As a bioengineer who has a PhD, here are my comments: 1. Microbiome as a soil treatment for enhancing plant performance is real. For example, Dr. Voigt at MIT is engineering microbe to make crop fertilizer. The idea is to engineer the microbe to produce nutrients for the plants. Why do they need to continue adding the microbiome? The engineered microbe might need very specific conditions to grow, so it will die off under normal conditions over time. Can the microbiome enhance other plant growth? It depends on what nutrients the microbe makes. Sometimes, the host has also been engineered, so it sends a specific biochemical signal to the microbe for nutrient production. In this case, treating that microbiome to other plants that don't have this signal won't trigger the microbiome to produce nutrients. 2. Although this concept (Microbiome as a soil treatment for enhancing plant performance) is true, it doesn't have much real scientific backing for this pothos. Another similar bioengineered plant, bioluminescent petunia, has two to three published papers. I didn't see any paper published with this on their website. 3. They picked a wrong engineering target that cannot easily noticed and make impact. VOC is definitely a thing, but there are so many alternatives with cheaper options. Plus, I don't have expensive equipment to measure the VOC level before and after purchasing this pothos. Since I cannot tell the difference, why would I buy it? It might have more impact if they can make pothos to produce a scent that can improve sleeping quality. On the other hand, bioluminescent petunia has no impact, but it has aesthetic values. Who does not like a glowing plant? 4. They need to hire someone with science communication expertise to redo their website.
@@trishaellen7449 Firefly petunia, there's another thread discussing them on this video with people who bought them. Can preorder online via their website but it's 26 + shipping, which for me was 54$ and so nopped out.
Hi Kaylee. Thanks for taking the time to review our product in such depth. To give some context, Neo Px is the result of years of hard work from our team of scientists, multiple PhDs and passionate plant lovers at Neoplants trying to make a positive impact and offer an alternative solution for air purification. We wanted to clarify some of the points you raised: - Our tests and performance claims were carried out at leading air quality labs, including IMT Nord Europe. You can read about it in White Paper, and we are actively working on publishing data in real-life conditions. - There are many scientific studies (see below) that show the impact of plants on indoor air quality, however indeed you would need a large number of regular plants in one room to have a significant impact on your air quality. This is why we've spent years in R&D to develop our Power Drops that enable Neo Px to reach an air purification performance equivalent to 30 regular houseplants. - We understand price point can be an issue for people, however Neo Px is a first-of-it’s-kind innovation that took years of R&D. That said, as a company we will do our best in the future to make our products more and more accessible. - We're sorry if you feel our language is too complex at times and will take your feedback onboard. While we are selling a technical product we do try our best to make things as accessible as possible. In addition, for the sake of transparency we make our science publicly available in our White Paper and on our website at neoplants.com. - To be clear, we do not claim to completely replace air purifiers. We offer a different solution that is nature-based, recycles pollutants rather than just stores them, and addresses VOCs specifically. I hope this helps clarify your points and we'd like to offer you a call with our founding team to answer all your questions in more detail. Let us know if this is of interest. The Neoplants Team. Real-life Impact of Plants on Indoor Air Quality: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15287394.2012.721169 Assessment of Indoor Plant Phytoremediation: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33074430/ Effects of Plants on Indoor Air Phytoremediation www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/4/473
You should do a collab and stick a shell planter on the side of a Dyson air purifier then make a little pdf ebook and a launch video about how it’s 5x better than a marble queen
So I AM a biologist. MSc in microbiology and have worked in the bay area biotech industry for years now. I read the stuff you linked and agree it was super confusing. But digging even more the methodology was poor and I couldn't find any actual data or evidence way that would yield their graphs nor what the relevance of their data. None of the data they collected even provided loosely-relevant evidence for an improved microbiome or how they even define a healthy vs less healthy microbiome. Also the microbiome is SO complicated for humans, plants, everything and can vary drastically across the globe and they don't even go into how the microorganisms are specifically helping on a cellular biology level (or more accurately, what molecular processes are occurring and how that impacts the plant, air quality, and humans). The seem to just be collecting trends of their poorly-thought out experiments but not actually discussing what would make their data biologically meaningful. This frustrates me. I spend like 2 hours TRYING to find something authentic and it's so shameful that they're trying to just science to deceive people. If someone at work tried this they'd be fired (or promoted if they worked at a corrupt company i guess lol).
It feels rly weird for them to be like 'we bioengineered THIS PLANT' and then follow it up with 'actually its these drops doing the work' like pick one lol
Just some fancy words to get the attention, and this works in a world where everyone wants something new, different and complicated to understand, even though it's the most basic thing in the world.
Hey Kaylee, I'm in med school with a science background and I agree with you that this is BS. You raised great points on the use of jargon to mislead people. Not sure how they managed to get it into production since we as a consumer cannot even test their claims. Absolutely not, I will stick to my 80ish houseplants and occasionally opening my windows. LOL
I’m one of the weirdos on the email list of theirs! It reminds me of the company, Theranos. It’s so crazy to watch the updates and how they’re praying on the plant blind. Thank you so much for bringing this scam to to such a large audience. What. A. Scam.
My degree in biotech wants to know what exactly the "biotech" in this product is? If it's genetically modified, they are not allowed to just sell this to customers. It's against the law, unless the bacteria is "disabled", meaning it needs to be fed a substance to stay alive. And even then, it's a friggin gamble cause bacteria can cure itself by horizontal gene transfer from non-disabled bacteria that just lives there.
Didn't finish the video yet, but I just wanted to mention before I forget. Their entire marketing scheme seems oddly familiar with a project we had to do in college for "professional english" (we are not in an english speaking country), where we would pretend to market a start-up to investors. So we came up with the wildest, most outlandish and plainly stupid ideas and if we could not explain something or could not prove it, we would just hit the professor with the "we don't yet have the funding for the research".
Scams have evolved a lot since my time on the internet during the early 2000s. No more Nigerian Prince but instead a nice-looking guy that uses big words with confidence..😅
@@goosenotmaverick1156 I got mine but it was practically dead on arrival and died in 2 days because the soil was so wet and it was a tiny plant in a 1-inch hydroponic plug that they stuck in a 4" pot of pretty heavy potting soil, and they mailed it on a Thursday so it sat around all weekend in a post office. It was impossible to contact support too. I got through on Instagram and they said they'd send a new one but haven't gotten anything yet. Some people got nice ones, I think it's really luck because they obviously don't know the proper way to ship plants, probably the people close to where they ship from had good ones.
@@hefoxed I got mine but it was practically dead on arrival and died in 2 days because the soil was so wet and it was a tiny plant in a 1-inch hydroponic plug that they stuck in a 4" pot of pretty heavy potting soil, and they mailed it on a Thursday so it sat around all weekend in a post office. It was impossible to contact support too. I got through on Instagram and they said they'd send a new one but haven't gotten anything yet. Some people got nice ones, I think it's really luck because they obviously don't know the proper way to ship plants, probably the people close to where they ship from had good ones.
