Hey all! Today I’m sharing all about my experience with the Gardyn 4.0, a completely hydroponic indoor gardening system designed to help you grow fresh produce at home. Huge thanks to the folks at Gardyn for sending me a Gardyn 4.0 to review!
I’d actually gotten a chance to see one of these gorgeous growing structures in person earlier this year at a conference. They were exhibiting for their Gardyn for Schools program, and I got to ask a bunch of questions about how the system worked and what made it special.
So imagine my absolute delight when Gardyn reached out to me to see if I wanted to join their affiliate program! I let them know that I only recommend products that I have personally used and reviewed, so they agreed to send me a Gardyn 4.0, and I’ve spent the last 6 months getting to know it.
This article contains affiliate links; read more here.
Key pros & cons
Just want my high-level pros and cons about the Gardyn 4.0 without having to read the whole article? Have a look at what I think below!
Pros:
- Grows up to 30 plants vertically in a very small footprint, making it ideal for small spaces.
- Uses automated lighting and watering to streamline plant care and reduce manual tasks (like occasionally cleaning out the water tank).
- Needs 95% less water compared to traditional soil-based growing.
- Provides a controlled growing environment that lets you grow almost anywhere.
- Looks good and can be put anywhere in your home without disrupting your aesthetic.
Cons:
- It is expensive and may be a higher price than many are willing to or can pay.
- Requires the ongoing purchase of seed pods (yCubes) and plant food (Veg+Bloom).
- Does not include the Sprout Nursery, which is required for germinating new yCubes since they can’t have plant food yet.
- Best for leafy greens, herbs, and smaller flowers; can grow many other things, but the yields will be lower on larger fruiting plants when compared to more traditional gardening methods.
Gardyn 101
The Gardyn 4.0 is an indoor growing system that functions using vertical hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil, using a nutrient-rich water solution.
Here are some of the key features:
- The vertical setup maximizes space, allowing you to grow 30 plants simultaneously in a small footprint.
- The soilless hydroponics growing method provides plants with the essential nutrients directly through water, promoting faster growth and higher yields.
- Built-in LED lights ensure your plants get the light they need for photosynthesis regardless of the lighting conditions in your home.
- Designed to be low-maintenance—it has automated watering and nutrient delivery!
- Equipped with sensors to monitor and adjust water, light, and nutrients to optimize plant health and growth.
What it comes with
When you order your Gardyn 4.0, you will choose one of three starter sets. Each starter sets come with 30 “yCubes.” The culinary set has lots of veggies and herbs, the decor set has mostly flowers, and the herbalist set has lots of herbs and spices. Gardyn also offers empty yCubes that you can use to grow your own seeds.
When you first set up your Gardyn, you’ll also get access to the free Gardyn app. You can use this to adjust your Gardyn’s settings (e.g., lighting and watering schedules), as well as order new yCubes. However, you don’t have to use the Gardyn app.
You can order new yCubes on the Gardyn website. And if you don’t use the app to adjust settings and connect your machine to WiFi, the Gardyn will run on its default factory settings. These settings include the recommended automatic lighting and watering schedules, and they are more than sufficient for the vast majority of your plants to flourish.
That said, I’ll talk more about the app in a bit. I tend to get overwhelmed with apps sometimes and don’t always use them—instead just winging it. I would not recommend that if you want to get the most out of your Gardyn!
Ideal buyers
Gardyn is designed for gadget-loving plant people—but even if you aren’t really into gadgets, the Gardyn is easy to learn. They are great for beginner gardeners but are also handy for experienced gardeners who want to extend their growing season or grow indoors.
However, I’d say one of the biggest target audiences for a Gardyn are people who want to start a garden but don’t have much—or any—outdoor space. It takes up very little space by growing vertically, and you don’t need to lug soil bags around.
The biggest criticism I’ve seen of a Gardyn in the price point. This is valid. But I’d counter that by arguing that buying and sustaining a Gardyn is cheaper than buying a house with a yard 🙂 I have a yard, and I have spent more than the cost of a Gardyn setting up my beds and growing over the years. I just didn’t spend it all at once, so a lot of the costs are hidden.
Personally, I love indoor growing mechanisms because they optimize the ability to grow real delicious food in my home all year round. I can’t garden during the winter here, so it’s a fun and space-effective way to grow indoors.
Here are a few things I’d keep in mind to ask if a Gardyn is right for you:
- Small-space dwellers: If you live in an apartment or home with limited space, the Gardyn allows you to enjoy gardening indoors without needing a backyard or even balcony.
- Busy gardeners: The automated features and low-maintenance nature of the Gardyn make it perfect for busy people who still want to grow their own fresh produce.
- Beginner gardeners: Beginners looking to start their gardening journey will find the Gardyn’s user-friendly setup and smart assistance helpful in learning the ropes without being overwhelmed.
- Those with limited mobility: The vertical design and indoor setup make it accessible for people with limited mobility who might find traditional gardening challenging.
