If you’re into gardening or even just have a few potted plants, then you’ve probably seen the common soil moisture sensors and thought about maybe connecting one to an Arduino to remind you when your plants need watering. Well, you can now easily step it up a notch with the PlantCell Plus monitoring board which not only has the typical moisture sensor but also has ambient light and temperature/humidity sensors so you can monitor the whole plant environment!
Easily integrate into an IoT solution using the NanoCell board available from the same seller. This ESP32-C3 board has built-in battery charging circuitry and is targeted for low-power applications, making it a great match for the PlantCell Plus. You could have the ESP32 wake up every 15 to 30 minutes, take a reading of all the sensors, and send it to an MQTT broker or use the Home Assistant integration for later data visualization. See how changes in ambient temperature and humidity affect the rate at which soil moisture decreases over time!
The correlation of all the data can tell you a lot about how your plants are doing. Are they getting enough sunlight? Are they being watered too much/not enough for the ambient conditions? Is the soil draining properly? These make a great gift for any green thumb hacker friends you know. Or contribute to your local community garden by monitoring conditions and hosting a webpage for the other gardeners to check! Make sure to check out the product page, and check out the other gardening-related projects seller Frapais’ Lab has.
