 Hi there, and welcome to a little garden on the prairies So I just received in the mail a gift from the Hort Hortos company. They have sent me one of their Hydro-Ponic garden systems to test out and do a review on my channel So I'm very excited to unpack it here and get some things planted in it. I'm planning I think to do some lettuces I'm going to try a few new seeds that I just got and Maybe some herbs. So it's going to see how many holes are in this. I believe there's eight But let's unpack it and see what it looks like So the Hortos is available on Amazon And I have the links in the description box below where you can find them in Canada and in the USA So just looking at it here. It looks very similar to the I-do model that I Recently purchased other than it is a little bit smaller Which is okay So yes, this is an eight hole system. I think there's an extra hole here for adding the water so I've just unpacked everything that comes with the Hortos system here and It looks very similar again to what comes with the I-do System the packaging that the items come in is almost the same So I'm assuming it's the same company or they use the same supplier for their their pieces here But it's very similar to the arrow garden setup. So you have your pods You have your little net cups and they fit into the holes here They also come with the covers to cover any holes that you're not using which is something that I really like So we have eight pods plus a hole where you fill the water It comes with the covers. So when you are just sprouting your seeds, you can cover them with these little plastic domes and basically The hookup is very simple. You have an adapter that you just plug in In a way you go and then on top here There's a setting for power and I believe a water light and just two settings for the lighting one for vegetables one for flowers So it comes with this two-part nutrient system that you just need to add water to and shake and then Mix into your container here So I have just got everything connected here and plugged in and I've added three liters of water I just wanted to show you what it looks like right now. So it's got the light running and We've got the pump going here. So this is what is going to be Putting air into the water and I'm assuming this will turn on and off Periodically and we're going to be doing lettuces. So I'm going to use the vegetable lighting This one is for flowers and fruits So I would say it's something they would use if you're growing something like tomatoes or peppers But because we're just doing green leafy vegetables, we're going to use this setting So I'm just going to show you what's inside the plant food containers here. So this is some kind of granular Nutrients here, we're going to fill the bottle with water shake it up to dissolve them This is plant food B Also just looks like some white rocks So I'm just using tap water that I've let sit for over 24 hours So the instructions say to put in 15 mils if you're using three liters of water I usually like to kind of start out more diluted than what they're recommending. So instead of the 15, I'm just going to Give it to 10 mils to start with. So these lids that come with it have these nice little measuring Cups on them. So I'm putting 10 mils in to three liters of water of part A and 10 mils of part B So I'm just getting all my net pots in here and adding in these pods and they are going to absorb The water and expand and then we'll be ready to plant some seeds So I think for this first test on this machine I'm going to make it kind of a salad garden and I've got a couple new seeds here that I just got from West Coast seeds that I want to try I got a romaine lettuce and I'm going to try some green onions My favorites to grow besides the romaine are always some arugula and spinach So we're going to pop some of those seeds in here, too So I'm just getting a bit impatient waiting for these pods to absorb water and expand which you know If you let it sit for another 10 or 20 minutes, it probably would eventually fill and expand but I Want to get planting so I'm going to just stick them into a bowl of water and Get them expanded and ready for planting Okay, so I got these pods well saturated and back in place And I got your the camera zoomed in here nice and close so you can see what I'm doing So I'm going to start off with romaine So I have how do I got here? I got four different things. I want to plan. I think I'm just going to do one for the green onions and I will maybe do two Of the romaine they do get a little I'm not sure how big this particular blend is going to get but We'll try putting it in. I usually put a couple in the pods I think two went in there two in there Just one went in there So I usually put a couple in and then thin one out afterwards Now normally I would mark So normally I would maybe mark what I've planted here, but I'm not too concerned I'll figure it out in a few weeks when they start growing The spinach kind of gets tall and spindly. So I'm going to put it on the outside Corners and they are quite big seeds. So I will put two in there just to see Make sure we get some germination And then put one over here in the opposite corner So this is arugula seed that I harvested from my arugula plants outside this summer It is one of the easiest things to save seeds from so I try to do that every year This is rocket arugula. It does have a lot of little pieces of Shells and stuff in there, but we are going to do Try to remember where I planted We're going to do three here So if you've been watching previous videos of mine, you'll know that I have a lot of lettuce growing using the Kratki method I grow my lettuces in Rubbermaid tubs and I have three going right now. So I kind of succession plant my My lettuces all winter long so that we always have Some fresh lettuce and it's been going really well So this is the green onion. So basically these are going to just grow And I will just harvest the stalks and cut them down and then they will just keep growing So that I've have done before using the Kratki method. It seems to work good Try to get them down the hole here Okay, so Not much to look at quite yet, but everything is planted up We've got the nutrient water all mixed up. The pump is running. We have it set on vegetables So we're ready to take it downstairs and add this to my growing space So it does recommend that you add plant food every two weeks to your container here So maybe what I will do is just have some premixed in a larger container of water And then just add as needed every two weeks So the last part of the setup is to put these domes on they're good to start Keep the moisture in Keep it nice and humid and once the plants get Sprouted and growing then you can just remove these Okay, so I have it all set up now here in the basement so the one thing about this compared to an arrow garden is Setting your timer if you have an arrow garden system You know that it has a more advanced setup system where you can you know set the timer and your clock And so you know exactly when the lights are going to be turning on and off This does have an auto feature Where the lights will be on for 16 hours and off for eight But I guess it's based on when you turn this on so it is the evening right now when I'm filming this and setting this up Which means the lights will likely stay on all night and then shut off during the day Which is not really ideal So I think what I'll do is I'll just shut it off for tonight Seeds don't need to have that light right away to germinate. So I think I'll just turn off the power and Then tomorrow around 6 a.m. I will start it up again And then hopefully it will run for 16 hours on and eight hours off So the system's been running now for about three days and so far things are looking good She can see we already got some arugula coming here on a couple spots They're pretty quick to sprout So keep watching on future videos, and I will keep you updated on how these hortaz Hydroponic system is working for me. If you enjoyed watching this video Please hit the like button leave a comment and don't forget to subscribe So you don't miss out on future videos come into the channel. Thanks for watching. Happy gardening