Mumsnet users review innocent’s at home growing kits

[EllieMumsnet]

This activity is now closed

This is the thread for the 20 MNers who tested out the innocent growing kits with their DC’s.

Each tester was sent:

• a pack of pea seeds
• a box of innocent kids smoothies
• a garden label
• a compost disc
• a growing guide

Here’s what innocent have to say: “We want to encourage kids to grow their own veg to help teach them where their food comes from. We believe that by growing it themselves, kids are much more likely to eat (and enjoy eating) fruit and veg and continue with healthy eating habits to last a lifetime”

Testers please answer the following questions and we'd also love you to share photos of how it’s all going:

First impressions

• What are you first thoughts on the growing kit?
• How helpful did you find the growing guide? What did you like most about it?
• How has your DC found the initial growing process?

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?
• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?
• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Everyone who leaves the required feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one tester will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

I'll upload photo's in a mo... We've had fun with this!

What are you first thoughts on the growing kit?
I thought it was clever and fun to reuse the innocent pouches, it made me realise just how easy it can be to grow things in everyday objects that would otherwise be thrown away. It was handy to have everything in the kit too, it made it so easy to get started.

How helpful did you find the growing guide? What did you like most about it?
We found it very helpful and easy to follow.

How has your DC found the initial growing process?
She has loved it - she has enjoyed every stage, planting, watering, moving into the sun when the opportunity came, watching her plants grow and finally eating them. We have had some with dinner tonight and she has asked for egg and shoot sandwiches tomorrow!

Here are our plants in pictures taken a few days apart. The first pot was actually the one the took the longest to grow, but they are all around 6 inches tall now. And delicious

I'm pretty sure we planted 3 seeds in each container. We have 5 plants in each container

We haven't eaten any yet.

Day 10. This is so exciting!! We're not going to eat ours, we're going to grow them outside and see if we can beat our NDN who has an allotment and often gives us his produce. It's going to be a fun, growing summer!

The growing kit was brill my son had a great time opening the box and seeing everything inside. I love the wool insulation very useful for picnics when the sun comes back

The growing guide was much loved by my son he was amazed he could drink the smoothie then use the carton to grow seeds in. I did have to retrieve the compost from the bin however because he didn’t realise what it was!! He enjoyed following instructions to plant the seeds.

Everyday we have to check on the progress of the seeds morning and night and it’s the most interest I’ve seen him have in a vegetable ever.

Brill idea thanks for picking us

Hello Testers

The final lot of feedback questions have now been added:

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?
• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?
• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?

Very easy. The shoots grew a lot faster than expected. My son enjoyed watering them everyday and was excited to see the changes everyday.

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

Very easily! Much more so than expected.

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

I would recommend this to a friend or family member with small inquisitive children, especially ones who do not grow vegetables or maybe do not have a garden.

The kit was cute and the peas grew very easily.

My Dc enjoyed the initial planting, but have not been as interested as I hoped they might be. We will plant the peas outside this weekend and hopefully that will engage them a bit more.

As for recommending the kit, it was enjoyable and I liked the reuse of the cartons aspect and I think others would enjoy it too. Though ideally I would reuse something that could be planted directly into the ground (such as loo roll tubes) to plant seeds in. The containers will still end up in landfill once we plant these seeds out.

The compressed compost was fascinating.

A bit of dirt and a few pea seeds is not something I'd expect to pay a lot of money for - so any recommendations would really depend on the price.

The drinks were very yummy though.

Thanks

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?

We really enjoyed this experience and we will certainly be growing more with DD. She's loved the responsibility of looking after them and watering them. It's led to many discussions about how things grow and where things come from. She's learnt so much about growing from a seemingly small activity.

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

It was very easy to grow the peas.

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

I would recommend this growing kit to friends and family. It's been a wonderful activity and something we will continue.

Thankyou very much for giving us this opportunity.

Final thoughts
How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?
Fun! It's a very simple and straightforward approach. I liked the accessibility of it - no need for a lot of equipment or mess, just a few pots on the window ledge.

Did you manage to grow the peas easily?
Yes, which considering I have history as a serial plant murderer is pretty amazing! We grew something edible

Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?
Yes, I would, because it is so easy and the resulting plants grow quickly. DD really enjoyed checking on their progress and seeing them grow.

How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience? Really good fun, from planting to watching our peas grow they’ve loved every step. We are all excited to harvest and eat our peas.

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily? Very, I was surprised at how simpl it was and how low maintaince they are.
• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member? Absolutely, I think it’s some all children would enjoy and a great family activity.

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?

It was really fun! Peas are so easily to grow and are easy to harvest and try in salads etc. They grow quickly so was interesting for the children and perfect for the kitchen windowsill, especially as the weather has been so rubbish.

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

Yes - peas grow quickly and easily. No fuss, and no complicated care so the children were able to care for them themselves.

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Yes - every year we as a family grow some fruits or veg for the children and this often results in either messing around in the mud outside or transferring seedlings to bigger pots etc etc. Whilst it is fun for the children it often ends up abit of a pain for me!

Peas are fun and easy to grow however and so perfect for my 4,6 & 7yr old.

Thanks

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?

Loved it. My Dd is so excited to see each day how much they've grown. May try actually measuring the growth soon. The cartons are a great way to start them growing as it clearly insulates. Looking forward to showing how it can go in recycling once we've moved into big pots.

