Bloom Aims to Bring Smarts to Your Garden and Houseplants — with Up to 100 Sensors Per Hub

Josef Tregoat-Duncan has launched a crowdfunding for a smart home plant monitoring system designed to alert the user to light levels, temperature, humidity, and soil moisture — with a modular design for easy expansion.

"Bloom monitors your plants," Tregoat-Duncan explains. "[It] lets you know when it's time to water, when there's not enough sunlight, when it's too hot, too cold, and when you need to check humidity."

The heart of the Bloom system is the Core, a central hub powered by a single USB Type-C port and which communicates with the outside world via Wi-Fi. Intriguingly, the hub also serves as a charger for the other parts of the modular Bloom system — three at launch, potentially to be expanded in the future.

The Hydro module is a soil moisture level sensor, offering corrosion-resistant probes and a water resistant housing. The Solis module, meanwhile, measures sunlight exposure with a 180-degree field of view. Finally, the Clima measures temperature and humidity monitoring — and, unlike its compatriots, is only described as "splash resistant." The modules last for six months per charge.

Each core supports up to 100 sensor modules, with a maximum line-of-sight range of 65 feet. If you've a bigger garden to monitor, a second core can be used to double the range. The data gathered, meanwhile, is linked to a companion application — while also being fed back locally using coloured LEDs.

Bloom isn't Tregoat-Duncan's first attempt to crowdfund a smart home product, though it's arguably the most practical: He previously launched a campaign for a smartphone-linked shot dispenser, RevoRoulette, which failed to raise its target funds.

Bloom is now funding on Kickstarter, with physical rewards starting at £27 (around $37) for a pack with a Core, a Hydro module, and power cables at "super early bird" pricing. Devices are expected to ship in February 2022.