Mine glows sooo good, I stare at it every night and I love it, it is a replacement plant for the first one ups treated like a cocktail shaker, took a few weeks for the replacement to come btw 🤍🤍🤍
I am a scientist. I work in an animal research and a big concern we have is air quality to ensure infectious agents or chemical agent do not get out. This “system” is practically passive on its face. So even if it works and the bacteria and fungi are actual capable of doing what they claim. The amount of air it’s able to breathe in and out to perform this action is going to be minuscule to the point of irrelevance. Active air movement by an air purifier or opening a window will do just fine but far faster and cheaper The fancy words like directed evolution is strange screams scam. Does he mean breeding? This is a high tech scam. Anyone paying 139 dollars for a pothos and then subscribing to a monthly payment to keep up with this fancy fertilizer is wasting their money. This seems like a left over from the height of plant mania when they were online selling basic plastic for over a hundred dollars because they aesthetically put them on a special pot. Anything to make a buck I’d rather spend that money on a rare baby
Yeah, realistically, a plant like this would need to be outside where there's active wind movement at the very least, and even then, there's not really much point to it, because it's outdoors and there's already plenty of filtration. I mean, this could potentially be useful if we were to apply it on a mass scale, and just completely dedicate entire areas of land in the centre of cities to this kind of science as a way to combat climate change, so the science isn't completely pointless, but on this scale, for a houseplant? Naah, it's practically nothing, even for a single room.
As a plant pathologist doing a PhD in sustainable agriculture, this is bs. We see these type of bioagent products all the time in agriculture, they sell them to farmers and make wild claims about reducing disease an regenerating soils but never actually test ir analyse the soils in the fields they would apply them to. Fields already have a microbiome and ecosystem which will effect the performance of the product and be effected by the application of the micribes in said product possible degrading the soil further. We tested a biocontrol afebt that claimed to reduce root tot pathogens of pease, only to find the product was contaminated with bacteria which caused disease in the peas in our control (product only no pathogen added). All money grabbing schemes banking on uneducated peoole with interest in plants. Sickening really 🙃
Wait so the fertilizer “power drops” has beneficial organisms that filter VOCs, but I thought that the entire premise was that the plant is what is supposed to filter air??? Why do I need a plant?! Why can I not just use several pots of dirt?!???
As a programmer, I was most intrigued what language that code snippet was written in. It gives serious Lisp vibes being it all just a one statement of stacked if(condition, doIfTrue, doIfFalse). (Once(you(meet(that(thing(you(are(triggered(for(life)))))))))). I also appreciate how the condions are matched against a whole string sentence. Anyway, I googled it, as you do... IT IS WRITTEN IN F*** EXCEL!! Back on topic, I believe even in the NASA experiment the result suggested that it is mainly the soil that does the filtering. So from that perspective it makes sense they just pick the cheapest plant. Still makes no sence in whole though.
OKay if we pretend human cell biology field is qualified enough to give feedback: After looking at the white paper, the result that stuck out to me was that VOC-containing air started at 750 ppb, and was reduced to 110 ppb for the normal plant without drops/shell/etc, and reduced to 90 ppb for their fancy version of the same plant species. So you're looking at 15% VOCs left vs 12% VOCs left. both are great and one option (not theirs) is essentially free. They went on to normalize it to plant weight, which is where they got those bar charts showing other house plants being way worse, but interestingly there is no dataset/reference/calculation/anything to say exactly how they normalized the data(?!?!?!) So I guess we're supposed to just trust them on the one step where their product's performance goes from similar to a normal plant to WOW its the CLEAR winner. interesting
Software Engineer here, I dont know what language that is, but who is the world is using complete phrases as their comparison values AND writing them out every time. Software engineer with a Bio degree I only use once every few years.... if your bacteria need to be replaced every month, why are they dying? if you are just feeding the bacteria, why arent they eating the VOCs? if the Pothos is eating the VOCs, why do I need bacteria?
I’m at the “dozens of houseplants per room is impractical” part and I had to stop and comment because that literally made me cackle. 🤣 I probably have about 200 plants in my 2 bedroom apartment. The whole plants purifying air thing is such a gimmick. They’re really trying to sell this scam and make a return on investment.
Haha so true! The only benefit to my “air quality” is my Mother-in-law said my air is SO CLEAN now with all the plants, so basically, finally I’ve done something right in her eyes. 😂 I’ll just let her believe that.
@@Planty-Mandyhaha wow, impressing the MIL is no small feat! My late grandma was so hard to please, rest her. My mom finally got her dream home in the country surrounded by forest and 200ft from a big beautiful pond. My grandma came and said “hm… the air quality isn’t very good here. What a shame.” Like what?!? Some can NEVER be pleased 😂
So, this plant costs more than my air purifier, doesn't reduce dust, smoke, or pollen (and other allergens), and instead of changing my filter twice a year, I have to remember to top it up with a little sachet every month. At least it's pretty... 🙄
I know. For me personally I'd like rid of the dust and dander etc! I think they don't like particulate matter because plants couldn't possibly filter it!
@@KayleeEllenOfficiallol MY plants can remove cat hair from the air 😉 I once did a neem oil spray treatment and the leaves got covered in cat hair so fast! 🤣
@@KayleeEllenOfficial ~ I saw this NeoPlant thing as a sort of a scam the first time I saw one of their ads. I immediately went to their website to check it out and was kind of appalled. Besides what you hit upon in your video, Kaylee, I thought of other things. Like, will any plant feed interfere with their 'power drops', or vice versa? And don't forget that you'll need to wipe down all of the plant's leaves/stems on a regular basis to keep the plant in good 'working' order. Will insects (such as fungus gnats, ants, etc.) be attracted to the 'power drops' since they've got organisms in them? What if you live in a part of the world that gets bad winters and the plant goes into a dormant period? Does that mean that the plant will only be 'working' half as hard during that time than it would be during the spring and summer months? There are so many other variables in general plant care that I don't think these NeoPlant people thought of.
Having afternoon tea with Kaylee always ends up with a good spill 😉 Thanks for bringing awareness to multiple kinds of plant scams and marketing schemes
I think you are absolutely right and there’s really no way to spin this type of purchase so they bundled it with the fancy pot. Also, it could be a plot set up by the big filter companies to come up with this far-fetched idea of microorganisms to filter out the air, thus turning everybody back to electric filtration because they know that that works
I am not a medic, but have plenty of expertise on the human biome. They are selling bacteria and fungi which are unable to form colonies, needing repeat application throughout the year. This is not a biome, ie not sustainable. I think it’s good that this kind of work is going on, but IMHO not a sensible product to sell or buy at this stage. To be frank I would rather subsidise genuine research than buy this.
This makes a lot of sense. When soil is healthy in nature, fungi and bacteria living in it fix nutrients like atmospheric nitrogen for example and make it available for plants. This is what I think they were trying to recreate but they are not going to deep into the research to use bacteria that has a symbiosis with the specific plant. They were just trying to make a product to sell, not actually fix a problem
I studied Communication & Multimedia Design before I started working as a mechatronics engineer and the "science" they have on their website is clearly closer to the stuff I would encounter during my CMD studies, when it was written specifically to market a product, than it being scientific articles or experiements
10-1000 houseplants per sq meter? challenge accepted! Side note here: You did the cost breakdowns of what it would cost for each things to run in your home monthly/yearly. I feel like something was left out here that makes the plant option more expensive. Lighting for the plant, water for the plant, and the cost of maintaining the climate your plant needs year round. Example, a pothos is pretty basic of a plant, but every plant needs a temp between 60-80 degrees, that dyson does not. so in the summer when it hits 115F outside and the winter when it can get to -20F imagine your power going out and boom your multi hundred dollar investment plant is dead.... last year my power went out in the winter for almost a week and my inside temp was 40 F that plant would be dead and your investment would be gone. My dyson isnt going to break or die if its too cold or too hot. This to me just sounds like a new trend that is essentially being spread around for this company to make money off of plant people telling them "you need this" the company has already started sending these to plant influencers with promo codes for discounts, because as you stated pretty clearly and obviously, there is no research linked to the things they are telling you this plant can do... i just seen ohtheplacesyoullgrow post an ad about this and had to come back and watch this video again... i feel like some people will just buy anything these days just because someone on the internet told them "every house needs this" "this will clean your air better than any other thing" Meanwhile, here i am wondering why i havent died from VOC's in my 34 years of life or ever heard of someone dieing because the VOC's in their house slowly killed them.....
