A slew of high-tech weapons could soon occupy home gardeners’ arsenals.
From soil humidity sensors, to computer-generated growing tips, to
weather detection devices, these contraptions challenge the notion that
plants need a human touch.
Whether you’ve mastered indoor herbs, wrestled with roses to no
avail, or painstakingly crafted a backyard flower patch, the new
generation of
garden gadgets could make your life easier. Here are ten of the most intriguing new techie tools for green and black thumbs alike:
1. Bitponics
You’ve heard of the Cloud, that ambiguous storage space for all the
world’s data; Bitponics provides a similar service for gardeners through
a cloud connected to your WiFi network. At $500, the Bitponics Base
Station is a splurge, but it does provide a remarkable service:
monitoring plant pH, water and air temperature, light and humidity. The
system alerts you should anything skew too far from the plant’s
personalized Grow Plan, and you can make adjustments through your
computer, anywhere and anytime.
2. PlantLink
Like Bitponics, this garden gadget relies on data stored in a cloud.
Place the PlantLink in the soil near your indoor or outdoor plants –
each plant or lawn area needs its own link – and enter the plant type
into the company website.
You’ll then be provided with a watering schedule, which you can
access online and be alerted to via email. PlantLink is a Kickstarter
project, developed by a group of University of Illinois engineering
students.
3. Botanicalls
Although the assemblage of Botanicalls would appear to require an
inhuman amount of patience and attention to detail–prepare yourself for
soldering and wire-snipping–the end result is a device that allows your
plant to tweet and text its needs.
This project began in 2009 when students in the Interactive
Telecommunications program at NYU wanted to give neglected plants a
voice, and hesitant gardeners a leg up.
4. Indoor Garden Herb:ie
Using a combination of
hydroponics
and intensive energy-efficient lighting, Indoor Garden Herbie gives
apartment dwellers the gift of a garden. This compact container comes in
black, white, red or green, and would make an attractive addition to a
kitchen or fire escape.
5. Click n’ Grow Smart Garden
Almost eerily prescient, Click n’ Grow is always one step ahead of you. The sleek flowerpot has a refillable
water reservoir
and plant cartridge filled with seeds and special growth medium–a
super-vitamin for soil. Tucked inside the pot are electronic sensors and
software that measures the plant’s needs, releasing precise amounts of
fertilizer, air and water.
6. Erbiza
There is more to this unassuming herb box than meets the eye.
Constructed from PEFC-certified spruce wood, Erbiza brims with organic
potting soil and seeds, and comes with a special code that enables
registration on GrowThePlanet.com. The site doles out daily advice to
ensure your chives, thyme, oregano and parsley flourish.
7. Windowfarms Tower
Grow a vertical indoor garden beside a window year-round with this
automated plant feeding and watering system. Windowfarms Tower supplies
plants with nutrient-rich water that spurts upward from a reservoir in
the system’s base, before funneling down from plant to plant. Thanks to a
simple electric timer, the system is energy efficient; once installed,
it will only cost a few dollars per year.
8. Rugiada Plant Sensor
The Italian trio of Lorenzo De Bartolomeis, Gabriele Diamanti and
Filipo Poli combined their backgrounds in building, landscape and
graphic design to create this multitasking irrigation device. It
determines the amount of water your garden needs, based on air and soil
humidity measurements, and type and quantity of vegetable. Rugiada also
releases water in three different ways, depending on plant needs:
nebulizing spray, drip or rotating sprinkler. Keep an eye out for
Parrot Flower Power, a similar irrigation device with a wireless sensor, which is set for release some time this year.
9. Sprout Robot
This website answers the question on every new gardener’s lips: where
do I begin? Simply input your zip code, and Sprout Robot will craft an
easy-to-follow gardening plan based on your location and climate. Get
seeds in the mail just in time for planting season, or opt to receive
seasonal reminder emails to keep your garden on track.
10. Pocket Garden App
For just 99 cents, this mobile growing guide covers an impressive
range of gardening questions and concerns. From seed type, to
germination and harvest time, to general planting suggestions, such as
soil depth and plant spacing, Garden App is an uncomplicated yet
thoroughly helpful resource.
On the Horizon
In development by Public Lab, an open community-supported non-profit,
Infragram is a relatively simple and inexpensive (should retail for about $35) infrared camera which can measure plant health.
Currently in the crowdfunding stage on Kickstarter, Infragram is
based on the principle that photosynthesizing plants absorb most visible
light (less green than red and blue, which is why they appear green to
us) but reflect near-infrared. Snapping a photo with Infragram results
in two separate images–one with infrared, another with regular light–and
a “false-color” composite where bright spots indicate lots of
photosynthesis.
Maurizio
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