Indoor smart gardens do most of the work for you when it comes to growing herbs and vegetables, including reminding you to water and adjusting the lights to the appropriate setting. ZDNET’s Greg Nichols recently tried a smart garden in his tiny home (a WWII-era sailboat!) and wrote:
The indoor smart garden kit that Nichols chose happens to be our top pick for the best smart garden overall. We’ve rounded up the best indoor smart gardens that include features like vacation mode, autonomous watering, customizable seed pods, and more to get your garden growing in no time.
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This is the vertical garden kit that Nichols chose for his tiny home, and with good reason. The system was designed from the ground up to change indoor smart gardening. Instead of using timers to regulate light and water cycles, the Gardyn Home Kit uses a more powerful, precise system: built-in cameras that keep track of plant growth and create the best maintenance schedule for your garden.
Review: I tried a massive, indoor smart garden in my tiny home and didn’t regret it
The kit comes with an artificial intelligence-based assistant app that changes the game. Gardyn can grow up to 30 plants simultaneously using integrated LED lighting, sensors, and a six-gallon water reservoir that is fully autonomous for weeks without added water. The free app lets you see more details about your plants, including when a crop is ready to be harvested or your plants’ temperature, humidity, and water levels.
This indoor smart garden also has a vacation mode to preserve your plants when you are away, and you can even remotely check in on them in the app through Gardyn’s embedded vision system. Gardyn lets you grow greens, herbs, fruits, veggies, and flowers, all with minimal effort on your end since the AI tech takes care of your plants for you.
If you’re strictly interested in the world of microgreens, the Ingarden is a great indoor smart garden option that also looks super sleek in your kitchen. This indoor smart garden uses autonomous watering complete with a ventilation system and wicking structure so you can easily grow microgreens. Simply place the included pads onto the growing beds, pour water over them, hold the light timer at the top for three seconds, and get fresh microgreens about a week later.
Ingarden offers various USDA-certified organic superfood microgreens such as arugula, cress, radish, etc. You can grow up to three pads of microgreens at a time.
Those looking to get into indoor smart gardens but don’t want to spend a lot should consider the iDOO Hydroponics Growing System. It’s the cheapest option on this list, but it still has seven plant pods so that you can harvest many different plants at once.
Some of its features include 24W LED lights that simulate the sunlight spectrum, two water pump modes and a five-liter water tank, and three light modes depending on the stage of your plants’ growth. It also has an adjustable light height so the light moves with your plants as they grow taller.
Perhaps one of the most recognizable brands in the indoor smart garden space, Aerogarden has plenty of smart garden planters to begin your indoor smart garden. The Harvest Elite is a compact option that still allows six plants to grow. As your plants grow, its extendable lap arm gets up to 12 inches tall to allow more room.
The planter itself has automatic reminders for water and food, so you never have to guess when your plants need something. A big plus about Aerogarden is its Grow Anything Kits that allow you to put any seed you want into its seed pod, meaning you get more options with what you grow rather than only a specific selection of seeds to choose from.
The Click & Grow indoor smart garden 3 is your best bet if you have a small space to work with. At 9 x 4.9 x 12.5 inches, it’s the most compact option on our list but still holds three plants of your choosing. You can choose from more than 50 plant refill capsules, including peppers, chives, catnip, yellow tomatoes, and more. Click & Grow’s plants contain a patented nano-material called Smart Soil that automatically releases oxygen and water to your plants and is inspired by NASA technology.
The device’s lamp has a 16 hours on/8 hours off cycle to optimize your plants’ growth. In addition, its water float indicator will let you know when it’s time to refill the tank. And, since there is no water pump, the Click & Grow is completely silent.
However, for true gardening beginners, an indoor smart garden like the Click & Grow or the Ingarden are great options since they are both easy to use and only hold three plants, so you don’t have a lot of different crops to worry about at once.
Most indoor smart gardens have companion apps that provide tips on caring for certain plants, allow you to turn on vacation mode, and track your plants’ growth in real-time. Some indoor smart gardens have standout features, like the app on the Gardyn kit. These indoor smart gardens work in many different spaces and offer versatility in what they can grow, and the environments in which they can be placed.
