Ideas - Bountiful Indoor Garden https://bountifulindoorgarden.com Grow Herbs, Fruits, and Veggies Indoors with Minimal Effort Fri, 03 Oct 2025 11:51:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://bountifulindoorgarden.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FavIcon-Container-Garden-0512x0512-1-150x150.jpg Ideas - Bountiful Indoor Garden https://bountifulindoorgarden.com 32 32 The Most Reviewed Indoor Gardening Equipment https://bountifulindoorgarden.com/the-most-reviewed-indoor-gardening-equipment/ Fri, 25 Oct 2024 10:53:07 +0000 https://bountifulindoorgarden.com/?p=12389 You don’t get thousands or tens of thousands of reviews by being a horrible product. What works? Find out here.

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The Most Reviewed Indoor Gardening Equipment

Buying products online can be risky. At least in the store you could hold the box in your hands, maybe open the flap to peek inside. You could feel the material or compare two products side-by-side. Not so much online. That’s why product reviews carry so much weight with buyers. Somebody else evaluated the product for you.

Since reviews carry so much weight with online shoppers, I’ve curated a list of indoor garden products with the most reviews in their category.

See the Criteria for Inclusion section of this article for an explanation for how I selected products listed below.

The article lists many products, and the list will grow over time as I find more highly-reviewed products to add. I use only text links to reduce page load time. Product links take you to Amazon.com, where you can see images and investigate the product further.

Let’s see what indoor garden products are the best of the best!

All product links in this article are affiliate links. Purchases made after you click on a product link may result in me earning a small percentage of the purchase price. This costs you nothing, but helps cover the cost of publishing the website.

Hydroponic Growing Systems

A Hydroponic Growing System is a “garden in a box”. All but the largest units or vertical towers fit on a kitchen countertop. The combination of the hydroponic technique and LED technology almost guarantee you a successful garden.

Based upon the number of ratings received by these Hydroponic Growing Systems, these products stand out as the most popular on the market.

Title Description
6 pods, 20-watt LED, convenient control panel, 12″ plant height, and it comes with herb seeds ready to grow. Available in stainless steel, sage, and platinum. The manufacturer sells pre-seeded pods containing seeds for a wide variety of plants.
9 pods, powerful 30-watt LED, 24″ plant height, vacation mode, trellis, and it comes with seeds ready to grow. With the Basic model, you get a powerful LED and 9 pod capacity without the extra conveniences. The manufacturer sells pre-seeded pods containing seeds for a wide variety of plants.
3 pods, 10-watt LED, 10″ plant height, and it comes with 3 herb seed pods. Available in black and white. The Sprout works best for small plants and fits in small spaces, like a dorm room or RV. The manufacturer sells pre-seeded pods containing seeds for a wide variety of plants.
12 pods, 22-watt LED, 11″ plant height, built-in fan, and two grow modes for the grow light. The 4.5L (liter) water tank expands the time between waterings. Light modes options are vegetable or fruit and flowers. Available in black and white. No seeds included.
3 pods, 14″ plant height. Three basil pods included. Click & Grow promotes their pods as being superior to “regular” grow pods. Available in gray, white, and beige. The manufacturer sells pre-seeded pods containing seeds for a wide variety of plants.

Self-Watering Containers

The self-watering container differs from an old-fashioned flower pot in that the self-watering container includes a built-in water reservoir below the soil compartment that allows water to wick up into the grow medium to the roots of the plant.

A self-watering container when combined with a powerful grow LED makes a Self-Watering Container System, an indoor raised bed garden. (See the companion article, A Raised Bed Garden Indoors? Bring It On!) You can grow so many different plants indoors in a Self-Watering Container System.