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

Yes. Just a little patience is needed - more from me! I just kept thinking when are they going to grow then one morning came down to them all lusciously unfurled and vibrantly green.

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Yes. It's great fun and as you can place in a carton you don't require much space. Also if it's living in the kitchen windowsill like ours it gets checked easily everyday as it's one of the busiest rooms in the house.

How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?
We found it very easy and DCs enjoyed it. They didn't check them daily but they certainly fascinated with the growing process.

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

Yes very easily and they didn't need daily care, which was good as my DCs only remembered about them every 3 to 4 days.

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Yes I would, it was a great introduction to growing your own food. We will be replanting some of our pea shoots to a bigger pot to see if we can grow pea pods.

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?

The DC loved the planting and initial growing. They got really excited seeing how tall the shoots grew (and blimey, they really did “shoot” up!)
Then they got a bit bored and didn’t care for a while as they stayed the same size.
We trimmed the shoots, ate them in sandwiches and now the dc are excited again as they shoots are “doing something” once more

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

Extremely- the compost disks made it so easy and they were really magical to watch expand. Using the cartons was an excellent idea and I will now reuse other tubs and containers in this way

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Absolutely. Wonderful idea!

Have had to plant more seeds this week as I think there may have been some 'over-watering' going on! Turns out that my little man had been asking both mummy and daddy to help water his peas!!! We have learnt that peas don't like over watering!!!! Luckily we had 4 seeds left...keeping everything crossed this time!

Final thoughts.....

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?

Success....we have pea plants growing....second time lucky! After the initial over-watering issues my son was determined to grow some plants. Off we went again and yippee...we have pea plants

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

Yes very easy to do once we got over our son's initial enthusiastic over watering.

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Yes definately....such good fun for everyone. It has helped develop a sense of patience and nurturing in our little ones. Not to mention teaching them a valuable lesson of where our food comes from. My toddler also ate something green for the first time in a long time without the associated 'yuk'! Thank you innocent. Think we'll try some of the other seeds next

How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?
We have really enjoyed it we planted them when the sun was good so we kept them outside but when the weather turned we didn't see much growth so we've brought them indoors and they're really starting to grow now so if we did then again we would have had them inside the whole time.

Now that we have them inside we are seeing alot more growth which has made my little ones more interested as when they we're outside the progress was very slow but now their really starting to grow taller.

Yes I would recommend the initial planting was easy and enjoyable the little ones enjoyed watching the compost grow in the water and planting them and now that we have them inside they are more keen to check them daily as they can see better results.

Thank you for letting us be involved in the innocent big grow we have enjoyed it. x

More progress now indoors 😁 x

We've absolutely loved this, it's been brilliant. The boys have both enjoyed looking after their peas, making sure they have enough water and they're getting enough of the (limited) sun. They've both even had a munch on the leaves, amazing! It's been a busy week as we've had a birthday and everyone who has come to the door - delivery drivers, meter men, neighbours etc have all been made to try the pea shoots too

Even more exciting is that it has spurred them on to grow more things. We've started off some radishes and lettuce and they've loved the whole process, from filling the pots with compost to planting the seeds and watering them. If I can get them to try them when they've grown I'll be very happy!

I would definitely recommend the kit, it showed just how easy it is to grow veg. The peas shot up so quickly there wasn't much waiting around which made a difference to them staying interested throughout.

It's very easy to be detached from where our food comes from, as well as what is actually in it, and this kit goes someway to bridging the gap. Now, how do I start the conversation about bacon...?!

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?

Well, ours didn't grow at all :( I'm not sure why, we usually have a lot of luck with growing things, but not this time sadly. That said, we have still enjoyed the process, and think it's very important for children to learn how to grow food!

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

The process was easy and straight forward, however, ours did not grow, we are rather sad, but we aren't sure why they haven't grown!

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Yes I'd still recommend this kit! It's perfectly thought out, and a lot of fun. I have enjoyed looking at everyone else's photographs of their peas!

Ours are still here, hoping they will sprout soon. Does anyone have any tips??

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience? Great fun! So exciting to see the progress.
• Did you manage to grow the peas easily? Yes. We're going to plant them in pots outside this week - we've researched and decided to use canes to form a wigwam.
• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member? Definitely. It's been fun, educational and we're looking forward to tasting our crop. It's sparked interest to try different seeds.

Thank you so much for this opportunity!

Final thoughts
How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?
We have loved the experience: (we even tweeted about it as the peas have grown so well and look so lovely on the kitchen window sill). The seeds grew very easily and quickly, so the 'pay back' has been almost instant. We have enjoyed eating them. I have more on the go, and will leave some to mature into full plants. It was just so easy, and fun. Brilliant!

Did you manage to grow the peas easily? Very. Just like following the easiest of recipes. Such a brilliant 'gateway crop' into the whole market gardening growing-to-eat experience!

Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member? In an instant. In fact, I have been promoting to friends your drinks that come with the free seeds in the supermarket. Such a fantastic idea. Thanks for letting me test it.

Final thoughts

• How have you and your DC found the whole growing experience?

We loved it! Lots of fun, easy to do & educational too. Really got the kids interested in growing more fruit & veg too.

• Did you manage to grow the peas easily?

Yes, it was all super duper easy! Although, our peas haven't grown quite as big as some of the other mn''s on here have - but we'll keep going with our little project.

• Would you recommend this growing kit to a friend or family member?

Definitely, what's not to like.

Thanks mn & Innocent for letting us take part - we loved it!!