About Indoor Gardening
We're an independent editorial site covering indoor gardening equipment — grow lights, hydroponic systems, indoor herb gardens, planters, soil, and accessories. The category exploded after 2020 and the marketing followed; most "best of" content online treats every plant-light fixture as if it's interchangeable. They're not.
Our methodology
Every roundup and review on this site is built from four sources:
- Manufacturer spec sheets — for grow lights, actual photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) per square foot, photosynthetic photon efficacy (PPE) in μmol/J, full spectrum coverage, and rated lifespan. For hydroponic systems, reservoir capacity, pump rate, and nutrient compatibility.
- Indoor gardening forums and subreddits — r/IndoorGarden, r/Hydroponics, GardenWeb, and species-specific forums (r/SpaceBuckets for compact growers, r/UrbanGardening for apartment dwellers). These threads surface the patterns that recur across hundreds of growers.
- Verified-purchase reviews across Amazon, manufacturer-direct stores (Mars Hydro, Spider Farmer, AeroGarden), and specialty retailers — weighted for recency and filtered for patterns rather than outliers.
- Horticultural research from university extension programs (Penn State, Cornell, University of Florida) and the Apogee Instruments PPFD measurement library. For lighting specifically, the published research outperforms most manufacturer marketing.
What we don't do
We don't accept product samples in exchange for coverage. It changes how you write whether you mean it to or not.
We don't publish "sponsored" reviews disguised as editorial picks. If we feature a product, we got there through research — never through payment.
We don't quote live prices. Indoor gardening equipment goes through dramatic seasonal pricing (LED grow lights are cheap in January, expensive in March when growing season starts). Every "Check price" link routes to the retailer's current listing.
How we make money
Most outbound product links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and end up buying, the retailer pays us a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Full details on our affiliate disclosure page.