Title Description
Self-watering container raised up on legs with a shelf below. Holds more than twelve gallons of soil. Allot about a yard by a foot and a half of floor space. Great design for indoor garden. Built-in water level indicator.
Three small self-watering containers. Well-suited for herbs, radishes, and shallow-rooted plants. Uses a cotton rope wick. Clear section of container shows water level. Fill water through opening in corner. Looks nice.
Three small self-watering containers. Well-suited for herbs, radishes, and shallow-rooted plants. Uses a cotton rope wick. Clear section of container shows water level. Fill water through opening in corner. Looks nice.
Present your indoor garden as a decoration with these superb self-watering containers. High-end planters show gardening can be stylish. Comes in slate and white. 12″ x 12″ x 12″
Present your indoor garden as a decoration with these superb self-watering containers. High-end planters show gardening can be stylish. Comes in slate and white. 15″ x 15″ x 15″
The self-watering container allows water to seep into the soil and wick up to the roots of the plant. You can grow a small plant. Simple design.

All product links in this article are affiliate links. Purchases made after you click on a product link may result in me earning a small percentage of the purchase price. This costs you nothing, but helps cover the cost of publishing the website.

Seed Pod Refills

Your Hydroponic Growing System will last you many years, providing many crops. Each crop needs new grow sponges. You may also need to replenish your supply of pod labels and pods. Check out these popular refill kits.

Title Description
Grow your own seeds using these replacement grow sponges. The kit includes 150 AeroGarden-compatible sponges, 10 plant labels, and tweezers. Other options include kits with fewer sponges with or without grow baskets (pods).
Square grow sponges fit some models of iDOO, QYO, and Lyko gardening appliances. Get 50 square sponges and 50 labels for your Hydroponic Growing System.
Get 50 sets of sponge and label, plus 12 sets of pods and domes, and plant food. Compatible with AeroGarden devices. Options include the same kit without plant food, just pods and labels only, or a set of 100 sponges and 50 labels.
The GardenCube consists of 40 complete plant kits, each with a sponge, basket (pod), dome, and label. The sponges are cone-shaped. One option to this kit includes plant food.
In the Tigvio seed pod kit you’ll get 50 sponges and 50 labels, plus 12 pods (baskets) and 12 domes. A set of tweezers for picking up seeds rounds out the kit. The sponges are cone-shaped. Options for this kit includes 50 sponges by themselves or a full set of 30 plant kits with food.
Get 50 square sponges and 50 labels along with plant food for compatible iDOO, Lyko, and QYO Hydroponic Growing Systems. One option available provides just grow sponges and plant food.
Click and Grow offers pre-seeded pods (not compatible with AeroGarden) for use in their Hydroponic Growing Systems. Basil is one of the most popular.
Click and Grow offers pre-seeded pods (not compatible with AeroGarden) for use in their Hydroponic Growing Systems. Strawberry is one of the most reviewed seed pod kits.
Click and Grow offers pre-seeded pods (not compatible with AeroGarden) for use in their Hydroponic Growing Systems. Tomatoes are always a popular indoor garden plant and unsurprisingly generated many reviews.

Seed Starters

Coming soon. Check back often.

Title Description

Seed Packets

Coming soon. Check back often.

Title Description

Potting Soil

Coming soon. Check back often.

Title Description

Fertilizer

Coming soon. Check back often.

Title Description

All product links in this article are affiliate links. Purchases made after you click on a product link may result in me earning a small percentage of the purchase price. This costs you nothing, but helps cover the cost of publishing the website.

Grow LED

Coming soon. Check back often.

Title Description

Microgreens

Coming soon. Check back often.

Title Description

Books

Grow your library of reference materials for a bountiful indoor garden. Whether you grow your food indoors or outdoors, the plant is the same. Learn all you can how to provide your indoor plants all they need to thrive.

Title Description
The book pertains to growing food in a raised bed outdoors, but the knowledge for growing in a raised bed can be adapted for growing in a Self-Watering Container System.
The book topic revolves around growing food outdoors but contains information about vegetables you may find of value as you grow them indoors.
Like many gardening books, this book centers on outdoor gardening, including calendars and planting recommendations. However, the book also contains information on vegetables and plants that can help you grow better food indoors.
This book geared toward new gardeners is (surprise!) focused on outdoor gardening. As with many gardening books, you are looking to gain knowledge on growing food in general with specifics on each plant type. You may find this book informative. The book is one of four books in a series but the only book in the series that meets the requirements for inclusion on this page.
A classic! The information supplied in this encyclopedia goes well beyond a simple garden into full-blown homesteading. If you feel the desire to move beyond your indoor garden, you should find this book valuable.

