Are you passionate about indoor greenery but don’t have a green thumb for maintaining your own indoor garden and growing plants? Don’t worry; there are numerous high-tech, fully automated indoor gardening systems available that can satisfy your passion for greenery. Here, we feature two top-rated indoor planters on the market: iHarvest and Gardyn.
These smart indoor vertical planters are trending vertical gardens with many fans across the US. Other alternative models are available from brands like AeroGarden, Click and Grow, Rise Gardens, and more.
In this quick Gardyn and iHarvest comparison article, we’ll take a detailed look at these two famous smart vertical planters for indoors. Let’s see how these planters, or better yet, gardening appliances, can help you grow greens, fruits, and vegetables inside your home without worries about watering and sunlight.
iHarvest Smart Garden At a Glance
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Gardyn Smart Garden At a Glance
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Gardyn Indoor Garden
Gardyn is an advanced, AI-powered vertical indoor planter. This highly sophisticated 30-plant gardening system is designed to help you nourish plants indoors, even if you don’t have a green thumb.
The technology behind Gardyn is straightforward. It works on a hydroponic system, which doesn’t require soil or fertilizers other than what is included in the ready-made seedpods. The roots mainly collect nutrients from the water, which gets pumped up from the bottom water tank and trickled down from the top.
Branded as yCubes, the ready-to-use seedpods come in various seeds, including herbs, fruits, leafy greens, basil, cherry tomatoes, thyme, mint, and more. All are organic, non-GMO seeds, and you can pick the ones you want. Check out the link below to order a unit of Gardyn.
How Does It Work?
The workings of Gardyn are simple. You just need to insert the seed-carrying yCubes into their respective columns on the system and fill the reservoir with fresh water. Once you plug it into a power socket, it starts to run by distributing the water required for the seeds to sprout.
Water is the medium that carries the necessary nutrients for the plant roots as they grow. The plants are in a particular rock wool medium, but their roots extend to collect nutrients from the flowing water.
Gardyn has advanced grow lights that can mimic natural light so the plants can grow as they do outside. The included AI-based sensor helps you track the operation of the garden by providing timely updates, warnings, and tips.
iHarvest Indoor Garden
iHarvest is another popular 30-plant vertical indoor garden. It is a fully-contained gardening solution that takes up only 2.5 square feet of space to grow up to 30 plants. As an entirely automatic system, it requires minimal effort from you to nurture your favorite plants indoors.
Like all modern indoor gardens, it can offer up to 30 to 50% better yield than classic agriculture outside. iHarvest also works on a hydroponic system for gardening, ensuring the right amount of water and nutrients for the plant roots.
Moreover, iHarvest highlights an elegant and sleek design. It can ideally fit any space in your interior, and a fully-flourished iHarvest can be a stunning piece of attraction. Along with adding charm to your interior, it will also supply you with quality homegrown greens, veggies, and fruits throughout the year.
How Does It Work?
iHarvest operates similarly to Gardyn. Both are hydroponic systems. However, iHarvest is a more straightforward solution with a modular feature to expand its size further to accommodate more plants.
It also pumps up the water from the bottom tank to the top and trickles down to nourish the plant roots. A pair of 36-watt LED bars provide the essential lighting for plants to survive and thrive indoors.
The system has harnessed the advancements in lighting and pumping technologies to create an ideal atmosphere for plants to grow efficiently. It consumes a total of 72 watts, making it a highly energy-efficient system for indoor gardening. The automated lights turn off and on at the right intervals to mimic the sun and boost the plants.
Gardyn and iHarvest: Features
Both Gardyn and iHarvest are hydroponic vertical indoor gardens for up to 30 plants. However, there are many notable differences between them.