Well now I am thankful for this great german tradition of „lüften“ that my parents thaught me 🤣 it is rather simple guys. You go to a window in your room, you open said window and let it stand open for a few minutes and tadaa - fresh air is in da house! If you want to be fancy and happen to have windows on both sides of your flat you can even do the „durchlüften“ part because opening windows on boths sides of the house will create a little breeze that goes through your house… 🤯 and!! It will cost you nothing 😱 … all jokes aside! I do have a more than average number of plants and a Dyson and thats fine 🤷🏻♀️ just open your windows once or twice a day and your done. We bought our Dyson way before the pandamic; it doesn‘t run everyday (mostly during summer because of the heat) and I only changed the filter last year for the first time 😅 Even if this neo plant stuff would have a scientific proven background I can‘t see the need for it 🙈
LETS GIVE OUR PLANTS SUPERPOWERS TO CLEAN OUR AIR IN OUR HOMES! (Not like there’s no air exchange that’s gonna happen when we open and shut our household doors and windows)
What I always want to know when someone tries to give a number for "plants needed to do something" is how big are the plants? You can't compare a little seedling to a gigantic plant. Am I the only one or does the pot really look like old plastic that starded to turn yellow. Especially the vents at the bottom just don't look clean. Just make the thing white or black not dirty looking. Also am I limited to only soil or does it "work" with other substrates/ just water? And as you already mentioned, will fertilizer kill the stuff in the drop? Is fertilizer in the drop? They leave out the actually important questions that anyone who knows a bit about plants would ask. Seriously questioning who they think their target customers are, it isn't plant people and it isn't people with a black thumb. I sincerely doubt the amount of people who are willing to spend the money and pay for a subscription is big enough to sustain the company. Even as a game design student who is terrible at coding I had to laugh at that stuff. Ridiculous, they want to look so fancy but deliver nothing.
I think it looks like that material that is marketed as better for the enviroment because it has bamboo, but it's bamboo infused with resin, so it still doesn't really biodegrade
In the realm of science there was an experiment of putting plants in a plastic box about the size of the plant, and an unnamed bromeliad did the best job, just forget there are over 3500 species of bromeliads that we have identified. I have a very large Aechmea tayoensis, over 1 m2, that I am sure does a fine job considering, but even in my 42 m2 apt I can't really pretend it makes a difference. If I had a bromeliad that was bioengineered to grow to fill the whole 42 m2, that would be something.
I looked into this too and was very disappointed to see it was just the drops doing the work. I did a whole video about the whole NASA study that every company like this always name drops. Like you've said, the air exchange in most modern homes renders the plants useless, in addition the plants have no way to move air in an effective way so they cant do much. Maybe eventually something cool will come about, they have bioluminescent petunias now. 30x more effective than not very effective is still not very effective lmao
I think the only thing we can agree on is that a room with a plant has the potential to have slightly (like a small amount of parts per million) fresher air, than a room that has no plants at all, but to say that these drops somehow boost a plant's air purifying capabilities IS interesting, but also sounds like total b/s. Especially if they're not really telling you by how much, and not comparing it with any other air purification options. If this was an affordable add-on (like you said) for any house plants (to use as a feed in the water, or a foliar spray for example), then it might be interesting, but again, if the actual benefits are only an increase of something like 0.00005% then there's no point. I'll just open a window.
I came across a website several years ago with a similar but more convincing system. It was a planter (they planned for multiple sizes) with air vents around the inside, essentially agiant net pot. This project had a fan in the bottom to actively pull air through the foliage and growing media to remove particulates and toxins from the air. No fancy power drops and add your own plant. I was on a shoestring budget at the time so didn't follow through with a purchase, but it was definitely more interesting than this idiocity.
Pmsl first of all... I'm so glad your feeling better and this vid is pure proof of that haha. Secondly what a load of bollocks and love that you have called em out!❤❤😂😂
Ok so even without the first investment, for $13 a month, I can buy dozens of houseplants in a year. You’re right, we’re not the target audience. I’ll just go open my windows and use my actual air purifier and tend to my 150+ plants now.
Omg thank you for bringing this up! I saw a paid add on shelbizlee’s channel yesterday that was selling the idea that we all need this and it just sounded greenwashy to me but I trust her so much in her sustainability info that it made me keep thinking about this product all day! And the worse thing is that I also thought that I wish I could only buy the drops because I don’t like that plant and I already have many plants
Well Cyanobacteria adds oxygen into the air, so we should all be farming it in fish tanks in our homes 🙃 The swamp water smell is just part of the authentic nature experience! 😜 I wish I had the “entrepreneurial” skill to sell water to a fish lol. Or maybe it’s just my morals getting in the way
Also about the fertilizer, I also don’t have any biology background but the way I understand microorganisms and fungi clean the air is that they break down specific components in the air and fix them into the soil making nutrients available for the plant so no fertilizer would be needed. I’m probably not explaining this very well and 100% accurate but in a summary what I think they are doing is feeding the plant with those power drops
this was a very enjoyable review 😄 Ive been following them for a while wondering when their bioengineered plant would come out but this product flashed a red flag when i saw the subscription. u made my life easier as i dont have to dig for an answer now thank you ❤
This is delightful! I so appreciate you going through it piece by piece. Initially, I was given to just thinking it was ludicrous and trying to get people's money, and then as you took us through the steps...and so much I don't know about science...of how parts of the microbiome could interact with the root system to help the (roots?) produce more air purifying qualities. Would definitely be interested to learn more about how that actually works, even if it is ineffective in this form. The holes in their argument are significant, and I enjoyed your comparison that the Dyson...is pet safe. Wonderfully presented and eye-opening.
Scammy as hell. Glad you made this video. I'm in the process of breaking down their "White Pages" now; for reference, I have a degree in Biochem and several things you pointed out in your video have raised red flags.
Buy it. Throw it outside of your Florida house. Let it overtake one side of the yard. Brag about that you have the most expensive plant growing wild. Superb listens grows on trees OK
You can get most pothos for free because it grows so fast and people just want to get rid of it. I just gave away a whole bunch of scindapsis, marble queen, golden, cebu blue, and Baltic blue because I was doing a trim.
kaylee I have a diabetic husband with copd . I filled our 2 bedroom apt with snake plants spider plants and pothos . He was taken off one of his puffers due to the air quality according to his dr. So there must be something to it. I only have 58 plants.
Okay, you got my attention and then backslapped me with it…. 😂😂 i mean, i get the science behind it but they are selling a common house plant, a self water pot, and purification drops. it’s just the damn drops. All the fluff and $$ for some damn drops. Sooooo revolutionary! 😂😂
I'm gonna be honest here. Had a good laugh over this one. What a fun video. I really hope this becomes a thing and they clap back cause I really enjoyed seeing you break this down. I kinda want to buy a dyson now as well.
This has SCAM written all over it. Scientifically, this is so bad. You have brough out some excellent points as you have in other videos of this kind. Very good video. Way too expensive too! The Marble Queen Pothos plant can easily be bought for under $20 here in the USA - plants much larger than the one shown. The pot looks nice and self-watering is convenient, but it is nothing special either. This is such a very bad scam! I hope your video will help keep people from throwing their money away on it!
