File this under cancelled: the Internet of Plants
File this under cancelled: the Internet of Plants
Off the ground in some ways but not others…
Picture this: pods of plants that you can mount on a wall indoors that doesn’t need watering for a month but still managing to grow more verdantly than Poison Ivy’s garden.
This relatively self-sustaining mini-ecosystem, called Plug & Plant, is at the heart of a Kickstarter campaign — now cancelled — by Vertical Green, an architectural firm that specialises in living walls. The plants in a Plug & Plant system grow from pods rather than pots, fitted with sensors that detect the light, humidity and temperature in the room.
The sensors help ease that most taxing of all burdens for home owners: watering plants. Apparently, each pod in a Plug & Plant panel is connected to a Smart Water Tank, which can detect lack of hydration and be filled with 1.2 gallons of H2O that can trickle into the plants as needed. As for those concerned about dripping dirt, Vertical Green engineered the pods to use biodegradable polyurethane-starch instead of ordinary loam.
More: Singapore’s ‘plant whisperer’ on why ‘green walls’ are now a thing
Through Bluetooth, the sensors transmit data about the plants to a companion app, informing you on how best to optimise plant growth. Vertical Green claims that you’ll spend just 10 minutes in an entire month taking care of the living wall.
Since the system has a modular design, you can connect as many pods as you need. Buyers have a choice between 30 species of seeds, which include everything from ornamental plants to medicinal herbs and even small crops.
Before the cancellation of the Kickstarter campaign in November, Plug & Plant had been scheduled to ship in May.
Keeping photosynthetic friends in high places has been growing in vogue in recent years. Living walls or green walls have adorned buildings as key architectural elements around the world, from Singapore to Sydney. In Mexico, one of the world’s biggest green walls, measuring 2,700 square metres, covers the Los Cabos International Convention Center.
Read next: These amazing grass armchairs will transform your landscape design
Source: Property Report