Hydroponic systems represent a modern approach to agriculture, facilitating plant growth without soil. Instead, these systems use a nutrient-rich water solution to deliver essential minerals directly to the plant roots. These systems serve as a boon in urban environments, where space for traditional gardening is scarce. The compact nature of these setups allows residents of apartments and high-rise buildings to cultivate fresh produce indoors, regardless of limited outdoor space.
In areas with limited sunlight, such as densely populated cities with tall buildings casting shadows or areas with year-round snowfall, hydroponics offer a solution. Unlike conventional farming reliant on natural sunlight, hydroponic systems can be equipped with artificial lighting, ensuring plants receive the necessary spectrum of light for photosynthesis. This adaptability allows urban dwellers to cultivate crops year-round, independent of sunlight availability, thereby enhancing food security and promoting self-sufficiency.
Furthermore, hydroponic systems make efficient use of resources. Since plants receive nutrients directly, they can grow faster and healthier with less water consumption compared to conventional farming. These systems are well-suited for cultivating a wide range of crops, including leafy greens, herbs, and even certain fruits and vegetables.
We recently came across an interesting hydroponics system from LetPot, the LetPot LPH-SE Hydroponics Growing System. It contains 12 pods and has a decent 5.5L tank capacity that is sufficient for a week of water requirements. Importantly, this system has full-spectrum LED Lighting facility for growing vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs. There is a simple touch-panel on the top of the unit but this Wi-Fi-based system allows you to pair the device with a smartphone and control it through an app.
This is the review of the LetPot LPH-SE Hydroponics Growing System. Here, we would like to share our experiences of using the LetPot system for growing herbs, fruits, and flowers. Honestly, it was a challenging experience (and we had a couple of mishaps) but after researching and learning a lot online, we successfully grew some plants in the LetPot Hydroponics System. Continue reading the review to find out more about the unit and see if the product is worthy of your time and money.
Before we dive into the actual review, let us quickly take a look at all the contents of the package. And there are a lot of things to unpack. First, we have some paper work in the form of user manual and a quick start guide. Next is the main unit itself in its minimalist form and all the other components and accessories are packed inside the unit. We will get back to the main unit in the next section, but for now, let us continue exploring the other bits and pieces.
The package contains the power supply adapter, which is an AC to DC 24V⎓ 1A unit with a maximum power output of 24W. It has a standard DC Barrel Jack connector at the end so you don’t have to worry about finding a replacement, in case you need one. As the LetPot LPH-SE is a 12-pod hydroponics system, there are 12 each of baskets, sponges, germination covers, light-blocking stickers, and support rods. There are also 6 each of shade covers and tags. We will look at the purpose of all these components as we move forward.
Last but not least, we get a water level indicator (one that looks like a test tube) and a protection cover for the water level buoy. There is a pump with all the necessary filters already installed inside the main unit. All we have to do is to make the connection (which we will see in a while).That’s it for the contents of the LetPot LPH-SE Package. In the next section, let us take a closer look at the main hydroponics unit.
The package must come with two nutrient bottles labelled “A” and “B”. In our case, these bottles were not included with the main package and came in later in a separate shipment. This might not be the case with your purchase though. Anyhow, these two bottles contain all the nutrients for the plants to grow. But the contents are solid and we have to add some water and make a concentrated liquid out of it. Afterwards, we can make diluted portions of this liquid (approximately 25ml of each liquid per 5L of water) to add to the tank.
If you are familiar with hydroponics at all, then the setup of such a system is actually very simple. There will be a main container that holds the nutrient-rich water. In this container, there will be some sort of plastic holder and an oasis sponge to sow the seeds and let nature do its magic.
The LetPot LPH-SE Hydroponics Growing System is also very similar to this. The unit has a height-adjustable LED Light panel on the top. The bottom part is the tank with a capacity of 5.5L. This has a cover with appropriate holes to insert the pods. You can easily lift the cover to access the tank (for cleaning or accessing the pump). Apart from the main 12 holes corresponding to 12 pods, the cover also has holes for installing support rods, tags, a lid to fill water, and a dedicated section for the buoy (to indicate water level without taking the cover off).
The LED Panel contains a total of 77 LEDs (a combination of Red, Blue, and Warm White) and they are full-spectrum LEDs i.e., you can grow greens, veggies, herbs, as well as flowers, and fruits. The layout of these LEDs is done in such a way that all the pods receive similar amount of full-spectrum light.
We have already spoken about the pump inside the unit. It has a weird 3.5mm audio jack cable to supply power. All the material inside the unit is made up of good quality plastic while the outer section is made from stainless steel.
The back of the unit has ports to plug the power adapter as well as the pump. There is also a drain at the bottom of the backside so that you can easily empty the tank without taking off the top cover. The cover also has a special easy access water filling port to top-up water in the tank.
The LED Light Panel sits on top of an adjustable rod and you can set the height of the lights up to 20-inches. On the top of the LED Panel, there are the main control buttons in the form if four touch panels. First is the Power button, to turn the unit on or off. The next two are LED Lighting selection buttons for “Veg” and “Flower” modes. The last button is for activating/deactivating pump as well as turning on/off Wi-Fi.
