It’s been 9 months and 3 rounds of planting with the LetPot LPH Senior 12-pod hydroponic system (affiliate link). Plus I just survived my first full cleanup, so I’ll cover that too.
Disclosure: I received the LetPot LPH-SE to try under no obligation. This post isn’t sponsored and all opinions are mine, though products linked on this page earn commission via the Amazon Affiliate program at no extra cost to you.
About LetPot Indoor Hydroponic Gardens
LetPot launched the LPH series in 2022. The systems grow herbs, leafy greens, and small vegetables indoors year-round using water, dissolved nutrients, and an LED grow light;no soil, no sun. Other than seeds and water, everything you need comes in the box: pods, plant food, germination covers, light-blocking covers and support rods. LetPot has a few smaller units as well as one larger unit with more features. Personally, I think the Senior 12-pod is a perfect balance between lots of useful features and not being too much for the beginner.
The good
It actually grows. Mine feeds me endless mint, holy basil (impossible to find in Canadian grocery stores), cilantro, Thai basil, and oregano. Setup is genuinely easy. Everything snaps together intuitively, with a manual for backup. Add water, a teaspoon each of nutrients A and B per litre, and you’re off.
One caveat: my first attempt used seeds I’d had for 15–20 years, because I couldn’t wait to get started. I knew it was a bad idea to begin with. Only one rosemary seed sprouted, which was frankly a miracle, since rosemary hates wet feet.
So after throwing in the towel on those, I bought new seeds from Amazon (affiliate link) and all of them sprouted just fine. The lesson here? Fresh seeds matter!
The app is optional. You don’t need it to grow successfully, though scheduling the light and a few extras require it.
It’s quiet an cheap to run. The pump is whisper-quiet; barely inaudible from two feet away. The LED power draw hasn’t touched my bill, and the water gauge makes refills obvious. The unit needs roughly 16″ wide × 8″ deep and fits under my cabinets, even in a tiny galley kitchen.
Nutrients are Simple and Accessible. The kit comes with one set of nutrients which lasts me 3–5 month. Refills run about $17 USD for a set of four bottles on the official site, or you can get slightly cheaper generics on Amazon.
Telescoping LED Lamp. You can easily adjust the height of the lamp to accomodate your growing plants.
The price is right! Compared to similar indoor gardens on the market, the LetPot is a good value at about $100 USD. For the price, it has more useful features and more stuff is included.
Things to Keep in Mind
I was going to name this section “the bad” but they aren’t bad. Just things to keep in mind; keep your expectations realistic.
12 pods doesn’t mean 12 plants. If you put seeds in all the pods, all 12 seedlings will proabably do fine, but mature plants compete for light. I’m down to 6 and it still feels crowded. The mint tangles with the cilantro if I don’t keep on top of trimming. If I had better self-restraint, I’d cap it at 4 or 5 plants.
It’s not completely set-and-forget. Herbs grow almost too well: I harvest every 3 days, and you have to trim to prevent flowering, which turns herbs bitter. Fresh herbs do last longer in the fridge than store-bought, which helps. When the plants are larger, they will also drink more water. So I check on the level every one or two days.
The reservoir is ABS plastic, not metal. The exterior is styled like brushed metal to match stainless appliances, but it’s plastic underneath. Sturdy and light. Honestly it makes more sense than metal, but worth knowing before you buy.
My LetPot Growing Experience
First round, like I mentioned above, I used OLD AF seeds that had little chance of sprouting. I bought them some 15 to 20 years ago! By some miracle, several of them sprouted. But only one made it past 1 cm tall: Rosemary.
While waiting for the seeds that would never sprout to sprout, I transplanted a couple seedlings from my Click and Grow garden. I had to cull a few for optimal growth there but I really wanted to save them: 2 of each Holy Basil and Thai Basil. To this day, 9 months later, they have survived and thrived.
The Rosemary plant that grew this round stayed small and I eventually planted it outside where it has to this day, also stayed pretty small (about 4-5 inches).
Second round, I learned my lesson but remained lazy. I bought a variety of herb seeds from Amazon. Most of them sprouted; even cilantro which had reviews telling me they were tricky to germinate. This round I planted from seed:
- Rosemary – germinated and sprouted well but stayed fairly small for several weeks. I eventually transplanted it outside. In the past few months, it has grown nicely! Great flavor.
- Thyme – only one that didn’t sprout. I haven’t tested the seeds for germination rate so I’m not sure if it’s because the seeds don’t like a wet sponge or not.
- Chamomile – germinated and grew well. I eventually transplanted it outside because it grew so large! The flowers have a wonderful apple-like aroma.
- Cilantro – I love this one so much! It grew super fast and I harvested from it daily. Wonderful Cilantro flavor. However, about a month ago it suddenly died. I’m not sure why.
- Chive – It sprouted well. For this one, I removed it to do an experiment using clay beads to hack the Click and Grow. The flavor on this one wasn’t very strong though.
- Spearmint – This one grew TOO well! Very fast to grow, lots of harvest and good flavor.
- Oregano – grew slowly at first, then took off! It’s very beautiful creeping over the side of the garden and smells great.
For this second round, I kept the two Holy Basil and Thai Basil plants in. They kept growing large and nicely but honestly were out-competing a lot of the other plants for space.
Third Round
After transplanting out the Rosemary, Chamomile, and Chive plants (plus giving up on the Thyme), I suddenly had more room. Plus I had a few more seedlings that needed culling from my Click and Grow that I didn’t want to part with. They were three types of Chili Pepper plants: Piri Piri, Red Hot, and Purple Pepper. So I moved two seedlings from each variety to the LetPot where they grew taller over the next few days.
Then, I had to do the painful selection again; culled the smaller seedlings, leaving only one per pod. But now, they are doing well.
Full Clean-Out
After 9 months, I felt like it was time for a clean up. Roots had overgrown and tangled, and I wanted to rearrange my plant lineup. So I harvested everything down, unplugged the unit, and pulled all the plants to rinse their roots. Most had broken or tangly bits which I simply rinsed off. For the really long roots, I trimmed them back so they were about 5 inches long at most. The reservoir smelled faintly earthy, no bad odour at all. I had been a bit nervous about that but nine months of buildup was barely anything at all!
Disassembly took a minute; I managed without the manual but wouldn’t recommend it. After washing everything with dish soap and warm water to break up the biofilm, reassembly went smoothly; aside from forgetting one top piece over the pump. But it was easy enough to lift the top plant and snap that in place afterwards.
New layout: oregano keeps centre stage, red chili gets the brightest spot, other chilis on the right, basils on the left. I’m tempted to add cilantro back or squeeze in a creeping thyme, but the spacing feels right, so I’m leaving it.
EDIT: haha just kidding. I have no willpower and added seeds for spinach and cilantro the next day.
Conclusion: Would I Buy it?
Yes! Based on the MSRP, I’ve already got the money’s worth in herbs. And because greens are pretty expensive at the grocery stores, I’m eyeing a second unit dedicated to them. In an ideal world, I’d have a third unit dedicated to cilantro. Actually the more I think about it, 4 units could fit on the space I have it on currently. Probably.
Find the LetPot LPH-SE on Amazon.com. Use coupon code MARYSTK10 to SAVE 10%!
Find the LetPot LPH-SE on Amazon.ca. Use coupon code MARYSTK10 to SAVE 10%!
