These vegetable garden apps come in handy for a variety of gardening issues. If you’d like to learn how to catalog your garden and produce nutritious vegetables, there’s an app for that. On the other hand, if you’re more interested in the soil, seeds, seasons, and harvest, there are apps for those, too. In this article, we’ll cover the apps in detail and open your eyes to a list of those that could come in handy for you.

What Are Vegetable Garden Apps?

Vegetable garden apps serve as educational tools for gardeners to get instant information on any gardening topic. There are several gardening applications available on the internet. Many of these contain information, tools, or guidelines to improve your gardening skills.

Some of these applications also connect the gardeners with the horticulture experts. This helps gardening enthusiasts make their vegetable gardens active and healthy. Moreover, having these apps helps you track your progress. You can set up a personal account, add and edit notes. In addition, you can put in seeds’ information, and learn how to make the most of the results.

Furthermore, there is an app for almost everything that you might need with regards to gardening. This includes gaining information about a specific type of plant, designing your garden, identifying a plant, etc. Whatever it is, there’s almost certainly an app for it.

Why Do You Need Vegetable Growing Apps?

Granted, gardening is a fun and productive activity. However, it requires utmost attention, hard work, and vigilance. To have the best harvest possible in your vegetable garden, you must take care of various parameters. Here, vegetable-growing apps can offer you great help.

Generally, vegetable plants do not need your attention more than ornamental plants. However, if neglected, there are strong chances of lower yields or inferior quality vegetables. Moreover, vegetable plants are different from flowering or fruit-producing plants as we harvest vegetables before the plant forms mature seeds. Thus, the vegetable plants require consistent food, energy, and care. This is to ensure that they keep producing a maximum harvest.

The app developers have designed these vegetable growing apps considering all major and minor requirements for growing the best quality vegetables. Any passionate gardener seeking guidelines, a planner, or general information to grow vegetables needs these apps. 

Benefits of Using Vegetable Garden Apps?

Having a vegetable garden app in your hand is beneficial for you in several ways. First and foremost, these apps act both as your gardening assistant and virtual gardening coach. In both capacities, their primary purpose is to help you nurture a fruitful vegetable garden. 

Here are a few of the most common benefits of vegetable garden apps.

• Help in Plant Selection: The gardening apps can guide you in selecting the best seasonal vegetables to plant depending upon the size of your space and regional environmental conditions. Most of these apps feature a list of thousands of fruits and vegetables along with the best plantation methods as per your area’s climate. 
• Gardening Tracker: After planting the seeds, you can track the growth stage of the vegetables. Moreover, the garden tracker guides you about the harvesting time as well.
• Day-to-Day Gardening Notifications: You can set daily reminders to water your plants on these vegetable garden apps. Furthermore, these apps notify you about the planting, fertilizing, and harvesting timeline.

Top Vegetable Garden Apps

An extensive range of vegetable garden apps is available for Android and iOS users. No matter what you’re looking for, there’s most likely an app for it. 

We have thoughtfully curated a list of top vegetable garden apps available for gardeners. All these apps have a user-friendly interface, and in a short time, you’ll understand how to benefit from them.

Vegetable Tree: The number one gardening app covering all the basics of vegetable gardening.

Seed to Spoon: Provides the best planting strategies to avoid diseases and harvest healthy vegetables.

Gardroid: Has a list of vegetables to plant along with tips and guidelines, and a progress tracker.

Garden Manager: Has a virtual gardener that helps you with “what, when, and how to plant.”

SmartGardener: Mobile app having a journal to add notes and track your vegetables’ growth stage.

Moon & Garden: Features day-to-day gardening tasks’ notifications, calendar, and gardening community to interact with.

Gardenate: Mobile app offering calendar, harvest tracker, and list of hundreds of plants along with plantation information.

Garden Planner: Assists you in designing landscape and vegetable garden layout.

Kitchen Garden Planner at Gardener’s Supply: Designs a new layout or updates the existing vegetable bed.

Garden Compass: Identifies pests and spots on your plants, and provides expert guides on how to get rid of them.

Gardening Companion: Features garden tracker and informative articles with daily notifications to bring you up to speed always.

SmartPlant: Features “Digital Care Calendar” and notifies you about general to specific requirements of your plants.

GardenTags: Contains an encyclopedia of 20,000 plus plants and a plant care journal.

intoGardens: Developed by a British garden designer to build a sustainable garden within your home.

Garden Plan Pro: Helps you harvest the best vegetables as per your weather conditions based on data from 6,500+ weather stations in 20 countries.

Other garden app guides

Garden Landscaping Apps

Weed Identification Apps

Soil Apps

Traditional Ways of Caring for Vegetable Gardens

It is necessary to take care of your vegetable garden to expect a high yield enriched with maximum fruit and nutrition. Generally, a gardener must be well-informed about the specific growth requirements of the vegetable and consistently check out the garden’s condition.

To maintain a luscious and healthy vegetable garden, you should regularly do weeding, watering, earthing, mulching, gap filling, thinning, and water drainage. Indeed, you can perform all these tasks without using apps, but apps can assist you with the correct timing, smart tools, and multiple methods to perform these tasks.

Final Thoughts

In brief, the vegetable garden apps offer simple, convenient, and highly beneficial gardening assistants to grow a fruitful vegetable garden. Every enthusiastic gardener must have their hands on these useful vegetable garden apps to make the most of their garden. Most of these applications are free, and you can download them on your phone without charges. However, some may cost you a bit for either subscription charges or one-time purchase prices.

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What Are Flower Apps?

A flower app takes advantage of artificial technology and machine learning to quickly identify the plant or flower whose picture you are taking. Usually, these are third-party apps, but nowadays, companies are integrating this technology into their stock camera app.

By simply pointing the camera at a flower, the app will tell you all the details about that flower within seconds. If the app can’t identify the flower, it will redirect you to a flower database where you can do a manual search.

Some apps require uploading a flower photo instead of taking it, and the app will identify the flowers. However, these apps require an active internet connection to check the database. If you don’t have active internet, take a picture and check it when you get home.

The best part is that these apps are available for all famous mobile platforms like Android and iOS. Google Search and Google Assistant are the default flower apps on Android. But if they are not working, here are the best third-party apps.

Top 5 Flower Apps

Here are the best flower apps we find on Google Play and App Store.

1. PlantNet

PlantNet is the best flower app available for iOS and Android, and it also has a web version. The workaround is simple; you take a flower picture, and the app processes it and identifies it. If that flower is new to the app, it will take help from Google and save the information, but it can take some time.

While PlantNet works pretty well, it has some problems with ornamental plants. It takes a lot of time or gives errors while identifying such plants.

