The newest idea in houseplant care uses modern technology to have the plant telephone when it requires care. Advice from time immemorial, proffered after experiencing such “advances” in practice and pocket, is summed up as cum graino salus.
A group of students from New York University observed that “high-paced technologists seldom have time to stop and smell the flowers, let alone water them.” Yet these same interior plants are responsible for removing pollutants from indoor air.
What was needed, they decided, was “a new way for plants and people to communicate in order to develop better, longer-lasting relationships between them.” They call it Botanicalls. Instead of testing each plant container with a moisture meter and watering as required, sensors are placed in the pot. These signal soil conditions over a wireless network to a gateway. The gateway then communicates via a phone call or e-mail personalized to each type of plant.
Doubtless the assigning of a different voice to each species will enhance some people’s ability to “develop better, longer-lasting relationships” with their charges. But will it really achieve such a state of blissful nirvana? Will a return phone call following watering thanking for the attention encourage intimacy?
The determination of when large plants require watering depends on assessing the state of the soil near the bottom of the pot. Professional plant care experts carry moisture meters with long probes for this very reason. The sensors will have to be placed deep within the growing medium to achieve this.
A frigid enemy of houseplants is cold water. Will “high-paced technologists” have time to assure the water is at room temperature? Will they be able to attend to nutrient needs, assure that the air is buoyant and at a suitable humidity level? Have they positioned the plant where it will receive optimum suitable light exposure?
Will they be too involved elsewhere to detect fungus gnat larvae in the soil or spider mites on the foliage? Interior plant care does not start or indeed finish with watering, vital as that is.
The Germans have an appropriate word, Schlimmbesserung, meaning an improvement that makes things worse.
Botanicalls, according to its developers, “opens a new channel of communication between plants and humans, in an effort to promote successful inter-species understanding.” Teutonic vocabulary notwithstanding, they may be on to something, at least for the younger set.
Late last year, an Associated Press-AOL poll revealed that more than four in 10 teenagers who instant message use it for things they wouldn’t say in person. Nearly half the people surveyed between the ages of 13 and 18 say they use instant messaging.
Presently still under development, Botanicalls is said set to go commercial “early in 2008.” If nothing else, their website at
www.botanicalls.com/ is a fun visit. The cost of this service remains unannounced. To use another tag, caveat emptor – buyer beware.