Indoor Garden Hydroponic Supplies

Coming soon. Check back often.

Title Description

Miscellaneous Indoor Garden Accessories

It’s the little things, or in this case, the accessories, that can make an indoor garden successful. These products refill or replace parts worn out.

Title Description
Capillary wick cords in a variety of lengths and thicknesses. Use these cords to draw water from the reservoir in a self-watering container to the grow medium. Most smaller self-watering containers use wicks. Larger self-watering containers may have areas to submerge the grow media in the water, and will not need a wick like these.
Capillary wick cords in a variety of lengths and thicknesses. Use these cords to draw water from the reservoir in a self-watering container to the grow medium. Most smaller self-watering containers use wicks. Larger self-watering containers may have areas to submerge the grow media in the water, and will not need a wick like these.

All product links in this article are affiliate links. Purchases made after you click on a product link may result in me earning a small percentage of the purchase price. This costs you nothing, but helps cover the cost of publishing the website.

Hybrid Indoor Garden Systems

Coming soon. Check back often.

Title Description

Criteria for Item Inclusion

Products were included in this list (and will continue to be added to the list as I find more) based upon these criteria.

  • This product surpassed the threshold I set for a minimum number of reviews of a product in its category.
  • I believed the product would benefit people growing food in their home.

I’ll clarify four aspects of reviews.

  • I set the minimum number of reviews for products by the category. Products in one category may require fewer reviews to be included than products in another category. Some product categories simply don’t sell enough products to generate many reviews or the technology changes so quickly new products replace existing products often.
  • Some manufacturers group multiple colors of one product under a single set of reviews. If color (or maybe size/capacity) is the only difference, I consider those products to be the same.
  • Sometimes a manufacturer groups unique products under a single set of reviews. I attempt to break the group apart to learn the actual number of reviews for each unique product before deciding whether to include any products in this curated list.
  • A product may attract activist reviewers—people who have not purchased the product or service—but wish to make their opinions known regarding the product, seller, or manufacturer. I’ll not count activist reviews on either side of an issue if possible, and may choose to include the item based upon the above two criteria alone.

The customer-tested products listed on this page should help you get your indoor garden operational with minimal fuss. Good luck and happy gardening!

Key Takeaways

You can construct a spectacular indoor garden even if you limit yourself to the items presented in this article.

The items listed above can also make “safe” gifts, because you know the products have stood the test of time. You can read enough reviews to decide whether the product matches the needs of your intended recipient.

Don’t reject innovative new products just because they haven’t generated the minimum number of reviews for me to include them here. Wonderful new technologies and techniques come along all the time.

Come back to this article often, as the lists will continue to grow. Good products earn more reviews and as those products meet the minimum number of reviews they’ll be added to these lists.

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Tips For Growing A Bountiful Indoor Garden https://bountifulindoorgarden.com/tips-for-growing-a-bountiful-indoor-garden/ Sat, 11 Nov 2023 11:31:13 +0000 https://bountifulindoorgarden.com/?p=3137 Make your life easier and grow more food indoors with these tips, tricks, and suggestions.

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Tips For Growing A Bountiful Indoor Garden

Your bountiful indoor garden will be your pride and joy. Whether you want to grow a few select herbs in a tasteful kitchen setting or you want to cram as many salad plants into as tight a space as possible, you’ll find ideas to help you succeed on this page.

This article will grow over time. New tips appear at the top of the page, so you don’t need to hunt them down each time you return.

There’s no shame in adding grow lights to your plants, even those in Hydroponic Growing Systems. If you have a full garden growing in a Hydroponic Growing System, the additional light can give your plants a boost.