2. Agrobase

Agrobase is not a regular flower app that simply identifies the flowers and describes them. Instead, this app helps point out the flower, what possible diseases it can get, and a database of weeds and pests. If you are going somewhere with lots of unknown plants, Agrobase is the only app you need.

Open the app and point the camera towards the field, and the app will scan and identify all plant life in the frame. Moreover, it can also identify the plants with diseases and provide a remedy for them. Ensure that you have live internet to get the remedy step-by-step.

It also has a web app that contains more details about the flowers. It also provides regular updates and keeps a backup of every photo you take. You can manually add an entry if the app fails to identify a flower. The app will save it to the database, making it convenient for other users.

3. PlantSnap

PlantSnap is an app available for Android and iOS. The company became a partner with Snapchat allowing users to search for over 600,000+ plants and flowers. You can also learn what the flower is called in your native language since the app supports over 30 languages.

The best part of this app is that it can identify trees and mushrooms. It has dozen of gardening tips to help amateurs grow plants. More than 50 million people are using this app and sharing your tips and tricks. Join their community and learn people’s personal experiences about growing and managing your garden.

PlantSnap is easy to use; connect it with Snapchat or use it solo to take pictures. Once done, the app will start scanning. The app will identify the common flowers quickly, while it might take up to a minute to identify a rare flower or plant.

4. What’s That Flower

This app is available in both variants; if you are interested in identifying flowers, you only need the free version. However, you’ll need to purchase the premium version if you want more details. This app provides frequent updates to update their database with new flowers. The only problem with this app is that it takes a little extra time to provide details about the flower.

On the other hand, this app also identifies the flowers if you provide specifications. You can start by telling the color, pattern, the environment, and where you saw it last time, and the app will do its best to find you the most accurate answer.

This app has a database of over 600 million flowers, and with new updates, the developer is adding more flowers to the database. The free version also has ads, and they get annoying.

5. Wateria

Wateria is a flower care app that provides you daily notifications to water your flowers and other useful tips. You can add the plant names in the app, which will guide you on how to take care of them properly. If you bought a new plant and have no information about it, take a picture of it via Wateria, and the app will share all the details.

You can manually add notifications in this app if you have different plans for your plant. This app is available for free without ads; some in-app purchases can enhance your overall experience.

Another useful thing about this app is whatever plant or flower this app identifies; it gives the proper gardening details of that particular flower. So, if you plan to grow it, this app can be the best tool you want.

Flower apps are convenient for all nature lovers to explore and learn about new flowers and plants. We shared the top five flower apps that help identify the flower and give details about its features, benefits, and growth.

Other garden app guides

Vegetable Garden Apps

Soil Apps

Best Plant Identification App

The post Top 5 Flower Apps to Try in 2023 appeared first on Garden and Plant Care.

Best Community Gardening Apps 

1. Garden Answers

Do you know what kind of tree it is in your backyard? Find out what your neighbor’s garden is full of by looking at their flowers. Use your smartphone to take a picture with this free app. The app uses a database of previously identified photos to quickly identify the plant in your shot and provide basic care instructions. If you’d want to pay a little charge, you may speak with a horticulturist about a particular pest or disease.

2. LeafSnap

Take a picture of the wildflower or shrub you’re curious about, and LeafSnap will connect you with an expert who can answer your questions. You’ll be able to identify 90% of the world’s plant and tree species thanks to LeafSnap’s extensive database. Hence, if you’re looking for a free and limitless app that can identify and monitor all of your plants, this one’s for you. Moreover, it has a big database that learns about new plant species and adds information to it. Additionally, it has a plant journal with images, reminders for plant care, and more. You may use LeafSnap to keep track of all the things you need to do in your garden daily.

3. Garden Journal at Territorial Seed

Gardening is a skill that can only be learned by hands-on practice. With this free app, you may track when and what you planted and how frequently you watered, fertilized, and harvested. Disease and pest databases are also available to aid in the identification of potential problems. Moreover, you can use climate data to provide specialized planting suggestions for your location. If you want, you can upgrade to the Garden Planner. The premium version includes a variety of features, such as a drawing tool, email planting reminders, and the ability to connect with other gardeners, for a one-time cost.

4. Garden Manager

You can get more out of your edible garden with this brand-new software. The app will guide you through a series of questions by a virtual gardening coach as you go from planting to harvesting. Subscribe to one of three service levels and get email reminders of what you need to do at each stage of the season. Moreover, it’s connected to local weather stations. As a result, if there is a frost, you will know when to cover sensitive plants.

6. iNaturalist

Free software like this one is essential for anybody who has ever noticed an unusual bug in their yard or wondered what kind of bird sings to them every day. Even though it isn’t geared at gardeners, there is a wealth of knowledge here that may be helpful to anybody with even a passing interest in the natural world. As a collaboration between the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic, a social network for nature enthusiasts, you may share your photos and receive an immediate answer to your questions on plants, birds, and animals. Moreover, it’s a terrific way to encourage youngsters to connect with nature and appreciate it more.

7. Garden Tags

Garden Tags entails a huge and active gardening community. This popular gardening app is ideal for getting ideas for your garden design. It’s possible to preserve a photographic record of your garden and receive reminders about trimming or advice on the greatest places for development. Moreover, it includes plant identification tools to make it easier to identify plants swiftly. With the app’s new climate-based scheduling feature, you can customize your gardening job schedule based on your local environment. Change the season or frequency of plant care chores for premium customers on monthly, yearly, or six-month subscriptions. In addition, plant and garden photographs include pinch and zoom motions, date stamping, and a badge attached to your profile.

8. Moon & Garden

Planting and harvesting your organic garden’s fruits, veggies, and herbs are easier with the Moon & Garden app system. Based on the moon’s phases, the software uses a biodynamic technique to tell you what to do in your garden the next day. Regarding gardening, the app takes a lunar-based strategy, focusing on the full moon or new moon for effective seeding, repotting, transplanting, and harvesting. Additionally, the app provides information about the moon’s current phase and zodiac sign and a detailed weather prediction. Using the app, you may set reminders for your gardening duties and share your photos with other Moon & Garden members. For $1, you may eliminate the advertising from the app.

Other garden app guides

Garden Landscaping Apps

Weed Identification Apps

Best Plant Identification App

Conclusion

If you’re like us, gardening is a chore that requires a little assistance. There are times when even the most seasoned gardener needs a refresher course in the art of horticulture. If you’re producing tomatoes, flowers, or nourishing veggies in your garden, a plethora of gardening applications may help you maximize your efforts. We’ve compiled a list of the finest gardening apps available right now. These apps include tools to keep track of your crop to tips on maximizing your productivity.

