Tevaplanter planter review – A more modern chia pet!

REVIEW – I have the worst luck with indoor plants.  No matter what I do they eventually give up and die on me!  I have had some plants last as long as a year, and then they mysteriously wither up and die on me.   I know it must be a combination of insufficient light, too little or too much water, outgrowing the pot, or any other number of issues.  I remember seeing those chia pet commercials back in the 80s and I was always intrigued by them.   The idea of filling a pot with water and letting the plant water itself really appealed to me.  No more guessing on how much water to put in.  The Tevaplanter takes the chia pet model and moves it into a more modern vessel and also gives you instructions on how to grow so much more than chia seeds.  Read on to see how it worked out for me!

What is it?

The Tevaplanter is a hollow ceramic planter. You fill the inside with water and attach seeds or plants to the outside. The plants self-water by absorbing the water through the ceramic. It only comes in the terra cotta color shown below.

What’s included?

• Tevaplanter
• small base
• several rubber bands for attaching plants to the outside of the planter
• Packet of chia seeds
• Lid for planter
• Instruction manual
• Large base – not included with the Tevaplanter and can be ordered seperately

Tech specs

Design and features

The Tevaplanter is a hollow ceramic planter that comes in a single terracotta color.  The sides of the planter have holes cut into it that allow roots or seeds to easily attach to it.

On the bottom of the planter is a sticker that states the planter is not intended to grow edible plants.  I noted that the manual said the same thing.

Here is a picture of the inside of the planter. The entire planter is ceramic with no outer coating, which allows water to flow from the inside to the outside. The lid is also ceramic and slots into the top of the planter.

Assembly, Installation, Setup

I decided to try the chia seeds since they were provided and described as the easiest method to use the Tevaplanter.  The manual has step-by-step instructions.

I followed the instructions and soaked the chia seeds in water for a few minutes.  They turned into a slimy sort of paste.

Using a teaspoon, I placed them on the planter.  I then used my finger to smear them around the planter to embed them into the holes on the sides.  It was pretty tricky to get an even coating.  Once the seeds went into a hole, they were not coming back out.  I then put the planter on its small base and filled it up to the top with water.  I placed the lid on it and put it right next to a window in my home office.

Performance

I don’t have any windows that get direct sunlight during this time of year. We are in the upper 90s to 100s here in Texas, and any window with full direct sunlight shining into the house just makes our air conditioning work that much harder.   My office windows face southeast, so the room is well-lit during the day, but no direct sunbeams fell onto the planter.  Within 24 hours, I could already see small buds breaking out of the seeds.

By the fifth day you could really see the plants starting to grow.

Each day I opened the top of the planter to check the water level.  It consistently lost about an inch of water.  My house is right around 50% humidity, so I feel like most of this water loss was due to the seeds soaking up water.

These final pictures were taken on day 14.  The plants are growing well.   I could tell they were growing the best on the planter’s side facing the window.  That is something to keep in mind.  I tried rotating the planter every few days after about a week to see if I could get the plants to grow more evenly on the planter.  That certainly helped.  It is something to keep in mind if you get this planter.  You will most likely need to rotate it to ensure all sides get good sun if the sun is only coming from one direction.  The larger base comes in handy as the smaller base fills quickly with water.  You can see the water is at the very edge of the smaller base below.

Chia seeds are fast-growing, but they also have very short lives.   After about 14 days, you need to start to remove the plants and think about planting something else.  The book offers up to six different growing methods.

• sowing – this is what I did with the chia seeds
• plant plugs – small plant plugs with dirt removed from the roots are rubber banded to the planter.
• plant cuttings – get a cutting from an appropriate plant and use the rubber bands to attach it to the planter
• mother plant – place a ‘mother’ plant next to the Tevaplanter and attach some of the branches from the mother plant to the Tevaplanter.  This works great for plants like ivy.
• replanting – this is like the plant plug method, but with a larger plant.  This is more advanced because the plant will most likely go into shock and will need some extra care.
• fern spores – get the spores off a fern and sow them to the planter like the chia seeds

My next attempt with be using either plant plugs or a very small existing plant and see if I can grow it on the Tevaplanter.  The website gives a bunch of plant recommendations for each method of planting.

What I like about Tevaplanter

• Simple to use and maintain

What needs to be improved?

• Kind of pricey for what it is.

Final thoughts

I think I will enjoy using the Tevaplanter. Simply keeping the planter filled with enough water based on the plant’s style seems simple enough. Their website has videos and grow guides to help you out. They also have a Facebook page.

Price: $79
Where to buy: Tevaplanter
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Tevaplanter. Tevaplanter did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.