Love this. And I’m sorry but I’m so glad I waited right until the end 😂 love your videos! Thank you for inspiring me to impractically collect and live with over 100 houseplants at a time 😂❤
Appreciate your doing this video, and the work behind it, to save us the effort. Like you, I thought it 'sus'.Think I'll continue learning about supporting healthy soil and plant growth, which'll likely be easier than reading their site and white paper.
1:59 This graph is hilarious. What volume of air do they think passes through a plants' leaves? If you have a little Marble Queen sitting in your room, does the entire volume of air in the room pass in and out of it several times in a day. According to their graph, abput half of the pollutants are gone in an hour, so has that plant sucked half of the air from the room through itself in that hour? It's completely unbelievable if we're talking about a room-sized volume of air - plants doing that would have to generate a detectable breeze - and if they're instead talking about a couple of cubic centimetres of air trapped in close proximity to the test plants (assuming test plants actually existed), then that's clearly not the impression they are trying to give.
The epipremnum is probably because it’s an easier plant to not kill lol. I will say for the opening a window is not an optimal option, I would have to agree for my own reasons. I have around 250 plants give or take 10, and I do not open windows because I do not want pests. Most plant pests can fit right through the holes on the screens. So it one way to keep them at bay. It’s a sacrifice I make for less stress with pests. Other than that this all sounds cool and probable but plants filter air naturally, as I have to dust their leaves often, and I’ll just stick to that. 😊
Scientific researcher here, too. I find the marketing just so infuriating. There is little to no innovation in this, but making it look like the biggest breakthrough ever. Reminds me of a mix of Theranos and this terracotta pottery on gofundme during the pandemic. I feel like they think people are stupid to believe this (and likely some people will, because it gives high end tech Silicon Valley vibes)
Absolutely hideous, I can share that I have Science (BioChemistry) background and I can say that's an absolute hoax :D Great job finding them Kaylee. If the special drops formula is so magical bacterial and fungal strains why do you need add them every month (if the system is healthy it can sustain itself). I would buy one pack just to test what is the actual content of that baggies, I bet they've watched 5 min crafts, and it contains : Milk, banana and orange peels, coffee, and some other hideous BS. :D And the whole thing with Dyson... Seriously, at least they have done some tests and they are backuped with some science, not just basic excel charts with no measurements.
At least they could have picked something more interesting than an $8 pothos. But they probably had to find something that wouldn't get killed by the drops.
So, am confused....is the plant the air purifier or the airflow in the self watering plant pot? or both. What is the point of the "layers" in the pot? I also agree with Kaylee that a marble queen is not green enough or large leaf area and is poisonous to pets. Badly thought through. Another question - can you buy the drops without having purchased the pot? Will any plant & pot do?
One of my favorite UA-cam channels Meidastouch has them as a sponsor. I am disappointed about this. As a house plant mom, this sounded sketch before I watched this video. Now it sounds like a scam. Yikes.
I don't think Bioengineering is needed for plants that already have the capacity to help the air small or big. Engineering a plant will not be as much of an impact. You can't mess with Mother Nature but you can retain it by feeding or fertilizing it.
Went to school for horticulture (though the degree is 30 years old) and what the holy hell is happening here? If Nutella got sued for calling their product healthy, surely this lawsuit is just around the corner for so many different issues....
My question is are they saying mix it with tap water? If that’s the case the disinfectant in the tap water will probably kill that bacteria in the product…
Combining the marketing with the science here makes it feel really awkward. They should just sell the 'drops' and say, if you want to get exactly these results, buy our plant and pot too. The issue is they probably can't make the claims they do unless they control more variables than just 'drops' in plant dirt. Hence, the plant and self-watering pot.
For $11.99 I buy hospital quality filters (level 11) for my central air unit in my house. I change them every 3 months. So for around $50.00 a year my house is free about about any contaminent that can be air born....This is the biggest scam I've even seen in my life. But with the millions of dollars they spent in advertising I can see a bunch people getting scammed by this marketing scheme!
I'm sorry, but I remember that my friend who had expert major in business enterprise. He told me that if someone who talk outside our language barrier, the more it likely to to convince us to buy. Oh, also there's an example of the most popular Hoya seller here in my country who act like they know more than us. Tried to convince us that the plants they sell is different varieties of the same group and it works! But recently people lost trust after finding it was the sampe plant just with unstable mutations 😂. Also, recently I've encountered some popular plants influences who promoted this brand unconsciously and I think it's a joke. If it priced under $ 25, it will sell like a hot cake especially with that cute planter.
As a bioengineer who has a PhD, here are my comments:
1. Microbiome as a soil treatment for enhancing plant performance is real. For example, Dr. Voigt at MIT is engineering microbe to make crop fertilizer. The idea is to engineer the microbe to produce nutrients for the plants. Why do they need to continue adding the microbiome? The engineered microbe might need very specific conditions to grow, so it will die off under normal conditions over time. Can the microbiome enhance other plant growth? It depends on what nutrients the microbe makes. Sometimes, the host has also been engineered, so it sends a specific biochemical signal to the microbe for nutrient production. In this case, treating that microbiome to other plants that don't have this signal won't trigger the microbiome to produce nutrients.
2. Although this concept (Microbiome as a soil treatment for enhancing plant performance) is true, it doesn't have much real scientific backing for this pothos. Another similar bioengineered plant, bioluminescent petunia, has two to three published papers. I didn't see any paper published with this on their website.
3. They picked a wrong engineering target that cannot easily noticed and make impact. VOC is definitely a thing, but there are so many alternatives with cheaper options. Plus, I don't have expensive equipment to measure the VOC level before and after purchasing this pothos. Since I cannot tell the difference, why would I buy it? It might have more impact if they can make pothos to produce a scent that can improve sleeping quality. On the other hand, bioluminescent petunia has no impact, but it has aesthetic values. Who does not like a glowing plant?
4. They need to hire someone with science communication expertise to redo their website.
Bioluminescent WHAT? Ughh I did NOT need another plant to lose sleep over not having
@@ElsieJayyes they look amazing but I'll likely not find them this year but next year I'm on the hunt for them.
@@ElsieJay Don't want...don't care......it's plain crazy!
@@trishaellen7449 Firefly petunia, there's another thread discussing them on this video with people who bought them. Can preorder online via their website but it's 26 + shipping, which for me was 54$ and so nopped out.
@@trishaellen7449is this the one engineered by Tyler Trasher?
Guys I'm thinking I should just be sponsored by Dyson 🤣
I agree!!!
@dyson c'mon!! hahaha
Hi Kaylee. Thanks for taking the time to review our product in such depth. To give some context, Neo Px is the result of years of hard work from our team of scientists, multiple PhDs and passionate plant lovers at Neoplants trying to make a positive impact and offer an alternative solution for air purification. We wanted to clarify some of the points you raised:
- Our tests and performance claims were carried out at leading air quality labs, including IMT Nord Europe. You can read about it in White Paper, and we are actively working on publishing data in real-life conditions.
- There are many scientific studies (see below) that show the impact of plants on indoor air quality, however indeed you would need a large number of regular plants in one room to have a significant impact on your air quality. This is why we've spent years in R&D to develop our Power Drops that enable Neo Px to reach an air purification performance equivalent to 30 regular houseplants.
