Artificial intelligence has been on the news everywhere lately – but does it really live up to all the hype? Well, AI does have its uses in many places, and gardening is no exception.
So, how is artificial intelligence used in gardening? AI is used in gardening so robots (like weeders, mowers, leaf blowers, and snow blowers) have the ability to navigate and work. AI is also used in apps for landscape design and plant care or identification. AI can even help with yield improvement so you can get a bigger harvest out of your garden.
Personally, I like to disconnect when I get out into the garden, at least for a little while. But I still like to learn about how the new (AI technology) and the old (gardening) intersect!
In this article, we’ll talk about several uses of AI in gardening and how gardeners can get better results from the same amount of work.
Let’s get started.
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AI In Gardening
AI has lots of potential uses in the garden. Here are 5 that we’ll explore in more detail below (you can click on the blue link to skip to that section):
- Gardening Robots (Weeders, Mowers, etc.)
- Landscape Design (layout, complementary plants & colors, etc.)
- Plant Care Apps (watering, fertilizing, etc.)
- Plant Identification Apps (find out what is growing at your new house!)
- Yield Improvement (get more from your vegetable garden or fruit tree!)
We’ll start with gardening robots, because – how cool is that?
AI For Gardening Robots
Artificial intelligence can give gardening robots the ability to help out with all sorts of garden tasks.
Tertill Weeding Robot
For example, the solar-powered Tertill robot can control weeds in a garden of up to 200 square feet (for instance, a 20 foot by 10 foot plot).
The Tertill stirs up soil with its wheels, disrupting the growth of weed seeds. It also has a small weed-whacker (string trimmer) to kill small but established weeds.
The Tertill can sense plants that have grown past a certain height, meaning it will leave your tomato and broccoli plants alone.
Solar Incinerator Weeding Robot
This one is a prototype, but it basically moves around the garden, identifies a weed, and then uses a ray of focused sunlight to burn the weed to death.
Laser Weeding Robot
This particular robot is mostly used in agriculture, rather than in home gardens. It moves on a track and uses cameras together with AI to identify weeds and burns them with a laser.
This technology will likely become more affordable in the coming years. So, it might eventually be worthwhile if you have a big garden to take care of – or if you want to get into market gardening!
Mowing Robots
Think Roomba for lawns. Instead of cleaning up dog hair and dust in your house, this robot mows your lawn for you. It will work until its battery is low, then return to its charging station to get more energy.
Often, you need to install boundary and guide wires to tell these robots where to go (or where not to go). However, the technology may evolve to the point where no such guidance is needed.
Many of these robots are equipped with safety features too. For example, the blades will stop spinning when the mower is lifted or a collision is detected.
Yarbo
This robot is modular with several different attachments. It can mow, blow leaves, and throw snow, making it versatile and useful year-round.
It doesn’t need boundary cables, since it uses GPS to figure out where it is. This robot also has automatic obstacle avoidance, and the leaf blower can adjust for wind speed and direction.
Apparently there are plans to add more attachments in the future. The Yarbo is a little pricey, but it might be worthwhile if you can save yourself some time while replacing your lawnmower, leaf blower, and snow blower.
AI Landscape Design
AI can also help with higher-level garden tasks, such as designing an appealing landscape.
For example, the DreamzAR app lets you upload a picture of your yard as the starting point. Then, you can let AI generate a design, based on your selection of pre-designed styles, such as:
- New England
- Colonial
- Patio
- Pollinator-Friendly
- Drought Resistant
- Container
- Japanese Zen
- Mediterranean
- Rock
- Private Courtyard
- Bamboo
- Flower
- Tropical
You can also choose outdoor furniture (sofas, loveseats, etc.) and structures (gazebos, pergolas, etc.) to include in your vision of a perfect yard.
With the help of the DreamzAR app, you can design a style for your garden and transform it into the paradise you dream of – whatever that might look like.
AI Plant Care Apps
Sometimes, your plants are sad and you don’t know why. It can be tough to tell if they are over or under watered … and sometimes water isn’t even the problem! Luckily, there are some AI plant care apps that can help out.
For example, Rise Gardens has indoor plant growing setups that are connected to an app. The app can tell you when to water and when to fertilize so you don’t forget (or over water/fertilize!)
You can also buy a standalone sensor (like this one) that does not rely on any particular setup. This plant smart sensor will figure out the water level, soil fertility, temperature, and light for the plant you place it next to.
The sensor will then report on this data via the connected app. So, you can take care of your plants the right way – every time.
AI Plant Identification Apps
Sometimes, you need to identify unknown plants at a new home. Other times, strange new plants will appear out of nowhere at a place you have lived for years.
Either way, it would be nice to identify them with just a picture. Well, these apps let you do just that.
The Pl@ntNet app lets you choose your geographical area (the more specific the area, the more accurate the results). Then, you upload a picture and let the AI compare it to pictures of plants in the database.
It then returns the most likely candidates for your plant. It also gives a percentage match – this number from 0 to 100 basically tells you how likely it is that the app is correct (0 is probably wrong, 100 is almost certainly right).
The Plant.id app works similarly. You can help these apps to increase their accuracy by contributing pictures of known plants that you have in your garden. This will increase the size of their database and help with successful identification.
AI Yield Improvement
Much of the AI in yield improvement is focused on farming at the moment. However, this technology will surely become more affordable as time passes, and the tech will drip down to local gardeners as well.
For example, AI can help to:
- Reduce food waste – using pictures of maturing crops, AI can figure out the ideal time to harvest fruits and vegetables. Harvesting too early can lead to inedible food, while harvesting too late can lead to faster spoilage.
- Identify pests and diseases – prevention and early detection is the key to protect plants from pests and diseases. Part of prevention includes applying treatment to infected plants to prevent the further spread of pests or diseases. It may also mean pulling out and destroying infected crops in extreme cases. AI can help to decide whether a plant should remain where it is untreated, stay in place and be treated, or be removed.
- Care for crops – AI tools can help to monitor soil moisture, fertility, pH, and sunlight to detect excess or deficiency. This would involve installation of several sensors, but they are likely to help pay for themselves over time.
Conclusion
Now you know about some of the different ways that AI is used in gardening. You also have some cool ideas if you want to disrupt the gardening industry and come up with your own helpful technology!
I hope you found this article helpful. If so, please share it with someone who can use the information.
If you want to read some of my most popular posts, check out the “Best of GreenUpSide” page here. Enjoy!
~Jonathon
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Hey – you can get our weekly gardening newsletter here!
Join 1000+ gardeners to get access to news, tips, and information.
Delivered right to your inbox – once per week.
If you want to read some of my most popular posts, check out the “Best of GreenUpSide” page here. Enjoy!
~Jonathon