AeroGarden Harvest Lite, Cream

Had to discontinue gardening early last summer due to a fall which necessitated hip surgery. This little hydroponic garden has brought some of that joy back to me. Was disappointed when I set it up that the light didn't go on, however, an email to AeroGarden's customer service got a quick response with an answer to what I had missed in the set up and it was fixed. Planted 4 pods with the lettuce seeds that came with it and 2 with some chive seeds I had. Within 3 days tiny lettuce leaves were showing and are now (a week later) they are flourishing happily above the label. One of the chive plants is also peeking above the label now. Look forward to checking my little garden's progress every morning!

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.

Very over priced, just cheap plastic, and smaller than what I thought it would be. No controls to turn off and on but just a leaf on top to press. But the worst thing about it is that it didn’t work. The light wouldn’t turn on. I have another AeroGarden which I bought a few years back, and was expecting something like that one for the price. Very unhappy. I’m going to ask for my money back and return it.

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.

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.

So I have never planted anything in my life or done gardening whatsoever. So I chose this because it looked very user-friendly and easy. And it absolutely is! If you don’t know anything about gardening, and you don’t know where to start. I think this is great for you! I followed the super easy instructions And I have stuff coming up! I have owned this for almost a month and this last picture is what it looks like now! Within a few days, I saw sprouts and it came with some lettuce seeds. .(which is on the very left side.) I couldn’t see anywhere in the products where I knew what seeds came in the kit. So I am telling you that it is lettuce! It has an automatic light, so it just turns itself on, and then turns itself off. So far I have done hardly any maintenance on it. It has a little red light at the very top to remind me when to fill it with more water and more plant food. And it comes with the plant food which is great! And so I know exactly when I need to put more of that in and more water. Other than that, I just leave it alone and enjoy watching it grow! The little amount of dopamine I get every single time I see it grow more is so exciting to me! So I’m very excited to keep using this and it makes me want to grow more things! I honestly can’t say that there’s anything wrong with it.

Beautiful design and easy home growingThe AeroGarden Harvest Lite in Cherry Red is simply fantastic. Besides looking modern and stylish, it's very easy to use, even for beginners. I love being able to grow fresh herbs and vegetables at home without soil, cleanly and without any mess.The LED light is bright and efficient, greatly contributing to the rapid and healthy growth of the plants, and the system alerts me when to add water or nutrients, which makes it super convenient. In just a few weeks I was already harvesting fresh herbs with an incredible flavor.It's perfect for small kitchens, apartments, or for those who have no gardening experience but want to enjoy fresh plants all year round. Undoubtedly, an excellent purchase and a wonderful gift idea. I highly recommend it! 🌱✨

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.

This is a very nice small, compact hydroponic garden. I have grown lettuce and herbs very successfully in this little unit. The "leaf" button on the top of the light panel is a little tricky to figure out at first. Very easy to take apart to clean.