Foody Tower - Stacking Vertical Garden - Soil in Growing Pods & Hydroponic in Reservoir - Productive and Attractive

Received and Assembled Oct 2:So far I am very excited about this tower. The individual modules are bigger than they look in the pictures which is a plus. One thing that confused me at first was trying to figure out just how much potting mixture I was going to need for this tower. A 32 qt bag was about right for the 4 white planting modules. I had a bit leftover because I filled the bottom 1/3 of them with pea sized gravel as suggested by the instructions. It has only been a few days and my seeds in the planter have not sprouted yet (the room is kept at 75 deg F and there is a sun lamp pointing at it for some cuttings I have starting right next to it). It is far too early to tell if the soil planters are working well or not but everything looks good. The soil has good drainage but doesn't dry out too quickly.There are quite a few pictures online and in the physical instructions that show the bottom part of the planter filled with soil. However, the written instructions tell you not to do so as the bottom, even when purchasing the soil planter, is still meant to be used hydroponically. It is also important to point out that the white modules on the top rotate but the bottom hydroponic portion does not. Attempting to do so with soil in the bottom could inadvertently kill the plants by breaking the stems if the top white cover sitting on the black bottom rotates but the bottom does not. I have created a setup using a cheap survival blanket as a mirror behind the planter to reflect my sunlamp towards the back, giving those plants some extra light.There is no drainage down on the bottom so plants in that bottom part, if used with soil, are at risk of root rot and a number of other unpleasant side effects from too much water. Since I have no intention of gardening hydroponically, I have rigged up a system using the leftover gravel to mimic one of my self-watering planters that drains excess water to the bottom but has a wick which allows the soil to absorb the extra water as needed.I am testing out this product for indoor winter gardening. If it does well, I plan on upgrading my 4 star review into a 5 star review and buying a few more next year. The reason it only has 4 stars so far is because of the pictures showing the bottom with soil even though the instructions specifically state not to do so. The garden tower was already here before I realized that was the case and, honestly, I would not have purchased it at all had I realized that the tower was supposed to be a hybrid soil/hydroponic tower.I'll also let everyone know if the pebble drainage/wick setup does well in the bottom hydroponic compartment. Push comes to shove, this spring, I can add a drain with some pvc pipe if too much water collects in the bottom.Update Oct 15:Even with careful watering, the bottom becomes mud soup. Next year I'll be fiddling with drainage but, for now, I have cleaned out the bottom and am using it as an evaporation pan.As for the upper portions -- the plants are doing well. Just about every seed planted has sprouted. The soil stays damp but not wet. It's perfect. I have also added one of my tomato cuttings to a level I was using to slowly plant broccoli(to spread out my ability to harvest). This tomato was the quickest to root in the water and, astonishingly, created two inch long roots while every other cutting is still just barely starting to grow root nubs. It is having a bit of trouble right now switching from water and nutrients to soil but it looks like it's starting to bounce back.Update 09/19/2019The soil garden does produce well but it is high maintenance. You absolutely HAVE to keep up on pruning, moving the lighting around evenly, and fertilization. There are a bunch of plants in a very small amount of soil. Honestly, in the future I would skip the soil version and go straight to hydroponic. The bottom is already that way and, let me tell you, you do NOT want to try to do the bottom as soil. It turns into a soup unless you want to try and add an overflow drain. I have recently used my knowledge of hydroponic towers to upgrade my soil tower into a custom hydro drip tower with clay pebbles and a timer. I also invested in lights on all sides of the tower so that I did not have to spin it by hand. It is more money starting out but definitely worth it. I only check the tower once or twice a day now. Plants are growing better. I don't have to worry about fertilizer issues or soil making it down and clogging the pump.I can not speak for the real hydroponic version of this tower as I did not buy it but, as a conversion hydro tower, it does really well. The plants grow more quickly and produce larger, very frequent fruit. It would be interesting to buy the Foody-designed hydro tower and see how it works but that is an experiment for another day.

$200 got me a package with a note that says no instructions. Seems whoever packed just decided to ship anyways. Total let down.