The Best Tried and Tested Indoor Herb Garden Kits

The AIBSI indoor herb garden kit showed up in a plain brown box, with no fancy pictures on it. At first glance, it appeared to be reasonably simple.

However, the directions were not the easiest, especially if you have never used an indoor herb garden kit before. The description was unclear on what you were supposed to do, and the pictures were a bit confusing.

Once I got the hang of it, the next thing I noticed was the straight vermiculite that was the medium to grow in. (We will see how well it does.)

Side note: I want to highlight that there is no mention of any fertilizer needed, even though I think there should be.

• Day 10 Update

Although I initially gave it a 4 out of 10 marks, the AIBSI indoor herb garden kit exceeded my expectations – so did the Hoctor model, for that matter, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The plants are growing incredibly well, especially considering they only have vermiculite as a growing medium.

• Day 42 Update

After ten days, the AIBSI herb garden review was one of the most promising. However, I’m very disappointed in how it turned out. As you can see in the pictures below (it’s the kit on the left), the plants are on the brink of dying and definitely don’t look appealing.

The Hoctor kit, on the other hand, is doing much better!

Out of all of the units, these two seemed to scream the most for a water refill. I was adding water every third day.

Other than the extra decorative sleeve, the Hoctor indoor herb garden kit is very similar to the AIBSI model.

After having the first one under my belt, and with better-written instructions, this kit from Hoctor went together much smoother. It also felt a little bit better built.

However, apart from the instructions being easier to follow and just the feel of better materials, I was still left wondering about the straight vermiculite growing medium. Although the manual did mention the need for fertilizer, it was not clear on how much.

Side note: The AIBSI and Hoctor kits are very similar in appearance.

• Day 10 Update

Just like the previous kit from AIBSI, the Hoctor herb garden kit (right) is showing great progress.

The fact that it uses vermiculite instead of soil or other types of growing medium made me doubt their performance at first, but I was wrong.

I take it all back, these kits really work!

I’m surprised by the progress these plants made over the last 10 days.

Honestly, I see no difference compared to the ones growing in full sunlight.

• Day 42 Update

As you can clearly see in the pictures below, the Hoctor indoor garden kit (right) has some lushes green lettuce. It is very tasty too!

It showed steady and healthy growth so far and I think it’s going to continue on this path by the looks of it. It did require more water refills than the others, which might be a small inconvenience to some, so keep this in mind when picking an indoor herb garden kit.

Although the Hoctor and AIBSI herb garden kits had similar progress when I wrote the first update, it’s clear to me now that the Hoctor kit is the best indoor herb garden kit out of these two.

This was the first of the indoor herb garden kits that had pre-planted seeds of basil. It was very easy to put it together and did mention the need for fertilizer.

The steps were the following: fill with water, drop in the pre-planted pods, and plug it in.

There are a couple of minor features of this model that bring in extra convenience, which I really liked. The long tabs you see in the picture are handy to write on with anything erasable, so you remember what you planted. The little domes over each pod fit down into a groove so that they do not move around or fall off.

The light comes with extensions so that as your plants grow, you can raise its height.

After going through all the indoor grow systems, I can safely say that if you’re looking for a reliable, yet compact one, this is the absolute best indoor herb garden kit you could get.

• Day 10 Update

Click and Grow is one of the kits that came with pre-seeded pods of basil. I figured that it would do fairly well, and it has lived up to my expectations, so far.

Just look at how bushy these basil plants are! I would call this a success after only 10 days of using the Click & Grow smart garden kit. So far, this seems to be the best grow setup for indoors.

• Day 42 Update

This one has pretty much done what I expected, and I had high expectations! The basil grew so tall that it was hitting the lights and literally burning.

I have cut it back and used some of it, which might sound like an inconvenience, but it’s exactly the point of these indoor herb gardens.

Water consumption was not as severe as the first two models, so this is a huge plus.

I should have realized the kit from Mindful Design would be quite different from the rest when I saw the price. This is a no-frills, LED lightbox. It comes nicely packaged and honestly scared me a bit since I felt like I was going to build a computer!

However, once you get all the pieces out, it looks a little less daunting. The instructions are simple if you pay attention to what you are reading. It’s a snap-together/insert type of construction (Tab A into slot B), very straight forward.

Once I got the herb garden together, I realized that was all it was, an LED Grow Lightbox. No pots, plants, seeds. Put it together and plug it in.

I had a couple of small pots of soil and planted some seeds in them.

This unit would be great for those wanting to start their own outdoor garden seeds inside, or for indoor gardeners with plants that need lots of light – cacti or succulents come to mind. Definitely the best choice for growing large indoor plants.

• Day 10 Update

Honestly, this grow box is probably the leader in disappointments. It has the very same type of seeds (from the very same package) as the AIBSI and Hoctor kits.

