Willow Starter Pack

£34.99

I’m a confessed awful plant parent, because far too many plants have come into my home to sadly become crispy and look a little sorry for themselves. Therefore, finding a solution that can make looking after a plant easier is exactly what Willow has done by creating an innovative gadget to provide you with plant-specific insights into every aspect of your plant's health.

The Willow starter pack includes a sensor that you place into the soil of your plant and connect it with the Willow hub. Once connected, the sensor probes will measure the moisture level of the soil every 15 minutes, to provide feedback on what your plant needs after taking into account the plant's needs, soil type and seasonality. This means that you never end up watering your plants too much or too little. The sensor can also produce a happiness score for your plant, which you can then work to improve with watering. The sensor also has a light sensor, which tracks the light exposure of your plant, offering insights to help meet your growing goals and improve the overall happiness of your plant. The final check that the sensor carries out is humidity, which it gauges with the built-in temperature and humidity gauges. This helps to create the perfect environment for your specific species of plant to help it continue to thrive.

I like how simple the Willow Starter Pack is, as you just need to install the Willow app and pair it with your hub and sensor, ready to receive insightful reports back about your plant's health. I love that the app allows you the name your plant, and then set up reminders and notifications for watering, temperature and light insights. These reminders are almost like your plant is talking to you and demanding to be watered, which makes caring for them a lot more entertaining. Furthermore, the notifications ensure you can adjust to your plant's needs in real time and learn how best to care for it.

The hub and sensor are a great way to get a better insight into your plants. I will note that some of the more detailed insights from Willow are only accessible with a subscription fee, which adds an ongoing cost to the price of the plant monitoring. However, if you have a lot of plants and are looking for an all-in-one system that helps you to better meet their needs and keep them all thriving, Willow is a great option – especially if you’re bored of wasting money on plants that come into your house just to die!

Pros:

• Great insight into your plants needs to help them thrive
• Easy to set up and connect
• 24/7 monitoring for best plant health results

Cons:

• Some premium features of the Willow app are behind a subscription fee
• The Sensor is quite chunky, which may not fit into a smaller house plant pot alongside the plant