I’ve grown tomatoes and peppers in AeroGarden Harvest series Hydroponic Growing Systems. Those plants grow so big! I prune to keep them in check, but I’ve found branches growing outside the scope of the light survive just fine. All the same, when I have a few larger plants arranged in close proximity, I believe having an independent grow light aimed at the lot of them provides a boost.

You’ll need to attach supplementary lights to a timer set to roughly match the schedule of the automated light. Your plant needs time to rest. The lights don’t need to be exactly synchronized, but the timers should be closely aligned.

Your Hydroponic Growing System has a very bright LED grow light. Or you added a LED grow light for your EarthBox or vertical garden. Get the most of your light by positioning other plants nearby. They won’t get direct light from the LED but it should be enough for many types of plants.

Position two or more lights close together and fill the space between them with planters. If you have three or more grow lights, you get a central growing area by arranging the lights in a circle. The light in the circle center will not be as bright as a dedicated light but it’s enough for some plant types.

Grabbing some free sunlight doesn’t hurt, either. Using artificial sunlight for your garden doesn’t mean you cannot make use of the real thing, too. Position your plants near a window facing south, west, or east for the most sunlight, but even a window facing north affords your plants a little extra “light food.”

Don’t throw away green onion bulbs after you cut off the stems! They may grow just fine in your Hydroponic Growing System.

Push the bulb down into an empty grow pod. You may fit more than one in a single pod. When the water circulates the Hydroponic Growing System will water the roots, which will grow down into the water in the tub. Pad the bulb with a grow plug cut in half if the bulb sits too low in the grow pod.

Other plants often regrown from stumps include celery and lettuce. You may find the size of the hole in the Hydroponic Growing System tray to be the limiting factor. But give it a try!

Avoid locating your plants near vents for heating and cooling. The air blowing from the vent can be as cool as the 50s to as high as the 90s Fahrenheit.

Provide your plants a location where the temperature is regulated but constant.

Some plants may harm children or pets. For each plant you decide to grow, do a quick Internet search for information whether the plant should be grown out of reach.

You can grow so many plants indoors, listing them all along with any possible adverse effects is not possible here. (Companion article: What Can I Grow with My Indoor Garden?)

Some plants may not be harmful to pets, but they certainly attract them. My cats enjoy chewing on the strawberry runners (and shoelaces, and just about any other strings). So, in addition to protecting your pets from your plants, protect your plants from your pets.

Healthy, happy plants grow tall and wide. This is what you want. But if your plant fills a corner with walls on two sides, you cannot get to all the goodies it grows.

A tomato plant can hide ripe cherry tomatoes better than you may realize. You may not see the little orange beauties due to the dense vegetation. And if you do see them you need to reach through the plant to grab them.

Position your plants where you have access to them from all sides. You can examine the plant from all angles so you miss no ripened fruits.

Your tomato or pepper plants can continue giving you fruits for months. You risk damaging your plants when you move them.

Therefore, when starting a plant that will be large and long-living, find a location for your plant where it can reside for as much as six months, or maybe even more.

Think in three dimensions. This isn’t a plowed field. Stack your gardens.

Countertop Hydroponic Growing Systems fit on shelves. They’ll fit on a narrow rack. Just be sure the spacing between the shelves accommodates the light when fully extended. 

The AeroGarden Farm series of Hydroponic Growing Systems are floor models that stack using a simple bracket kit. Imagine two 24-pod gardens stacked vertically, growing food all year long. That’s a very compact, indoor, self-contained garden!

Another option is to grow plants on a column (tower) garden. Rather than arranging your plants on a flat tray, position plants around a column that stands two to six feet tall. You can grow many plants without taking up more than a few square feet of floor space. (Companion article: Limited Floor Space? Go Vertical With Your Garden!)

Don’t limit yourself to growing your food in the kitchen just because you are growing food. Plants add character to any room.

Decorate your home with leafy greens where you have limited space and jalapenos where a plant has room to expand.