- We understand price point can be an issue for people, however Neo Px is a first-of-it’s-kind innovation that took years of R&D. That said, as a company we will do our best in the future to make our products more and more accessible.
- We're sorry if you feel our language is too complex at times and will take your feedback onboard. While we are selling a technical product we do try our best to make things as accessible as possible. In addition, for the sake of transparency we make our science publicly available in our White Paper and on our website at neoplants.com.
- To be clear, we do not claim to completely replace air purifiers. We offer a different solution that is nature-based, recycles pollutants rather than just stores them, and addresses VOCs specifically.
I hope this helps clarify your points and we'd like to offer you a call with our founding team to answer all your questions in more detail. Let us know if this is of interest.
The Neoplants Team.
Real-life Impact of Plants on Indoor Air Quality: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15287394.2012.721169
Assessment of Indoor Plant Phytoremediation: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33074430/
Effects of Plants on Indoor Air Phytoremediation www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/4/473
Yeah, I seriously started to consider buying a Dyson air-purifier because of this... I'll have a baby soon and we need clean air😅
You should do a collab and stick a shell planter on the side of a Dyson air purifier then make a little pdf ebook and a launch video about how it’s 5x better than a marble queen
So I AM a biologist. MSc in microbiology and have worked in the bay area biotech industry for years now. I read the stuff you linked and agree it was super confusing. But digging even more the methodology was poor and I couldn't find any actual data or evidence way that would yield their graphs nor what the relevance of their data. None of the data they collected even provided loosely-relevant evidence for an improved microbiome or how they even define a healthy vs less healthy microbiome. Also the microbiome is SO complicated for humans, plants, everything and can vary drastically across the globe and they don't even go into how the microorganisms are specifically helping on a cellular biology level (or more accurately, what molecular processes are occurring and how that impacts the plant, air quality, and humans). The seem to just be collecting trends of their poorly-thought out experiments but not actually discussing what would make their data biologically meaningful.
This frustrates me. I spend like 2 hours TRYING to find something authentic and it's so shameful that they're trying to just science to deceive people. If someone at work tried this they'd be fired (or promoted if they worked at a corrupt company i guess lol).
It feels rly weird for them to be like 'we bioengineered THIS PLANT' and then follow it up with 'actually its these drops doing the work' like pick one lol
Just some fancy words to get the attention, and this works in a world where everyone wants something new, different and complicated to understand, even though it's the most basic thing in the world.
Hey Kaylee, I'm in med school with a science background and I agree with you that this is BS. You raised great points on the use of jargon to mislead people. Not sure how they managed to get it into production since we as a consumer cannot even test their claims. Absolutely not, I will stick to my 80ish houseplants and occasionally opening my windows. LOL
#windowcrew
I double down. MSc Energy and Environment Engineer. That blue/orange lighting looks perfect@@KayleeEllenOfficial
haha no way I am believing this guy ! do not mess with plant people gosh baaic science is very elementary ! scammm
I’m one of the weirdos on the email list of theirs! It reminds me of the company, Theranos. It’s so crazy to watch the updates and how they’re praying on the plant blind. Thank you so much for bringing this scam to to such a large audience.
What. A. Scam.
My degree in biotech wants to know what exactly the "biotech" in this product is? If it's genetically modified, they are not allowed to just sell this to customers. It's against the law, unless the bacteria is "disabled", meaning it needs to be fed a substance to stay alive. And even then, it's a friggin gamble cause bacteria can cure itself by horizontal gene transfer from non-disabled bacteria that just lives there.
wow i am so interested and clueless at the same at what you just said.
3:02 why on earth would they choose a plant that lacks chlorophyll for something that needs to be incredibly efficient to function??
Didn't finish the video yet, but I just wanted to mention before I forget. Their entire marketing scheme seems oddly familiar with a project we had to do in college for "professional english" (we are not in an english speaking country), where we would pretend to market a start-up to investors. So we came up with the wildest, most outlandish and plainly stupid ideas and if we could not explain something or could not prove it, we would just hit the professor with the "we don't yet have the funding for the research".
Scams have evolved a lot since my time on the internet during the early 2000s. No more Nigerian Prince but instead a nice-looking guy that uses big words with confidence..😅
😂😂😂 the chickens have been upgraded
They really have 😂 🤣
I remember when it was a just a strange guy straight up asking for money
For their 5th cousins surgery
Now it’s just this 😅
@@coffee2962 😂😂 i mean i half admire the pure brass neck of it all. But the scary bit is folk wi too much money will absolutely eat this shit up 🫠😂
At least he’s not an “American widowed military veteran”.
The braided sweater is killing me. 😂
At least my $29 petunia does glow in the dark a bit. 🤣
Just googled this, it's called a "firefly petunia" :O Was it worth getting?
@@hefoxed I'm here for the answer myself lol a buddy ordered one but I don't think he has it in hand yet.
@@goosenotmaverick1156 I got mine but it was practically dead on arrival and died in 2 days because the soil was so wet and it was a tiny plant in a 1-inch hydroponic plug that they stuck in a 4" pot of pretty heavy potting soil, and they mailed it on a Thursday so it sat around all weekend in a post office. It was impossible to contact support too. I got through on Instagram and they said they'd send a new one but haven't gotten anything yet. Some people got nice ones, I think it's really luck because they obviously don't know the proper way to ship plants, probably the people close to where they ship from had good ones.
@@hefoxed I got mine but it was practically dead on arrival and died in 2 days because the soil was so wet and it was a tiny plant in a 1-inch hydroponic plug that they stuck in a 4" pot of pretty heavy potting soil, and they mailed it on a Thursday so it sat around all weekend in a post office. It was impossible to contact support too. I got through on Instagram and they said they'd send a new one but haven't gotten anything yet. Some people got nice ones, I think it's really luck because they obviously don't know the proper way to ship plants, probably the people close to where they ship from had good ones.
Mine glows sooo good, I stare at it every night and I love it, it is a replacement plant for the first one ups treated like a cocktail shaker, took a few weeks for the replacement to come btw 🤍🤍🤍
I am a scientist. I work in an animal research and a big concern we have is air quality to ensure infectious agents or chemical agent do not get out. This “system” is practically passive on its face. So even if it works and the bacteria and fungi are actual capable of doing what they claim. The amount of air it’s able to breathe in and out to perform this action is going to be minuscule to the point of irrelevance. Active air movement by an air purifier or opening a window will do just fine but far faster and cheaper The fancy words like directed evolution is strange screams scam. Does he mean breeding? This is a high tech scam. Anyone paying 139 dollars for a pothos and then subscribing to a monthly payment to keep up with this fancy fertilizer is wasting their money. This seems like a left over from the height of plant mania when they were online selling basic plastic for over a hundred dollars because they aesthetically put them on a special pot. Anything to make a buck I’d rather spend that money on a rare baby
30x next to nothing is still next to nothing. That's according to their own NASA reference.
Yeah, realistically, a plant like this would need to be outside where there's active wind movement at the very least, and even then, there's not really much point to it, because it's outdoors and there's already plenty of filtration.
I mean, this could potentially be useful if we were to apply it on a mass scale, and just completely dedicate entire areas of land in the centre of cities to this kind of science as a way to combat climate change, so the science isn't completely pointless, but on this scale, for a houseplant? Naah, it's practically nothing, even for a single room.
30x a negligible number is still a negligible number.
As a plant pathologist doing a PhD in sustainable agriculture, this is bs.
