EasyBloom Plant Sensor | 
| Brand: PlantSense
List Price: $59.95
Buy New: $44.99
You Save: $14.96 (25%)
New (4) from $44.99
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 16
Autographed: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 3.5 x 1 x 11
MPN: 616367
Model: 1000
UPC: 895564002016
EAN: 0895564002016
ASIN: B001E5DF66
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Access the EasyBloom database of 5,000+ plants (developed with the largest growers of plants and flowers) | | • | Find plants to thrive in every area of your home and garden, based on algorithms developed by leading plant horticulturalists and botanists | | • | Diagnose ailing plants and bring them back to health | | • | Keep inventory of your own plants for one-click plant care | | • | End the discouraging cycle of trial-and-error planting. Saves you money and time! |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
EasyBloom Plant Sensor helps you enjoy beautiful, flourishing plants--easily and without guesswork! It will recommend plants for specific locations, tell you why a plant is doing poorly and more. The EasyBloom Plant Sensor has environmental sensors to detect sunlight, shade and soil moisture levels, plus a USB plug to connect to your computer. EasyBloom can tell you what plants will thrive in a specific spot in your home or yard, what is wrong with an ailing plant and how to help it, and even whether a plant needs more water or not. It gives you access to a database with information on more than 5,000 plants--you can even create a personal plant database online, to help you monitor and care for all your plants, houseplants and outdoor plants alike. Best of all, EasyBloom is very easy to use. First, plug EasyBloom into a USB port on your computer and select Recommend' (to get plant recommendations for specific locations) or Monitor' (to help evaluate a weak plant). Second, place EasyBloom in the spot where you would like to grow a plant, or next to the plant that needs monitoring and leave it for 24 hours. Finally, plug EasyBloom back into a USB port--sensor data will upload to the EasyBloom website, which will use that data to either recommend plants or diagnose a plant's problem. Compatible with Windows Vista/XP and Mac OS 10.5+. Uses 1 AAA battery (included). 11 1/2" tall, 1 1/2" wideWhat EasyBloom can do for you Recommend plants for specific locations in your home or garden, based on sunlight, shade and soil conditions. Diagnose an ailing plant and suggest how to help it thrive. Tell you whether a plant needs to be watered. Help you create a personal plant database online with care, maintenance and planting info.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Mostly for beginning gardeners November 21, 2008
Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA)
40 out of 43 found this review helpful
When I received the EasyBloom Plant Sensor, I was excited because I had been struggling to grow plants on my new property despite years of gardening experience. This product promised to recommend and monitor my plants to determine what was going wrong. Unfortunately, it measures nothing more than I could tell by sticking my own finger in the soil and watching the shadows for a day: moisture and light. Yes, it measures temperature and relative humidity, but those vary both daily and seasonally and can be figured out by walking out the door. It does not analyze the soil -- probably the most crucial information that cannot be intuitively known -- for type, fertility, toxicity, and acidity. You must discover and enter this yourself on the web site.
The monitor setting does basically the same thing, only over a longer time so you can see the moisture and light fluctuations over a longer period of time; again, it cannot diagnose over- or under-fertilization, incorrect acidity, compacted or too sandy soil, diseases, or pests, the most common reasons a plant dies. The EasyBloom can take a snapshot of the location for future reference.
Probably the best part of the device is the web interface that provides detailed information on recommended plants. Yes, this information can be found online or in a good plant book, but the site shows thumbnail photos of the plants that can then lead the user to a more detailed description, including care, known pests, height, growing zones, attractiveness to birds, shape, etc. I really would have liked a "deer resistant" option; maybe they will add that in the future. Strangely enough, the site does not recommend the plants that *are* thriving in my landscape.
Beginning gardeners will find this device much more useful than experienced ones since they may not yet know how to use light conditions (shade, partial shade, afternoon sun, etc.) and soil moisture content to select the proper plants for an area. Unfortunately, they are also the ones who might over-fertilize or select the wrong plant for the soil type.
Although the EasyBloom is not comprehensive enough for advanced help, it would make a good housewarming gift for someone's first home. I'll be the first in line when they upgrade the device to include soil testing and fertility.