The post Best Community Gardening Apps – 8 Best Apps for Beginners  appeared first on Garden and Plant Care.

Technology makes it possible to design the exterior of your house in a simple, accurate, and convenient manner. You only need your smartphone, computer, or tablet and an internet connection from home to begin the design process. Keep reading to learn more about garden landscaping apps. 

What Are Garden Landscaping Apps?

A garden landscaping app helps professional landscapers, homeowners and designers visualize the desired landscape. The app captures the landscape and enables editing to remove existing features and introduce new desirable features. Therefore, you can see what will become of your front lawn or backyard and discuss those possibilities with your landscapers. 

Garden landscaping apps come with diverse capabilities. Some allow for the simple placement of garden features, while others incorporate advanced AR and VR capabilities. This way, you’ll see how the garden will look in real-time. It’s never been easier to create the best landscape, especially when your landscapers know exactly what to produce. 

Why Do You Need Garden Landscaping Apps?

Garden landscaping apps are necessary for convenience, accuracy, expression, and cost. Let us explain.

Imagine discussing with a landscaper which features you’d like in your garden, only you lack the words to explain yourself. What if you could instead show them? Homeowners are usually disgruntled over landscaping work because of misunderstandings or conflicts of ideas. With garden landscaping apps, everyone will be on the same page, and the project will proceed smoothly.

In addition, if you need to discuss other ideas or make changes to the design, you can do so virtually. You can edit the design and share them with your landscaper. They will, in turn, advise you on the viability of your ideas without having to meet physically. 

Furthermore, having a specific outcome for the landscaping project helps you budget accordingly. You’ll know how much you need to spend at each stage and the overall cost. You’ll also make adjustments with costs in mind.

Benefits of Garden Landscaping Apps

Ease of use

While there is professional-grade landscaping software, plenty of easy-to-use garden landscaping apps exist. Most amateurs who want to try out their DIY skills will appreciate such offerings. Therefore, they’ll easily convey their design ideas, adjust their landscape to suit their needs, and make design changes within their budget. All through a few clicks on a touchscreen.

Creative Expression

Garden landscaping apps develop your creative side. You get to see the effects of changes and edit them to your liking. Sharing such designs with the landscapers helps sharpen your design skills through their input. Over time, you’ll perfect your garden design skills. 

Affordable

Many garden landscaping apps are free, with several affordable paid Pro versions. Therefore, such tools are available for anyone, with the paid ones affordable for most people.

Efficient Planning

With garden landscaping apps, you don’t have to wait until the end to see the outcome of the design process. You can establish the desired outcome and work backward, factoring everything necessary and the appropriate time frames.

Computing Speed

Using apps makes for faster working than drawing by hand. In the past, landscape designers had to draw the expected landscape after listening to a client’s ideas. Others went as far as building landscape models for a client’s approval. Landscaping apps enable landscape visualization in a fraction of the time it used to take. 

Design Templates

The best garden landscaping apps come with useful and feature-filled design templates. Therefore, you have a great starting point in customizing a design to suit your needs. Alternatively, you can keep it simple and apply the shared ideas.

Top Garden Landscaping Apps

1. iScape

This app is compatible with Apple devices. It works especially well on iPads due to the large screen. Therefore, you can input your design ideas and see the outcomes. Additionally, you can collaborate with others and improve the landscaping designs. Its premium version costs $29.99 monthly and gives you access to more tools and 3D AR.

2. Planter

This app is compatible with Android and iOS and specializes in vegetation growing and management. You only need to key in your garden’s dimensions, and the app will show you how to space the plants. It goes deeper, showing you which plants are compatible and such information. The app is free and easy to use.

3. Pro Landscape Home

This app is compatible with Android and iOS and receives the highest rating among garden landscaping apps. With a photo of your garden, you can design your dream landscape. You add plants and other landscape features to the image, allowing the app to incorporate those designs. There are also templates you can use to ease the process. 

Other garden app guides

Top 5 Flower Apps to Try in 2023

Best Community Gardening Apps – 8 Best Apps for Beginners 

Soil Apps

What to Do if You Don’t Use a Landscaping App

The convenience and ease of use of garden landscaping apps make them almost indispensable to the process. However, not everyone has access to or is interested in using one. Therefore, their approach to landscape design will be a bit different. 

A good suggestion is to liaise with a professional landscaper with the right professional-grade landscaping software. While they understand how best to transform your garden, you must see the expected outcome before the work commences. Sharing your ideas with them at this point ensures you’re happy with the results. 

Another suggestion is to take detailed photos of your residence exterior and share them with a professional landscaper. You’ll receive helpful suggestions on how to proceed with the design work. The best should even prepare a presentation to help you decide.

Conclusion

Garden landscaping apps make the landscape design process approachable for most people. WhaA6_Garden Landscaping Appst initially seemed like something only professionals can do now falls under the DIY category. In addition, collaborating with landscapers is easier since you can share ideas and see their effects on your garden before executing any. In the end, seeing how your garden will turn out before any work is done ensures perfect execution and results.

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With the advancement in technology over the years, smartphones have become a necessity in our life. A recent survey shows that smartphone subscriptions have surpassed 6 billion by this time, and in the next few years, it will pass by a hundred million users. Since this advancement has made life easier in many ways, it has also been beneficial in the agricultural fields.

There are around 8000 weed species that are grown worldwide and identified yet. But, not all of them are useful. According to plant specialists, only 250 species are important in the agriculture world. So, it is of utmost importance that you identify it correctly. If you are in the agricultural field, you must know how important it is to identify the weeds growing in the area. It is essential to determine whether it is a native weed plant or some new species. Identifying weed is not easy at all, and most of the time, two different species may look similar at different life cycle stages. So, before proceeding further, you must correctly identify them to avoid any mistake in their control or growth.

Related reads: How to keep a garden journal

What Are Weed Identification Apps?

Weed identification apps are a great help to agricultural researchers, passionate gardeners, and wildlife explorers who need to identify different weed species but can’t find the relevant information in a shorter time. These apps help people identify the weed species and then take the necessary measures required for them. These apps provide adequate and authentic data regarding the weed plant by just providing minimal information.

Why Use The Weed Identification App?

Weeds are unwanted plants that often grow with other plant species. Sometimes they resemble the native plant species, and if not identified immediately, they may grow along. However, it is essential to identify the weed species that grow on your farm because the same strategy you apply to control most weeds will not work for all of them. To select the most effective herbicide, you must know the weed species in the first place.

Here we have listed a few apps that help in the easy identification of weeds and provide you the authentic information about them.