We see these type of bioagent products all the time in agriculture, they sell them to farmers and make wild claims about reducing disease an regenerating soils but never actually test ir analyse the soils in the fields they would apply them to. Fields already have a microbiome and ecosystem which will effect the performance of the product and be effected by the application of the micribes in said product possible degrading the soil further.
We tested a biocontrol afebt that claimed to reduce root tot pathogens of pease, only to find the product was contaminated with bacteria which caused disease in the peas in our control (product only no pathogen added).
All money grabbing schemes banking on uneducated peoole with interest in plants. Sickening really 🙃
Wait so the fertilizer “power drops” has beneficial organisms that filter VOCs, but I thought that the entire premise was that the plant is what is supposed to filter air??? Why do I need a plant?! Why can I not just use several pots of dirt?!???
🤣
As a programmer, I was most intrigued what language that code snippet was written in. It gives serious Lisp vibes being it all just a one statement of stacked if(condition, doIfTrue, doIfFalse). (Once(you(meet(that(thing(you(are(triggered(for(life)))))))))). I also appreciate how the condions are matched against a whole string sentence. Anyway, I googled it, as you do... IT IS WRITTEN IN F*** EXCEL!!
Back on topic, I believe even in the NASA experiment the result suggested that it is mainly the soil that does the filtering. So from that perspective it makes sense they just pick the cheapest plant. Still makes no sence in whole though.
EXCELL!? LMAO you are joking!? Wow if that doesn't just sum this whole thing up lol. I wish I'd known that when filming. That's absolutely fantastic!
I laugh soooo hard when i have seen these lines… this is horrible. Even in excel, i should not be hardcode like that omg. Stupid
OKay if we pretend human cell biology field is qualified enough to give feedback:
After looking at the white paper, the result that stuck out to me was that VOC-containing air started at 750 ppb, and was reduced to 110 ppb for the normal plant without drops/shell/etc, and reduced to 90 ppb for their fancy version of the same plant species.
So you're looking at 15% VOCs left vs 12% VOCs left. both are great and one option (not theirs) is essentially free.
They went on to normalize it to plant weight, which is where they got those bar charts showing other house plants being way worse, but interestingly there is no dataset/reference/calculation/anything to say exactly how they normalized the data(?!?!?!) So I guess we're supposed to just trust them on the one step where their product's performance goes from similar to a normal plant to WOW its the CLEAR winner.
interesting
Software Engineer here, I dont know what language that is, but who is the world is using complete phrases as their comparison values AND writing them out every time.
Software engineer with a Bio degree I only use once every few years.... if your bacteria need to be replaced every month, why are they dying? if you are just feeding the bacteria, why arent they eating the VOCs? if the Pothos is eating the VOCs, why do I need bacteria?
Both extremely good points!
I’m at the “dozens of houseplants per room is impractical” part and I had to stop and comment because that literally made me cackle. 🤣 I probably have about 200 plants in my 2 bedroom apartment. The whole plants purifying air thing is such a gimmick. They’re really trying to sell this scam and make a return on investment.
Haha so true! The only benefit to my “air quality” is my Mother-in-law said my air is SO CLEAN now with all the plants, so basically, finally I’ve done something right in her eyes. 😂 I’ll just let her believe that.
@@Planty-Mandyhaha wow, impressing the MIL is no small feat! My late grandma was so hard to please, rest her. My mom finally got her dream home in the country surrounded by forest and 200ft from a big beautiful pond. My grandma came and said “hm… the air quality isn’t very good here. What a shame.” Like what?!? Some can NEVER be pleased 😂
@@Planty-Mandy yea, I don’t think she needs to know. 😂
Yes this lol! If you are not maximizing the amount of plants you can pack into a space, then are you really loving yourself :)
Thank you for talking about this. I saw ads and called immediate BS
So, this plant costs more than my air purifier, doesn't reduce dust, smoke, or pollen (and other allergens), and instead of changing my filter twice a year, I have to remember to top it up with a little sachet every month. At least it's pretty... 🙄
I know. For me personally I'd like rid of the dust and dander etc! I think they don't like particulate matter because plants couldn't possibly filter it!
@@KayleeEllenOfficial Agreed!
@@KayleeEllenOfficiallol MY plants can remove cat hair from the air 😉 I once did a neem oil spray treatment and the leaves got covered in cat hair so fast! 🤣
@@KayleeEllenOfficial ~ I saw this NeoPlant thing as a sort of a scam the first time I saw one of their ads. I immediately went to their website to check it out and was kind of appalled. Besides what you hit upon in your video, Kaylee, I thought of other things. Like, will any plant feed interfere with their 'power drops', or vice versa? And don't forget that you'll need to wipe down all of the plant's leaves/stems on a regular basis to keep the plant in good 'working' order. Will insects (such as fungus gnats, ants, etc.) be attracted to the 'power drops' since they've got organisms in them? What if you live in a part of the world that gets bad winters and the plant goes into a dormant period? Does that mean that the plant will only be 'working' half as hard during that time than it would be during the spring and summer months? There are so many other variables in general plant care that I don't think these NeoPlant people thought of.
Having afternoon tea with Kaylee always ends up with a good spill 😉 Thanks for bringing awareness to multiple kinds of plant scams and marketing schemes
This sounds like craziness. Plants will do up to so much, the power drops sounds like their fertilizer. Sounds like a load of fertilizer to me.
High quality, grade A "fertilizer" lol
Im just a cs student but when you showed the code I DIED💀☠️ They legit could’ve just shown the equation, not the wholeass if statements 😂🤣
I think you are absolutely right and there’s really no way to spin this type of purchase so they bundled it with the fancy pot. Also, it could be a plot set up by the big filter companies to come up with this far-fetched idea of microorganisms to filter out the air, thus turning everybody back to electric filtration because they know that that works
I am not a medic, but have plenty of expertise on the human biome. They are selling bacteria and fungi which are unable to form colonies, needing repeat application throughout the year. This is not a biome, ie not sustainable. I think it’s good that this kind of work is going on, but IMHO not a sensible product to sell or buy at this stage. To be frank I would rather subsidise genuine research than buy this.
This makes a lot of sense. When soil is healthy in nature, fungi and bacteria living in it fix nutrients like atmospheric nitrogen for example and make it available for plants. This is what I think they were trying to recreate but they are not going to deep into the research to use bacteria that has a symbiosis with the specific plant. They were just trying to make a product to sell, not actually fix a problem
I studied Communication & Multimedia Design before I started working as a mechatronics engineer and the "science" they have on their website is clearly closer to the stuff I would encounter during my CMD studies, when it was written specifically to market a product, than it being scientific articles or experiements
10-1000 houseplants per sq meter? challenge accepted!
Side note here:
You did the cost breakdowns of what it would cost for each things to run in your home monthly/yearly. I feel like something was left out here that makes the plant option more expensive.
Lighting for the plant, water for the plant, and the cost of maintaining the climate your plant needs year round.
Example, a pothos is pretty basic of a plant, but every plant needs a temp between 60-80 degrees, that dyson does not. so in the summer when it hits 115F outside and the winter when it can get to -20F imagine your power going out and boom your multi hundred dollar investment plant is dead.... last year my power went out in the winter for almost a week and my inside temp was 40 F that plant would be dead and your investment would be gone. My dyson isnt going to break or die if its too cold or too hot.