On a whole, the design and build quality of the LetPot LPH-SE Hydroponics System is very good. All the things that we touch and interact with are of good quality (except the plastic part of the LED Panel).
Before we start sowing seeds, there are some essential things that we need to setup with the LetPot LPH-SE Hydroponics Unit. First step is to properly connect the pump to the back of the unit. They have cutouts to route the cable so that it doesn’t flap around or come in the way of the main cover. Make sure that all the filters for pump are properly inserted. After that, we have to install the protective cover for the buoy and also insert the water level indicator on the top.
If you haven’t prepared the plant food yet, now is the time to do that. Fill both the bottles (A and B) with clean water up to 3/4ths of the capacity and shake it till the solids inside the bottle dissolve completely. Using the measuring cups that came with the nutrient bottles, add about 25ml of A and 25ml of B to 5L water. We poured 5L water into the tank and then added both the nutrients later. Then, we used the pump (for about 10 minutes) to circulate the nutrients.
Now, we are ready to sow the seeds. Take the baskets and insert sponges into them. There is a small cutting on the top of the sponge to insert seeds. Speaking of seeds, we used seeds for a flower (a type of Jasmine). After sowing the seeds in the sponge, we installed the baskets in the holes and covered them with caps. We also set the lighting to “Flowers” mode. While this is just the initial setup, the official LetPot app lets you customize and the control the hydroponics unit with much more
Before sowing the flowering seeds, we tried a bunch of greens (edible herbs). We followed the process as per the guidelines. After a week of sowing the seeds, we did not notice any germination. Unfortunately, after couple more days, we started noticing severe algae on the pods. As there was no germination, we started once again from scratch by completely disposing the current sponges and properly cleaning the baskets and the tank.
This time, we took extra care in terms of water and light and sowed the flowering seeds. We covered the pods with stickers so that light doesn’t fall on the pods during germination (which we believe was the main reason for the formation of algae). After about 6 days of seeding, we noticed germination and tiny leaf buds started to come out. Importantly, we didn’t have any algae problem this time.
Of the 12 pods that we planted seeds in, 9 pods were successful. The other 3 pods did not germinate. Even in those 9, the two pods at the extreme back showed faster growth than the ones in the front. The one on the far left was the slowest of all. After about 21 days of sowing the seeds, we started seeing tiny buds and after 31 days, we had our first flower.
So, how was our experience of using the LetPot LPH-SE Hydroponics Growing System? If we were honest, we didn’t have much of a gardening experience. Even if the initial attempt was not successful, the second attempt was very fruitful (or rather flowerful). Yes, there is a small learning curve in terms of the care and maintenance as well as some knowledge on plants and gardening is definitely helpful. But we learned while using the product and happy to say that the experience was really worth it.
If you have even the slightest experience of growing plants and are looking for a way to grow veggies, flowers, or greens inside your home without any worry about sunlight, soil, ore any other “traditional” factors, then the LetPot LPH-SE Hydroponics System is a good place to start.
The LetPot LPH-SE has some basic controls on the top of the unit using which we can turn the unit on or off, set the lighting mode to Flower/Fruit or Veg/Greens, and turn the pump on or off. By downloading and installing the LetPot App on your smartphone, you can connect the unit to your Wi-Fi network and control it from comfort of your hands.
Sadly, you have to register with LetPot to use the app. But once you register, you get to customize each and individual pod (its name, type of plant, days of planting, etc.). While there are only two lighting modes, you can set the timers for either of the modes by configuring their on and off times (this depends on the type of plant you are growing). With respect to pump, you can only switch it on or off. But if you turn the pump on, it stays on for 30 minutes and then turns off. It will turn on only after 30 minutes and this process repeats continuously.
The price of the 12-pod Hydroponics System LetPot LPH-SE is $108.99. There are some coupons and discounts by using which you can get the product for slightly above $90. With the first-time purchase, you get all the components including the solid nutrients. After a while, you definitely have to buy the nutrients and may also need to purchase oasis pods (depending on their status). The LetPot LPH-SE Hydroponics System comes with a standard 1-year warranty.
Overall, we liked the LetPot LPH-SE (LetPot Senior) Hydroponics Growing System (in spite of our personal mishaps). The setup process was relatively simple and if you have even the slightest of gardening experience, then you will have the unit up and running in no time.
The ability to control the lighting modes for growing veggies, greens, flowers, and fruits is crucial as different kinds of plants have different lighting spectrum requirements. Nonetheless, the unit comes with full-spectrum LEDs. As this is a mid-sized unit, you get 12-pod capacity i.e., you can grow 12 plants at the same time and the 5.5L tank capacity can sufficiently supply water for a good period. The package contains all the essential things you need to start growing plants (apart from the actual seeds).
With the smartphone, you get additional control in terms of duration of lighting as well as notifications for different pods (which we can individually customize). If you are looking for a decent hydroponics system with very simple setup and usage, then the LetPot LPH-SE (LetPot Senior) Hydroponics Growing System is definitely a worthy choice.
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