Gadget Gives Anyone a Green Thumb
Figure out what's wrong with your plants
By SCOTT MCGREW and JESSICA GREENE
Updated 7:10 AM PST, Fri, Nov 21, 2008
The Easy Bloom Plant Sensor incorporates smart design, the Internet, and sophisticated sensors to help you figure out why your plants are dying.
There are so many gadgets that either fail to fill a need or, just the opposite -- fill too many needs. For example, the car GPS unit that also plays back MP3's. What's up with that?
The Easy Bloom does just one thing: it helps you plant.
Simply take the device (which looks like a large plastic flower) and stick it in the ground in a garden. It measures sunlight and soil moisture over the course of a period of time. Then just pull the device apart in the middle and plug the now exposed USB port into a computer.
The sensor communicates back to Easy Bloom headquarters with your particular data where a huge database created by botanists gives you recommendations based on your particular situation.
There are three ways to use the Easy Bloom. The best way is to put the plant sensor where you want to plant in the future. The device and the database will tell you what will grow best in your particular spot. You know, petunias in the backyard, roses in the front yard -- something like that.
If you're already trying to grow something and failing, you can use the sensor to tell you what's going wrong. Plant the sensor next to your failing impatiens and the $60 device will figure out why your flowers are so unhappy by letting you know whether the plant has too much sunlight, not enough water or not enough sunlight, for example.
You can also take the sensor around the house and stick it in various houseplants and it will tell you right away whether they need to be watered.
The Easy Bloom will not measure soil acidity or fertilizer levels.
First Published: Nov 20, 2008 2:15 PM PST
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