Plants And Watering

Do you have a garden at home? Ok, if not a garden, do you keep plants inside your house? Is watering those plants, a big pain in the neck for you? Scared to go on a long trip or vacation, fearing that your plants might die? Do you wish to take good care of the sacred Tulsi plant in your home but office and other commitments take up a lot of your time? If you answered yes to these questions more than a couple of times, then fear not, hope is within sight. The answer to your watering woes is pretty simple and consists of two words – Plant Link.

I’m talking about Plant Link which is the ingenious new technology being developed in Illinois, USA. Plant Link is a system being generated by OSO Technologies, which basically comprises of a team of six people with diverse backgrounds such as mechanical engineering, electronic and embedded systems engineering, computer engineering and marketing. Check out their team profile at their website.

• Plant Link basically comprises of a link, shaped like a long cylinder, which is placed into the soil right next to the plant. The link makes use of soil moisture readings at an interval of every 5-10 minutes to determine when your plant needs water. It also takes into account external weather conditions and different plant types to arrive at the conclusion.
• The information collected by the link is then sent by wireless mode to the base sitting inside your home.
• The base, with the help of your wi-fi router, then uploads this on a cloud storage space on the web.
• Once this is achieved, you’ll be able to get notifications on your phone informing you that your plant needs water. You can even check it on your PC.
• Then, you can either go and water the plants yourself or using the valves which connect to a sprinkler system, water your plants wirelessly as well.

Of course, this system asks for continuous power supply at your home, wifi facilities, sprinkler availability and internet access on your smartphone. One must agree that in the urban households, these things are fast becoming quite commonplace, if they aren't already. However, this technology has been developed keeping in mind the developed countries like US, UK and Europe in mind, so the applicability to the Indian context, beyond the major cities, is a tad difficult. In my previous post, I spoke about how to turn off the lights through your wi-fi network.

I’m pretty sure, if the young minds in India are given the resources and the opportunity to think creatively, these systems and technology may start originating in our country itself. However, this calls for a concerted effort from the Government as well the Private players in India to facilitate and foster such ideas. Until that day, Plant Link should solve your watering woes and problems. (Note- they’re shipping this product internationally as well, so, you might wish to try this one out.)

What are your thoughts regarding incubating such ideas in India? Would you use this technology to water the plants at your home? Can you suggest some alternate methods of watering the plants? Share your valuable insight and views in the comments below.

Jay Singh




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