Hydroponics, or growing plants using nothing but water, light, and air, has been hailed as the future of farming–on Earth and also in space, where size and weight are severely constrained. But hydroponic systems often require pumps, tubes, wires, and near-constant oversight, which might be feasible for researchers and scientific experiments, but not necessarily you and your home.
That’s why the Los Angeles-based startup Future Farms designed a hydroponic pot–called the Spacepot–that eliminates the need for all that equipment. You simply add a combination of water and nutrients to the Spacepot, put your seed (any kind of seed will do, but leafy herbs and lettuces are ideal for this method) into a “growpod” where it can germinate, and wait for your plant to grow. All you have to do is refill the plant nutrients every two weeks. After five weeks or so, you’ll have a plant on your hands.