1.   PlantNet Plant Identification

PlantNet is one of the most popular and authentic applications that provides information regarding wild plants by just clicking a photograph of them. This app serves as a great tool in plant identification as you don’t have to reach out to a botanist every time you find a weed plant in your field.

According to the app developers, PlantNet can identify 20,000 different plant species to date and continuously add more plants in the directory. You can search the plant by name or by clicking the photograph of any part of the plant. But while clicking the photo, make sure that the image is clear enough to get the most relevant data. Users use this app for their plant identification purposes, but they also keep adding new plants and information if they observe any.

The latest version of the app includes the following features;

• Recognize species by genus or family.
• Differentiated data revisions.
• Multi-flora identification
• Access to different floras.
• Access to navigate at the different taxonomic levels.
• Verified by the community and field specialists.
• Accurate information.
• User-friendly, just upload a photo, and you will get all the relevant information.
• Identify a plant, based on its parts.

2.   LeafSnap Plant Identification

LeafSnap is your go-to app if you love gardening but also have a busy schedule in your daily life. LeafSnap helps you identify almost ninety percent of the plant species you find in your garden. Take a snap of the weed you identify in your neighborhood and upload it in the app; instantly, you will get the results. LeafSnap not only identifies the plant species but also provides all the necessary information for your plant.

Moreover, LeafSnap provides you the opportunity to set the planting tasks so that you don’t miss out on watering your plants any day. It helps you manage and track your planting habits and provides reminders to keep up with the track.

LeafSnap app includes the following features;

• Identifying different plant species.
• Use-friendly
• Comprehensive plant database that updates regularly
• Track your gardening routine.
• Manages plant care
• Create customized plant collection
• Send reminders for plant care.

3.   PictureThis- Plant Identifier

PictureThis is a plant identification app that helps users identify plants, flowers, weeds, and trees. PictureThis can identify more than 17,000 plant species with 98 percent accuracy, and it is one of the plant identification apps which botanists support.

Not only does it identify the plant species, but it also provides complete and authentic information about the plant. One of the distinguishing features of this app is the consultation with botany experts. This app collaborates with the botanic experts available on chat to provide consultation for your plant needs.

Key Features of PictureThis app;

• Identify plant species instantly.
• Provide information about different plant species.
• Connect with horticulture specialists.
• Provide valuable tips for your plant care.
• Connect to the plant-loving community.
• Give reminders to track your gardening.
• Consultation with specialists.

Other garden app guides

Vegetable Garden Apps

Top 5 Flower Apps to Try in 2023

Soil Apps

Conclusion

Whether you are a gardening enthusiast, an agriculture student, a researcher, or someone who is just an occasional gardener, plant identification apps can help you with your planting needs. Most of the time, when you can’t find the literature or a botanist around you, these apps help you identify the new plant in your garden.

The applications mentioned in this article are the most widely used apps with slightly different and unique features. Above all, these are all the apps that are updated continuously and comprise a helping community that adds any new information they find.

To make the most of these plant identification apps and identify the plants correctly, you must capture a clear photograph of the plants from different angles that allow the app to give you the most relevant data.

The post Weed Identification Apps appeared first on Garden and Plant Care.

What are fertilizer apps?

Fertilizer apps use mobile devices to help users optimize their fertilizer usage by providing recommendations on how much and when to fertilize. They also often provide information on the best fertilizer options, locations of nearby providers, and other relevant information.

Fertilizer apps usually take the form of an application (‘app’) that can be downloaded onto a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Some apps also exist for desktop and laptop computers.

These apps rely on data collected by the app provider to make their recommendations, including information such as soil characteristics, past fertilization history, weather conditions, and details of other treatments such as seed and pesticide application.

Why use fertilizer apps?

Studies show that fertilizer apps are helpful tools for homeowners, gardeners, and farmers to monitor soil quality better. These apps provide information about the testing of soils to help determine the best possible choice for fertilizers that will yield the greatest benefit at that particular time.

The apps may also be used as part of an experiment to compare the effects of different fertilizers at a particular time.

You can utilize fertilizer apps to determine if the soil is lacking nutrients. If you have been keeping track of the kinds of plants you have been growing and noting which ones grow best without added fertilizer, you will have a good idea of whether the soil is deficient in nutrients.

Gardeners can use these apps to keep track of what types of fertilizers they were using and how much was applied. With this information, they can make informed decisions about when and how much to apply.

Fertilizer apps improve and simplify the process of applying fertilizer to lawns. They create a map of your yard and determine where to apply fertilizer. Just enter your location, and the app takes care of everything for you.

Top 3 Fertilizer Apps

Here are some of the best three fertilizer apps that we came across.

1.   Blossom

Blossom provides personalized recommendations for how and when to water your plants. It also gives you insights to grow healthier and happier plants with the right amount of fertilizer.

With this app, you can manage all of your houseplants with ease and take good care of them simultaneously. You will also discover the best way to grow your plant and better understand what is lacking in its environment.

This is an innovative app that helps gardeners feed their plants. It takes into account factors like soil type, plant variety, and sun exposure. It then creates a customized fertilizer plan for each plant in your garden, considering when and how much to water it.

With Blossom’s free app, you can manage all of your plants’ needs from the palm of your hand.

Benefits of Blossom

Here’s how you will benefit from the Blossom fertilizer app.

• Easier to use than other apps on the market
• No more guessing how much fertilizer to buy or use
• Quicker to use than spreadsheets or industry formulas
• Be confident you are applying the right amount of fertilizer when your plants need it (not too early or late in the season)
• No more over-applying of fertilizer when fertilizing is easy to track

2.   PictureThis

Picture This Fertilizer App for iPhone and Android is a mobile application that makes sharing your garden or farming information super easy. Once you take a picture of the crops in your field, this mobile app can automatically identify what type of plant you are growing and how many more weeks before harvest.

Pictures of your weeds, bugs and crop diseases can help you find the best solution to improving your crops. Farmers or gardeners can also use this application to determine how many pounds of soil nitrogen are needed for a specific acre of land-based on their location.

Benefits of PictureThis

• PictureThis has an extensive database of plants and soil types, which means you can use the app even if you don’t know your soil type.

• It offers a way to save money on fertilizer costs by increasing the efficiency of your use.

• It helps you decide what to feed your crops.

• It will even tell you the best time of day to fertilize and how much product you need for each application.

• It saves you time and money by providing information on the fly instead of consulting multiple websites or books.

3.   Planta

The Planta fertilizer app provides an overview of the optimal amounts for different fertilizers, the days when they should be applied, and when you can expect the best results. The app has three different modes for summer, spring, and winter crops.

