It’s not very often that I get asked to review products and when I do it is usually a product so obscure and badly built that I often pass up on the opportunity. However, when asked to review the Vitopod by Greenhouse Sensation, I absolutely jumped at the chance to give it a trial run. I couldn’t wait to see if it really lived up to the hype.

After a couple of years of use, my rather cheap heated propagator had given up the ghost. If truth be told it was absolutely useless anyway and it completely lacked adjustable controls, unless of course you count the on/off switch and a couple of reluctant to open vents. I’d looked around with a view to buy a new propagator but at that point in time I hadn’t found anything that looked suitable for the job and the gorgeous Vitopod was slightly out of my price range. But things soon changed.

The Vitopod arrived in three large boxes, I received the large double-height model that allows for growing on larger plants or doubles as a greenhouse, and it was surprisingly light to move around. This model is large and measures L110cm x W58cm x H39cm. It was more than big enough for my needs and dominated the room I placed it in. Once opened I could see that I had a small build on my hands: for those of you worried at this point I can assure you that a few plastic nuts and bolts is no hassle whatsoever and within a few minutes I had constructed the sides to the propagator.

These are made of sturdy Perspex and simply bolt together with ease (no use for tools). They sit on top of the prefabricated base, which houses the heating filament, and is connected to the thermostat and small sensor that sits neatly inside the house giving a very accurate temperature control.

After constructing the Vitopod it was time to try it out. As a complete technophobe I was slightly worried that anything with digital controls may prove difficult to use but this was nothing but an irrational thought. After all, there is actually only one thing to control and that’s the temperature. I think the vast majority of people could manage to work that one out, in fact I’m almost certain of this but then again there’s always one (usually me). I placed several trays of seed in to the propagator and I also started some seed off in toilet roll inners as these transplant extremely well to the garden especially when growing root crops or sweetcorn. The seeds germinated uniformly within days and I found that there was ample ventilation available to control condensation and reduce the growth of fungal disease.

I utilised the mass vertical growing space, something of a novelty in my experience when it comes to heated propagators, to grow my plants on a little further than usual and I was really impressed with how well my plants grew. I placed the propagator in a light space for maximum effect but I could really see this unit being used in greenhouses, conservatories and the like.

Overall, I am really pleased with the product. I found that it was incredibly easy to set up, it looked great, it was simple to control and it was really well built. I’m looking forward to using the Vitopod over the next year and I cant wait to use it to propagate cuttings and overwinter some of my more tender plants. I would thoroughly recommend this product to anyone who is looking to buy a quality propagator and I think that despite its initial cost, the positives most certainly outweigh the cons.