Grow a cucumber plant and spread the vines out from the Hydroponic Growing System. So long as the vines get adequate light and you support the cucumbers it’s not much different than a spider plant. But with pretty yellow flowers! Be creative. Think outside the box.

Choose plants with similar growth characteristics if they share a hydroponic growing system or EarthBox. You want your plants to reach maturity around the same time, to share the light, and to expect the same watering schedule. Don’t plant a desert and tropical plant side-by-side! Or a short and a tall plant. Or a slow-grower and a fast-grower.

Be realistic in what you can grow and when in your Hydroponic Growing System.

You can grow other plants with your dwarf tomato plant if you have an AeroGarden Farm series garden or Hydroponic Growing System of similar capabilities. But if you have an AeroGarden Harvest or Hydroponic Growing System of similar capabilities you’ll need to cap five pod seats. The tomato plant will crowd out any other plants.

You are not always going to grow plants in every pod seat on the tray. Cap the pod seats to keep debris from falling into the water and prevent algae growth in the water.

 

You might think of plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, or even sunflowers as being too large to grow indoors. Most likely, you’ve seen these plants growing outdoors and they’ve been huge. But variations of all these plants and more have been bred for growth in tight spaces.

Seed pods you’d buy from AeroGarden include recommendations for the smallest Hydroponic Growing System series you’d want to grow them in. The AeroGarden tomato seed pod grows a plant that expands outside the range of the light of the Harvest series. Just prune a bit and the plant does just fine.

If you want to grow your own seeds in your Hydroponic Growing System, search for seeds using keywords such as “dwarf container seeds”.

When growing plants that grow a large trunk one thing to consider is the size of the openings in the tray for the pods. Watch to be sure the trunk does not grow too thick for the opening. You don’t want the plant trunk to crack the tray. You may never need to worry, but this is a page listing tips for getting the most from your Hydroponic Growing System, and this is a tip.

 

Why are you doing this? Are you happy planting random veggies and planning meals around what you have available? Or do you have a plan for everything you’re growing? You’ll get more from your indoor garden by having a plan for everything you grow.

Set objectives. Maybe you want a salad every day (Companion article: How to Get a Salad Every Day from Your Indoor Garden) or two. You want the perfect selection of herbs for your homemade dinners. Or ingredients for your salsa recipe. Or maybe a selection of finger food snacks to replace unhealthy treats. Decide what you need to grow and how to best achieve your objectives. (Companion article: How to Plan Your Indoor Garden)

Keep a journal. You cannot remember everything.

Use the journal to improve every crop. Just like a real farmer would.

Here are a few things you can track.

  • When did you plant each seed?
  • How long did the seed take to grow into a mature plant?
  • How much nutrients did you add to the water, and when did you do it?
  • How long did the plant survive?
  • How many times did you harvest or how many fruits did you get?

 

You get the idea. Add your own questions to the list.

The point of this exercise is knowing what to expect when you start each seed. When you know what to expect from each plant you can plan your harvests to supply food for salads or meals. You know when to start new seeds to replace your existing plants to ensure no laps in your harvest.

You are growing food in a controlled environment. You can start a seed when you want and terminate the plant anytime. Experiment.

Try different plants. Which do you like better, the AeroGarden Red Heirloom or Golden Harvest tomato plant? Grow your own seeds for plants you don’t think will work well indoors.

Try pruning (or not pruning) the plants or adding supplemental grow lights if they are large plants.

Feed your plants nutrients from different manufacturers. Some people add small doses of hydrogen peroxide or calcium and magnesium to the water. Does that improve your crop yield? Or kill the plants?

Alter the feeding schedule. Is a fourteen day span between feedings optimal, or is it perhaps twelve days? For some plants, fourteen days between feedings works better, but maybe for others, half doses every seven days results in healthier plants.

It’s your garden. They’re your plants. You can grow your plants all year long. Try things out. Track your experiments and the results of your experiments. Over time, you’ll have that bountiful indoor garden you’ve longed for.

If a plant is not performing, kill it, clean the planter, and start over.