To get the most accurate results, you should always check which plants you are growing.

Planta tells you which product is suitable for specific crops such as roses, strawberries, or tomatoes and provides tailored advice based on particular requirements such as cold hardiness, yield, and pest resistance.

Benefits of Planta

• Planta helps indoor plants grow by giving them optimal conditions for their development while reducing the time spent by the owners on their care.
• The app is very easy to use

• There are many functions on the app that let you know when your plants need water or sunlight.

• The app tracks your plant’s growth over time and shows you its progress on the timeline.

• A fast and simple way of learning about the needs of specific plants and the optimal way of adjusting fertilizer dosage.

Other garden app guides

Weed Identification Apps

Soil Apps

Best Plant Identification App

Conclusion

The last issue you would want to deal with, is spending a lot of money on fertilizers that don’t work. Too many options can make it difficult for the average person to find what they need, but not anymore! These three apps we’ve found will provide quick and easy access to high-quality fertilizer for your garden without all the fuss.

The post Top 3 Fertilizer Apps That Will Keep Your Garden Healthy appeared first on Garden and Plant Care.

There is no denying the overarching benefits of technology in agriculture. Mobile and cloud-based applications have made managing farm processes easier and cost-effective. They have helped mitigate losses, improve the decision-making process and increase the quality and quality of agriculture in general.

There is practically an app for every stage in the agricultural process, such as weather forecasting, soil sampling, crop quality, land management, fertilizer utilization, and so forth. When these apps you can grow your plants healthy and with ease.

In this post, we will particularly look at soil apps and why they are important. We will also recommend some of the best soil apps.

What are soil apps?

Soil apps are mobile or cloud-based applications that help farmers determine the soil condition of their land. With soil apps, you can determine the amount of moisture in the soil, temperature, pH, rock content, and nutrient composition through soil sampling.

Soil apps can be used in conjunction with other agriculture apps. For instance, you can use a soil app with the weather forecasting app to plan for the planting as well as the harvesting season.

Unlike web-based soil solutions, mobile apps do not restrict farmers to a PC. You can access all the soil data anytime, anywhere.

Soil apps play a crucial role in helping farmers make better land management decisions for improved agriculture.

Why use soil apps

Soil apps have a massive impact on the agriculture industry. They bring with them a lot of benefits, here are some of them:

• First and foremost, soil apps are not restricted to farmers only. Anyone interested in soil quality data has access, including land developers, students, and engineers.
• Soil apps allow you to record and store your graphic summaries and reports for future reference or retrieval.
• Soil apps also eliminate the need for paper records that often get lost or misplaced.
• Soil apps provide accurate information for further analysis.
•  

5 Best Soil Apps

1.   SoilWeb app

The SoilWeb for Android is perhaps the most popular soil app. It’s the mobile version of the Soilweb GMAP web application.

Soilweb app can be used by farmers, gardeners, students, and ranchers to understand the soil in a given location and gain access to soil survey information. Soilweb uses the cellphone’s GPS receiver to determine the soil properties.

By just inquiring, users can retrieve a graphic summary of the different soil types indicating the soil names, taxonomic categories, and locations of each soil type.

In addition, users get a link to the corresponding series description, which categorizes the soil further by color, texture, depth, and rock content. You also get to know the physical and chemical properties of each soil type.

2.   mySoil

mySoil lets you in the European soil map. It gives you access to the latest soil mapping data in the UK and across Europe.

From this single app, you get to learn soil properties like texture, organic matter, depth, temperature, and pH of the soil beneath your feet.

mySoil is a free app created by the British Geological Survey in collaboration with the Center for Ecology and Hydrology. It can be used by farmers, gardeners, environmentalists, students, and just about anyone wishing to learn about soil properties in Europe.

mySoil is easy to navigate as well as input data. It is similarly easy to translate the output results.

3.   PrecisionEarth iPad

The PrecisionEarth iPad is a soil sampling app created by Precision earth company designed specifically for iPad users. In addition, you can use it to collect grower and field sampling data.

While the decision to create an iPad-only app has been met with criticism, PrecisionEarth insists that iPads’ large screen and smooth touch interface influenced their choice. It makes the app easy to use for data collection.

PrecisionEarth allows users to do soil sampling either using the grid system or the free form system even in areas where there are no 3G or Wi-Fi networks provided. Users only have to pre-load data before starting the fieldwork.

You can download the app at the Apple app store for just $250 per user.

4.   Soil Sampler

Soil Sampler is another very popular soil app. It is an effective tool for getting precise soil samples and therefore resulting in accurate soil analysis.

Soil sampler is a time saver. It helps you pick up soil samples in the shortest time possible without you having to literally move around the farm doing it.

The app is created for farmers, farming institutions, and agronomists and is ideal for those cultivating wheat, barley, corn, rapeseed, and various seeds and grains.

The app works best with external GPS antennas such as the GARMIN GLO and the GARMIN GLO 2.

Soil sampler provides accurate sampling navigation, allows you to save your soil sampling and fields, and It’s easy to set up the grid size.

5.   Soil Test Pro

Soil test pro is a paid app developed by TapLogic. Most farmers prefer it for precision soil sampling as it makes soil sampling so much simpler, saving time and money.

Soil test pro can be downloaded to multiple devices but with a single user account.

The app has an easy-to-use interface with a high contrasting viewing option, making visibility better on bright sunny days.

The app allows you to either sample by zones, by splits, or by whole fields. And the best thing about soil test pro is that it can work without cellular service. This is a great advantage for farmers working outside the network coverage areas.

The app works with most soil testing labs in the United States. It takes only 5-7 days to get the results which are sent directly to your web headquarters, where you can view and print.

Other benefits include drawing field boundaries using the GPS, fertilizer recommendations, viewing past soil testing history, and unlimited access to the Precision Ag Specialists. Learn how to use the app here.

Conclusion

Information technology has revolutionized agriculture. It has drastically improved the quality of agriculture. Just by using GPS-enabled apps, you can quickly tell the pH, moisture content, rock content, type, and other essential soil properties.

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In this article, we’ll go through the ins and outs of garden journals, including why they’re so important and what kinds of things to keep track of.

What is a garden journal?

A garden journal is an invaluable resource that keeps a detailed record of everything that occurs in your garden. Some gardeners may prefer a pen and paper setup, whilst others might want to use their computer or a dedicated app.

A garden journal allows you to track your garden activity throughout the year. This allows you to compare the current growing year to past seasons. This wealth of information helps to build a more intimate and effective relationship between gardener and garden.

