Set up was simple and took less than five minutes. We just had to insert the post into the garden base, followed by inserting the light into the post (both clicked in to let us know that they were in properly). After we plugged in the pump cord and power cord, the touch screen lit up with a &#;Quick Plant&#; page to let us know the next steps. It also gives you an estimate of how many days until growth, the water level, and when plant food is needed. We also appreciated the included &#;Trellis System&#; that is also easy to click in an install—like most trellises, this is to help support the plants as they grow taller.

There are various types of grow lights to consider, from panels to products that hang overhead or screw into standard light fixtures. The type of plants you have, the amount of existing natural light, and where your plants are located help you narrow down your choices. Typically, hanging lights are larger, while desktop lights are smaller and easy to move around. If you want a complete system, consider a full garden kit, like the

Designed to be mounted flush or hung against a ceiling or wall, the Feit Electric Dual Grow Tube Light is meant to replace traditional greenhouse lighting and delivers a full spectrum to help achieve optimal results for a variety of plants and flowers. The energy-efficient LED bulbs have low heat emission, so you don’t have to worry about burning your plants&#; leaves. The bulbs emit nm of blue light and nm of red light, an ideal combination that encourages plant growth and photosynthesis.

We do want to note that unlike the AeroGarden, there is no screen with instructions telling you that everything is set up properly, how many days until growth, or when food might be needed. You just have to wait for growth and monitor the water level indicator, which we found is very subtle and easy to miss. We do like that the light is is self-timed and turns off and on automatically. Also, the system comes with two extension arms that you can click on when your plants grow tall. We found them helpful as our plants did grow pretty tall and burn on one occasion. However, even though the lights were powerful, we found them to be aesthetically pleasing (even more so than the AeroGarden). It&#;s also worth noting that although the basil grew very slowly at first (we had the extension arm at first and the light might have been too high), once it did grow, we found it to look really healthy and taste great!

We loved that each of the plant pods has a note indicating the plant&#;s eventual height (short, medium, or tall) which we found particularly helpful when figuring out where to plant them (front for smaller plants, back for the taller ones). For example, the dill pod indicated that it would grow tall and we found that it grew surprisingly tall (in fact, it grew faster. and taller than any of the other pods). We had to adjust the arm of the light panel higher because the dill started to burn. Luckily the light is easy to adjust so you can make it taller as the plants grow (as high as inches). Also, note that we received pods (it has room for nine), and swapped out two of the extra pods that we initially planted that seemed slower to grow.