If your plants are growing outdoors, and it’s too late in the season to start over, you do whatever you can to revive your plants. That is the wrong way to think about an indoor garden.

With an indoor garden, there are no seasons. Keeping an ailing plant alive prevents you from starting over with a healthy replacement.

Be sure you know why the plant under-performed so your next attempt meets expectations. Think about the long term as you work to achieve your objectives. Your fifth crop should outperform your first crop. Yes, this is for fun, but it’s also about getting food you can eat.

When you garden outdoors, you plan around the four seasons. Plant in spring; harvest in summer and autumn; wait through winter for the next spring.

But your indoor garden enjoys a perpetual summer. You can start growing plants any time. Therefore, you should think in terms of cycles instead of seasons. A cycle is a round of growing food in your Hydroponic Growing System or Soil-Substitute Container.

You control the environment in which your plants grow. Take full advantage of this power. (Companion article: Why Your Outdoor Garden Should Be Indoors)

Plants eventually reach the end of their useful life. Learn to recognize the signs a plant is trending downward. Start a new crop cycle for that plant early enough that when the current crop cycle ends, you have a new crop cycle to replace it.

Your objective in overlapping crop cycles is to always have food to harvest. Sometimes that means leaving a pod seat in a tray empty for a little while so you have a place to start that new oregano plant as the existing one declines.

Since you are growing plants indoors, you probably won’t benefit from the efforts of natural pollinators like bees and butterflies.

Look for self-pollinating varieties of plants like cucumbers. They do exist. Pollinating this type of plant can be as easy as positioning a fan to blow air across the plant to jiggle the flowers. You can jiggle the branches yourself, if you wish.

In the absence of self-pollinating variants, you become the pollinator. You can use a cotton swab, an electric toothbrush, or an AeroGarden Be The Bee pollinator.

Research the plant so you understand how to identify male and female flowers and whether you need multiple plants to achieve pollination.

You may be able to save money when ordering an AeroGarden seed pod kit.

The AeroGarden Harvest has seats for six pods on its tray. Therefore, most people would look for a six pod kit when ordering refills. Stop! Compare the prices of the nine and twelve pod kits. 

Take the total cost of the six pod kit and divide by 6. That is the cost per pod in that kit. Take the total cost of the nine pod kit and divide by 9. That’s the cost per pod in that kit. Which one is less expensive? Do the same for the twelve pod kit.

You may get more pods for just a few cents or dollars more. Why not? You save money and they’ll keep until you are ready to use them.

Be sure to check the contents of the different pod kits. The contents of the twelve pod kit may be different than two six pod kits. It depends on the kit.

Note that the number of fertilizer bottles in the different kits are designed for one cycle of the included pods. If getting a comparable amount of nutrients is important to you, be sure you are not saving money on the pods but losing money on the nutrients.

Do you start your spring outdoor garden with a trip to the nursery section of your local big box store? You pick out a selection of seedlings ready for transplant into your raised beds or patio containers. The price of those baby plants sure seemed to go up a lot in the last few years. Want to save some money?

If you have an AeroGarden Harvest, Bounty, or Farm series Hydroponic Growing System, you can swap out the regular tray with an optional tray designed for growing many seedlings for transplant.

How many seedlings can you grow?

  • 23 seedlings in the Harvest
  • 50 seedlings in the Bounty
  • 85 seedlings in the Farm 12
  • 170 seedlings in the Farm 24

 

How much would you pay to buy 170 seedlings at the big box store? Grow them from seed right in your own home! Seeds are so much less expensive.

And don’t stop with one batch of seedlings. After transplanting one batch of seedlings, just start on the next! 

Key Takeaways

Gardening indoors is no longer a collection of struggling plants fighting for sunlight from a south-facing window in winter. There are so many new ways to grow food indoors now. I trust the tips provided in this article help you save some money while increasing the yield of your indoor garden.

Check back with this page periodically. I’ll add new tips at the top of the page.

Good luck, and have fun growing your own food.

Scroll down for more insightful articles related to your indoor garden.

Get More Indoor Garden Ideas Here

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