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The Mini 1 was a simplified version of the Auk system, with four oval pots set over a 3-liter reservoir. Users could grow the included herb seeds or anything else they wanted in the pots using coco coir. It was simple, stylish, and effective.
The Auk Mini 2 features a handful of updates, but perhaps the most visible is that it comes in new color variations, rather than just black and white. There are still the oak and walnut wood bottoms, but Mini 2 offers beech and ash instead of the Mini 1’s cork. Espresso, sage, and terra-cotta colored tops now join the menu of offerings.
The Mini 2 also sports bigger plant pots and a 25 percent larger water capacity, despite its overall footprint being 12 percent smaller than the original.
There is now also—and I admittedly had mixed feelings about this—an app. Using the Auk Connect app isn’t mandatory; you can still control the light schedule manually using a button on the light bar, as with the Auk Mini 1. The app doesn’t add much, but to its credit, it’s easy to set up. You don’t even need to make an account. Just download it; open it; and choose your garden, which the app should already recognize. You’ll access a page where you can turn the light on or off, dim it, set a time schedule, or swap grow mode from “Herbs & Salads” to “Fruits & Veggies.”
Though the stock dowels for the light bar on the Mini 2 are, as on the Mini 1, too low at a maximum of 15 inches to easily accommodate taller fruiting plants like peppers, Auk now offers a $39 Chili & Tomato Kit with longer dowels and a tray with larger pots (two instead of three). I have not tried it, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t result in substantially increased success rates.