Gardyn is the most sophisticated of the two. The AI-powered gardening system has Wi-Fi connectivity, so you can control it entirely on your phone, thanks to the included mobile app. The mobile app, with the help of the AI sensor, can bring you important notifications on requirements like when to refill the water, when to harvest the yield, and when to clean the tank. This gives Gardyn a clear edge over iHarvest, a simple system with exciting features.
iHarvest is a straightforward gardening system but unique with a better width, a large water reservoir, and a trailer system to support heavy plants like tomatoes and eggplants. iHarvest is 32 inches wide, while Gardyn is compact and sleek at 24 inches. Additionally, iHarvest highlights a flexible lighting system that you can move closer and further to regulate the desired lighting over your plants.
The pump of Gardyn is noise-free, while iHarvest produces a soothing sound when it works, but many of its customers love the gentle sound. You can choose a model based on your preference for sound.
Gardyn and iHarvest: The Water Tank
iHarvest has a significant advantage over Gardyn with its bigger 14-gallon tank with a large opening. Gardyn has a small 6-gallon tank with a small opening. However, Gardyn compensates for this with small water storage containers under each net cup for the roots. These containers help Gardyn contain a bit of water underneath every plant. In a blackout lasting two or three days, plants can feed on the water, ensuring the health of your plants. With the small cups for storage, the Gardyn pump needs to operate only occasionally.
However, refilling Gardyn with water and nutrients is not easy because of its small tank and opening. iHarvest has such a large tank and opening that you can even fix an oxygen pump to boost your plant growth further.
Gardyn and iHarvest: Specs Sheet
Gardyn measures 24 x 12 x 64 inches and weighs 20 lbs. The LED lights are a pair of 60W units, and two 5MP cameras are also part of the indoor garden. The tank is made of UV-stabilized, recyclable, and BPA-free plastic, while yCubes are made of compostable corn-based plastic. For connectivity, it has an 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless network that needs a 2.4 GHz band.
iHarvest measures 32 x 14 x 60 inches. The two LEDs have 72 watts of power, delivering up to 8000 lumens of brightness. You can adjust the lighting by moving the light bars closer and further apart.
Both systems offer attractive subscriptions for their customers to deliver the seedpods and other accessories. The brands have an excellent collection of organic seeds for you to grow and collect quality yields.
Gardyn and iHarvest: Price and Availability
Gardyn is the priciest of the two. The starter kit costs $899, and advanced options can be more expensive based on your membership terms. iHarvest starts at $849, which is $50 cheaper than its competitor. Both brands deliver their products to the USA in two to three days.
iHarvest Vs Gardyn Reviews: Original Reviews on YouTube
In this part of the article, we review some of the most-watched original reviews on YouTube about iHarvest and Gardyn. This will help you choose the right product for your needs with more clarity and insight into the real features and user experiences.
iHarvest Vs Gardyn Comparison with Aerogarden Farm XL
A video comparing the three smart home gardens by Lynn on her channel Plant4Table is the most-watched video on YouTube about these products. Lynn has compared all the significant aspects of popular home garden systems with real-world experience of over six months, and her video has been watched by around 60K people as of writing this.
She starts the video by ranking the home gardens based on their aesthetic feel. Gardyn is the most beautiful of the three to her, as it features a well-built and sophisticated design. Its warm yellow lighting and wooden tank cover are the two main points that catch her eye. She also notes the cool silver tone of the light bar, which gives Gardyn a plush look. Additionally, the system is easy to use as it can be fully controlled on a mobile app, and it does not have many physical buttons.
Lynn ranks iHarvest second in the aesthetic part, above Aerogarden. She was excited to see her iHarvest like a green carpet of edibles when she grew some lettuce and mixed greens. The white light of iHarvest and the movable lighting bar are other notable attractions.
Notably, at the end of the video, Lynn recommends iHarvest as it leaves a customer with no ties with the vendor. The user doesn’t need to keep a subscription with the maker, like many other brands, for replacements and refills. Even if the water pump is broken, users can get a new one from Amazon for just $20.
Final Thoughts
This has been our take on Gardyn and iHarvest’s vertical home gardens. We have examined all the aspects of these two incredible indoor garden systems. Both systems share many features, but Gardyn seems to be the pick for a tech-savvy person. Meanwhile, iHarvest is a simple system for growing your plants.