The Lowdown
Pico is, as Altifarm puts it, “A garden in your palm.” It’s a miniature garden meant to grow small plants or herbs that is self-watering and has a built-in telescoping LED grow light. You can get yours from Indiegogo starting at $34.
Overall
Pros
- Fun, cute design
- Telescoping light keeps the light at the right place as your plants grow
- Water reservoir keeps your plants watered for a week
- Multiple mounting options included
Cons
- I’d like the self-timer to be built in
Indoor gardening has become really popular these days, and Altifarm has released the cutest version thus far. Pico is, as Altifarm puts it, “A garden in your palm.” It’s a miniature garden meant to grow small plants or herbs that is self-watering and has a built-in telescoping LED grow light. You can get yours from Indiegogo starting at $34.
Everything that comes in the box.
Altifarm’s Pico is as functional as it is cute. It contains a water reservoir below the soil and employs capillary action and gravity, just like soil in nature uses the water table below. There’s a transparent window that lets you see when you need to refill the water, typically about once a week. You don’t have to think about over or under-watering since the plant will take as much water as it needs.
Inside the Pico
Pico comes with multiple mounting options, including wall mounts, magnetic mounts for your fridge, or place it on a counter. It’s a really versatile little indoor garden. It even comes with supports for the telescoping mount if you want to make sure it’s secure. The Pico even comes with a little funnel to help add water to the reservoir without pouring it through the likely already saturated soil.
Bottom of the Pico
Pico comes with the following items in the box:
- 1 Preassembled Pico
- 1 2.5m USB-C power cable
- 1 0.3m USB-C meant to daisy chain another Pico
- 3 interchangeable mounts (magnetic, velcro, wall mount)
- 2 funnels
- 5 cable organizers
- 1 LED diffuser
- 1 spare wick
A look at the lights while off.
A look at the lights while on
There are so many options for what you can plant in the Pico, including air-purifying plants like Spider Plants or English Ivy, you can grow herbs like Basil, Mint, or Parsley, and you can grow decorative plants like Zebra Plants. I chose basil because I enjoy cooking pizza, and we never seem to have fresh basil around when we want it.
Just after setting up, note the dry soil as it hasn’t sucked up the water yet.
The LED light does not have a timer or on/off switch and needs to be manually plugged in to turn the light on and plug removed when you want to turn the light off. This is an unfortunate design decision, as I feel like a timer would simplify the process of indoor gardening a lot. As it is, I plug in the light when I wake up in the morning, and the sun is up, and I unplug the light before I go to bed. Just like people, plants need a sun cycle to grow. Altifarm does sell a Pico-Timer accessory to automate the light, but I feel it’s something that should be baked into the product.
The first signs of growth!
My basil plants are starting to reach higher!
It’s pretty easy to get started with Pico; you spoon in your soil, fill the reservoir, and sow your seeds. It took about a week for my basil seeds to germinate and grow into the buds you see in the final pictures in this review. After the initial setup, all I had to do was turn the light on and off and refill the water reservoir when it got low; that was it. It’s a really nice way to grow herbs in the kitchen, and it was a fun way to give my kids a little science lesson, too.
You can get your Pico from Altifarm’s Indiegogo Campaign, starting at $34. Pico comes in four different colors to fit any family.
Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample
What I Like: Fun, cute design; Telescoping light keeps the light at the right place as your plants grow; Water reservoir keeps your plants watered for a week; Multiple mounting options included
What Needs Improvement: I’d like the self-timer to be built in