This also helps you identify important patterns and adjustments for your individual garden. By noting down things like weather behavior, planting dates, and wildlife observations, you can plan and adjust more effectively during a new season.

Why keep a garden journal?

Nature is unpredictable, and a garden is no exception. The ideal time to sow particular seeds or divide different plants can change depending on various factors.

The climate and weather of each year will be slightly different. Wildlife levels will fluctuate accordingly. And each garden is wholly unique when it comes to its particular soil composition and layout.

Keeping track of all this information year after year is impossible to do through memory alone. But a garden journal can help by allowing gardeners to track sowings and seasons, weather patterns, plants that worked, plants that didn’t, and other information.

A garden journal becomes a one-stop resource tailored to each garden and gardener. Put simply, a garden journal enables you to get the absolute maximum out of your garden every year.

For extra help on growing specific plants, check out our plant care tips.

What to track in a garden journal

Dates of Planting

One of the main things to track in a garden journal is when specimens were planted and where. This can be done using a calendar, which can also be used to record other events such as when seeds were planted and when shrubs were cut back.

By tracking when each specimen was planted, gardeners create a reference point for any task related to that plant. It also helps gardeners to check if the plant is on track for when it should flower and when it should fruit.

Seeds & plant information

Listing the essential information for all plants in the garden helps gardeners to keep abreast of each plant’s needs, ideal seasons, and potential problems. Knowing all of this care information helps create the ideal watering, fertilizing, and pruning schedule for the plant.

For those gardeners that grow crops, one of the key things to record is the crop rotation cycle. This practice helps to maximize the quality and performance of your soil while cutting down on pests and pathogens.

Sowing, flowering, & fruiting dates

Maintaining a yearly calendar when a seed was sown, when it sprouted, when it flowered, and when fruits emerged is good practice for all gardeners. By tracking these dates over several years, gardeners can see the performance of each plant in real-time. This allows you to fine-tune your work to get the most out of every plant.

Weather patterns

Weather patterns are one of the most unpredictable and pivotal aspects of gardening. Fluctuating amounts of rain, sunlight, and wind all affect how well your plants grow. Knowing as much as possible about the climate of your garden, such as which USDA Hardiness Zone you live in, can help you plan for the seasons.

One of the most important things to note down every year is the dates of the first and last frosts. Gardeners will also use frost dates to plan when to sow their seeds and work out when to plant them out safely.

Diseases, pests, & wildlife

Something else to keep track of is any diseases or pests which might afflict your plants. Some of these problems may occur every year, while other infestations may only occur every few years.

When trying to deal with problems, it’s a good idea to record the methods used. This helps you to evaluate how effective these actions are and if any extra measures are needed.

It’s also a good idea to record the various wildlife species that frequent the garden, especially pollinators. Gardens that have a wide variety of animals and insects have more biodiversity, creating a healthier garden.

Garden goals

A garden journal is also the perfect place to record any goals that horticulturalists want to achieve with their gardens. Having clear goals in mind helps keep gardeners on track with their plans whilst also allowing them to adjust if unexpected setbacks occur.

Photos & Sketches

Visual records of the garden throughout the years and seasons are great for both measuring progress and making new plans. Gardeners can use photographs taken at different points of the year to provide clear references.

Some gardeners might even like to sketch out a plan of their garden, deciding on the locations for various plants while also considering layout changes to raised beds and other areas.

Maintenance

Keeping a record of any maintenance tasks performed throughout the year, such as deadheading and pruning, is another good garden journal practice. This can include watering and fertilizing schedules as well.

It’s also a good idea to keep an inventory of gardening tools. This helps to identify when these tools might need sharpening or replacing. Some gardeners might even want to track their horticultural expenses throughout the year.

How to create your own garden journal

Different gardeners will likely prefer different styles of garden journals. Using a large notebook to track everything is a good basic setup. Other gardeners might want to have a computer-based record such as a spreadsheet, calendar, or Word document.

But the best way to create a garden journal is to use ring-binder folders. This allows you to include things like plastic wallets and photograph pages for pictures or even seed packets. You can use different kinds of paper for different records, such as lined pages for your day-to-day observations and graph or squared sheets for garden plans and sketches.

This setup also makes it easy to use dividers to help separate the sections of the journal. You might want to divide things up by each month. Or, you might want to have four dividers – one for each season. Using a folder in this way creates the most versatile garden journaling setup.

Your garden journal will become an incredibly individual resource, tailored directly for your garden and your own preferences as a gardener.

Top 3 garden journals

For gardeners who might prefer a notebook setup, here are three of the best gardening journals on the market:

Three-Year Gardener’s Gratitude Journal

This extensive journal not only provides plenty of space for notes and designs but also includes lots of helpful information and gardening advice. This journal will appeal to gardeners who enjoy mindful moments outside, incorporating some traditional journaling elements for a more intimate connection with your garden.

My Gardening Journal

Ideal for beginners, this colorful journal includes various sheets for recording soil characteristics, sketching out designs, and noting down pests. But its main draw is the sheets dedicated to individual plants. Each of these 55 individual sheets has space for four years worth of observations about the plant, making it great for gardeners who want to experiment.

RHS Gardener’s Five Year Record Book

This expansive planner comes from the biggest name in British gardening; the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). The book allows gardeners to record five years’ worth of gardening observations, with weekly pages that also provide information regarding the best times to plant and observe certain species.

Related reads: Learn to identify common weeds with apps

Garden journal app

While creating a physical garden journal works for some gardeners, others may prefer a more curated, digital approach. That’s where apps like the Garden Planner from the Territorial Seed Company come in.

This extensive resource allows you to create a digital record of your garden that can be easily accessed from your computer or smartphone. You can upload photos of your garden, annotated with notes and observations similar to what you’d note down in a physical journal.

The Garden Planner also provides other resources such as weather forecasts and growing guides for various crops and plants. The digital aspects of this journal enable you to set notifications on your phone to help you keep on track with vital gardening tasks.

You can also compare your stats and records from previous years, allowing you to adjust to seasonal changes with ease.

Other garden app guides

Top 5 Flower Apps to Try in 2023

Weed Identification Apps

Top 3 Fertilizer Apps That Will Keep Your Garden Healthy

Conclusion

As we can see, a gardening journal is a fantastic resource for a gardener regardless of skill level. Whether you prefer a traditional notebook or a dedicated garden journaling app, you’ll find that the knowledge recorded within will enhance and nurture your relationship with your garden.

The post What To Track In A Garden Journal appeared first on Garden and Plant Care.

These days, technology has evolved rapidly thanks to the smartphone revolution. Even gardeners can benefit from these new developments, with a range of gardening apps available for download. These range from soil checkers and plant ID apps to garden journals and planners.

