Honorable Mentions
Click and Grow Smart Garden for $125: Click & Grow Smart Garden’s seed pods come in a Nespresso-evoking plastic three-pack with a tear-off cover. (A three-pack of pods starts at around $15.) Put a nutrient-packed “smart soil” seed pod in one of the Click & Grow’s cups with the wicking bottom, fill the reservoir, and that’s it. It was one of the simplest watering systems I tried: a wick at the bottom of the cup brings water up to the pods, and the roots stay in the cups. A little bobber on one end tells you when the water level is low and needs a top-off simply by floating lower than the growing surface. It’s also small, so you can plop it on a shelf or countertop. (Note that the 9, pictured above, is currently out of stock, but you can sign up to be notified when it’s available.) At the same time, this was also one of the slowest-growing gardens I tested—it took weeks to get even one lettuce leaf. One of my lettuce pods didn’t even sprout at all. Still, this isn’t a terrible option for busy people who are interested in growing something like flowers, where yields aren’t a concern.
Modern Sprout Garden Jars for $20: These cute Mason jars are as simple as it gets: Rinse the included gravel, then add seeds and water. They’re guaranteed to sprout in five to ten days and make a fun hostess gift with a tea towel and/or a bottle of olive oil. However, they are definitely more for looks than harvests—I have had the basil, cilantro, and rosemary versions on my windowsill for a little over a year, and I’ve only seen a few usable leaves.
Lettuce Grow Counterstand Set for $149: New from the makers of the flashy Lettuce Grow Farmstand (8/10 WIRED Recommends), this simple, no-pump setup consists of three amber beakers that look straight out of a high school chemistry lab, plus an 18-inch LED lamp that runs on a 16- or 18-hour timer. It relies on the Kratky method of hydroponics, invented by horticulturist Dr. Bernard Kratky, where the plant sits in a cup above a nutrient-enriched water source. In the Counterstand’s case, a wick draws water up to the seedling until its roots can grow into the water. Included with your order are three credits for live seedlings of your choice—I picked parsley, basil, and butter lettuce. This setup is stylish, but the yields are tiny for the counter space it takes up—maybe a small handful of leaves a week.
Vego EZ Microgreens Planter (2-pack) for $60: This system for growing nutrient-packed microgreens for salads, smoothies, and sandwiches isn’t smart, but it is nifty enough to warrant a mention. Just fill each half-gallon reservoir (made of food-safe plastic) with water, and then cover it with the optional humidity dome. From there, bamboo-fiber capillary grow mats on top will absorb water to germinate your microgreen seeds (not included). Set it near a sunny window, use a grow light, or add Vego’s 10 x 20 dome with a built-in grow light ($80), which fits over both planters. I placed my planters on a Ferry-Morse pop-up plant stand with a grow light from LetPot and had consistent success across multiple grows.
Not Recommended
Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro
Plantaform Smart Indoor Garden for $900: Plantaform is “the world’s first smart indoor garden that uses fog to grow plants,” according to the company’s press release, and it has definitely garnered attention, winning an Innovation Award at CES 2025. The “fogponics” technology, ostensibly building on NASA-developed aeroponics, delivers water and nutrients to plants’ roots via an ultrafine mist. We were certainly captivated by the futuristic look of the egg-shaped planter. But when WIRED contributor Lisa Wood Shapiro tested it to grow lettuce, she found that you can’t combine different types of plants (i.e., you can only grow lettuce at one time, or tomatoes, or herbs), and the machine also degraded her indoor air quality, as tested with an air quality monitor. Users are to add an included fertilizer mix to the water, with the resulting concoction being what’s aerosolized in the container, which, as Wood Shapiro found, was not airtight. She suggests limiting the Plantaform’s use to a basement or another space where air quality isn’t as much of a concern. But it’s probably best to hold off on this one until Plantaform can work out some more kinks.
LetPot Smart Seed Starter for $84: There are many grow-light–enabled seed starters on the market, but LetPot’s Smart Seed Starter has more features than most, including a sensor for soil temperature and EC and a 24-watt heating pad underneath. A plastic lid with adjustable vents on either end sits on top. I love the concept, but sadly, quality control is lacking. On my test unit, the power adapter makes a high-pitched sound when the lights are on, the EC sensor only works intermittently, and auto-mode erases whenever it’s unplugged. After about six months of regular use, the light stopped staying on, and to get the unit to cooperate, I had to unplug and replug it repeatedly.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: wired.com
