Gardyn 4.0 Home Kit Review
A Facelift with Improved FeaturesDisclaimer: Gardyn sent us a unit of the 4.0 Home Kit free of charge to review, but all thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are our own and were not discussed with the company prior to publishing.
I am by no means an expert gardener, but ever since we started experimenting with smart indoor hydroponic systems a few years ago, my world has been changed. I’m not typically someone who enjoys being outside and watering plants in a garden especially in the summer heat, but when we checked out the Gardyn 3.0 last year, we were thrilled to see so many fresh greens grow with honestly minimal effort on our end from within the comfort of our living room. And this year, Gardyn refreshed its system with its newer and better iteration: the Gardyn 4.0. It still keeps plenty of the same features we saw in the 3.0, but with some quality of life improvements. Let’s take a closer look at whether the 4.0 is a worth upgrade.
Retail Price: $849.00
What’s the Gardyn 4.0
Similar to its predecessor, the Gardyn is an AI-powered vertical indoor garden. It comes equipped with everything you need to get started including a tank, columns, LED lights, built-in cameras, and 30 free plants. The Gardyn allows you to grow 30 plants in about two square feet of space, making it fantastic for small corners like in our kitchen, or say small apartments and condos. Setting up the Gardyn and assembling it is easy even for those who aren’t very handy. It requires no additional tools. In total, the process took me a little over an hour to build my 4.0 Home Kit by myself. The look and feel of the 4.0 is still modern, clean, and eye-catching. While it looks very similar to it’s predecessor, there are internal upgrades. So what’s different from the 4.0 to its predecessor?
While the changes are subtle, they’re definitely noticeable as an owner of the previous model. The columns have been redesigned so that it requires less cleaning in between growing. Because of the stacked system the plants reside in, it’s normal to see roots growing down as your plants mature over time. The new columns have simplified this layout design and require less cleaning up in between swapping new plants. Additionally, I mentioned in my review of the 3.0 that the LED lights did not cost us more electricity with our usage, but Gardyn made the 4.0 even more energy efficient by 20%. They also paired it with a sunrise and sunset mode so that your Gardyn is smart enough to adjust lighting by itself depending on it’s ambient environment time. This makes it even easier to keep the Gardyn running on its own, which I also appreciate the lower carbon footprint. I notice my Gardyn typically dimming a little later past sunset, closer to nighttime, and while I was initially concerned about it, my plants have been thriving and I’ve continued to let the AI navigate itself freely. I learned quickly to trust the autonomy of the system.
Something that was a minor inconvenience that I noticed in the 3.0 was that the water tank didn’t necessarily give me real-time measurements, even after adding water to the tank during a refill request. The 4.0 does exactly this and while this feature isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker to have, it’s truly a pleasant bonus and keeps my tank up to date. The near instantly level monitoring is a quality of life improvement for sure.
Managing Your Plants
Gardyn advertises that you can enjoy your first harvest in 5 weeks time and it’s a pretty accurate assessment in my opinion. Across all of its systems, Gardyn uses yCubes which houses germinated seeds that conveniently fit into each of the 30 slots of your Gardyn. The seeds are organic, locally-sourced and non-GMO. Ever since using our 3.0 Home Kit, I noticed that Gardyn has continually added new species of plants including lemongrass, microgreens and more. You can purchase additional plants through the Gardyn app. There’s been a few instances in which my plants didn’t sprout for whatever reason and they were replaced by support, no questions asked.
There’s still some strategy to be made when it comes to the placement of your yCubes. Depending on the variety of plants you choose from, I’ve noticed that some plants grow better in certain areas of my Gardyn than others. Some of this might have to do with the placement of my unit itself and where we live. Typically greens such as lettuce varieties, kale, arugula, and herbs, such as cilantro, and basil grow very easily in our home. I’ve had some success with fruit and vegetables, but not as much as I’d like to with things like tomatoes, chamomile, and cucumbers. It seems that typically, larger vegetables or fruitful vegetables are a little trickier to thrive on this system, and I’d recommend trying them in different areas of your column to see what works best.
Gardyn Maintenance
I’m impressed at how seamless maintenance is on the 4.0, even more so than its predecessor. While an occasional tank cleanup always helps to get rid of overgrown roots from old plants, I’m thoroughly pleased at how easy this Gardyn makes the process. I seem to no longer need to reconnect my Gardyn each time I do a tank reset and it seems to power up more quickly. That was a major issue we had with our first 3.0 unit that needed an RMA ticket to resolve. I’m happy to report that 4.0 makes this task so much more fluid, and effective. On a weekly to every other week basis, it’s still recommended to trim your roots and clip plants when needed to help promote optimal growth. This takes me maybe 10-15 minutes a week to do.
Harvesting can also be done regularly, and the Gardyn’s AI, Kelby, will tell you when specific plants are ready to be trimmed or harvested. While I’ve historically enjoyed harvesting plants all at once, I’ve noticed that harvesting them as needed or when the app recommends is a much better experience and stops the Gardyn from overgrowing, which I’ve been guilty of a few times.
I also recommend getting a separate watering can or gallon pitcher. You’ll need this to be able to refresh plant food and add water to the tank easier which happens about every 30 days. Kelby will remind you when the water tank is beginning to get lower so you know to add water.
I hope Gardyn adds this as an accessory in the future or includes it with future purchases of the Gardyn so that it’s easier to add water.
What is Kelby?
I still stand by my account that Kelby is arguably the best feature of Gardyn. Powered by AI, Kelby is included with a Gardyn membership and has full access to your unit to provide recommendations and suggestions in real time. Kelby can use the built-in cameras to monitor your plant growth, keep you updated on the health of your plants and let you know when to add water. Kelby tracks indoor temperature, humidity, water usage, as well as growth rates for each yCube you put in. It’s a truly integrated app experience that allows for the most minimum maintenance, and works great with both the 3.0 and 4.0 Home Kits. If you’re going on vacation for a couple weeks, you can also set Kelby on vacation mode to help keep plant growth paused while you’re away.
Gardyn Membership
Gardyn’s membership continues to offer users the ability to take full advantage of the features in the Gardyn. Without a membership, you won’t be notified of when to refresh your tank or monitor plant growth. It’s not necessary to subscribe in order to have your own thriving garden, but it is extremely convenient, and helpful, especially for those just starting out in the world of home gardening. In addition to Kelby’s AI features, Gardyn membership allows users to redeem 10 monthly credits, and a free monthly shipment to order new plants, and plant food. There’s also certain plant varieties that are only offered to members. While I still think the membership is on the steeper end, ranging from $30-39 a month depending on your membership length, I’m still a big fan of Kelby and have really seen how my Gardyn has gotten better and better with each iteration, and app update. If you want a near hands-free experience and don’t want to worry about keeping track of your own schedules for the plants, the membership is the way to go.
Should You Upgrade?
As of the publishing date of this review, there’s a $154 price difference between the Gardyn 3.0 and the 4.0. Priced at $849, the 4.0 Home Kit offers a refresh and improvement of key features like more energy optimized lighting, sunrise and sunset mode, and easier cleaning. If you already own the 3.0, these features are truly a nice quality of life bonus, but not necessarily vital to having a successful operation. I would love to see a trade-in option for those who own the 3.0 with some credit towards upgrading. If you don’t currently own a Gardyn or indoor hydroponic system and are on the fence about it, I love my Gardyn 4.0 and wouldn’t have it any other way. The ease of use, simple maintenance, and holistic integration with the app make it one of my favorite smart home appliances and I love that it continues to give me and my family access to healthy and fresh plants and vegetables.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees and support our channel by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.