There are many terrarium plants that are nice to look at, but difficult to grow. The Air & Light + self-contained mini-terrarium is designed to make things easier, by taking care of lighting and ventilation for you.
Currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, the A&L is made by Taiwanese company Vasee.
The basic kit includes a 1-liter (33.8-oz) borosilicate glass bottle, a magnetic USB power cable, and a "smart lid" for the bottle. That lid incorporates a small electric fan, three different types of LED lamps, and a pushbutton interface with an OLED screen.
While users can buy whatever plant they wish and then just see what works, the idea is that they will select one of the plants for which Vasee has already created a customized care regimen. The instructions will tell users what growth media to use and how much water they should provide, plus it will tell them how to set the lighting and airflow via the lid.
Lighting choices include a "specialized plant light," ultraviolet light or full-spectrum white light, which can be administered in different combinations and ratios for different amounts of time. The ventilation fan can likewise be set to different flow rates, for different amounts of time at different times of day.
It would be nice if water could also automatically be dispensed from a built-in reservoir, as is the case with some other automated plant care systems. In this case, however, users are still responsible for doing that themselves (per the provided instructions). For what it's worth, Vasee claims that it has tested the setup on thousands of popular flowering plants, succulents, and even carnivorous plants.
Assuming the Air & Light + reaches production, a pledge of US$79 will get you a complete kit. The estimated retail price is $129.
You can see it being set up, in the video below.
Sources: Kickstarter, Vasee
