Plantaform Review?

Joanie

Joanie

Carnivorous Plant Addict
Wondering if anyone here has one of these?

plantaform.com

Plantaform Smart Indoor Garden | Made in Canada | Plug - Plant - Enjoy

Plantaform is the world's first smart indoor garden that utilizes fog to grow plants that is made in Canada. With Plantaform, you can grow herbs, vegetables, flowers, and plants year-round from the comfort of your own home. Plantaform is designed to be elegant and easy to use, making it a great...
plantaform.com plantaform.com

And if so, what do you think of it?
 
I saw one at Costco last week. I was in a rush so I didn't stop but had a quick look as I passed the display. My first thought was it is interesting looking but when I saw the $$$ price tag it seemed like a lot of money for a small space (more costly than a small grow tent). The unit looked large for the amount of growing space available. With your clever ideas and skill I'm pretty sure you could come up with a better home-made alternative. The egg shape is unique/artsy, but it might be better if the unit had clear removable separator walls so each chamber could have its own mini-climate (I didn't have a close look so I may be totally off on this). It certainly drew much attention!
 
Woah, the price tag is high, perhaps it's more reasonable for a custom made prototype than the actual product.
It seems to be too small for serious growing, too expensive for just-for-fun. It's not very space efficient. The concept is neat but seems like cleaning will not be too easy. I can't say that I'm in love with the appearance 100% either, from a design engineer POV.
For the budget I can make something so much bigger and better. Like Lloyd says, DIY will get you so much further.
 
For $800? That’s like a very pricey, cumbersome, cramped-looking Aerogarden. I have 2 Aerogardens, which are very much like this - hydroponic systems with lights included. But they have a very small footprint by comparison, like 1x1 ft, and only have 6 spots for plants. I I like them a lot. Low mess, no soil needed (a bonus in a small apartment) and I can go away for a couple of days and everything is automatic.

Aerogarden is going out of business now but you can find many similar type systems. You can probably find plenty of them on Facebook marketplace for cheap from people who got in on the fad then realized it wasn’t for them. You could start with that first, and see if it appeals enough to invest in a bigger system. But growing veg so close together can result in airflow problems, even with a fan on, and that plantaform thing looks cramped to me. For example, I can’t grow six full sized romaine lettuce on my Aerogarden. 3 is better. I also can’t grow more than 2 microdwarf tomatoes and 2 herbs at a time.

Their seed pods also look very expensive, and depending on what they use to grow their plants, you might be beholden to using their product forever more. On the other hand, I get cheap hydro nutrients, net pots that I cut down to size, and rock wool from my local garden shop for my Aerogarden, and my own seeds, so it costs almost nothing for supplies.

Be forewarned that hydro grow lights are unlikely to be attractive in your living room. we turn ours off when we have people over because it’s annoyingly bright!

If I had more space, I would personally get a cheap shelving unit with hydro or kratky style setups and grow lights vs a $$ system.

On the other hand, it looks like the plantaform is made entirely in Canada, which is nice, and it does look like it has the capacity to grow a lot. I also like the concept of vertical gardening at home :)

Pic of one of my gardens and a few ripe tomatoes!

image.jpg
 
PS: aerogarden is back in business, and they likely will launch new models soon. That said they are still having sales on the old models and they are pretty reliable and good value (especially on sale).
 
WillyCKH said:
PS: aerogarden is back in business, and they likely will launch new models soon. That said they are still having sales on the old models and they are pretty reliable and good value (especially on sale).
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Thanks for that update! IMHO they’re very reliable. I just looked them up, CanadianTire has them on sale for $90, which is about what I paid 4yrs ago for mine, and it’s still running great. Mind you, I don’t run it in summer because I’m too busy gardening outside ;) https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/...iwMVbzKtBh2c8B4FEAQYBiABEgIjnPD_BwE#store=604
 
Thanks for your input everyone.

