The AeroGarden Shakeup: What a Rocky Couple of Years Teaches Us About Buying a Smart Indoor Garden

If you've spent any time researching indoor gardening this year, you've probably seen the question pop up: what actually happened to AeroGarden? It's not just idle curiosity, even our fellow smart indoor garden makers have been digging into it. Gardyn published a deep dive into AeroGarden's ownership history just a couple weeks ago, and it's easy to see why the story struck a nerve. 🌱

Here's the short version. AeroGarden had a huge pandemic moment, as people spent more time at home in 2020, countertop hydroponic gardens surged in popularity, and Scotts Miracle-Gro scooped up the brand to ride that wave. But the boom didn't hold. By late 2024, Scotts Miracle-Gro discontinued the AeroGarden line entirely, citing demand that never returned to pandemic-era highs. For a few months, existing owners were left with devices and no clear path forward for parts, pods, or app support.

Then came the twist: in early 2025, a private investment group bought AeroGarden's patents, designs, and brand rights, restarted seed pod production, and relaunched the product line. As of early 2026, AeroGarden is technically back on shelves, but reviewers note the new company is still working through backordered parts and rebuilding customer support from scratch. It's a real comeback story, but also a cautionary one.

We think this saga says something bigger about where the smart indoor gardening category is headed. Market researchers still project steady long-term growth for smart indoor gardens as more people look for fresh, year-round herbs and produce at home. But growth on paper doesn't mean every brand sticks around, and AeroGarden's rollercoaster is a reminder that a "smart" garden is only as good as the company standing behind it years down the line.

That's exactly the bet we've made with Plantaform. Plantaform 3.0 builds on our original fog-based growing technology rather than replacing it, our app gets real updates (our last major release shipped in December), and we've kept investing in both the consumer and education sides of the business, recognition like our CES Best of Innovation honor and our Web Summit PITCH win didn't happen because we shipped one product and walked away. When schools and families choose Plantaform, we want that to be a relationship that gets better over time, not a device that quietly goes end-of-life.

So if you're shopping for a smart indoor garden right now, whether it's your first one or a replacement for something that didn't pan out, the AeroGarden story is worth keeping in mind. Ask who's behind the product, how long they've been iterating on it, and what happens to your garden if the company's priorities shift.

Curious what a years of continuous iteration actually looks like in a growing system? Take a look at what's new in Plantaform 3.0.