AeroGarden Harvest 2.0 Review

If an indoor garden sounds like both a dreamy home environment and a boost to your kitchen game, take it from us; it’s both. The AeroGarden Harvest 2.0 (available at Amazon for $45.00) is an indoor hydroponic garden that brings the green thumb for you. Growing plants faster than a soil garden, the AeroGarden will provide you with herbs, salad, fresh flowers, and more in any season.

Except for one issue, the garden is simple enough to set up. Do be aware that this garden is very bright for small spaces. However, for the most part, I loved living with it. Best of all, Harvest 2.0 does most of the work for you once it gets going.

About the AeroGarden Harvest 2.0 hydroponic garden

The AeroGarden Harvest 2.0 is a compact smart garden that harnesses the power of a hydroponic system to bring the joy of gardening indoors. This innovative system allows you to grow a wide variety of plants in a fraction of the time it would take in a traditional garden. Most plants will start to sprout within seven to 14 days, ensuring a quick and efficient gardening experience.

The garden’s ingenious design ensures efficient water usage. The lower basin fills with water; inside, a pump pulses, aerating the water to promote optimal plant growth.

The AeroGarden Harvest 2.0 features a roof adorned with white, red, and blue LEDs. This adjustable roof, operated by a latch mechanism, can be raised or lowered to accommodate your plants' growth. The basin lid, made of durable plastic, is equipped with six coverable holes for planting.

The planting system consists of plastic baskets that cradle cones of soil. After planting the seed, a sticker attaches to the rim, providing only a tiny opening. When planted with seeds or cuttings, these cones rest in the holes in the basin lid, soaking in the water bath below.

The Harvest 2.0 system also comes with a bottle of plant nutrients. Add these directly into the water upon planting and then again every two weeks.

Unlike the original AeroGarden Harvest, the Harvest 2.0 has no control panel on its front face.

When your garden senses its water is low, a logo on the basin turns red. Similarly, when it’s time to add nutrients, you’ll see a red light flash from the power button atop the hood. Hold this to stop the light from blinking. Touch it to power the AeroGarden off or on.

This power button also sets the garden’s automatic clock, which will shut the garden off after about 15 hours of runtime and then start again in the morning.

The Harvest ships with one pack of lettuce seed.

How we tested AeroGarden Harvest 2.0

I lived with AeroGarden in my Brooklyn apartment for about one month. In my initial test, I planted lettuce seeds in two of AeroGarden’s cones and basil cuttings in another cone, following the instructions for cuttings. I also planted two cones with tomato seeds two weeks after my lettuce and basil.

I ran the AeroGarden daily and refilled the water when needed. During the testing cycle, I went out of town. While away, my housemate checked the water level and added water as needed. Otherwise, I let the garden run independently, turning it off as its clock dictated.

What we like

It’s easy to grow herbs and vegetables

The AeroGarden Harvest makes growing indoor herbs and produce easy. In just two weeks, I had fronds of beautiful basil and lettuce. The basil grown in the hydroponic garden looks much healthier than my housemate's potted basil plant, from which I took the cutting.

It took about eight days for the basil and two weeks for the lettuce before it was ready to pick. AeroGarden claims the indoor setup can grow plants five times faster than potted soil, and that claim feels pretty close to me.

After about a month, the two lettuce plants are about large enough for a single-person side salad.

Adding water and nutrients is as simple as opening a small lid piece on the front and pouring them in. I poured water from a measuring cup. To add nutrients, fill the cap of the plant food bottle and drop that into the water.

I’m no stranger to living with plants. I keep a peperomia and a fiddle leaf fig in my bedroom. Because of the Harvest’s speedy growth, my basil and lettuce are the first houseplants I’ve owned that I’d call exciting, they grow so fast. I usually see new growth when I come home from a day out.

It's attractive

Now that my garden is full of fresh, green leaves, it’s stunning. It gurgles meditatively on the corner of my writing desk as the pump runs within. When my housemates look in, they always comment on it and ask how the plants are doing. Aesthetically, the effect is somewhat like having a fish tank.

With its bright LEDs and fresh green leaves, I wish I’d been able to test this in January when light was scarce.

While the AeroGarden Elite looks pretty futuristic, I didn’t mind the similar look so much with the Harvest because of the use of black plastic, which puts much more emphasis on the greenery.

It won’t run up your electric bill

The AeroGarden Harvest uses energy-efficient 15-watt LED lights that last two to four years before needing to be replaced.

I couldn’t verify how much energy the smart garden uses when running the grow lights and aerator for 15 hours a day, but AeroGarden’s data paints an attractive picture.

At a rate of $0.11 per kilowatt hour, they claim that the Harvest should cost only $0.87 a month to run.

The setup is simple

The AeroGarden Harvest is a breeze to use, even for those without a green thumb. The assembly process is straightforward, with most parts snapping together effortlessly.

I had one minor issue connecting the light hood (more about that later). Otherwise, the whole system is about as challenging to plant and assemble as a LEGO set is to put together.

The construction is BPA- and phthalate-free

I was concerned about growing edible plants in so much plastic—it’s made almost entirely of the stuff.

AeroGarden says that its gardens use BPA-free, phthalate-free, food-safe plastic. While this doesn’t eliminate the risk of microplastics or chemical leaching, it’s what I hoped for, given the technologies and materials available now.

What we don’t like

The lights are very bright

The LED lights are a significant light source in my apartment, making drawing and watching TV at night challenging.

This is less bothersome in a larger home. But if you live in a small space, the brightness is noticeable and cannot be adjusted.

Also, the lights are also so bright that they scorched part of my basil plant. Make sure to cut your plants before it gets close to the hood.

The light hood can be tricky to set up

While setting up my AeroGarden, I had an issue connecting the light hood.

The hood clicks onto the adjustable post. A USB connection inside completes the circuit and powers the system.

The issue is that this hood snaps into place whether it connects the circuit. Because of this, I thought that I’d set up the AeroGarden correctly, but when I plugged it in, it didn’t turn on. I tried everything I could think of. I even located an alternative power adapter that would be compatible with it and attempted to run the garden.

When nothing else worked, I finally disassembled everything and retried. When I yanked the hood off the post and snapped it back on with more force, it started when I plugged it in.

I only mention this because I found two other references to it online, including a reference on the FAQ and a customer review.

Should you buy the AeroGarden Harvest 2.0

Yes, the AeroGarden Harvest 2.0 is an amazing hydroponic garden system

If you’ve long dreamed of cultivating a personal herb garden but don’t have the real estate, then this convenient hydroponic garden means you do now. The AeroGarden Harvest provides a wonderful introduction to gardening that steers you through the process, letting you know when it needs water and fertilizer.

The planter system is mainly intuitive to set up. It is excellent at growing seeds and cuttings and can accommodate many types of plants. The Harvest will have you cooking with fresh herbs every night, no matter the time of year.