InstaFarm Automated Indoor Microgreens Garden Review: Easy Being Green

TriangleUpBuy NowMultiple Buying Options Available$499 at Amazon (Instafarm)$23 at Amazon (Seed Tray Sampler)$449 at InstafarmCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyRating:

8/10

Open rating explainerInformationWIREDNo assembly required. Setup takes minutes. Very low maintenance. Extremely easy to use. You get as many microgreens as you can eat in about a week.TIREDHigh upfront cost. You're locked into the InstaFarm ecosystem because of the unit's proprietary trays. Limited use. Won't fit under all kitchen cabinets.

Not long ago, microgreens were reserved for fine-dining restaurants pretentiously using them as plate garnishments—with tweezer-precision application, natch. Now, the week-old seedlings of nutritional powerhouses like broccoli and beets have reached the zenith of bona fide superfood superstar. You can use them on salads and sandwiches, in smoothies, or even as a pizza topping. Their nutrient density is well-established—according to a 2023 study published in the journal Molecules, they are even being studied to see if their "sole consumption can replace the intake of our usual food regime of vegetables and fruits.”

If you like to eat locally sourced produce, you can't get closer to the source than your own kitchen. It's not especially surprising, then, that multiple types of home microgreens-growing systems have been popping up recently in my social media feed. I've tried a couple of them, but none have remotely come close to the efficiency and simplicity of the InstaFarm.

Plug-and-Play

I've been reviewing indoor gardening systems now for almost two years, so when the InstaFarm arrived at my house in a massive box, I girded myself for an evening spent sorting screws and assembling pipes and hoses. Instead, I opened the package to find the InstaFarm looking exactly as it did in its online pictures, fully formed and assembled in its greenery-printed box, like Venus on the half-shell. I took it out, filled the cylindrical water reservoir with distilled water, and plugged it in. All that was left to do was place the proprietary trays on some of the nine tray-shaped indentations on the three shelves.

Photograph: Kat Merck

InstaFarm's patented 4-by-4-inch compostable trays come pre-filled with about a half-inch of soil ("sourced from Amish Country in Pennsylvania," according to InstaFarm) and organic, non-GMO seeds, with the nutritional info for the final-product microgreens listed on top. They come in over a dozen varieties of nine-packs for $23, including individual cultivars, smoothie- and salad-specific blends, and even plain trays for growing your own greens or garden starts. It is worth noting that the trays are easily saturated paperboard designed for one-time use.

For comparison, Vego's hydroponic microgreens planter, which I used last year, is just $60 for two units, while Gardyn's is $100. Neither produces a volume of greens anywhere close to the InstaFarm, but again, $500 can buy a lot of store-bought microgreens.

InstaFarm has an app, but it doesn't add much to the experience, other than the ability to activate night mode (which then turns off the light for up to 10 hours). More helpful is the button on the top of the unit that comes with a sticker describing how many presses are required for any function you'd need.

Every 90 minutes, a metal nozzle arm pops out and moves along each shelf, sensing each tray and its plants’ height, humidity, and temperature. Once the nozzle is done sensing, it dispenses an appropriate blast of water, much like the spray heads in the produce section of the grocery store. If you have cats, they may be very interested the first time they hear the nozzle whirring and moving slowly over the shelves. (The first quick, unexpected spray was an entertaining event in my house.) Sometimes, this sensing was more accurate in theory than in practice—for some reason, the sensor consistently overshot the watering volume for the red beet greens (but only the beet greens), causing the tray to overflow daily.

After a few weeks, I noticed the nozzle making a slight mechanical noise once it finished its rounds, as it slowly retracted back to its resting position. It wasn't loud—it reminded me of the sound the bullwheel makes at the top of a ski lift—but because the InstaFarm was sitting on my dining room table, it was noticeable. And I should also note it was on my dining room table because, despite the website's claims the unit can fit under most kitchen cabinets, it was just slightly too tall for mine. This made it difficult to site, as it does take up an approximate 6-by-18-inch footprint. Given how easy it is to clip the greens off for salads, smoothies, and other meals, its most natural habitat is probably the kitchen, so you may want to measure more than once to make sure it will fit your space.

Greens Aplenty

Photograph: Kat Merck

Just as the directions claimed would happen, I had lush, usable microgreens in about five days. For my first growing round (I've now been through four), I was overly excited and placed a tray on every slot. Unless you have a large family that eats microgreens for every meal, I don't recommend this. I tried gamely to use them all, but after the traumatic experience of putting a tray's worth of radish microgreens in a strawberry smoothie (so spicy, so radishy), I decided to share some of my first-grown trays with friends.

Luckily, the InstaFarm lets you place as many or as few trays as you want at a time; the nozzle will sense whether there's a tray in that slot or not, and only water where watering is needed. The company recommends placing a new tray every one or two days, to ensure a consistent supply. It was interesting to me that, unlike other microgreens-growing systems I'd seen and used, this one is soil-based—it isn't hydroponic. InstaFarm president Philip Hartman says this is intentional, to create a more stable growth environment for microgreens.

“Hydroponics is very much dependent on the pH of the water, so depending on the water used, you will have varying germination and growth results, which can be frustrating,” he says. And “as more of a general observation on nature, most plants do not naturally grow only in water, and naturally thrive best in soil.”

I have occasionally struggled with fungus gnats in my dirt-grown houseplants and hydroponic systems that use peat pots, but I have not had a single pest issue with the InstaFarm.

No News Is Good News

In fact, this is normally the part of the review where I'd list the various problems that cropped up with a device during use, but in my month of using the InstaFarm, I had nary an issue, other than that one beet tray that overflowed, and the ongoing costs. Every element of this system is dialed in, from the sensors to the watering system, and other than replacing trays when needed and refilling the water reservoir, no maintenance was required.

I was also free to stop and restart the system any time in the event of a vacation, or just needing a break from microgreens. Most other hydroponic systems would have required some degree of maintenance during that time, typically cleaning and scrubbing due to the nutrient-infused water. When the InstaFarm trays are done, they can either be composted or separated and planted in your garden. InstaFarm debuted a similar soil-based concept for commercial use at this year's CES, which was an Innovation Award honoree for food tech, and I'm not surprised. If you're serious about microgreens and removing all barriers to success, I'm hard-pressed to think of a better solution than the InstaFarm.

$499 at Amazon (Instafarm)$23 at Amazon (Seed Tray Sampler)$449 at Instafarm