Gardyn Review: Simple gardening at a high price
RRP $849.00
“The Gardyn takes everything I love about smart gardens and scales it up to include many more plants, but the app controls are a bit finicky.”
advantages
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Grow 30 plants at once
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Fully automatic watering and exposure
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Little daily maintenance
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Tons of plant options
Disadvantages
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Expensive
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Most additional features are locked behind a paywall
Do you like to cook? Even if you don’t call yourself a chef (and yes, I know that term is reserved for professionals — just join us), there’s something about spicing up a pre-made jar of marinara sauce, or just that perfect spice combo to an evening meal from 08/15 to make exceptional. Who says you can’t eat great food on a Thursday night?
Fresh ingredients are the key to great dinners. Like I said, I’m a fan of Smart Gardens. If you live somewhere without a lot of space or just don’t think you can keep plants alive, smart gardens take the guesswork out of it. When Gardyn reached out and offered me the opportunity to test their Gardyn 2.0, I jumped at the chance. This thing is huge – it can hold 30 plants and basically does all the work for me. I just have to sit back and reap the rewards.
Well, mostly.
Buckle up for setup
It took me over an hour to assemble the Gardyn. There are many different pieces that all need to fit together, and some that don’t fit together as well as they should. I had to be careful with the LED grow lights as they felt fragile and needed support while I attached them. I suggest at least two people put this together; trying it alone was a bit of a bear.
It also takes a little time to position your plants. The Gardyn holds 30 different capsules, which is a ridiculous amount. While there’s no real need to place them, I would take the time to group the plants by type. Also consider the final size of the plant after growth and how much sunlight it will need.
I found the top row of the Gardyn to grow significantly slower than the rest, mainly because it just isn’t getting the same amount of LED exposure. If you’re growing something that doesn’t need as much light, put it on top.
The app needs an overhaul
Rarely do I hate an app as much as this one. While the Gardyn is a fantastic device itself, the app is held together with duct tape and prayer, and not enough of either. For the most part it works, but there are some small issues that can be annoying.
Take lighting planning, for example. By default, there are three separate periods when the lights turn on and off. I prefer to leave it running at night when I’m not in the room than during the day when it’s blinding a nearby screen. Setting it up is easy – at least at first glance – you just select the time period.
But make sure none of them overlap because if you do, the app will crash on you. No warning message or error message, just a full shutdown of your phone’s home screen. The easiest way to get around this is to completely delete all three preset schedules (by selecting them and tapping the trash can icon at the bottom) and then adding your own times again.
The water plan doesn’t work the same way and doesn’t seem to have the same problem. I recently increased the water rate from the default three to six times a day (every four hours, five minutes each).
It’s worth noting that the app has its own built-in smart assistant called Kelby, which will alert you when it’s time to top up the water in the tank, add plant food, and more. However, most of Kelby’s features are locked behind the incredibly expensive monthly subscription.
membership costs
You can sign up for $39 per month and cancel at any time. You can also sign up for a one-year membership for a total of $408 or a two-year membership for a total of $686. Considering the Gardyn alone costs $849 (or $999 for the Gardyn 3.0), the cost feels just a tad high.
There are a few things included with membership that help offset the cost. Users receive 10 yCybes each month with free shipping and save up to 60% on future yCube purchases. That’s nothing to despise; A single yCube costs about $5, so that’s essentially $50 a month from the cubes alone.
Although membership is expensive, it more than pays for itself monthly.
There is also a live view feature in the app. You can check your plants through the two built-in cameras, but their resolution is too low to see much detail. There’s also a time-lapse feature that’s currently in beta, but again, it’s locked behind a paywall.
The downside to collecting all those yCubes is that your plants should last for more than a month at a time. You will build up a backlog of cubes. The core value of membership is in Kelby; the AI is impressive, especially when it comes to plant care. The wizard can even identify specific plants using a series of colour-coded dots on each cube and provide feedback on your gardyn.
While not a low-cost membership, it still comes with enough perks to more than pay for itself, especially if you’re a die-hard user.
plant options
One way Gardyn sets itself apart from the competition is the sheer number of plants on offer. I’ve seen optional yCubes that contain plant varieties I’ve never heard of before. Some of the options include:
- Breen
- chervil
- Fairytale eggplant
- Striking back of trout
- Hon Tsai or
- Tokyo Bbekana
The biggest appeal is that the Gardyn can grow plants that are much larger than what other smart gardens offer. You can grow tomatoes, peppers and more – all of which usually require a significant amount of soil. However, the Gardyn manages to produce a sizeable yield despite its hydroponic nature.
Growth is slow. I’ve had my gardyn up for a little over six weeks now and none of the plants are ready to harvest. They are still growing steadily, but not at the rate I expected. When I grow something in my AeroGarden, it feels a bit magical how quickly the plants sprout.
The same strains grow much slower in the gardyn but I hope that means they will last much longer. However, I’m getting a little impatient; The bright colors of some plants make you want to try them, but it just isn’t enough for a decent harvest.
Daily use
The gardyn has become a talking point in my home. When guests pass by, they are always surprised by the veritable wall of plants that greets them in the entrance hall. There’s little I need to do once it’s set up; it is mostly automatic. That’s a huge benefit, especially as we head into one of the busiest times of the year.
Thanks to its huge water tank, refilling is rare, although you’ll still need to add plant food.
The reservoir is huge. It can hold multiple gallons of water at a time, meaning the number of refills required is minimal. Just allow about five to ten minutes to refill the tank. If you have a hose that can reach it, great. In my case, I fill a pitcher with water and pour it into the reservoir when it’s time to refill. It’s time consuming but easy to do.
The only manual work required is adding plant food. This happens every six months, but takes less than five minutes.
community
One of the most notable things about Gardyn is its community. There are many avid fans of the system who have found solutions to almost every major issue with the platform. For example, there are dozens of 3D printer recipes for yCube configurations, as well as instructions for installing rockwool and using your own seeds to grow anything you can imagine.
If you want to grow a plant that Gardyn doesn’t offer, this is the way to go. If you don’t get the results you expect, just contact the community. Almost every plant species has been tested and its growth pattern and settings optimized.
Is the gardyn the future of gardening?
The Gardyn is by far the most advanced smart garden I’ve ever gotten my hands on. It’s an impressive piece of smart technology, but it leaves plenty of room for improvement. I was sent the Gardyn 2.0 but the Gardyn 3.0 was released shortly after I set mine up and seems to have improved some features.
The Gardyn is almost everything I want it to be, but the good news is that the main issues are mostly software based.
I have high hopes for the platform. Although my plants are not growing at the expected rate, it is a long-term project that I am happy to tweak and experiment with until I get the results I want. What if I do? This will be a delicious salad.
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