The Plantee indoor greenhouse was developed for folks who have brought a colorful plant home from a shopping trip, only to watch it wither and die despite their best efforts to look after it. The all-in-one, plug-and-play solution takes the guesswork out of caring for plants so that just about anyone can grow all kinds of plants in the home.
"I've always loved experimenting with different conditions for my plants, but when I got one thing right, the others just backfired," said CEO and co-founder of Plantee Innovations, Ondra Zbytek. "I thought, I can’t be the only one who struggles."
As many of us have discovered when bringing a new plant home, each variety of houseplant has different needs, which can be quite challenging to meet. While some green-fingered growers might relish such things, others might prefer to have technology take care of everything automatically, and just sit back and enjoy the results.
We've seen a number of indoor gardens of course, all aiming to take the strain out of growing plants inside the home. But most of those – such as the iHarvest, Rotofarm and Click & Grow 25 – focus on just providing a steady supply of veggies or greens. The Plantee, which is currently raising production funds on Kickstarter, can do that too, but can also take on demanding decorative growers like tropical plants.
To the front of the aluminum base is a tilting 7-inch touchscreen interface for system control and monitoring, which also prompts users to perform such tasks as refilling the water tank when needed, adding fertilizer, doing some pruning, and so on.
The device features a 1.3-gal (5-l) growing tub, a glass cover allowing for an internal growing volume of 18 gal (17 l), Osram Duris LEDs, temperature and soil moisture sensors, an adjustable hose for targeted watering, and an internal 50-fl-oz (1,500-ml) water tank for automatic irrigation – though an external tank (such as a bucket or water bottle) can be employed for long-haul convenience.
Unlike setups that require growers to buy into proprietary seed/soil pods, the Plantee can accommodate all sorts of store-bought plants and seeds – including orchids, bonsai trees, strawberries, chili peppers, microgreens, dwarf sunflowers, and succulents – and any type of organic or mineral soil can be used. And the transparent cover lifts right off to give full access to the tub and plants.
Individual plant profiles are available online and can be imported into the system, which determine parameters such as lighting cycles and intensity, watering, airflow and air temperature within the glass box, soil moisture levels, and so on. Users can also create custom profiles using the Plantee app, and then load those settings into the system via a USB thumbdrive.
"For those who do not have access to large gardens or technical experience with advanced electrical growing equipment, Plantee is a must-have product that will change forever the way we see indoor gardening," said Plantee Innovations in a press release.
But high-tech indoor growing doesn't come cheap, with Kickstarter early bird pledges starting at US$899, which includes the indoor greenhouse, a starter seed pack, soil and fertilizer, and magnetic water hose, a USB thumbdrive pre-loaded with plant profiles, and a power supply.
The already-funded campaign has about a month left to run, and if all goes to plan, shipping is estimated to start in February/March 2022. The video below has more.
Source: Plantee Innovations
