Planta: Complete Plant Care

I’ve had Planta for about 4 years, as I was just starting to have houseplants and wanted to keep them alive and healthy. After 2 1/2 years and a few dead plants I realized that Planta prompts me to over water/fertilize/mist my plants, and if you snooze a prompt, it does not adjust the schedule it has for the plant; you can snooze adding fertilizer for a week, because the plant’s soil is still wet, but once you complete that task, it will still want you to water in 5 days or whatever schedule if has for your plant. The only reason I haven’t gotten rid of the app is I don’t want to lose all the information that’s stored for my plants. Just a suggestion to always check the soil of your plant before blindly trusting the app. Same goes for misting, unless you want to fast track killing your plants.

LikeabeeSun, May 5, 2024

United States

Ive used this app to help with watering schedules but I don’t trust it for much else. For example, I live in zone 5b and all the plants in my garden are hardy in zones 4-7 or similar, and have stayed healthy year after year, yet Planta tells me they are not suitable for planting in the ground in my area. Examples are catmint, dee-lish roses, knockout roses, dianthus, and hyacinths. They really need to update their information or allow more flexibility when it comes to plant varieties.

MizSmittySun, May 5, 2024

United States

While this app in concept is a great idea, the execution could use some work. The app itself doesn’t always work well, such as not retaining location data after giving permissions but to actually be able to fix this (which is a truly simple fix on the service), is actually complicated as there is nothing that tells you a specific area to go to to fix it. (Traditionally location data is kept in settings, however on here it’s kept and can be edited on your “profile” within the app). Failure to update the location settings will default to Washington and give inaccurate temperature data for both indoor and outdoor temperatures. While they can be very educational with some plants, MANY plants have serious misinformation especially regarding toxicity. The app states that it’s toxicity information is gathered from “multiple sources” and that “some sources” say a plant may be toxic however it doesn’t actually give you access to these sources (also they’re just wrong and can be proved so with a literal google search, in addition to nontoxic plants being labeled toxic, there are several plants which while in general they may be safe they do have some toxic elements and these plants are labeled completely nontoxic to both people and animals which is also wrong), while they do offer the ability to “learn about poisonous plants” (in general, not for the specific plant), this information IS locked behind a paywall. There are actually lots of features in which are locked behind a monthly paywall (they do offer other payment plans though such as a 6 month or yearly subscription) such as analyzing your light source (aka light meter), their diagnosis plant scanner, plant identifier, fertilizing/misting/repotting/pruning schedules, plant site recommendations, care share, care guides/articles, overwintering, plant recommendations based on skill, and weather alerts. Bare bones for free you get the ability to put in your location, plant site for your specific plants (it does group your plants for each site), individual plant profiles (with ability to update each one individually and add your own photos), watering schedule, basic information on some plants, and the ability to join community groups. While they do offer several community groups, unfortunately there’s very few to join and most are either extremely specific niche topics OR they’re extremely broad. It’s decent for what it is, but for most of the features most people would need out of this app be aware you’ll more than likely need the subscription.

Xx.Anubis.xXSat, May 4, 2024

United States

This works! If you follow the potting and watering schedule then you will never kill your plants. As a loving plant parent, I see all the results I want with minimal effort. I have yet to buy the premium version for fertilizer schedule and my plants still thrive. I like this app and recommended for beginner plant parents to the collectors

Vann!//ySat, May 4, 2024

United States

Seems to be focusing more on selling products now that caring for plants. The algorithm for the waterings just went the same as they used to be and the app of very inconsistent. Like what do you mean impatiens arnt suitable for outdoors??? I grow them every year? I’ve even used the planta app and never had it told me there not suitable. Long story short after numerous updates I’m not seeing any improvements so I will be ending my subscription. Overglorified reminders app

xpb otsi gfFaeaWed, May 1, 2024

United States

I have told everyone I know about this app by now, but it’s genuinely one of my favorites. It’s extremely informative, very easy to use, and even lets you name your plants :) I never knew I could have and keep plants alive long-term before Planta and I am so grateful it exists. I now have a dozen plants after having started with one very sad-looking Spotted Begonia hybrid that started out a bargain-bin find with a few very fragile, sickly stems, and is now a few feet tall and very bushy. My partner got the premium version for us and I use it the most but it’s been really great to get plant care tips and it even has special notifications and warnings for when there are weather changes and events that could affect your plants. There are even plant sharing forums where you can talk about your plants with other people! Really can’t say enough great things about this app!

E. GreyWed, May 1, 2024

United States

i have the subscription for planta, and i’ve been using it for a month or so now. it’s been useful, but it’s also made some things more difficult than they need to be. to start off, like others have said, there’s a lot of plants that are missing from the catalogue, and you cannot add even a temporary listing, or a custom one privately. if it’s not in the catalogue, you just can’t make a schedule for it, which i found to be a pretty large design flaw. you also cannot undo tasks, etc. either. another issue for me personally, is that i find myself having to look up plants care guidelines because the ones in the plant listing are SO vague. “part sun, part shade, full sun, shade”. those are the extent of the options. it’s not helpful when a plant isn’t a beginner plant that can hold up to a lot of inconsistency or deviation from what they like, and some of my plants have been doing poorly because of this. i’m not sure why they aren’t more specific like “this plant likes indirect bright light” or “this plant will thrive in shade, or indirect medium light”, etc. also, another thing that bothers me: they should have the care guidelines visible when you’re doing tasks for that plant instead of having to go to the info page in my opinion. it would be great if more difficult plants would have tips like “susceptible to leaf scorch” or “drought resistant”, and guidelines on how to prune specific plants (or whether you should at all since it can send certain plants into shock). beyond this here are a few other things i think would improve the app. something i’d like to see that would be helpful is a humidity estimated preference, like a percentage. plants can be difficult to just “get a feel for” sometimes, and being specific could really help your user base. even if a plant isn’t by the ac, it doesn’t mean that the humidity range in a high rise apartment with the ac running a lot will be the same as a stick built house in a tropical area where they may get more moisture or have better ventilation. a feature that lets you specify why the plant is sick or in bad condition: aka some sort of way to track pest management/fungi. i’m not sure if this is already a thing, but if so then it’s been very difficult to find. my last issue with it is that the dr.planta feature is not very intuitive to use. if at the end it provides you results that aren’t accurate, all you can do is restart or send a message to the plant expert, meaning if you need to change an answer you have to take all the photos again and rewrite everything. it would be more useful if it provided a list of issues with how likely, and let you browse them if the first few they suggest aren’t accurate. sometimes the ai for that is just so far off. the good of this app is mostly that the tasks are helpful (though i think other apps offer this for free), the user interface is attractive and minimalist, the communities are helpful, and the experts are responsive. i hate subscription plans, but i think 35 for a year is pretty reasonable if they improve some of this stuff. in the current state of the app, i would say pass and try something else til they make some improvements.

nikisickMon, Apr 29, 2024

United States