Gardyn membership
A Gardyn membership is not required to use the Gardyn app or to order replacement yCubes. However, Gardyn really does push their membership program. There are a lot of benefits.
If you have a membership, you’ll get 10 credits each month to order plants. If you order more than you can pay for using your credits balance, the yCubes will be $1.99 each + flat-rate shipping. If you don’t have a membership, each yCube is $4.99 + $9.99 shipping.
Gardyn offers monthly memberships for $39/month, yearly memberships for $34/month, and 2-year memberships for $29/month. To determine if a membership is worth it for you, I’d recommend running some numbers to see how much you want to grow.
A membership also gives you access to Gardyn’s premium features including vacation mode, the in-app growing assistant Kelby, and more. I recommend checking out this page on Gardyn’s website to review current membership benefits to help you make your decision.
If you plan to keep your Gardyn fully stocked and growing throughout the year, it probably makes more financial sense to do a membership.
Troubleshooting issues
So let’s jump into the setup process! This was pretty easy—I did it while I was listening to a podcast. Everything is clearly labeled. Read through the instructions and follow them carefully. And don’t skip the step I skipped the first time—connecting the little irrigation tubes that send the water up to the plants!
And that brings me to the one issue I had. After a few weeks, I realized that none of my plants were germinating. Well—that isn’t totally true. Two of the bottom-most yCubes had germinated, and some of the yCubes seemed to have germinated at random.
But they weren’t doing very well. I was hearing the water pump kick on, so I thought all was well. After a few weeks and no progress, I checked the upper yCubes and realized that they were now bone dry. Yikes.
Obviously there was something wrong! So I contacted Gardyn support and asked for help. They send me some helpful troubleshooting documents, and I quickly figured out my issue. The irrigation hoses that run up through the vertical columns from the water tank were disconnected!
See below for a picture of what this looks like from Gardyn. I think this happened when I moved the Gardyn, but I can’t be sure. Once I connected these and ran a watering cycle, it soaked all of the cubes. Unfortunately I had 9 or so that didn’t germinate at this point, but I think those were the ones that had started to sprout and then died off when no water reached them.
Care after sprouting
After your plants germinate, your Gardyn app will send you reminders about what to do and when. This is all based on setting your planting date in the app. It will tell you when you need to “thin out” seedlings, which just means plucking extra plants out and leaving only one or a few (depending on the plant).
It will also tell you when it’s time to add plant food. Plant food comes as powder in a bottle. You mix it up with warm water and dump it in the tank. But you only do this after the plants have sprouted and are really growing—plant food can be harmful to plants as they are germinating.
I recommend keeping a plastic 1-gallon jug on hand for this. It makes mixing up the food and adding water super easy. The tank is 5 gallons, so having a container that you know is 1/5th of the tank is really helpful.
Your Gardyn will also tell you when it’s time to do things like add more water, check the roots on your yCubes, and more.
Germinating replacement yCubes
When you harvest what you’ve grown, you’ll need to replace the spot with a new yCube. However, you’ll need to germinate the yCube separately unless you are replacing every yCube at the same time. That’s because your water tank has plant food in it, and you shouldn’t give plant food to yCubes while they are germinating.
Plants grow at different speeds, so I don’t think it’s practical to replace everything at the same time. I want to be able to harvest crops as they mature and then replace them with something else—not leave that spot empty.
Gardyn sells a sprout nursery for germinating yCubes in plain water. I will say, if I had purchased a Gardyn and then realized I needed to get a a separate accessory to germinate yCubes, I would be very irritated. I think they should ship the nursery with their Gardyns.
I did a little research online and found that many people just germinate their yCubes in things like old takeout containers with lids and casserole dishes. I have the sprout nursery but would say that it is not worth it unless you are also using it to grow microgreens, which is a topic I could write a whole separate post on!
However, if you want the convenience of the nursery accessory, it is designed specifically for germinating yCubes and growing microgreens. So just factor that in to your overall purchase price when purchasing your Gardyn.
Overall takeaways & sales
The Gardyn 4.0 is a fantastic product that allows those with limited space to grow a high yield of edible crops in a very small footprint. If you can swing the cost, it really is a fantastic device. To get the most out of it, I recommend focusing mostly on growing leafy greens and herbs and less on larger fruiting plants like tomatoes and peppers—though they certainly are fun to experiment with!
To help with the costs, I’d highly recommend holding off on purchasing until they are running a sale. As I’ve been working with mine, I’ve noticed a number of price-slashing sales that could really help you make your decision. Happy planting!
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Brittany is a seasoned DIY home and garden expert, running a creative brand since 2014 that inspires others with approachable plant care guides, woodworking tutorials, and decor projects. She is a certified project manager and has completed extensive coursework in the art and science of growing your own plants. Her work has been recognized by major publications, and she routinely collaborates with fellow DIY industry leaders—but her favorite thing to do is inspire you! Learn more about her here.
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