Yoni Ofir Invented LEAF, the Simplest Home Grow Yet

An inventor between projects, Yoni Ofir started out building a machine for his own plants. He was interested in cannabis and thought it was high time to improve his home-grow operation. The result? An all-in-one, fully enclosed system that's controlled by an app and makes home growing simple with the click of a button. A system created right here in Boulder, Colorado.

LEAF's unit is a little bigger than a mini-fridge, just big enough to grow one cannabis plant. Everything in the unit is completely controlled, from the nutrient dosing to the lighting.

"We built from scratch a climate-control system that can basically keep the box at a certain temperature, a certain humidity.... It's a tightly controlled environment, and you as a user have control over all these parameters on the mobile app," Ofir explains.

The device comes with recipes that are customizable to different strains or plants. The app also gives you access to a community where growers share grow recipes; if you like one, you just click "sync recipe" on your phone and it connects to your LEAF system.

A carbon filter inside the unit masks any smell; since the unit is so tightly sealed, it also reduces the chance of pests.

"It becomes this incubator that on its own can control everything and maintain the best conditions throughout the entire grow, start to finish," Ofir says.

Ofir has a background in consumer electronics, and worked with a company called Alcohoot to create the first smartphone breathalyzer in 2011.

It's exciting to see other growers respond so well to this new invention, he says: "It was great to see that the thing that I thought was really awesome and that I wanted for myself, tons of other people were super-interested in, too. That was the passion and that was the motivation."

LEAF launched pre-orders a week ago and has already received hundreds, even though it will be many months before the units are actually available. Each one runs $2,990, and $300 of that covers the deposit; the balance is required once the unit ships next September.

It comes fully assembled and includes everything needed to get started.

"You just plug and plant, and the mobile app takes you through all the steps," Ofir says.