iPlant Sprout Garden, White

Awesome product. Love it. Sprouts in less than 3 days...with no fuss.

I got this from another site about a year ago, thinking it would be a lot easier to use than rinsing seeds in jars. It was initially easy to use, but made about an acre of sprouts. It also took up half of my counter. This thing is huge, maybe intended for restaurant use. I needed counter space so unplugged this during the summer (when I had salad growing in the yard) and now it does not work. The switch light comes on, and the base gets warm, but the motor to run the sprayer does not come on, so no spraying of the seeds. The company website has only a 404 error message, and the phone number has been re-assigned to another company.

I had a better experience with this item than the other reviewers. Initially, I didn't like the unit, but I grew several more batches of seeds and decided I liked it. I tried seeds from other companies as well as the ones included, and all seeds grew very well. I usually have trouble growing broccoli seeds, but they grew very well in the iPlant. Broccoli sprouts cost about $3 - $4 a container at the grocery store and I buy a container about every two weeks, so this unit will pay for itself in about a year. I compared the amount of water to needed to fill the tank to the 'minimum' level to the water I used to thoroughly rinse seeds in a conventional sprouter. The 'minimum' level was close to what I used in about 3 good rinses, so as I rinse seeds two times daily in a conventional sprouter, changing the water every 36 hours is about the same water usage as using a conventional sprouter. I have not torn the screens because I handle them gently, and I am about to try an experiment where I put a thin layer of paper towels below the sprouts to keep them from growing through the screen. The iPlant is big and bulky to clean in my small sink, but considering that this unit costs about $60 and the competing brands cost up to $230, I think this was a good deal. Now I'm growing delicious sprouts all year long whether I have time to baby-sit the sprouter or not.

I really, really wanted to love this sprouter, primarily because it was given to me as a gift. But it's very disappointing. First off I will admit that it does make nice sprouts (I have only tried alfalfa so far.) But that's where the good stuff ends. It uses a tremendous amount of water...both to operate and to clean. You are supposed to change the water in the sprouter every day. This is very difficult to do, especially once there are a lot of roots sticking out of the screen baskets. It takes a lot of water to fill to the proper place. Once the sprouting is over, everything needs to be cleaned and nothing really seems to get 100% clean. The little sprouting baskets are horrible. The roots from the sprouts stick into the mesh and are virtually impossible to get out. And the screen itself is very delicate and I can tell that in a couple more batches the screen will probably be broken. The main compartment for the water gets discolored from the seeds and there always seems to be a bit of brown on it no matter how much I wash it. Can't recommend this product.

Plastic screens ripped after first use, in spite of careful handling. There are no instructions for harvesting, and when you try to remove the roots after cutting the sprouts, the plastic screens tear very easily. Absolutely ridiculous for a product this expensive.