likely need to be cut off so that we can clean it. On another note, I do not grow the rock wool inside the net cups for this system. That is near impossible as they will not stand upright like our other net cups do. Instead I grow them in the rockwool and put them in the net cups once they’re ready to be transferred. However they also need to be cleaned from the algae build up, which is why some of them are missing in the image. As I said, we’re taking it apart to clean. I was hoping we would be able to grow strawberries with it, but unfortunately none of them made it. We’ll see how this next crop does, and hopefully I’ll be able to update with a better review.Update: 4/12/2022The black adhesive vinal worked great for algae prevention. We also managed to pick up a black hose that fits it at an auto parts shop, so we hopefully won’t have to worry about it building up in the hose anymore either. There was one thing I forgot to mention in my original post, that being that we didn’t use the original pump with this system, not because it failed but because we read others reviews on it failing and decided to get a slightly larger one and to save the pump it came with for another project. I also had the idea to grow peas on the bottom shelf since I’ve had a little success with them in Kratky systems before… The peas I picked were only supposed to get 2 to 3 feet tall if they grew at all. This was just an experiment I did for fun, with no expectation for them to get big at all… Currently the peas are about six feet tall, and I’ve had to build a secondary trellis out of spare pvc and twine. The roots have clogged the system a couple times. I’ve had to go in and pull out some of the roots, and to my surprise the peas just keep going as if nothing happened. This has inspired me to make another system, with larger pvc, and deep net cups, specifically for peas. Unfortunately I was unable to buy Eva foam to make covers with, but we’ve had such success starting seeds under grow lights inside that it hasn’t been necessary. Since we moved the systems to the front of the house and covered them in the black plastic, all three rows have been producing like crazy. We’ve gotten compliments from our neighbors on it and neighborhood kids have even asked us to explain how it works. When asked we let them know where we got the system from.Due to the fact that working on this system has helped inspire us to build other designs, and the fact that the peas have turned into a jungle through living in it. I’m going to give it another star. This is in spite of the extra efforts I had to put in to reduce algae build up. To be fair, that is out of the sellers control, humidity and region have a lot to due with the amount of algae build up any system will get, and as annoying as it is to clean, it’s because the environment is prime for growing. However, I will recommend to the sellers that they start working with black PVC and black hose, as it does reduce algae buildup and will help others who may have this issue in the future. I would also recommend an appropriately sized pipe cleaner with a long reach for those who are going to buy it. Plan ahead for the cleaning process, it is far easier with a pipe cleaner. You may even want to try a pressure washer, though I haven’t yet. The black covering is honestly the best preventative measure you could take for cleaning, though it is time consuming. Along with this update I will be adding in more pictures so you can see how much better the garden is doing now. We’ve had success with Collards, various lettuce species, kale, and peas. Though I wouldn’t recommend the peas unless you’re going to stay on top of them. They love it, but like I said, the roots keep clogging the system.In the end, thank you for a lovely garden. Please start selling this in black. ^.^

Received my system and everything was well packaged. No parts were missing, in fact, there are spare parts for everything. Assembly was easy and I’m amazed how my plants took to this system very well. Will definitely buy another system from this company in the future.

Update 9/27/22: this company sent my dad and his wife a brand new unit after theirs failed within a year. New respect for this seller!!I purchased this for my dad and his wife as a Christmas gift in 2021. They set it up in January 2022 and have loved it until…well this week. Not even a year and it’s not working. I did not purchase protection because I figured if they get a few years out of it, that it will pay for itself, but not even a year? If seller can rectify this I will be happy to amend the review. My dad is working with them right now but they needed the order number. Hoping all goes smoothly

I bought this for my 12 year old grandson. It was an easy setup for him and his first hydroponic growing attempt was successful! He planted shallot and basil and was so proud as he monitored their growing process. He donated both “crops” to a chef at a local kitchen. It’s a great intro to teaching responsibility and self sufficiency. I would strongly recommend this product for ALL age groups wanting a successful growing experience.

I love these little things I don’t use them as advertised however the little cups are great however I really just one of the lights are usually use something like a yogurt cup or something a larger where I can do multiple seeds up to 100 at one time like a seed grow or from family Dollar for example what I’ll do is I’ll take that tree fill it with seeds put it on these lights and covered with cellophane or even if it comes with a little the greenhouse dome spray it with water inside and just let it go crazy it’s amazing how quickly I can get seeds grow that normally would take 9 to 14 days to germinate I can get them to germinate within 24 to 32. These are great gifts however the person you’re getting them for you just have to make sure that this is something that they actually want.

First one came in broken but the company was quick to replace it. The within two months both of my planters broke and again the company was quick to replace them. Customer service is amazing, but these are fragile systems. My plants grow like crazy! I’ve got 3 foot tomato plants in under two months. I have herbs growing like weeds. It’s a phenomenal system but I wish it were sturdier.

This is not a recirculating system. It can be. With modification and a pump. However, for the money it’s not worth the price unless you’re lazy like me and just wanted the buckets with the holes already in it.

I got this for my wife for her birthday so we could grow some veggies indoors for the winter. Her seeds all had 100 percent germination in less than 48 hours. Truly fantastic. There are much more expensive options out there, but this one does all of the same things. We’re currently growing 12 different vegetables. The picture I attached is about 3 and a half weeks of growth.

This is my first time trying a hydroponic system and I’ve had great results with this unit so far. It’s super quiet. No issues. I’m growing different types of romaine, butter crunch and gourmet lettuces, arugula & dwarf cherry tomatoes. Instructions are easy to follow. Make sure to keep the water level up to 4 liters. When it starts to drop down to 3 liters, add another liter with 5ml of nutrients from bottle A and 5 ml from bottle B. That’s it! Every month, I siphon out all of the water and add a new 4 liter batch of RO water. Also trim the roots occasionally. I would definitely recommend this system.