Plan your garden with Sprout Robot
12.7 years ago gardening software, indoor seed starting, robot, seeds, sprouting
I came across Sprout Robot in the past week, you simply create an account and provide your zip code and it will give you a complete calendar of planting dates as well as follow ups when to expect sprouts to form, when to bring out, harvest etc.
When a new event is coming up you will get an email similar to the one below letting you know what is new to plant that week.
When you connect to the site you then can “Check-In” and check off the tasks you have completed which get updated with next event for that plant.
They also have an option where they will even send out organic seeds just in time for planting in your area starting at $19.99 a year, though personally I have plenty of seeds saved for at a couple of years in my refrigerator.
Strawberry picking Robots
14 years ago robot, strawberries
Well this is not the first time we have seen robots harvesting food and probably not the last but a team in Japan has created a robot that selectively picks strawberries that are at least 80% red. Though this might be good enough for the average consumer at the grocery store, I would personally insist on closer to 95% and hold off until they are a slightly darker red for some extra delicious super ripe berries.
They estimate that this robot can reduce picking time by by 40% but at 9 seconds a berry I am pretty sure I can easily keep up with this monster…though I eventually have to sleep and eat so the numbers may work out. I also would have to make the assumption that this is being targeted for growing hydroponic strawberries given even with my primitive human vision I need to move some leaves around to see most of the berries I pick in my back yard.
There is no word on the cost of this strawberry picking robot but you can check out a video of this bad boy in action below.
Tags: strawberry, strawberry plants
Fuji Heavy Industries autonomous farming robot
15.1 years ago garden maintenance, robot
We have seen MIT students making robots to tend on their plants. Now Fuji Heavy Industries has created a robot that can completely take care of your fruits and vegetables in your fields (or greenhouse) for a modest fee of only $100,000. You can pick up your own by the next fiscal year.
It uses lasers with reflective panels to orient itself and is 6.5 feet long, unfortunately there are not too many additional geeky details which probably would be helpful before putting down the $100K for this bad boy.
Given this is the cheap vegetable gardener, I will be sticking with my hands and trowel next fiscal year though can’t wait to see a video if this in action.
Tags: cheap, outdoor plants, vegetables
