Farmer's App To Help _____________?

TechGuy · June 21, 2018

Hi
I develop applications to do things like manage horse stables and other horse related things. I have been wondering what areas in farming need a good app to track data or do something meaningful.

Do you have ideas that need addressing? Some ideas that come to mind are farm stand app to track sales and engage with buyers, local area farmers marketplace with listings of what's available and where, something to track regulatory requirements like organic etc., crop reporting of amendments or activities.

I have also created some hardware based apps to read temperatures and humidity and chart them for my farm- worm bin temps, computer controlled freezer to keep tomatoes at peak temp, and tomato grafting chamber controller to regulate heat mat and report humidity and temp.

bower · June 21, 2018

An app for market gardening, to track what was sown when, expected /actual harvest date, when to resow basic crops like greens, etc would be cool.
The planning that goes into a market garden or CSA boggles my mind... I could use an app just for my own garden, to figure out succession planting etc so you don't run out of lettuce just when you have lots of tomatoes for salad, or you end up with no cilantro or basil when the tomatoes are there to make salsa etc etc. I know people do it way way better than I do, but that's why some people need an app, right?

TechGuy · June 22, 2018

sounds like features I would use in some form too. i have an app that uses my state's recommended plant dates for various crops and tells me what to plant this week and next

Lukasrl · June 22, 2018

I would love an app that let you lay out the design of your garden like on graph paper, you could label what plants you put where. It would have action buttons that you could use when you tap/click on a plant in the app that would open a note pad to keep notes. The notes would be automatically dated. You could also tap the plant and press a disease button. This would pull up two sub categories. Identify and document. If you are not sure what it is, click on identify and it would allow you to scroll through pictures of diseases of the selected plant. Once you identify the disease you can click the document button. This would document the date disease and location of the plant. This way next year you can take a proactive approach to combating the disease. IE crop rotation, or make sure next year a few weeks earlier you start applying a fungicide. Maybe the following year, if you have the same plant as the previous a warning alert get sent to your phone that last year around this time you encountered such and such disease.

Also a button to press when you water so that you can remember when was the last day you watered, and maybe a warning that pops up when a predetermined amount of days go by with out you pressing the watered button.

Last but not least, a place to take pictures of the garden so the following year you can look at them and compare where your garden is at this year vs last year. It would be really fun to see how much things have improved.

TechGuy · June 23, 2018

interesting ideas- I have pondered the graphic mapping idea but so far the only graphics I have done are charts.

I think your last point is an interesting one because I want a database where I can compare previous years, select a cultivar or general plant category and look up my past notes with more precision, and see how the garden or specific plants performed at different times of year with photos.

June 21, 2018	#1
TechGuy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Pinehurst North Carolina USA Posts: 31	Farmer's App To Help _____________? Hi I develop applications to do things like manage horse stables and other horse related things. I have been wondering what areas in farming need a good app to track data or do something meaningful. Do you have ideas that need addressing? Some ideas that come to mind are farm stand app to track sales and engage with buyers, local area farmers marketplace with listings of what's available and where, something to track regulatory requirements like organic etc., crop reporting of amendments or activities. I have also created some hardware based apps to read temperatures and humidity and chart them for my farm- worm bin temps, computer controlled freezer to keep tomatoes at peak temp, and tomato grafting chamber controller to regulate heat mat and report humidity and temp.

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June 21, 2018	#2
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,793	An app for market gardening, to track what was sown when, expected /actual harvest date, when to resow basic crops like greens, etc would be cool. The planning that goes into a market garden or CSA boggles my mind... I could use an app just for my own garden, to figure out succession planting etc so you don't run out of lettuce just when you have lots of tomatoes for salad, or you end up with no cilantro or basil when the tomatoes are there to make salsa etc etc. I know people do it way way better than I do, but that's why some people need an app, right?

June 22, 2018	#3
TechGuy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Pinehurst North Carolina USA Posts: 31	sounds like features I would use in some form too. i have an app that uses my state's recommended plant dates for various crops and tells me what to plant this week and next

June 22, 2018	#4
Lukasrl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Plainfield Illinois Posts: 17	I would love an app that let you lay out the design of your garden like on graph paper, you could label what plants you put where. It would have action buttons that you could use when you tap/click on a plant in the app that would open a note pad to keep notes. The notes would be automatically dated. You could also tap the plant and press a disease button. This would pull up two sub categories. Identify and document. If you are not sure what it is, click on identify and it would allow you to scroll through pictures of diseases of the selected plant. Once you identify the disease you can click the document button. This would document the date disease and location of the plant. This way next year you can take a proactive approach to combating the disease. IE crop rotation, or make sure next year a few weeks earlier you start applying a fungicide. Maybe the following year, if you have the same plant as the previous a warning alert get sent to your phone that last year around this time you encountered such and such disease. Also a button to press when you water so that you can remember when was the last day you watered, and maybe a warning that pops up when a predetermined amount of days go by with out you pressing the watered button. Last but not least, a place to take pictures of the garden so the following year you can look at them and compare where your garden is at this year vs last year. It would be really fun to see how much things have improved.

June 23, 2018	#5
TechGuy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2017 Location: Pinehurst North Carolina USA Posts: 31	interesting ideas- I have pondered the graphic mapping idea but so far the only graphics I have done are charts. I think your last point is an interesting one because I want a database where I can compare previous years, select a cultivar or general plant category and look up my past notes with more precision, and see how the garden or specific plants performed at different times of year with photos.