It was worth investigating. Canadian. Small business. Plants. Fog?
We were considering trying it. My husband liked the promotional videos. I was undecided/skeptical.
Ask CPSC, he says (he actually said "Ask those plant guys on that forum").

I think it does have a market - for those who want to "Set it and forget it", and maybe a conversation piece.
The app sends an alert when it's time to harvest :rolleyes:

Found a video last night on how to clean it.
That video made the decision easy.
Not for us. (in case there was any ambiguity ;))
 
Really don't want to poo-poo on a Canadian brand but I do agree with the general sentiment that with a price tag of $800, DIY will get you much further - and I want to back it up with a bit of data.

The main use case for these automated indoor gardens are salad greens and herbs. So while I also had success with fruiting plants, for an apple to apple comparison, let's look at a simple Kratky setup for leafy greens like lettuce, asian greens, and basils. Two months to first harvest, at least 4 harvests for the lettuces and probably 6 to 8 harvests for basils and I multiplied the basils by cuttings to get younger leaves, since the flavour is not the best when the plant has become a woody little tree. You can probably clone the same plant like that many times, and I have done 3 generations as shown in the last photos without any noticeable change in health, texture, or flavor.
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Materials and Costs:
- 3 gallon food grade buckets x 4 (Free, from bakery)
- Hydroton (<$2 for the portion used from a 10L bag which would be like $5, not to mention it can be reused)
- 3" net pots x 8 (about $5)
- 3" hole saw (<$30)
- Grow lights (about $60 for a goose neck SANSI 4x10W, two of those is enough, so $120, and not a single bulb failed so far with 1 year of use, 18 hours a day, and you don't even have to trash the whole light fixture to replace a bulb)
- Nutrients GH Maxigro powder (used like <10g per bucket, even if you reset reservoirs weekly for 8 weeks, you need 320g for 4 buckets, so about $10 for the used portion of a 1kg bag that costs $30)
- pH up/down ($40 1 liter each, practically last you forever)
- EC meter ($15? Doesn't need to be too precise for leafy greens)
- pH meter ($25? Again, cheap ones are good enough for leafy greens)
- Smart plug for controlling photoperiod ($30, probably could be cheaper)
- Electricity (40 Watt x 2 lights x 18 hr per day = 1.44 kW per day, basically the same as the Rejuvenate, 1.4 kW per day on their blog post)
- Labour 2 hours per week to change the water (grossly overestimated because I take my time when working with plants; for most people they can't actually make money during the same time they care for the plants so it is not fair to include the labour cost, but for the sake of completeness, let's take the average hourly wage in Canada of about $36/hr, multiply by 2hr/week for 8 weeks, that would be $576)

So there you have it, ~$277 without counting the labour and ~$853 counting the labour.

The flexibility and reusability of parts in the DIY system is much better though.
- Easier to clean
- Bulbs are easier and probably cheaper to change
- Power outage? Just move the buckets to where it can get some natural light for the time being, good luck with moving that machine and the egg shape casing would block a lot of the light anyways

Then there are the intangibles:
- Knowledge gained from actually running the hydroponics setup yourself can be applied to more advanced methods with more demanding plant types, and some knowledge is transferable to container gardening in general such as salt and pH management, and propagation by cutting with water/nutrient solution.
- The joy of knowing you reduced your environmental impact by building it up from parts that are mostly reusable, instead of buying a machine that probably will end up in the landfill as a whole unit

Edit: I think most people who are active on here are likely the kind of people who are already putting in way more effort for their plants than the average person would, and so, we really are just not their target market.
 
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Come to think of it, the bigger issue when there is a power outage is not the lack of light, but the risk that the plant roots will be damaged by dehydration. This is a drawback with fogponics that Kratky does not have.

In Kratky, the plant roots are not dependent on power, so when power is out, the plant roots can still drink from the submerged part, and get oxygen from the moist air gap between the water surface and the lid.

