AeroGarden Harvest Lite, Green

Got my first one as a gift, then purchased two more. I did have trouble with one being defective but I want to say I had a wonderful experience with Aerogarden replacing the unit. I've noticed that most of the negative comments are coming from people who have had an earlier iteration of the aerogarden. This was my first and I really like it. It's super easy to put together and use. The light and timer are activated by the censor on top the hood, no buttons. Also, it has a safety mechanism, if the water runs low it will shut off the lights and pump. SO, when you are setting up, fill it with water before assuming it doesn't work because the lights and pump aren't coming on. The directions need to be a little better even with it being simple. They drop off after explaining how to connect the power and pieces together. They should take you through the entire set up before going off on different topics.

I’ll preface by saying I’m a senior and a gadget guy. A year ago, I bought the Aerogarden Harvest (another gadget) on sale, but didn’t set it up for another 10 months. Why? Well, I sometimes buy things on sale, but really want them as a gift down the road for someone. Then, as a senior, I forgot about it until after Christmas. A few months later, I realized that the Aerogarden has a 12-month warranty, so I figured that I better get started with it. Unfortunately, the included pre-seeded herb pods looks like they were all opened, so I had no idea what I was really planting until they started to sprout and I did a lot of juggling their name stickers. The unit was brand new in its original packaging, but the seed pods were definitely tampered with. I’ll call this Harvest model the 1.0 to avoid confusion. Four of the six pods sprouted and I was happy with that. I could have contacted Aerogarden to get replacements, but I planned to get another Aerogarden, and I’d have more than enough things to plant, especially after I bought a lettuce greens pre-seeded pod kit. My wife saw what a fun time I was having with the Harvest 1.0, that she figured that she’d surprise me a 2.0 for Father’s Day. I had read about and watched review videos about the Harvest 2.0 being a dog of a system. I writing here to explain that in my limited experience, that’s not the case. One review mentioned the inconsistent grow light timing to the point that I thought it was going to be on a random schedule. That’s not what I experienced. There are instructions on how to set the 2.0 grow light and the two Harvests I own have the same exact 15-hour schedule down to the minute, but are set up differently from each other. My only fear about opening this present and making the return more difficult was that this person was correct and my light schedule would be based on random times. Nope, it works fine. I believe that this person may missed this point in the directions or received a defective unit. The same reviewer mentioned that his 2.0 unit did not come with clear grow covers for holding humidity and didn’t know if that was an error or if the unit wasn’t supposed to have the grow covers. The 2.0 doesn’t have the grow covers included. Several reviewers have also pointed out that the 2.0 only puts out 15w of light compared to the 20w of the 1.0. I’m not experienced enough with hydroponic gardens to know if this will be a significant Achilles heel going forward. It’s plenty bright and if I didn’t already own the 1.0, I wouldn’t even notice. The Harvest 2.0 doesn’t come with pre-seeded pods. It comes with six grow your own pods and a pack of Black Seeded Simpson lettuce. This setup has given me the experience setting up my own pods that I only used one pod for the included lettuce seeds, and used the other five to start growing my own select herbs and tomatoes. I plan to never purchase pre-seeded pods ago as this was so easy. A new user will probably want to simultaneously order either pre-seeded pods with herbs and/or vegetables to gain experience with growing something other than the included lettuce. I also noticed that the water pump is smaller than the 1.0 pump and has a correspondingly smaller sponge filter. I didn't notice the filter until the first cleaning because it's on the bottom of the removable pump rather than on the pump's side like the 1.0. I have no reservations about recommending the Harvest 2.0 as an introduction to hydroponics or to add to an experienced user’s collection.

Update about two months later: I just downgraded my rating to a one star. The first pods I started never sprouted at all. So I bought some of the pre-seeded pods from the same brand that were guaranteed to sprout. Out of six pods only three sprouted. I am working on getting my refund on those but I never thought I would need to save the empty box for lot numbers on the pods. I don't know why things won't sprout in this Aerogarden. I finally found the instructions online and followed them to the letter. What a waste of money. Arrived today and I was shocked to find there were no instructions or seed pods. I bought a different brand a couple of months ago because this one was a little more than I wanted to pay and it came with everything but seeds. It is working great and I have basil coming out of my ears! So when this one went on sale I jumped to get it to add to my herb garden collection. Red is my favorite color too. If I didn't have the instructions from my other hydroponics set I wouldn't have any idea what to do. I don't know if I should complain to the company or not. In the video the lady got everything with her Aerogarden, but in the fine print description it says seeds and pods sold separately. But instructions? Don't they think someone might need those to get started? My husband just found safety instructions that say things like don't submerge in water. Duh! And a code to scan to get a quick start guide. Well since my smart phone doesn't have a scanner that won't do any good. I am really disappointed in this product, and if it wasn't red and I got it on sale I'd send it back.

