Growing small crops at home is now easy as saying “Grobo”. The company has made it easier for users to grow basic vegetables and plants at home now, having already accepted pre-orders for the product last year. The company then closed pre-orders, being unable to satiate the high-demand, but now it’s back following availability and popularity from its followers.
The Waterloo-based start-up had developed a hydroponic-based “grow box” that controls the environment factors such as moisture, dryness, temperature and other factors to monitor the growth. Called the Grobo One, it is essentially a cabinet sort of structure that houses a space for storing the plant’s pod with soil, and below that are a few gaps to fit Grobo’s proprietary nutrients and supplements to boost the plant growth.
Users simply need to fit the carbon filter at the top of the inner part of the set-up and lay the pod in its place with the seeds firmly in place. Once the device is switched on, everything happens automatically. There is something called a Fluid Window that allows for users to quickly check on the growth of their crops from outside. Users will not need to manually do anything to the cabinet once everything is installed. The device can be controlled by the user through a desktop or mobile browser for now, but an app is in the works and should come to Android and iOS soon. The company also has fitted some LEDs inside the cabinet that alternate between different colors, for which the company says boosts the growth of the plant.
The device was launched last year and came into this world by the likes of the HAX accelerator and the Velocity incubator and the company initially started its campaign for pre-orders back in August 2016. Now, the Grobo one is set to establish its second pre-order campaign for its US and Canada customers who want to purchase the Grobo One for some in-home gardening.
The units do not come cheap however, and will set buyers back by $1,599. Optionally, buyers can also pay in instalments with a deposit of $300, which will set the margin of the price at $1,699. Once the company has completed its second run of pre-orders, the cabinets will be shipped to customers from April to Fall of 2017. From growing vegetables such as basil to cilantro and even cherry tomatoes, to literally anything else that comes in a seed, the Grobo will find some more enthusiastic buyers not only in the US and Canada, but across the world, if the company can expand its operations.
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