Click and Grow Smart Garden Review – Worth It?

If you are looking for a straightforward and fun way to cultivate vegetables and herbs in the comfort of your own home, our Click and Grow Smart Garden review is right up your alley. First, we’ll take a deep dive into the device, what sets it apart from its competitors and the drawbacks to help you understand what it offers. Then, hopefully, you will be able to decide whether it suits your farming hobby requirements.

The Click and Grow Smart Garden 3

Gardening in the city or urban areas has numerous challenges, like finding the perfect spot in an apartment where your plants can get the right conditions to grow. Consequently, many people have trouble putting their green thumbs to good use. Companies like Click and Grow offer garden enthusiasts a practical way of growing their own food within the confines of urban living. Here, we shall focus on one of their popular offerings in the Smart Garden 3.

a). What Is It?

Planter boxes are a relatively new technology that offers users indoor gardening that can support numerous types of flowers, plants, vegetables and herbs. The Click and Grow Smart Garden 3 is an excellent example of such a product with added benefits that make the experience fun and simple. Of course, you will need to keep it connected to a power source and put enough water in its reservoir to ensure healthy growth.

b). What Are the Specifications?

As its name suggests, the Click and Grow Smart Garden 3 has three plant pods to help you take a modest advantage of your green thumb. Hence, the aim of the device is not to promote subsistence farming to a scale that feeds you all year round. Nevertheless, the seed pods contain smart soil that supports the growing plants as they mature.

Aside from support, the smart soil offers other advantages to the users. For starters, the material composition features a patented substance that allows growing herbs to access nutrients, oxygen, and water easily. Also, you do not need herbicides, pesticides or other harmful substances as it ensures the plants receive a balanced diet of oxygen and nutrients for the roots.

Moreover, the dimensions of the Smart Garden are pretty compact, with a width of 30 cm, the compartment for the plant pods is 5 inches tall and the light bar can extend to 13 inches above the container at its maximum. As for the weight, the product comes in at a little over two and a half pounds. The relatively low weight comes from the manufacturer’s use of ABS plastic to construct the Smart Garden 3.

Since its power cord is just over 6-feet long, you have more freedom in where you want to place it. In addition, these smart gardens only consume a mere 8 watts, which translates to about 3.8 kWh in 30 days of continuously supporting plant growth. Plus, this model comes with a water tank capacity of 0.32 gallons or 1.2 liters.

The Click and Grow Smart Gardens 3 has two extension arms for the lamps inside the box. Thus, you can keep up with the height of the plants growing. Also, you get a quick start guide to help boost your skills and understand the product. Plus, the three complimentary basil seeds in the soil pods make the perfect introductory plants are you learn how to grow fresh herbs in the little garden.

c). How Does It Work?

Image Source: Clickandgrow.com

The right grow system for any plant should include nutrients, light and water. Still, any experienced farmer will tell you that merely pouring a bucket of water over a seed you’ve buried under soil does not guarantee success. For example, the balance of nutrients can affect your yield. Consequently, maintaining indoor gardens in city apartments is pretty challenging.

The indoor Smart Garden 3 offers the three essential ingredients in healthy plant growth with the use of technology that eases and enhances the experience for the gardener. You do not need to add fertilizer for starters, as the Click and Grow plant pods come with the necessary nutrients. In addition, the smart soil can support various options, from green lettuce to wild strawberries and other plants. Plus, you can get experimental plant capsules and use your own seeds.

Secondly, UV rays are the components in sunlight that plants use for photosynthesis. The Click and Grow model 3 relies on LED lighting, producing the required UV radiation in small amounts and at a lower power consumption than CFL grow lights. The Smart Garden 3 has a detachable light arm to give you the freedom to decide whether you want a wall-farm or utilize your counter space next to a wide window.

Finally, the Smart Garden 3 combines a rich growing medium, sufficient grow light and a self-watering system to complete the perfect trifecta of a healthy indoor garden. You do not need to set alarms to remind you to irrigate as the plants grow. It takes over when to water the grow pods, but the amount to add too. Then, you have to fill the water tank and keep an eye on the indicator on when to check for a refill, which is typically in about 3 weeks.

d). How Do You Set It Up?

For simplicity, let’s assume you want some nice and fresh basil leaves in a few weeks, so you will need to set up the Smart Garden with the complementary seed pods out of the box. First, unpack the plant pods, place them inside the plastic cups, and slot them in each plant capsule. Next, add a liter of water into the tank through the dedicated opening at the top. Lastly, plug it into an electrical outlet to power the grow lighting, and you are done!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCIFt8qNT3Y

What the Click and Grow Smart Garden 3 Does Well

1. The App

The Click and Grow application, available in Google Play and the App Store, helps cement this excellent planter’s smart aspect. In addition, you can set up multiple Smart Gardens: the models 3, 9 and 9 Pro. Here, you can set up different profiles with the different seed pods you get from the manufacturer.

