Depending on who you ask, the answer to the question “How hard is it to keep houseplants alive?” may vary. Well, this new device seems to take a lot of the guesswork out of it, and it’s already garnered a lot of support on Kickstarter. The device is called Smartyplants, and the device is basically a sensor that can feed all kinds of information about your plant right to your smartphone.
The idea was started by Ben Beavers. Basically, you take the sensor, stuff it into the soil of your houseplant, and then it can tell you all kinds of things like how healthy the soil is, how wet it is, information about the light levels, temperature, humidity, and more. It sounds like a great way to keep up with your plant—even if you don’t really know what you’re doing.
But why do we need devices like Smartyplants to help us keep our houseplants alive? While some of us might have a green thumb—and be very good at keeping our leafy friends living—others just aren’t as lucky. In fact, the company mentions that more than 38 million houseplants die each year in the UK alone. That’s an insane amount of houseplants, and it seems Smartyplants wants to make it easier for folks to keep them alive.
The company says the sensor should help solve issues like overwatering and underwatering—both of which can cause damage to the plant or even kill it. But with the sensor showcased in the company’s Kickstarter—which has already raised over $100,000 of the proposed $6,343—it should be relatively easy to keep up with how much moisture your houseplant’s soil has and when you need to worry about rewatering it or adding more nutrients.
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Beyond just checking in on your plants, Smartyplants also says that its app will allow you to connect with friends, integrate it with your smart home system, and learn more about plant care essentials. It will even—supposedly at least—help you find plants that will work best for your home environment. Considering we’re already seeing genetically engineered houseplants that can help clean the air in your house, adding a houseplant into your home might make the air cleaner and clearer without requiring you to buy an air purifier.
Smartyplants is currently offering a number of “early bird” prices on the Kickstarter campaign, which has roughly 15 days to go as of the time of this article’s writing. The campaign will end on July 19, though, so if you’re interested in getting in early and supporting what the company is trying to do, you should head over and check out the Kickstarter before it ends.