This to me just sounds like a new trend that is essentially being spread around for this company to make money off of plant people telling them "you need this"
the company has already started sending these to plant influencers with promo codes for discounts, because as you stated pretty clearly and obviously, there is no research linked to the things they are telling you this plant can do... i just seen ohtheplacesyoullgrow post an ad about this and had to come back and watch this video again... i feel like some people will just buy anything these days just because someone on the internet told them "every house needs this" "this will clean your air better than any other thing"
Meanwhile, here i am wondering why i havent died from VOC's in my 34 years of life or ever heard of someone dieing because the VOC's in their house slowly killed them.....
This has all the finger print of a techbro scam.
Don’t forget the cost of the water to water the plant.
Well now I am thankful for this great german tradition of „lüften“ that my parents thaught me 🤣 it is rather simple guys. You go to a window in your room, you open said window and let it stand open for a few minutes and tadaa - fresh air is in da house! If you want to be fancy and happen to have windows on both sides of your flat you can even do the „durchlüften“ part because opening windows on boths sides of the house will create a little breeze that goes through your house… 🤯 and!! It will cost you nothing 😱 … all jokes aside! I do have a more than average number of plants and a Dyson and thats fine 🤷🏻♀️ just open your windows once or twice a day and your done. We bought our Dyson way before the pandamic; it doesn‘t run everyday (mostly during summer because of the heat) and I only changed the filter last year for the first time 😅 Even if this neo plant stuff would have a scientific proven background I can‘t see the need for it 🙈
LETS GIVE OUR PLANTS SUPERPOWERS TO CLEAN OUR AIR IN OUR HOMES! (Not like there’s no air exchange that’s gonna happen when we open and shut our household doors and windows)
What I always want to know when someone tries to give a number for "plants needed to do something" is how big are the plants? You can't compare a little seedling to a gigantic plant.
Am I the only one or does the pot really look like old plastic that starded to turn yellow. Especially the vents at the bottom just don't look clean. Just make the thing white or black not dirty looking.
Also am I limited to only soil or does it "work" with other substrates/ just water? And as you already mentioned, will fertilizer kill the stuff in the drop? Is fertilizer in the drop? They leave out the actually important questions that anyone who knows a bit about plants would ask. Seriously questioning who they think their target customers are, it isn't plant people and it isn't people with a black thumb. I sincerely doubt the amount of people who are willing to spend the money and pay for a subscription is big enough to sustain the company.
Even as a game design student who is terrible at coding I had to laugh at that stuff. Ridiculous, they want to look so fancy but deliver nothing.
I think it looks like that material that is marketed as better for the enviroment because it has bamboo, but it's bamboo infused with resin, so it still doesn't really biodegrade
In the realm of science there was an experiment of putting plants in a plastic box about the size of the plant, and an unnamed bromeliad did the best job, just forget there are over 3500 species of bromeliads that we have identified. I have a very large Aechmea tayoensis, over 1 m2, that I am sure does a fine job considering, but even in my 42 m2 apt I can't really pretend it makes a difference. If I had a bromeliad that was bioengineered to grow to fill the whole 42 m2, that would be something.
I looked into this too and was very disappointed to see it was just the drops doing the work. I did a whole video about the whole NASA study that every company like this always name drops.
Like you've said, the air exchange in most modern homes renders the plants useless, in addition the plants have no way to move air in an effective way so they cant do much.
Maybe eventually something cool will come about, they have bioluminescent petunias now.
30x more effective than not very effective is still not very effective lmao
Definitely enjoyed this kinda video! Also… can’t believe they’re trying to upsell a self watering/fertilizer subscription wow
I don't know if that was an accidental reference but Neopets is having a huge revival atm! I have been playing it again and loving that shit!
I haven't played Neopets in 20 years but I appreciated the reference lol.
If you can't dazzle them with brilliance....
The ad that I got during this video was about a clean air filter 😂
Iconic
Me too! Made me laugh! A very well placed ad!
I think the only thing we can agree on is that a room with a plant has the potential to have slightly (like a small amount of parts per million) fresher air, than a room that has no plants at all, but to say that these drops somehow boost a plant's air purifying capabilities IS interesting, but also sounds like total b/s. Especially if they're not really telling you by how much, and not comparing it with any other air purification options. If this was an affordable add-on (like you said) for any house plants (to use as a feed in the water, or a foliar spray for example), then it might be interesting, but again, if the actual benefits are only an increase of something like 0.00005% then there's no point. I'll just open a window.
19 houseplants in my home office alone, and I'm not cramped for space at all lol
I came across a website several years ago with a similar but more convincing system. It was a planter (they planned for multiple sizes) with air vents around the inside, essentially agiant net pot. This project had a fan in the bottom to actively pull air through the foliage and growing media to remove particulates and toxins from the air. No fancy power drops and add your own plant.
I was on a shoestring budget at the time so didn't follow through with a purchase, but it was definitely more interesting than this idiocity.
I have hundreds of plants per room, I'm sorted 💪
Pmsl first of all... I'm so glad your feeling better and this vid is pure proof of that haha. Secondly what a load of bollocks and love that you have called em out!❤❤😂😂
Ok so even without the first investment, for $13 a month, I can buy dozens of houseplants in a year. You’re right, we’re not the target audience. I’ll just go open my windows and use my actual air purifier and tend to my 150+ plants now.
Omg thank you for bringing this up! I saw a paid add on shelbizlee’s channel yesterday that was selling the idea that we all need this and it just sounded greenwashy to me but I trust her so much in her sustainability info that it made me keep thinking about this product all day!
And the worse thing is that I also thought that I wish I could only buy the drops because I don’t like that plant and I already have many plants
Well Cyanobacteria adds oxygen into the air, so we should all be farming it in fish tanks in our homes 🙃 The swamp water smell is just part of the authentic nature experience! 😜
I wish I had the “entrepreneurial” skill to sell water to a fish lol. Or maybe it’s just my morals getting in the way
That photos cost 5.99 in USA at Walmart
Also about the fertilizer, I also don’t have any biology background but the way I understand microorganisms and fungi clean the air is that they break down specific components in the air and fix them into the soil making nutrients available for the plant so no fertilizer would be needed.
I’m probably not explaining this very well and 100% accurate but in a summary what I think they are doing is feeding the plant with those power drops
I’ve never though about getting a Dyson air purifier prior to this. I have over a 100 plants in my flat and I now fancy buying a Dyson! 😂
As a software engineer student, the code snippet in the text is hilarious!
this was a very enjoyable review 😄 Ive been following them for a while wondering when their bioengineered plant would come out but this product flashed a red flag when i saw the subscription. u made my life easier as i dont have to dig for an answer now thank you ❤
I've noticed on their unboxing videos that they have turned OFF comments.... hmmm
This is delightful! I so appreciate you going through it piece by piece. Initially, I was given to just thinking it was ludicrous and trying to get people's money, and then as you took us through the steps...and so much I don't know about science...of how parts of the microbiome could interact with the root system to help the (roots?) produce more air purifying qualities. Would definitely be interested to learn more about how that actually works, even if it is ineffective in this form. The holes in their argument are significant, and I enjoyed your comparison that the Dyson...is pet safe. Wonderfully presented and eye-opening.
Kaylee on a fuel filled rant is always a great time!!! Please feel free to post more calling out the bullshit rants whenever you please!! 😂😂🎉🎉
This is so embarrassing 🙈 And definitely no dedicated plant person came up with this stupid scam.
Scammy as hell. Glad you made this video. I'm in the process of breaking down their "White Pages" now; for reference, I have a degree in Biochem and several things you pointed out in your video have raised red flags.
