

Thirsty Plants Can Now Send Text Messages - kkleiner
http://singularityhub.com/2009/06/02/thirsty-plants-can-now-send-text-messages/

======
tjic
I object to the sensationalist "THEY can send text messages".

You've got a sensor, and the sensor communicates back along a channel.

This is like saying that "stars can now imprint their images on photographic
film". In fact, you've connected a camera to a telescope.

~~~
wmf
It could be worse: the plants could be tweeting.

------
jnorthrop
Neat idea but it seem really impractical. A sensor on every plant? What
happens when a leaf falls off? Are you going to have a sensor that is saying
"water me now!" until it is recovered? Is there really that much different
between plants of the same species planted right next to each other that
they'd each need a sensor?

It would seem better to have a small cluster of sensors every 100m or so. That
way you could water the areas that need it and have a bit of fault-tolerance
(in case one sensor in the group falls to the ground you have the others in
the group reporting correctly).

Having said that though don't modern farmers already have technology that
tells them when to water and how much? I vaguely recalled reading something
about that kind of technology years ago.

~~~
kkleiner
story was updated shortly after you read it to mention that not every plant
requires the chip. Like you say, there must be other stuff out there as well,
so it is unclear how useful this would be versus other competing solutions

------
boryas
Now we can have a fully automated garden which, once it is in full bloom, will
also send a message to a machine that delivers a chemical to our brains that
give us the feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction that comes from working on
a garden.

~~~
mahmud
I think a few Good Guys somewhere in Colombia or Afghanistan could use zigbee
enabled farms. Just saying.

------
biohacker42
$250? This is much cheaper
[http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/02/how_to_make_plants_...](http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/02/how_to_make_plants_talk_t.html)

------
msluyter
For a while I wanted to write an app that'd send you reminders when it was
time to water your plants (based on factors like the plant type, the weather,
etc...) but there are just too many vagaries to make accurate predictions. IE,
your house may be particularly dry due to your particular AC unit, and so you
may need to water twice as often as someone with higher humidity.

This, on the other hand, makes a lot more sense.