*Do check out our plant care guide for more tips on specific plants.

In this article, we’ll delve into some of the must-have gardening apps for beginners and masters alike.

Soil Apps

Soil characteristics are crucial for a good garden. Different soils will suit different varieties of plants, ranging from alkaline to acidic and chalky to loamy or sandy. These three soil apps can help gardeners get the maximum benefit from their soil.

mySoil

For UK gardeners, the mySoil app provides a comprehensive resource for soil properties across the United Kingdom. Developed as a joint project by the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), mySoil is available for free on both Android and Apple iOS devices.

Gardeners can use mySoil to check the soil characteristics in their local area, obtaining a variety of data such as soil depth, amount of organic matter, pH levels, annual and monthly temperatures, and soil texture. This allows gardeners to know their local soil inside out, helping them to choose appropriate plants that will thrive in their particular garden.

Users can also contribute to the accuracy of the project by uploading their own data, observations, and photos as part of an online community. As the knowledge base grows, so does the accuracy of the app. MySoil even includes soil data collected from Europe as well, although not to the same depth of information as the UK database.

SoilMapp

In a similar vein as mySoil above, SoilMapp provides gardeners from Australia with crucial information about their soil. SoilMapp was created by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and its database was compiled by the Australian Soil Resource Information System (ASRIS).

The interactive maps provide access to data such as local soil types, pH ranges, the salinity of the soil, and other characteristics such as how quickly it erodes. This app is ideal for gardeners, but also for farmers and anyone else who needs to know what kind of soil they’re working with. SoilMapp works with iPads and can be downloaded from the Apple iOS Store.

Users can also access visual aids such as graphs, maps, photographs, satellite images, and tables that provide even more data. SoilMapp provides useful soil information at both local and national levels. This allows Australian gardeners to identify the plants that would best suit their local soil, creating an enjoyable and productive garden.

Soil Sampler

While mainly used by farmers, the Soil Sampler app can also be helpful for gardeners. The app is designed to help users get the most accurate positioning for taking a soil sample. Having a sample of your soil evaluated by a professional agronomist is incredibly important if you’re a farmer.

This is because it helps identify the unique qualities of your local soil, allowing you to plan your crops accordingly. Gardeners can use this as well, especially if they want to grow some crops of their own. The Soil Sampler app is available on the Android app store and is even compatible with navigation devices such as Garmin GLO antennas.

Soil Sampler uses precise GPS technology to find the perfect soil sample spot on your land, saving you time traipsing around trying to find the right place. A soil sample helps farmers and gardeners to learn about the composition and structure of their soil as well as nutrient levels and other useful data.

Garden Apps for Plant Identification

Sometimes, unexpected plants will spring up in your garden. Without prior knowledge of the plant, it can be difficult to identify. Thankfully, there are now various plant identification apps available for gardeners. These apps help take the guesswork out of gardening with new plants.

Garden Answers

Garden Answers has over three million users, and it’s not hard to see why. The app is quick and easy to use, utilizing your phone’s camera to send a picture of an unknown plant to the Garden Answers database. This catalog spans more than 20,000 plant species, generating a quick answer for your query.

As well as being a plant identification app, Garden Answers also offers other useful features for gardeners. It can recognize diseases and pests that might be present on the plant, helping you to tackle infestations and infections quickly. This is especially useful for inexperienced gardeners but will also help old hands.

Garden Answers also provides access to advice from expert gardeners regarding different plants that you might be interested in. Your previous queries are also automatically stored, allowing you to double-check the plant if you forget. Garden Answers is compatible with most devices and can be downloaded from both the Android and Apple app stores.

Leafsnap

While many gardeners will concentrate on trying to identify plants by their flowers, these blooms aren’t present all year round. Instead, it’s much more effective to try and identify plants by their leaves. That’s where Leafsnap comes in. This comprehensive database was developed by some of America’s leading universities like Columbia University. There are two versions of the Leafsnap app, one for the United States and another for the UK. Both apps provide extremely detailed high-resolution photos of thousands of plants and trees found across the Northern Hemisphere. In the UK, the app is even used by the Natural History Museum. The apps also provide high-quality pictures of bark, flowers, fruits, and seeds to provide a thorough identification platform.

The Leafsnap app is available as a free download for Apple users in both the United States and the UK. The reach of Leafsnap’s database is still growing as more information is added by professional and volunteer botanists. An Android app is currently in development as well.

Pl@ntNet

PlantNet aims to create a working relationship between gardeners and scientists as a collaborative plant identification service. All of PlantNet’s photos are uploaded by its users and then verified by a team of biologists, botanists, and scientists to ensure accuracy. When you take a photo of an unknown plant and ask PlantNet to identify it, your entry is added to the database.

PlantNet’s database currently includes 20,000 species of plants and is still growing. Various search filters can be deployed to suit your knowledge level. You might be pretty sure that the plant is part of a specific family or you might not have a single idea which group it belongs to.

Once a plant has been identified, PlantNet also provides you with a comprehensive fact sheet about the species. This is great if you’ve found a new plant that you want to now grow in your own garden. PlantNet is available for both Android and Apple devices as well as on computers.

Garden Journal Apps

A gardening journal has long been an indispensable resource for gardeners, allowing us to keep track of how our garden performs each year. Now, all the benefits of keeping a garden journal can be found online as well.

Garden Journal

The Garden Journal from the Territorial Seed Company is one of the most comprehensive online garden journal options available. This incredible resource can be used on multiple devices such as a computer and a smartphone to provide plenty of versatility.

When out in the garden, you can take pictures on your smartphone and annotate them with notes. Later on, you can access and expand on these using the computer version. You can track various factors such as the weather conditions, watering and fertilizing schedules, and other observations.

The Garden Journal also tracks everything on a yearly basis, allowing you to compare your current harvests to your previous ones. There’s also an extensive database of plant advice available, including crop rotation information for gardeners with allotments or vegetable patches.

The Garden Journal can be accessed as part of a free trial but you can also access extra features such as email alerts for garden tasks by subscribing to the in-depth Garden Planner also offered by the Territorial Seed Company.

Garden Planning Apps

It can be difficult to make changes in the garden without having a clear plan of action. But it’s challenging to try and visualize any changes just by looking at the garden. However, garden planning apps can make this process easier by helping you to trial new garden designs.

Garden Plan Pro

Garden Plan Pro is an easy garden planning tool for novices and experienced gardeners alike. It features a simple but effective grid layout and a comprehensive database of plant options. The advanced AI software creates automatic spacing between areas to help you plan your garden down to the millimeter.