Buy it. Throw it outside of your Florida house. Let it overtake one side of the yard. Brag about that you have the most expensive plant growing wild. Superb listens grows on trees OK
You can get most pothos for free because it grows so fast and people just want to get rid of it. I just gave away a whole bunch of scindapsis, marble queen, golden, cebu blue, and Baltic blue because I was doing a trim.
This was fantastic!! 🎉 Thank you for helping explain this product (it was difficult to find clear information online, and I thought it was just me 😂)
kaylee I have a diabetic husband with copd . I filled our 2 bedroom apt with snake plants spider plants and pothos . He was taken off one of his puffers due to the air quality according to his dr. So there must be something to it. I only have 58 plants.
I always appreciate Scam Alerts like these. Simply brilliant and infuriating.
Okay, you got my attention and then backslapped me with it…. 😂😂 i mean, i get the science behind it but they are selling a common house plant, a self water pot, and purification drops. it’s just the damn drops. All the fluff and $$ for some damn drops. Sooooo revolutionary! 😂😂
I'm gonna be honest here. Had a good laugh over this one. What a fun video. I really hope this becomes a thing and they clap back cause I really enjoyed seeing you break this down. I kinda want to buy a dyson now as well.
Thanks for calling them out
I have 70+ plants in my lounge. I still open the windows every day!
Stop!!
There are plants that emit voc's . Dont know for the pothos but have a list with some trees
Scammiest scam ever! I hope not too many people fall for this!
This has SCAM written all over it. Scientifically, this is so bad. You have brough out some excellent points as you have in other videos of this kind. Very good video. Way too expensive too! The Marble Queen Pothos plant can easily be bought for under $20 here in the USA - plants much larger than the one shown. The pot looks nice and self-watering is convenient, but it is nothing special either. This is such a very bad scam! I hope your video will help keep people from throwing their money away on it!
Love this. And I’m sorry but I’m so glad I waited right until the end 😂 love your videos! Thank you for inspiring me to impractically collect and live with over 100 houseplants at a time 😂❤
Appreciate your doing this video, and the work behind it, to save us the effort. Like you, I thought it 'sus'.Think I'll continue learning about supporting healthy soil and plant growth, which'll likely be easier than reading their site and white paper.
1:59 This graph is hilarious. What volume of air do they think passes through a plants' leaves? If you have a little Marble Queen sitting in your room, does the entire volume of air in the room pass in and out of it several times in a day. According to their graph, abput half of the pollutants are gone in an hour, so has that plant sucked half of the air from the room through itself in that hour? It's completely unbelievable if we're talking about a room-sized volume of air - plants doing that would have to generate a detectable breeze - and if they're instead talking about a couple of cubic centimetres of air trapped in close proximity to the test plants (assuming test plants actually existed), then that's clearly not the impression they are trying to give.
A channel I follow has them as a sponsor. I love the channel, but some of their sponsors are highly suspicious. 🤔
The epipremnum is probably because it’s an easier plant to not kill lol.
I will say for the opening a window is not an optimal option, I would have to agree for my own reasons.
I have around 250 plants give or take 10, and I do not open windows because I do not want pests. Most plant pests can fit right through the holes on the screens.
So it one way to keep them at bay.
It’s a sacrifice I make for less stress with pests.
Other than that this all sounds cool and probable but plants filter air naturally, as I have to dust their leaves often, and I’ll just stick to that. 😊
Scientific researcher here, too. I find the marketing just so infuriating. There is little to no innovation in this, but making it look like the biggest breakthrough ever. Reminds me of a mix of Theranos and this terracotta pottery on gofundme during the pandemic.
I feel like they think people are stupid to believe this (and likely some people will, because it gives high end tech Silicon Valley vibes)
Saw an ad for this, scrolled right past
Absolutely hideous, I can share that I have Science (BioChemistry) background and I can say that's an absolute hoax :D Great job finding them Kaylee.
If the special drops formula is so magical bacterial and fungal strains why do you need add them every month (if the system is healthy it can sustain itself).
I would buy one pack just to test what is the actual content of that baggies, I bet they've watched 5 min crafts, and it contains : Milk, banana and orange peels, coffee, and some other hideous BS. :D
And the whole thing with Dyson... Seriously, at least they have done some tests and they are backuped with some science, not just basic excel charts with no measurements.
This!!
At least they could have picked something more interesting than an $8 pothos. But they probably had to find something that wouldn't get killed by the drops.
They sure found an innovative way to overcharge ppl for myco and a pot. (:
Exactly!!
You create such fantastic content✨
So, am confused....is the plant the air purifier or the airflow in the self watering plant pot? or both. What is the point of the "layers" in the pot? I also agree with Kaylee that a marble queen is not green enough or large leaf area and is poisonous to pets. Badly thought through. Another question - can you buy the drops without having purchased the pot? Will any plant & pot do?
Thanks for calling out this BS ! Marketing bloat ripping off people who dont know better
One of my favorite UA-cam channels Meidastouch has them as a sponsor. I am disappointed about this. As a house plant mom, this sounded sketch before I watched this video. Now it sounds like a scam. Yikes.
I don't think Bioengineering is needed for plants that already have the capacity to help the air small or big. Engineering a plant will not be as much of an impact. You can't mess with Mother Nature but you can retain it by feeding or fertilizing it.
Went to school for horticulture (though the degree is 30 years old) and what the holy hell is happening here? If Nutella got sued for calling their product healthy, surely this lawsuit is just around the corner for so many different issues....
Wow i never read the comments with so many scientists and bio whatever has commented in a plant care channel lol... love it
Great breakdown. Confirmed my feeling that this was a scam... Thank you.
My question is are they saying mix it with tap water? If that’s the case the disinfectant in the tap water will probably kill that bacteria in the product…
UNHINGED!
I also think it weird how they show tissue cultures to make it look more sciencey and they dont even look like marble queen tcs.
What about the cost of water , feed, and if needed lighting for the plant ?
Wow I was going to buy that plant for my home office since it sounded cool but not going to do that.
Combining the marketing with the science here makes it feel really awkward. They should just sell the 'drops' and say, if you want to get exactly these results, buy our plant and pot too. The issue is they probably can't make the claims they do unless they control more variables than just 'drops' in plant dirt. Hence, the plant and self-watering pot.
For $11.99 I buy hospital quality filters (level 11) for my central air unit in my house. I change them every 3 months. So for around $50.00 a year my house is free about about any contaminent that can be air born....This is the biggest scam I've even seen in my life. But with the millions of dollars they spent in advertising I can see a bunch people getting scammed by this marketing scheme!
Would love to see someone test their claims!
Thanks for spilling this hot hot tea! I’m scalded! You rock! 🪴😎🪴
I bought my marble queen for $3 for a cutting, and she gave me 6 cuttings for the price of one 🤣
I'm sorry, but I remember that my friend who had expert major in business enterprise. He told me that if someone who talk outside our language barrier, the more it likely to to convince us to buy.
Oh, also there's an example of the most popular Hoya seller here in my country who act like they know more than us. Tried to convince us that the plants they sell is different varieties of the same group and it works! But recently people lost trust after finding it was the sampe plant just with unstable mutations 😂.
Also, recently I've encountered some popular plants influences who promoted this brand unconsciously and I think it's a joke. If it priced under $ 25, it will sell like a hot cake especially with that cute planter.
I showed my husband (who is a software engineer). He just smiled and said. “385 days a year eh?”
ok but i got an idea. wouldnt it be awesome for a pot to exist that purifies the air and puts in the water reservoir for the plant?
me too I am curious about the drop but now i am not so sure