In fogponics, the plant roots would have grown to expect regular misting to supply its water. There is likely little to no submerged roots. When power is out and misting stops, its water supply is pretty much cut off, and the air around the roots will suddenly get much drier than it is used to, probably burning off the fine hairs like air pruning with grow bags does to roots. Those fine hairs are needed for getting oxygen and without oxygen the roots will die and rot.

If you are traveling out of town for a week and there is a power outage, or somehow the breaker has tripped. When you come back to turn power back on, you will likely find that the Kratky plants survive a week of darkness with no permanent damage. But the fogponics plants could be permanently set back for the reasons above, probably within a day of no misting. They even warn against leaving it unplugged for more than 1 hour according to their website, which validates my concern.
 
I like growing my own veggies too. I'm mainly using DWC method because it's simple and effective and I use compact containers to save space. I plan to try outdoor hydroponics this summer.
I want to give Kratky method another try, like kcskou said it's more robust and power-outage proof, but it is a bit slower. I feel like a bigger container would work better for Kratky.
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aerogardens work well but they are probably too small for serious growing. Veggies can outgrow the harvest model in 2-3 months.
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Do not have good result with hydroponic, although the lettuces are delicious but the leaves always floppies...
I got better hydroponic culture result with hot pepper plants, outdoor, however they have been continoustly knock down by the wind in my area... So, back in soil pot !!!
 
WillyCKH said:
I plan to try outdoor hydroponics this summer.
I want to give Kratky method another try, like kcskou said it's more robust and power-outage proof, but it is a bit slower. I feel like a bigger container would work better for Kratky.
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Same, after having some success growing tomatoes with DWC (just a basic bubble bucket with air stone), I plan to try outdoor hydroponics this summer, with the Dutch bucket method. DWC with one bucket per plant was too much labour for a single person to manage beyond 6 tomatoes plants. I really felt the burn out. To scale up I need a centralized reservoir, so I just need to monitor and change one big reservoir, not 6 or however many plants the reservoir and water pump can handle.

With outdoor growing there is no cost for grow light and power consumed by the light. But more pest and disease pressure, which means it is more important to grow varieties with great vigour and disease resistance than indoor growing. There is also less protection from the elements too - temperature, wind, and rain are potential problems.

I agree the Kratky method works better with even larger buckets than the one I had shown. It was my first attempt and now I have learned a lesson. If I grow leafy greens Kratky style again, I would get a 5 gallon for two plants to share, or I would reduce it from 2 plants to 1 plant per 3 gallon bucket, so that the EC (electric conductivity as a proxy for dissolved salt) and pH wouldn’t drift so quickly, which means it needs correction less often. I would probably try using those storage totes looking containers you’ve got in your first photo to make a large enough container that last the whole season - mixing up the nutrient solution only once and never have to touch it again till the plants are done for the season would be a dream.
 
I'd go with dwc because eventually the mister will clog up and stop working, based on my limited experience. What are you planting? :)
 
The mister came with extra nozzles (that I wasn't expecting) ... clogging explains that :)
Does seem to complicate the setup, so I expect bubbles only.
Starting with leafy greens (mesclun), romaine, and microdwarf tomato from @DaniL
 
coconut said:
You will need a lot lot of water with DWC...
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Yea… looks a bit too small for that many plants, you will find yourself having to refill quite often once they are really going (like when the lettuce head is forming). I would certainly not grow tomatoes with the lettuce in the same container (their requirements are too different, e.g. water, EC, light, temperature). It is already tight if they are all lettuce. Tomato alone can drink like a gallon every few days in my experience (though mine was not dwarf and was an indeterminate type).

Assuming this is a 27 gal tote, each of the 15 leafy greens plant gets 1.8 gal on average, which seems okay. But you probably won’t fill it up to the brim because it gets very heavy to work with and the plant roots suffocate more easily during a power outage (I like to keep the water level such that about 2/3 of the roots are submerged when I refill to let the fine air roots form above water level, so that during power outage at least the plant can get some oxygen from the air roots like a Kratky plant would).
 
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