Mr. Stacky Smart Farm - Automatic Self Watering Garden - Grow Fresh Healthy Food Virtually Anywhere Year Round - Soil or Hydroponic Vertical Tower Gardening System (Standard Kit, Stone)

After owning this product for atleast a year now I felt pretty ready to write a review. The package shipped fine and I also purchased coco coir and perlite to fill it with. I also purchased a small grow light since it was winter. To start I had it water twice a day for 3 minutes. My seedlings LOVED it. My biggest issues were that it needed to be in a south facing window. I had it in a north facing window where it got no sun and the grow light wasn't enough, so anything not within 6 inches of the grow light died. My second issue was that it wasn't movable once filled. By the end of winter I had some cilantro in the second to top tier and two mini tomato plants with ripe fruit on the top level. Unfortunately I decided to take it down all together and remove the plants. The hydroponic system just wasn't for me. I didn't enjoy having to add nutrients and my plants had very few root systems. I just recently re assembled the product with standard potting soil. I also put it on a little stand with wheels purchased at home depot. I also now have a South facing window for it. I'm going to attempt to grow flowers over the winter instead of vegetables. I truly do love this system for a small home especially with kids it is such a great learning activity. So do I regret buying it? Nope. I think any "growing issues" are user error and not applicable to the system itself. Would I buy it again? No not at that price. When I received it I realized I could have easily made my own system for much cheaper. All you would need is some stacking planters, a 5 gallon bucket, a small submersible pump, and some PVC pipe and fittings. I'm excited to see how it grows with potting soil versus hydroponics. Will update later down the road.

After a lot of research, we decided on the Smart Farm for our vertical gardening solution because of the packaged system with all of the components and the price advantage over the other options. We wanted a garden we could install on our back deck to grow all of the lettuce, tomatoes, herbs and spices we regularly use for dinner. The large planter areas on this model make it easy to plant 1-3 plants per section and with 20 sections we still had room for some extras like strawberries and peppers. Assembly was super easy and the pump, timer and drip system work flawlessly. We only planted our plants yesterday so no word on the yield yet but it seems like this is exactly what we wanted. The kit includes the hydroponic nutrients to fill the generous 16 gallon reservoir about 7 times. I emailed Mr. Stacky and they sent us plenty of coco growing medium at no charge which arrived the day after the Smart Farm. We decided to buy some Perlite and mix it with the coco for planting. The only other things we purchased to get our garden growing was plants, a pH monitor and some pH down solution.

I did a lot of research on vertical grow systems before purchasing this product and settled on this due to the lower cost than other all-inclusive grow systems on the market, and the potential for this to be used indoors or outdoors, as well as with soil or hydroponics. I also contacted Mr Stacky through facebook before purchasing and they were helpful and responsive so that also contributed to my decision. I have just set this up to grow indoors hydroponically so this review is my first impressions on use for this purpose. I will update as my grow progresses. A point of confusion was whether media came with this system. On the amazon page it says that cococoir is included, although in the Q&A section they state it is not, but that media is sent as a free gift when you register. The package arrived with no cococoir. When I messaged them on Facebook about it, they sent some out straight away. I'm not sure if only the cococoir is the free gift, or if it is meant to be included in the package and they should have sent out perlite when I registered. The box however arrived well packaged and with the cheat sheet provided, was fast and easy to put together. They provide no other instructions about how to use the product. I used the blog on their website to decide on the 80:20 cococoir:perlite mix and followed their instructions. You only need about half of the cococoir they send to fill the five trays. I’m not sure if this would work with hydroton, as the water only drips down near the center of the stack. The trays are study and the reservoir feels a little flimsy, but it has extra structural supports and holds the water well. There is no drainage port to empty the reservoir which would be useful for growing outdoors, although this gives me extra confidence it won’t leak while I am growing indoors. The whole stack does swivel but requires some force when its laden with media. There is no way to access the reservoir once set up or to see the water level. To test the nutrients, you need to run the pump and fill a cup. Add any necessary adjustments when you top up the reservoir by pouring this under the bottom stack with a watering can. There is no way to mix the solution, although the pump may do this work. This could make it a little more difficult to adjust the pH level. I’m also worried about the small amount of media that drips through the drainage holes in each stack and whether this may clog the pump in the reservoir, although there is a small filter to avoid clogs in the small pipes that supply the water to the top stack. Those cons aside, it looks beautiful in my living room and everything is running smoothly and the water drips down evenly on all sides. I think as long as I can provide them sufficient light, my plants should do very well in this system. I don’t expect explosive growth due to the lower light indoors in February, but this will be the perfect system to sit outside in a sunny spot come spring. If I find that the issues I've described don't inconvenience me, I will change my rating to 5 stars.

UPDATE: I did receive the coco peat from Mr. Stacky on 3/23/18 (7 Days Later) after writing this review. I am appreciative of their reaction, but still harbor concerns about customer service. Despite that, I have shoots growing from the coco peat I purchased myself after only 5-Days and I am very pleased with the product itself. It is very user friendly. I just received the product and it is exactly as promised and looks quality. I am excited to get started and this rating is not a reflection of the product itself, but the customer service. The customer service is not good or bad, rather it is non-existent. As a result, I was not able to get my farm started on time. There may or may not be coco peat included with this product; reports and descriptions are inconsistent both on Amazon and the Mr. Stacky website. With this in mind, I reached out to Mr. Stacy upon placing this order to inquire as to whether I would receive coco peat and what steps I need to go through to get it. I reached out by email first to their website. I reached out through the chat feature on their website second, which I have tried at all times of the day and does not appear active. I tried calling during business hours twice without response. I reached out through Amazon when the product actually shipped and I have emailed since. I even registered on their website and sent copies of the purchase order. In the past week, over numerous attempts at contact I have not interacted with one Mr. Stacky representative. Radio Silence. Coco Peat is not an expensive investment, so this is not about the coco peat. It is about the inconvenience of not knowing exactly what I am getting with this product and what I need to purchase to set up the system. If Mr. Stacky does not offer customer service, then they should make that clear and clearly outline what the purchase of their product includes. It is a frustrating waste of time to repeatedly attempt to ask a simple questions without any answers and, frankly, concerns me in the event that something with the system does fail and I need to get a hold of Mr. Stacky.

This is an easy vertical planter that can be used with soil or as a hydroponic system. Kids love it and everyone gathers around to watch during watering time! I live in a very hot climate and increased watering from 3 to 5 times daily which helped my plants thrive much better. Will buy a 2nd system. FYI - growing tomatoes, peppers and Kalaloo( like a tropical spinach ).