I grow herbs on my window sill and counter. No need for fancy big bucks cabinets. When the plants get straggly I stick them in the ground outside and buy new little ones. You can buy an awful lot of plants for the price of your thingummy.

Is this SPAM?

No...not spam, just a product that caught my attention on an episode of "Dragons Den"... an invention program where investors look at potential money making inventions. I've heard of commercial versions being available but they also carry a hefty price tag. Just something I thought I would toss out there for feedback.

My first thought is that the only people I know of who'd spend it are growing illegal herbs, but the volume probably isn't sufficient. If you're too far north for good Winter sun, you can get a grow light for a couple hundred bucks.

i just looked into this on the web. It's an appliance for restaurants and commercial kitchens, sold combined with a service that delivers pre-seeded flats. This makes economic sense and it increases certainty. Food service in a grand hotel can have total control over their greens. They can clip them on an as needed basis. They do not rely on having their greens delivered. They eliminate all uncertainty except employee sabotage or negligence.

There are wealthy people with rooms to furnish. Some of them might buy this as a white box under the counter, in a kitchen, bar or multipurpose area. It's practical because you CAN use it to grow parsley, chives, oregano etc. It's fun to have around too, just to have something new and different and to one up neighboring joneses. Maybe seeded flats can be mail ordered. Or, one of your domestic employees can seed the flats.

Planting things that you can eat is a good idea. Growing finer herbs indoors is not yet a common thing. I think one can do this with "grow lights" as undercabinet lighting, directed into a long strip "beam" near the wall. Why is countertop sprouting and growing not seen more often?

Hth

Also found :

Kitchen Nano Garden.
Made by Hyundai and Gromo.
For the "Commercial & Industrial" market.
Shelf trays with controllable light, water and nutrient supply.
Hydroponic growing of greens.

You can get an aerogarden for less than $150.

I second the aerogarden. Works great and supplies for months. Find myself cutting it back just because it's growing too much and the herbs are getting burned on the overhead lights.

The pump will probably fail but a replacement is $10 and easy to swap in.

I think what it comes down to is that in a residential setting, anyone who is going to spend that much on growing herbs could have a small greenhouse which wouldn't take up so much space in the kitchen. Actually, you can get a pop-up greenhouse for a couple hundred dollars, and a couple hundred more for shelves. Unless this system comes with the commercial service bringing in new flats, it just seems all around wasteful. And the aerogarden seems much more suitable for the non-gardeners.

in the kitchen forum, here is a smaller scale answer to the same question.

Here is a link that might be useful: niche turned into linear flower box, indoors.