Moreover, the app gives you plenty of growing and maintenance tips to help you ensure the plants remain healthy throughout their lifespan. So whether it is keeping it under specific temperatures or the height of the light arm, you have plenty of information to help you out. Plus, you can add notes as you check the timeline of how far along the plants are in their lifecycle.

Furthermore, you can use the different sensors on the Smart Garden 3 by checking the application. From following up with the water, temperature and humidity levels to checking the battery of the sensors, all the tools are at your disposal. Finally, you can create a schedule for when you want the LEDs to turn on or off and save it in the profile.

2. Automation

The automatic watering system in the Smart Garden 3 makes growing your plants, from a wild strawberry brush to dwarf peas, simple. First, you need to fill its tank, which is 0.32 gallons. Depending on the salad greens planted, the quantity of water you put in will often last about three weeks or less.

Consequently, you can forget about drying plants that look yellowish and unhealthy whenever you skip watering them for a few days. In addition, the system is built to provide the specific plant with the right amount of water over its lifetime. Finally, a water level indicator lets you know when to refill your tank.

Whether growing mini tomatoes or other plants, you need to keep them in the dark for about 8 hours each day to give them a healthy sense of day and night. So when you set up your Click and Grow Smart Garden, it is best to do it as soon as you wake up in the morning. After all, the light bar stays on for 16 hours after turning the power on. Hence, you can ensure its 8-hour off phase matches the nighttime, so the fresh greenery is not illuminated all the time.

3. Power Consumption

ICF grow lights are pretty energy hungry. However, since the Smart Garden relies on LED lighting, your electricity bill will not spike because of pursuing a farming hobby. Thus, the modest power consumption of 3.8 kWh every month sets this smart planter apart from the competition.

4. Simple

Growing plants is liberating without worrying about the right time to water, fertilize, or do pest control. In addition, getting the seed pods to germinate requires little to no effort. The autonomous nature of the design, coupled with its ease of use, means fun and stress-free time caring for your Click and Grow garden.

5. It Looks Great

Image Source: Amazon.com

Whether you want to grow herbs or even flowers, the simple and elegant design of the Smart Garden 3 breathes refreshing life into your indoor spaces. The three color options (beige, grey or white) give you the freedom to ensure the planter does not mess with your interior decor; instead, it complements it. Thus, this planter will look at home in any setting, from your window to a shelf in the bedroom.

Drawbacks of the Indoor Garden Setup

1. Growing Capacity

The Click and Grow Smart Garden 3 has three plant pods which can significantly limit your ability to diversify your indoor garden. In addition, each plant capsule can only support a single seed at a time. Consequently, the herbs grown in the device can come in handy for a few salads every few weeks.

Unless you buy the Smart Garden 9 with as many pods, the model 3 is primarily decorative. To upscale your planting operations, you can check our picks for the best grow tents with smart perks. Also, our list of 9 ideal mini-grow tents can help increase your gardening capacity while saving space.

2. Seed Pods Aren’t Cheap

Every three months, buying seed pods from the manufacturer can be a costly endeavor. Although you get non-GMO seeds that you do not need to think about fertilizing or spraying pesticides, some users find them pricey. Nevertheless, the device gives you the option of using your own seeds and soil pods.

A DIY approach can help you remain within your budget. Still, preparing a unique setup can be pretty messy, and the chances of success are not guaranteed when you go your way. Additionally, you can reuse most of the components of the Smart Garden, which lowers the cost of maintaining your own food.

Of course, the Click and Grow Smart Garden is not the only option for interior gardening. We have compiled a buying guide for other smart garden systems to help you if you are unsure if it is for you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the Click and Grow Smart Garden

1. Is Click and Grow cost-effective?

The energy consumption of the Click and Grow Smart Garden 3 is modest, thanks to the 8-watt LED lights. In addition, you do not need to invest plenty of time and effort into ensuring you grow healthy plants. After all, the device includes numerous automated features and a unique soil to help make the experience simple and enjoyable.

2. How long do Click and Grow plants last?

Each plant has a unique lifecycle and the time it takes from germination to harvest-ready differs from one to another. However, you can expect to see little sprouts by the second week or the third if you have planted fruiting varieties. You can get more information on the maturity duration from the seed guide, application and other online sources.

3. Is Click and Grow healthy?

The uniquely crafted soil in the Click and Grow plant pods do not contain fungicides, pesticides or herbicides. In addition, it is biodegradable and made through renewable processes. Plus, the seeds are non-GMO to round off the healthy focus of the company.