Soil/Light analysis for gardening

[sekjal]

A small open hardware device to monitor:

• light levels
• temperature
• soil water content
• soil nutrient content
  over a period of time, and then compare those values with a botanical database which will tell the user what kind of plants are typically successful in this kind of environment.

The goal is to make it easier for people to grow plants that are appropriate for their local environments, and to be able to monitor changes in the soil and light levels over time.

Perhaps there should be the option to upload data to a centralized server, along with feedback on which plants were planted, which thrived, and which died, so the database can grow and adapt with the plants themselves.

[sekjal]

Ah, reading further I see there has already been some discussion on soil analysis with a DIY spectrometer. If this design can be made compact enough, it could be integrated into the tool. If not (and it's likely not), then soil analysis can be done separately, and this device could just monitor light, temperature and moisture levels over time.

This data can be linked to the botanical data, in that certain plants require certain nutrients, or are killed more quickly by certain pollutants. So, for each plant in the database, include not only it's preferred habitat, but also positive and negative impact nutrients/chemicals.