I planted some bushes in front of my house last week. As I drove home, I could almost hear them screaming to each other “He’s going to kill us!”. Let’s not discuss the 4 dead bushes I dug up and disposed of earlier in the day.
Since my wife and I are not the greatest at remembering to water things, I decided to make a 7-day tracking system using my Glowforge.
I was really frustrated with the action on the sliders until I embraced magnets to lock them solidly into position. I love the satisfying “click” they now make when they slide left or right.
I wonder if one of these with the days of the week would be useful?
The way I’m kind of envisioning it would be that you would just move the needle to whatever day you did your watering on so at a glance could always tell how long it had been. I’m trying to solve for the problem where you have like a disconnect every week on the sliders.
Maybe one where there’s the numbers one through 31 for each day of the month? That way you would know if you skipped an entire week as well.
You can tell that I do not have green thumb that I’m sitting here thinking well what if you ignore your plants for over a week? That being said if you’re into succulents, having something that tracks across multiple weeks is probably good to prevent overwatering.
Nice, I’m horrible with plants. My kids bought me a timer/water system so they get water everyday for as long as I set it. It’s remarkable how water helps plants grow!
I love the idea of these things - either analog or digital, but until someone comes up with one I can just leave in the soil they’re not going to work for me. Remembering to use the sensor - and especially the “leave it in there for 2-3 minutes before reading” means I’m gonna stick it in, wander off, and then come back when it’s corroded and needs to be replaced Guess how I know that
I’m vaguely aware of sensors, home automation and such but even with decades as an IT manager, programmer, etc. - I just can’t bring myself to plunge into automation at that level,
No doubt to the detriment of my wailing arborvitae, but at least I get the fun of making something I think will help. Who knows? Maybe it actually will!
I can’t even see where it says that on the page, I’d like to see it if you can point it out. Because it’s ridiculous! No one uses them that way. I have 4 that have been outside for YEARS.
I do not automate watering the plants, but I do have an always-on weather display with the soil values, and it is trivial to set up email alerts in the Ecowitt software too.
I really, really want to be a gardening-type person, but I can’t even keep an air plant alive. Maybe I’ll look into a sensor as well. I’ve thought about it in the past, but I need some sort of display or I won’t remember to look at the sensor. Sigh.
So I went back and re-read, and your are absolutely correct. They insinuate it by having their photos with someone’s hand holding the device as they get a reading - and I was then led astray by reviewers who clearly presumed the same.
Yay! That’s actually now a thing of interest for me. I gotta figure out how much the rest of the parts you need to make it work are but that may become a thing Thanks!
Guess how I know that 
Thanks!