It can be hard enough starting seeds indoors and this design, in my opinion, is rather awkward. Unless you have a very small watering can or want to pick up each pot individually to water them, it is not that convenient.

Seeds cannot be allowed to dry out and if you tend to forget to water them, they will do poorly with this glorified grow light from Mindful Design.

Having an open bottom would be okay if it came with a tray to catch water, otherwise, it will run over your table.

This one is losing points rapidly.

• Day 42 Update

This one continues to be the leader in disappointments. It had the very same type of seeds (from the very same package) as the Hoctor and AIBSI kits.

There is no catch pan for water and they definitely need to be checked every day. If you are a busy person, you may forget to water them. At least most of the other units in this test have an alarm that lets you know when they need more water.

I cannot completely fault the death of this crop on the garden kit itself, I did forget to water it a couple of times. As mentioned before, a self-watering planter might turn this in a pretty good deal, but other than that, it’s a no-go for herbs.

I will say this though, if I wanted to grow some small succulents or cacti, this thing would be ideal. I gave this the lowest rating for herbs since this is our purpose here, but if I were to give it a rating for growing other types of plants, it would go up to a 4 I think, since the light is pretty bright.

I was already familiar with the AeroGarden series from Miracle-Gro before I started this test. I was interested to see how it stacked up against some of the others. The AeroGarden indoor herb kit came with a pack of different herbs, pre-planted in the pods. It also came with a bottle of fertilizer which told you exactly how much to use.

This indoor garden comes mostly assembled, you just add the water and fertilizer, drop the pods into the holes, plug it in and you are off and running. Replacement pods are easy to come by online, so that’s sorted out, too.

There are, however, a few things I would change about this model. The greenhouse domes do not sit very well on the individual pods, the slightest bump and they fall over. The control panel buttons on the front are very sensitive too: the lightest touch turns the light off or changes a setting.

Despite all these, I’m quite happy with how it turned out. Of all the models I went through, this seems to be the best indoor herb garden in the middle price range.

• Day 10 Update

Surprisingly, the AeroGarden kit seems to be the sleeper of the group. It is not performing nearly as well as I expected. I am familiar with Aero-Garden products and thought for sure this would run circles over the rest. At first glance, this really seems like one of the best indoor grow systems!

Maybe some of the herbs that came pre-planted in this one just need a little more thyme? (pun intended!)

• Day 42 Update

The AeroGarden Harvest kit was the sleeper of the group on day 10, but as you can tell this herb garden kit ultimately lived up to my original expectations. However, it came seeded with several different types of herbs, the basil and fennel ran rough shot over the rest of them and took over the city.

While this indoor herb garden kit seems to be performing the best, my suggestion for it would be to only grow things that either has similar growth patterns or, better yet, just one crop.

The moment I picked this beast up, I knew it would be something special. It was very heavy and when the pieces came out, I saw why. REAL Bamboo frame.

Side note: due to a backorder, this unit showed up and was started two days later than the rest.

Putting the iDeer Life kit together was a little bit of a challenge. The holes in the wood are all pre-drilled and it comes with the screws and a small screwdriver. Emphasis on small. My large hands had trouble holding the wood together and using the tools.

Two people would have no problems whatsoever with setting up this grow box kit, that is just an author’s issue.

The instructions are very easy to follow and this model comes with the pods, all the necessary pieces, and enough fertilizer for two feedings (the initial and one more).

The iDeer Life kit is very beefy in design and construction materials, so there is plenty of room to grow lots of herbs or greens in here.

Only having one operating switch makes it a breeze to operate by those who aren’t that tech-savvy.

I guess it’s pretty safe to say, of all the products I’ve tested for this article, this IDEER LIFE kit is by far the best indoor herb garden kit.

• Day 10 Update

The IDEER Life kit was my favorite going into the test, just on the look and feel of the unit. But it is also a little on the sleeper side of results.

Just to be fair, it is two days behind everybody else, so I will take that into mild consideration. Still, I think the Buttercrunch Lettuce I planted should be a little farther along, at least in my opinion.

The sporadic germination is interesting on this one, too. I am not sure why a few seeds have great growth and a couple of them have little to none. Moreover, dont forget to check out which are the best herbs to grow indoors and which arent.

• Day 42 Update

Lastly, this WAS my favorite going into the test, even though I figured the AeroGarden Harvest would have been the overall best indoor herb garden kit.

I am not completely sure what went wrong here. Maybe the unit is too short for taller crops, the browning leaves are where it reached up and touched the lamps. I did like the way the leaves were filling out, but they suddenly just started getting, well, ugly.

This unit starts making very loud gurgling noises when it needs water, so if you happen to be close enough to hear it, great, if not, the plants will start to wilt without a fill-up.