Beginners can also benefit from the helpful fact sheets that Garden Plan Pro offers. These detail the required growing parameters for each plant as well as ideal companion species. The drawing interface is adaptable and easy to use, taking the fuss out of garden design.

For intermediate gardeners or those looking to grow crops, Garden Plan Pro’s software also provides crop rotation alerts over subsequent years. This helps you to adjust your garden plan and get the most out of your crops.

Once the app knows more about your local climate, it will also take this into account when helping you to plan your garden layout. It also offers relevant advice depending on your growing zone. Garden Plan Pro is available to download for Apple users and works with both iPhones and iPads.

Garden Tip Apps

Sometimes it can be difficult to remember care requirements for every single plant in the garden. It can also be hard to come up with fresh ideas for your outdoor space. However, some apps can help provide useful garden design tips and plant information.

Garden Tags

It’d be easy to simply label Garden Tags as “Pinterest for plants”, but there’s a lot more to this app than sharing garden design ideas. Garden Tags is also packed with useful gardening tips for both novice and experienced gardeners. Garden Tags creates an open and welcoming community that is committed to helping each other grow as gardeners.

Users can share their garden updates with others using an Instagram/Pinterest-style system. Fellow gardeners can comment and ask questions, or just sit back and take inspiration from others. The rapidly expanding community also includes plenty of experts who are happy to answer gardening queries.

Garden Tags also provides a comprehensive database of care information as part of its plant encyclopedia and identification systems. There’s also a helpful blog as well as software that helps you record and manage your own menagerie of plants. Garden Tags can be downloaded by both Android and Apple users or used on your web browser.

Conclusion

Each of these must-have gardening apps can be a fantastic tool for modern gardeners, ranging from plant ID software to garden planners and journals. There are also more technical apps available, like soil checkers that help gardeners to get the most out of their growing medium.

By harnessing the power of technology, gardeners can enjoy their hobby like never before whether they’re a complete novice or an experienced horticulturalist.

The post Must-Have Gardening Apps appeared first on Garden and Plant Care.

This article will cover the basics of identifying plants, including some top tips and some apps that can be a real boon when trying to tell plants apart.

How to identify plant leaves

Although the flowers of a plant seem like the first port of call when trying to identify it, it’s not always the best practice. Identifying a plant by its leaves is a preferable method because the leaves are present for most of the year, whereas flowers only appear during the flowering season.

To identify a plant by its leaves, it’s vital to take several different characteristics of the foliage into account. The two main characteristics to observe are the leaf itself, otherwise known as the “blade”, and the configuration of the stalk. This section of the plant is also known as the “petiole”.

Leaves are present on most plants from the early spring through to the fall. Some categories of plants such as evergreens will keep their leaves for the whole year, making it easier to identify these species even in the winter.

How to tell plant leaves apart

There are five main characteristics to evaluate when trying to identify a plant using its leaves:

Leaf type

There are several different types of leaf. Many leaves will be the quintessential type – a broad, green singular protrusion from the stalk, usually teardrop-shaped. These are known as “simple” leaves.

For some trees like pines, their “leaves” come in the form of needles. Other plants, such as ferns, will have multiple smaller leaves growing out evenly in all directions from a single leaf stalk. These types are referred to as “compound” leaves.

Other plants will take this a step further with “double compound” leaf systems. These plants have petioles that have multiple smaller branches that each have leaves growing on both sides. Acacias are a good example of this.

Leaf shape

The shape of a leaf is also a key thing to evaluate. Many leaves may be teardrop-shaped, such as ash. Maples have a distinctive lobed shape that’s easily recognizable.

Some plants, like buddleia, will have lance-shaped (lanceolate) leaves. Other shapes include heart-shaped leaves (cordate) and oval or egg-shaped (ovate) leaves.

Leaf edges

The edges of the leaves can also be a giveaway when trying to identify a plant. Check if the margins of the leaf are smooth or if they have lobes or teeth. With tooth-edged plants, the serrated shapes can be finely-toothed or quite jagged and coarse.

Leaf lobes

Some leaves, such as maple leaves, have noticeable lobes as part of their shape. These lobes can be pointed or rounded. The positioning of the lobes is also an identifying characteristic.

Some lobes are pinnate, which means that the lobes branch out from either side of the center of the leaf. Palmate lobes extend in various directions from the main body of the leaf.

Leaf stalk

The way that the leaf stalks are arranged on a plant can help with identification. Some leaves will grow out from the stalk in opposite directions, creating a symmetrical growth pattern. On other plants, the leaves will grow in an alternating direction like a series of footsteps.

Other plants grow in a whorled fashion, with multiple leaves growing out from a single shared location on the stem. Even when foliage has dropped off in the fall or winter, looking at the stem structure of the plant can still aid identification.

Plant ID tips

While evaluating the five characteristics of a leaf described above can solve most identification queries,some other tips can help as well.

Observing the growing behavior of an unidentified plant can provide clues to its identification. Noting down when the plant flowers and when its flowering season stops is a good behavior to monitor.

Some summer flowering plant may also open their blooms during the night rather than the day. Seeing the appearance of the plant’s buds or fruits can also help identify it during the fruiting or flowering seasons.

The thickness and feel of the leaf are some good things to observe, especially with fleshy plants such as succulents. Another thing to examine is the vein structure on the leave and how the veins are arranged.

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3 apps to help identify plants

In the smartphone era, there are several plant identification apps available. Here are three of the best:

PlantSnap

One of the most commonly used plant ID apps, PlantSnap is extremely simple to use. When trying to identify a plant, simply take a picture or a short video through the app. The software searches a database of over 500,000 species and often delivers a response in a matter of seconds.

PlantNet

PlantNet is a collated database of over 20,000 plants created by its users. After receiving a picture, PlantNet will ask the user if the results match the appearance of the unknown plant. Upon confirmation, this new result is added to keep the database as accurate as possible.

FlowerChecker

While the previous two apps were free, FlowerChecker is a paid app. However, rather than relying on a computer database, queries are sent to a team of botanists who evaluate the photo and identify the plant before replying. Despite taking an hour or more, FlowerChecker delivers expert knowledge.

How to identify a plant for free

As well as using free or paid apps, there are a couple of other ways to identify plants for free:

Google Lens and Google Images

Google Lens is an advanced camera app that can recognize objects placed in front of the lens. The software performs a search for related images, helping users compare an object to similar results. Google Images works in a similar way using Reverse Image Search.

Additionally we have provided more resources on growing plants by specific plants. Do check out the resources.

Other garden app guides

Top 5 Flower Apps to Try in 2023

Soil Apps

Best Plant Identification App

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