UPDATE: I purposefully mistreated a houseplant to see what the EasyBloom device would say -- and it was spot on. It identified low light and improper watering, making a suggestion to repot it (to get a more absorbent soil) and place it in a better lit location.
Note: As of this writing, this device is compatible only with Windows. The company says that the Mac version of the software should be available on December 15, 2008, in time for the holidays.
-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann
 It's not really Mac compatible October 27, 2008
Alison (Plano, TX)
15 out of 30 found this review helpful
Despite the "Mac compatible" description here on Amazon, and on their press release, and on their website, the easyBloom is not yet Mac compatible. In fact, they do not expect to have Mac software until January of 2009 at the earliest. An attempt to get this information direct from the manufacturer resulted in the most incoherent, stupid responses from the worst customer service agents I've ever encountered. One told me to "Contact Mac for software" and then disconnected me. The other told me that it was available for download on their site, then changed his mind and told me there was no known schedule for Mac support.
Bad service from a company claiming great things for a new product. I ordered based on Amazon's "Mac compatible" listing, and now I'll have to return the product when it arrives.
 Save Your Plants - Make The Right Decisions! November 29, 2008
Martin A Hogan (San Francisco, CA.)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I'm a landscape architect specializing in design, construction and planning. I am not an expert in plant materials like a botanist. The `easy Bloom' was a real eye opener for me. It has a library of thousands of plants with detailed descriptions of anything a botanist or ordinary `garden-variety' gardener would want to know. It is virtually an on-line encyclopedia and more expansive than the Western Garden Book.
Some of the options were: Plant recommendations, Environmental Conditions, Edit (later info) and Notes (personal). Searching for a certain plant, you can choose: Bloom Color, Bloom Season, Foliage, Characteristics, Special features, Height, Plant Type, Shape/Form and Soil Type.
There are SO MANY options. I decided to try it on indoor and outdoor plants, but finally decided to share just one problem spot I have. On my deck I have a large potted barrel about two feet high by three feet in diameter with good loamy soil. Oddly, nothing seems to really do well there. So I planted the `easy Bloom' in the dirt for 24 hours. Then I placed the USB stick into my computer and was asked to refine my plant choices by: Bloom Color, Bloom Season, Foliage characteristics, Special features, Height, Plant Type, Shape/Form and Soil Type.
I picked through all the options of what I wanted and within a few seconds, the `best' plants choices for my barrel were for:
Height: fern (American Maidenhair), Hyacinth, Tulip, Carpet Bugle, Lily, Coleus.
Bloom (of nine colors I chose red): Coleus, Tulip, Geranium.
Environmental Conditions told me for that 24 hour period: Average temp was (51-55 degrees) with mostly midday sun and moderate to fairly high humidity.
The final plant choices for my outside deck barrel for all options were: Coleus, Geranium and Friendship Plant. Now that I know what will look best year round for my barrel, I can just move to each pot, garden area or indoor pot and get several great choices.
Next I plan on choosing why my indoor `Climbing Onion' that is going through dormancy, will need to survive and thrive. I'll be ready for the spring!
I have never seen a plant monitor like this that is so extensive or thorough with thousands of plants and analysis. This is a must for any serious gardener - especially those who think they know it all (and I know quite a few of those). Just be prepared - after owning one of these, they WILL know it all!
Very useful product October 28, 2008
Matt Barletta (Campbell, CA)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
I have found this product very easy to get started with and get useful data about my yard. I've got a lot of shade in the front and too much sun in the back all on top of California clay. Life has been a "hit or miss" set of plant experiments.
This product is now shedding some light on what works where and why. This is very useful and I will be shifting my strategy going into the spring for sure.
Very cool stuff.
Finally! October 27, 2008
D. Gasiorek (San Francisco, CA United States)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
Finally someone invented this product! I cannot tell you how many plants I have killed in my lifetime. I never know if they die because I watered them too much, too little, or if it wasn't getting enough light, etc. Now there is actually a device that can tell me the answer! Thank you thank you. No more throwing dead plants and $$ down the drain. Love it!
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