LG Electronics brings gardening indoors with plant cultivator Tiiun

LG Electronics Inc. is bringing gardening indoors by unveiling a plant growing appliance, which allows consumers to grow flowers, vegetables and herbs at home.

The South Korean home appliance giant said on Thursday Tiiun, the indoor plant cultivator, automates most of the plant cultivation process so that even beginners can easily grow plants.

By simply installing a seed kit in the inner shelf of the device and supplying water and nutrients, LG said users can grow their own plants in four to eight weeks, depending on the plant type.

The name of the device is Korean, meaning “sprouted,” according to the company.

The plant cultivator has two shelves and three kinds of seed kits for each shelf, which means that consumers can grow up to six plants at a time.

Regardless of the season, vegetables can be harvested in about four weeks, herbs in about six weeks and flowers bloom after around eight weeks, LG said.

COMPANY-IN-COMPANY PROJECT

The device is priced at 1.49 million won ($1,256) and LG will sell 20 kinds of seed kits, including three kinds of flowers, 12 vegetables and five herbs, through its mobile app or at LG Best Shop retail stores.

The development of Tiiun is the first project led by LG’s in-house company, Sprout Co., launched to lead new growth businesses.

According to the Korea Invention Promotion Association, the domestic plant cultivation device market is expected to grow to 500 billion won by 2023 from 10 billion won in 2019.

Industry tracker MarketsandMarkets Research forecasts the global plant cultivator market will grow to $18.4 billion by 2022.

Write to Su-Bin Lee at lsb@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.