Plant With Willow Smart Plant Sensor Review
DISCLOSURE -THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE THE REVIEWER’S OWN.
Reviewed by Sian Manning
I was delighted to be picked to review this item, I have a number of house plants and the most expensive of them all is a very picky cactus (a dragon fruit plant). So I was looking forward to putting this little smart sensor to the test to see if it could help me look after my baby.
The sensor comes in a neat little box with the hub, sensor, reset pin and two little leaflets for the hub and sensor. The packaging is mainly paper and card and very “green”, it’s great when you get an item and you can recycle pretty much all of the packaging.
The sensor is very easy to set up, you need to install the app on your device, IOS or Android apps are available, once it is downloaded it talks you through the set up for the sensor and hub. The hub plugs into the wall and the sensor goes into the soil of your plant. I will say when you are setting this up that you need to remember to pull the protector off of the sensor prongs or it will not get the readings and won’t work properly.
The app itself has a number of things you can look at, you have a general home page where you can see your plant at a glance and see how it is feeling. It gives you a percentage marking and a little comment to let you know if it is feeling good or not.
Also on the home screen is some news and tips, guides on how to use the app and guides on different plant types for different places. There is a marketplace with items to buy based on the plants it knows you own that will help them grow and thrive.
When you add your plant to the app you can either enter the type of your plant manually if you know what it is, e.g. a spider plant, monstera etc or you can use the built in plant recogniser that will let you take a picture and then will identify the type of plant so you know it will give you the best care advice for your plant. You can also name your plant – Steve, Bob, Patricia, Dorris, whatever you fancy so that you can locate your plant in the list and know which one is sending you a message.
You can also use the built in camera function to scan for diseases although to do this you have to upgrade to Willow Grow, which costs an additional £25.99 a year or if you want to pay monthly it is £3.29. By upgrading you also get access to Plant Doctor, enhanced sensor data, plant daily summary, plant matchmaker and best for you.
So on to the data, after a few hours my sensor told me I should fertilise and water my plant, it wasn’t feeling very happy and was thirsty, I knew it needed a water as I hadn’t done it for a good couple of weeks. An hour or so after watering the app popped up that my plant (named Drakon) was happier. The sensor looks at 4 things, light, water, humidity and the temperature. Each is given a percentage and the app tells you whether your plant is comfy or needs some attention.
It also saves all of the information, for example you can add that you have watered the plant, re potted, changed the soil, fertilised it or moved it to a new location, this is all saved into a log so you can look back at when you last did anything. It also allows you to take pictures and save them so that you can see your progress.
The Plant with Willow Sensor can be bought as a starter pack with 1 sensor and the hub or can be bought with 3 sensors or 5 sensors. You can also buy additional sensors on their own to add to your collection and also extenders for the sensor if you have a big pot.
I really do think that even though I have only been able to use this for a week and haven’t seen its full potential it is a plant saver and will help many many people to keep their plants alive. If you aren’t blessed with green fingers but love the idea of a house plant or 5 this may well be yours and the plants saviour. You just have to follow the instructions and suggestions it gives you.
Rating: 3.5/5
RRP: £34.99
You can purchase the Plant with Willow Sensor here https://plantwithwillow.co.uk/pages/shop