We are a household of tomato lovers. After taste testing several varieties last year, this year we’ve narrowed down to the True Black Brandywine beefsteak type, and a British cherry tomato favorite, Black Opal. I use the Aerogarden to give us a jump on the season every year. I’ve owned several types of Aerogardens over the past decade. Even though some had advanced Bluetooth features there was an element of hassle to each one. I already appreciate this one. From the time you plug it in this Aerogarden keeps the grow light on for 15 hours each day. I plugged mine in at 6 AM, so the light should remain on from 6 AM to 9 PM daily. Although the light is scheduled, I still have control. Briefly placing my finger on the light switch concealed between the leaf emblem and the “add plant food” reminder light on top of the grow light allows me to turn the light off and on manually. The tub is small and dishwasher safe on the top rack when it’s dissembled (see instruction manual for more). My other models didn’t have this feature. And what a feature it is! With other models I had to circulate a special cleaner in a full tank of water for 24 hrs to get rid of algae before replanting. With this one I just pop the tank in the dishwasher and this Aerogarden is ready for replanting as soon as the cycle is finished! It is sturdy, and, based on past experience with other models, I expect it to be reliable. Now for the downside: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand the Aerogarden division of Scott’s Miracle Grow is shutting down. Blurbs I’ve read say they will continue to support existing products, but for how long I can’t predict. You might want to buy extra supplies as a hedge against future shortages. This notwithstanding, all I can say is, for the price, this is a great little unit! Highly recommended.

I took off one star since the directions included with this grower are extensive but not detailed in the sense that it doesn't explain some things I learned after reading Amazon reviews. First of all, the light and pump will not turn on until you put water in it. The steps in the booklet tells you to put water in first, but doesn't tell you if you don't do that first, the light and pump won't go on. It's built with a sensor that tells the pump to run, and if the sensor senses there is no water in the reservoir, it will not turn on and neither will the light. So, for anyone wanting to test the power on the grower to ensure it works before using it, you can't test this item until you put it together and add water to it. Secondly, like another reviewer mentioned, once you have the water in it and plug it in, and when you put the light on its adjustable arm, you have to almost use your fist on the top of the light, and do a quick pound on the top of it to get the entire apparatus to light up and run. Make sure the light and its arm "snap" into place. The only way I could do it was to pound on the top of the light and then the light and pump automagically started up. This kit does not come with seeds. You need to buy your own. I live in Florida and planted partial sun-loving herbs that don't do well in my western exposure yard: thyme, cilantro, dill and parsley. The spearmint is slowly starting to come up and isn't shown in the photo but others are doing well.

Best at home golden cherry tomato grower!

I bought two of these as gifts, and I don't know if the second one has been set up yet but the first has been running for a week and a half and my girlfriend has some very impressive lettuce going from the seeds that came with it! We only used the middle two pods at first, but we were so impressed that we just bought some tea pods and added those as well. The tea pods were 1 month beyond their sell-by date, so I contacted AeroGarden customer service through Amazon's support page and they got back to me in a matter of minutes explaining that the seeds should last for a year after the sell-by date and were still covered by their warranty for 90 days after purchase. So we put the tea pods in the 4 outer slots today. My only initial complaint about the unit is that you have to plug in or reset the Harvest 2.0 at the same time of day you want the light and pump to start at every day. So if you want it to start at 6am so that the light turns off before bed time, you have to wake up and be ready to reset it at 6am. The model with the LCD allows you to program it, but I knew that when I bought it and I figured this limited inconvenience was worth the lower price and the more simplistic aesthetics of the Harvest 2.0. I should also mention that some of the plastic pod inserts were pretty tight going in. I had to press fairly hard to get them to "seat", but nothing felt like it would break, just that they might be hard to remove when we replant. The "switch" aka "button" is actually neither, it's the little embossed leaf symbol on the top of the lighting canopy, which seems to be a capacitive sensor which detects touch rather being a moving part. You can use this to temporarily turn the light off or on, or long-press it for 5 seconds to reset the daily start time to the current time of day.

Got this with the AeroGarden tomato and celery pods. The pods grew quickly but reach up to the light long before the tomatoes fruit. The light really needs to extend a few inches higher than it currently does to account for veggies that will not be transplanted to soil. The lettuce is also up past the highest extension and gets "burned" by the lights. UPDATE: I've now had the Harvest 2.0 for almost a year and have found two problems -- not just with Aerogarden but all of these small hydroponics systems. 1-This is NOT a garden. This is a great seed starter to transplant after your plants reach 6-9 inches in height. Seeds germinate very quickly and the plants grow very fast. They quickly outgrow the "garden". All those photos you see on Amazon, I don't know how they could possibly get that full of plants in this device - especially with all that fruit in the photos. 2-If you are purchasing a hydroponics setup for the first time, what I have learned the hard way is that you need to spend a little more and get a unit that has a light head that will extend from 6" to at last 24". Anything shorter and your plants, especially tomatoes, will grow right over the light head. Also, many of my plants I tried growing in the Harvest 2.0 suffered from severe "sunburn" because they grew up to the lights so fast. Just an FYI, the Aerogarden trellis does not work very well with the Harvest 2.0 because the light base is about 3/4 inch too high for the trellis to reach the cover. Also, the Aerogarden AeroVoir Garden Watering System add-on is a fantastic add-on. It saves a LOT of hassles watering your system and wondering if its at the correct water level.