Plant Projects

Easy Bloom and USB Greenhouse — Your computer can help you go green. Who knew? The Easy Bloom Plant Sensor reads and analyzes growing conditions at specific points in your house or yard by measuring a variety of factors, including sunlight, humidity, soil moisture and drainage. Greenthumbs might not be impressed, but nothing can crush an amateur grower like the seeds of your effort expiring.

The USB Greenhouse takes an opposite approach to Easy Bloom, creating a computer-powered safe haven where even the most stubborn of plants will grow. The greenhouse is relatively small — don’t expect to grow tomatoes — but there’s still plenty of room to cultivate something tasty. The greenhouse will also send you reminders to water your plant, though you’ll have to leave the thing plugged in for it to work.

Ready-to-Plant Mats — If you like having plants but don’t like actually planting them, these mats from Amber’s Garden might just be for you. The mats come packed with seeds spaced out and planted at the optimal depth. The mats can then be “planted” in your garden or cut into pieces to create a tiny garden. You can start harvesting after about a month, with several varieties including salsa mix, pumpkin patch, Asian garden mix and more.

Vertical Farming — Definitely the most expensive and most elaborate idea in this list, Vertical Farming challenges the idea that farms need to be, well, horizontal. Vertical Farming proposes creating high-rise-like farms to be filled top-to-bottom with plants. The small, slender design means Vertical Farms could be placed in central locations in a city. The plants would subsist on a hydroponic system and could be harvested with relative ease. The idea is that Vertical Farms will cut down on emissions and transportation costs by bringing the farm inside the city. Critics have cited the enormously large amount of water and energy needed to support Vertical Farms — as well as the fact that the farms may not actually save that much money compared to traditional, horizontal farms.

Big Box Farms — Skyscrapers aren’t the only buildings with a green thumb. Big Box Farms builds small farms inside industrial warehouses using a special, patented rack technology. The companies racks allow farms to be built in practically any warehouse space with added benefits. Big Box Farms says its technology eliminates contamination, runoff and the need for pesticides, while reducing the amount of water, land and fertilizer needed to grow healthy produce. There is also an option for brands to set up a private rack complete with branding and shipping help. Big Box Farms is tight-lipped on just how its racks are so good, but if it can back up its boasts, the future may just be green.

(Via Mashable!.)