Vertplanter hydroponic planter review – Grow seeds and plants without soil

REVIEW – As you can see from the image above, I live with someone who loves houseplants. Having beautiful plants in our home is nice, but watering all of them can become a bit time-consuming. Is there a way to enjoy growing plants without the need to manually water them all the time? That’s where the Vertplanter could be a solution. Let’s find out more about it.

What is it?

The Vertplanter is a terracotta hydroponic planter that is designed to let you grow seeds and plants without any soil or manual watering.

What’s in the box?

• Vertplanter – pot, base, and lid
• Instructions

Design and features

The Vertplanter stands 9 inches tall and has a base of about 6 inches wide. It’s made of three parts. A base, the main pot, and the lid. It’s made of terracotta pottery which is porous.

You don’t fill the Vertplanter with soil and grow your plant inside it like you would with a traditional pot. The Vertplanter is designed to allow plants to grow on the exterior of the pot. As you can see, the exterior is covered in shallow diamond-shaped divots.

The interior of the Vertplanter is designed to hold water that slowly seeps into the divots on the outside.

Let’s plant some seeds!

When you buy the Vertplanter, it doesn’t come with any plants or seeds. It’s up to you to supply them. I decided that I wanted to test the Vertplanter by growing a plant from seed. I choose broccoli seeds because the sprouts are super healthy. I followed the directions on the seed packet to soak the seeds for 8-12 hours. Soaking the seeds was supposed to release a gelatinous goo like with chia seeds which I thought would work in my favor to get the seeds to stick to the outside of the Vertplanter.

Twelve hours later, there wasn’t much goo in the dish but I decided to go for it and spread the seeds over the exterior of the pot. I don’t think that this particular seed was a great choice because they are a bit large. Smaller seeds would fit in the divots better. But I proceeded anyway…

Here we go… seeds in place (hopefully).

I then filled the interior of the Vertplanter with water, placed the lid on top, and positioned the planter in a sunny window.

Within minutes, I could feel that the exterior of the pot was damp.

One day later I checked on the planter and found that some seeds had fallen off.

I did notice at least a couple of the seeds had started sprouting tho!

Two days later, more seeds had fallen off…

But wow, look at all the sprouts!

A close-up helps you see the baby plants.

Another day and at this point the bulk of the seeds had fallen off.

I also noticed that the base was full of water. You’re supposed to keep an eye on the base and as it fills with water, you’ll need to lift the pot and pour the water back in. However, as you can see, the base was also full of seeds that had fallen off the exterior of the pot.

You can also wrap plants around the pot and use string or rubber bands to hold them in place while the roots grab onto the exterior. I didn’t get a chance to try this.

What I like

• Fun!
• Almost self-maintaining planter

What I’d change

• Expensive

Final thoughts

Spending $50 for a planter is pretty spendy, but the Vertplanter hydroponic planter is an interesting way to grow seeds and plants without soil. As long as you choose your seeds wisely (I don’t recommend broccoli seeds), it can be a fun and a very chia-head-like experience.

Price: $49.90
Where to buy: Vertplanter.com and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Vertplanter.