Why automate watering
Introduction
If you run a living plant hire business, you know the routine: a technician turning up at every site, week after week, with a watering can. PotWatch is a system that changes that. It's at the prototype stage, and we're looking for plant hire companies to help shape it. We're seeking partners to be involved in prototyping, to become wholesalers of PotWatch, and to work with us on new developments and new products that improve productivity across the living plant hire industry.
The cost of a watering visit
Most indoor plants need water about once a week. For your business, that means a visit to every site, every week. And the watering is the quick part. Each visit also means travel between sites, fuel, vehicle running costs, parking and tolls, and signing in at reception. At many sites, your technician spends longer getting there than caring for the plants.
Fewer visits
PotWatch takes watering off the schedule. The reservoir holds weeks of water, and each plant is watered automatically as it needs it. Your technicians still visit to tidy up, removing dead leaves and misting or cleaning the dust off the foliage. But with watering taken care of, you can expect to at least halve the number of visits to each site. The same team can look after more sites, with fewer kilometres driven and less fuel burned.
Consistent care
It also takes the guesswork out. Each plant gets water when it needs it, not when the roster allows. Holidays, sick days and locked buildings no longer mean a thirsty plant. Fewer plants die and need replacing at your cost. And the online portal gives you, and your clients, a record of every check and every watering.
Why not wicking?
So why water from the top, rather than use a wicking system? A wicking pot draws water up from below through a cord or a layer of wet mix. It sounds simple, but it keeps the roots constantly wet. Many of the most popular hire plants need to dry out between drinks: snake plants, ZZ plants, dracaenas, yuccas, fiddle-leaf figs and rubber plants. Kept constantly wet, they are prone to root rot.
Problems with wicks
Wicks are also hard to control. Their flow changes with the potting mix, the temperature and the humidity, and they clog over time with minerals and algae. Because water only moves upward, salts from the water and fertiliser build up in the top of the soil. Plants must be repotted into special wicking containers. And there is no way to tell from the office whether a wick is working, or whether its reservoir is empty.
Direct watering
Direct watering does what a good technician does by hand. A measured amount of water goes onto the top of the pot and soaks down through the whole root zone, flushing salts as it goes. The excess drains into the saucer, where a sensor measures it. Then the plant is left to dry back until it truly needs water again. It stays in its standard nursery pot, so swapping it takes seconds. And every watering is recorded.
Look inside
Let's look inside a tanball, and follow one full watering cycle.
Inside the planter
From the outside
From the outside, a tanball is a long, decorative trough holding three plants. Usually, as here, all three are the same species. Everything that keeps them watered is hidden inside.
Shared reservoir
Most of the trough is a water reservoir. It runs the full length of the tanball and supplies all three plants for weeks at a time.
False bottom
Above the waterline sits a false bottom. It carries the plants and keeps them clear of the reservoir.
Inner pots
Each plant sits in its own inner pot on the false bottom.
Nursery pots
Inside, each plant stays in its standard black plastic nursery pot, roots and all. Nothing is repotted, so plant swaps are quick.
Saucers
Under each nursery pot is a shallow saucer that catches the water draining through.
Level sensors
In each saucer is a water level sensor. The red mark is the low level and the green mark is the target. Every plant has its own sensor, so each one is watered on its own schedule.
Controller
One controller runs the whole tanball. It has three channels, one for each plant. Each channel has a power outlet for its pump and a USB-A port for its level sensor. A built-in IoT SIM sends reports to the online portal.
Battery
The controller, the sensors and all three pumps run from a single rechargeable battery. It is designed to last well over a year between charges, and recharges through a USB-C port on the controller.
Pumps
On the floor of the reservoir are three small submersible pumps, one for each plant.
Drip lines
Each pump has its own drip line, running up through the false bottom to the top of its plant's pot.
Temperature sensor
A temperature sensor sits in the reservoir and reports the water temperature. This matters because water that is much colder or warmer than the plant's surroundings can shock the roots and set the plant back. Your portal shows the reading, so you can spot a problem early, such as a planter next to a heater, an air-conditioning vent or a cold window.
The watering cycle
Each plant is checked
Four times a day, the controller reads each saucer sensor in turn. Even matching plants dry out at different rates. This morning, plants one and three are below the low mark. Plant two still has water.
Only the thirsty plants
So only pumps one and three switch on, each for its set time. Pump two stays off. Each watering takes only a small amount from the reservoir.
Water soaks through
The water soaks down through the potting mix and drains into the saucers below.
Level confirmed
The sensors read again. All three saucers are back at target, so every pump stays off.
One report
The controller then sends one report over its IoT SIM, covering all three plants, the reservoir level and the water temperature. On your portal, you can see exactly when each plant was checked and watered.
Weeks pass
This repeats at six in the morning, midday, six in the evening and midnight. On average, each plant needs water about once a week, depending on the species, the light and the season. Over the following weeks the plants keep growing, and the reservoir slowly goes down.
Refill alert
Eventually, the reservoir runs low. When the pumps can no longer bring the saucers back to target, the controller raises a single alert, and you know exactly which site needs a refill.
Refill
A technician tops up the reservoir through the fill port on the rim, usually as part of a regular tidy-up visit. The plants stay where they are, the alert clears, and the tanball carries on.
Close
Fewer visits. Lower labour and travel costs. Healthier plants, and a record of every watering. That's PotWatch: automatic watering, built for your plant hire business.
