12 plants · seed → sprout → harvest
What can I grow?
Start from the plant, not the gadget. Each card shows pod difficulty, time to first harvest, height needs, and whether you'll be playing bee — then lists the systems where it actually thrives.
Lettuce
The default smart-garden crop: fast, compact, and cut-and-come-again — harvest the outer leaves and the head keeps producing for weeks.
Thrives on 8 of 8 systems →
Basil
The highest-value herb per pod. Pinch the tops early and often: every pinch above a leaf pair forks the stem and doubles future harvests.
Thrives on 7 of 8 systems →
Cherry Tomatoes
The clearance question in plant form: dwarf cherry varieties want 18–24 in of headroom, hand-pollination, and patience — wrong on countertop units, rewarding on tall ones.
Thrives on 4 of 8 systems →
Mini Peppers
Compact hot and snack peppers fruit well in pods, but they grow tall, take their time, and set more fruit when you help pollination along.
Thrives on 4 of 8 systems →
Strawberries
The most-asked-about, least-rewarding pod crop: they need hand-pollination, throw runners, and yield a handful of berries — doable, rarely worth a precious pod slot.
Thrives on 0 of 8 systems →
Cilantro
Fast and easy with one catch: cilantro bolts (flowers and turns bitter) quickly, especially in warm light. Treat it as a harvest-hard, replant-often crop.
Thrives on 8 of 8 systems →
Mint
Effortless and AGGRESSIVE: mint will root into neighboring pods and shade out gentler herbs. Give it its own pod — ideally its own end of the garden.
Thrives on 8 of 8 systems →
Kale
Easy and productive, but it gets BIG — one kale pod can fill a countertop garden. Harvest leaf-by-leaf and it produces for months.
Thrives on 4 of 8 systems →
Arugula
The fastest payoff in the database — peppery leaves in two to three weeks, cut-and-come-again for several rounds before it bolts.
Thrives on 8 of 8 systems →
Thyme
A slow starter — germination and early growth test your patience — but once established it produces for many months and shrugs off neglect.
Thrives on 4 of 8 systems →
Dill
Fast, tall, and fleeting: dill shoots up, brushes the light on short systems, and bolts quickly. Harvest fronds early and plan to replant.
Thrives on 4 of 8 systems →
Green Onions
Nearly foolproof: quick, slim, and cut-and-come-again. The floppy tops don’t mind brushing a low light the way broad leaves do.
Thrives on 7 of 8 systems →
Want the whole picture at once? The compatibility matrix shows all 12 plants against all 8 systems.