Hydroponic gardening can be an activity that requires a fair amount of skill. For growers who are devoted to their hobby, you may understand how hydroponic gardening is actually more of a science than just a pastime. To produce the best results you need to constantly monitor you’re the growing conditions of your indoor environment. This includes factors such as lighting, nutrient solution, and pH levels as well as peripheral conditions like room temperature, ventilation and humidity. And that’s not to mention all the potential diseases, pests, and other types of symptoms you want to watch for. It makes managing and growing a successful garden quite tricky, especially if you’ve got more than one system operating at any given time.
Luckily we live in a connected world where access to information is always an option to help us solve our challenges – even when it comes to hydroponic gardening.
Top Smartphone Apps for Hydroponic Gardening
There are a variety of apps designed to help monitor, maintain, and protect hydroponic gardens while relieving many of the common headaches that occur for growers. Here are some apps for hydroponic gardening that are getting a lot of buzz:
Apps for Selecting Plants
Pocket Garden: A research tool for selecting the best plants for your garden. Includes tips on germinating seeds and harvesting of certain crops.
When to Plant: A database of thousands of plant types including their ideal planting dates and care requirements.
MQ Green Thumb: An app for consulting your gardening project from start to finish. This app helps you select the best location for your plants based on sun exposure as well as it contains a database of plant information which can be saved to a clipboard.
Garden Compass smartphone app is a plant and disease identifier. Image via GardenCompass.com
Apps for Monitoring Growth
Perfect Hydroponics: A documentation tool to record your garden’s progress. Use the notes to compare your results to future gardens to improve the health of your plants.
GroLog by Grodan: A multi-garden assistant that helps you record the progress of each garden by selecting what kind of data you’d like to track (i.e. nutrients, lighting, room conditions). This app also has a scheduling and reminders feature that will alert you as to your garden’s needs.
HID Gardener: A documentation app that allows you to record your indoor garden’s productivity based on your specified data sets. Notes can also be recorded throughout the growth cycles.
Apps for Treating Plants
Plant Doctor: A plant health improvement app that helps you identify plant stress treatment options based on the symptoms. Solutions such as lighting, watering, and nutrient levels will be presented.
Garden Compass: An identifier app that allows you to submit photos of your plant to a group of experts. These garden advisors will identify for you the pest or disease type as well as their treatment recommendations.