Customer Reviews

EasyBloom 01-0011 Plant Sensor Plus

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a great product, but the software is not well thought-out.

You must subscribe to the EasyBloom service ($2 per month or $19 per year) to get fertility readings, as well as a firmware upgrade.

You are informed of the subscription requirement AFTER you have let it take an initial set of readings, reconnect it to a computer, and upload your initial readings. After you subscribe to the fertility reading service and take another set of readings, reconnect to the computer, and try to view your fertility results, you are informed of a firmware upgrade that is necessary to get the readings!

So... after several days of attempts to get fertility readings, I hope to get this thing to do what it's advertised to do.

This seems like such a simple thing to fix. Tell the customer up-front that a subscription is required and a firmware update is required if you intend to use the fertility functionality of this tool.

Very Frustrating.

The EasyBloom Plus is a wonderful tool for both the beginner and the avid gardener alike; with the paid fertilizer subscription (sold separately) gardeners can now easily learn whether their plants are under- or over-fertilized in addition getting the Classic readings of sunlight levels, temperature, soil moisture, and humidity. The only thing the sensor is missing is the ability to read soil pH levels.

How it works: go to the EasyBloom/PlantSense website to open a free account and download the appropriate software for your platform, Mac or Windows. If you want to purchase a fertilizer subscription, you can also do that. When everything is set online, plug the top, removable portion of the device into a USB port connected to your computer. You will then automatically be taken to the website's Dashboard area where you can set your sensor to "Monitor" or "Recommend," depending on whether you want to track a specific plant or to get recommendations on what should work in that area. After the sensor is set, you connect the two halves again, water the area thoroughly, stick the sensor into the soil, and turn it on. Leave it in the ground for a few days. You then plug the top half into your USB port again, and the readings automatically upload to the website. Once you've set up the account, everything works quickly and efficiently.

To get an accurate fertilizer reading, you must wait for a complete watering cycle, however long that takes. The sensor chirps and blinks orange when the soil dries out, so it's also a good indication when the plant needs water. I've kept the EasyBloom Plus in the soil for more than one cycle to see whether I've been giving my plants adequate water, and the readings provide a nice graph of the rising and falling moisture.

As with the Classic, you can use this either outdoors or indoors, although the sunlight feature doesn't work with indoor grow lights. Pots must have more than four inches of soil since the base of the unit must be flush with the soil. Rain should not affect it -- unless the sensor becomes submerged above the joint. And if you have any problems, customer service is excellent.

I really like the online plant library that PlantSense provides for both recommendations and selections to monitor. It seems to improve every month. Select options such as "deer resistant" or "spring bloom season" or "attracts birds" or "shrub" or all of the preceding to get planting suggestions for the particular area you've just recorded. I'd like to see the options expanded to include evergreens, but I'm sure they'll add that category eventually.

When I reviewed the Classic EasyBloom Plant Sensor, I lamented the relatively simple set of readings. Now that they've added the fertilizer subscription option, I love it. The only thing that is keeping this from being my dream gardening device is the lack of pH readings, something I really hate to do using conventional methods. For instant, no-fuss pH readings, try Luster Leaf 1818 Rapitest Mini 4-in-1 Soil Tester. It also tests for fertility (no subscription), moisture, and light (only at that moment in time), but it isn't as comprehensive or plant-specific; it also does not record the readings. Because the Easy Bloom can take days to give a good picture of fertility, I use the Luster Leaf as a quick-and-dirty test. For struggling plants, I find that the Easy Bloom, especially combined with the web site, gives a more complete picture.

If you want a unique housewarming gift or a present for someone who likes to garden, you've found your item. And while you're at it, pick one up for yourself. (Note: I participated in the beta testing for this device; although I'm not an employee, I was able to use it extensively prior to its official release.)

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

I bought this product after reading a ton of favorable reviews. I was really excited about its potential. A few years ago I bought my first house and I was hopeful of being able to use what I learned while obtaining my degree in Landscape Horticulture from a really great school back east. What I thought I was going to be able to do, was what their President in a YouTube Video described it as being able to do - serve as a guide to picking plants that would grow in specific locations. With lots of great information about my location, I was then going to go online to someplace like Logee's (who have just about every plant known to man) and get exactly what would grow best in that location. To say I've been disappointed in EasyBloom is an understatement.

I live in the Phoenix area where the summer sun makes it challenging to grow anything outside. In Arizona, as far as inside plants are concerned, I think it is best to try to keep the sun out of the inside part of the house for the most part, lest I have to send large checks to Arizona utility companies. One of the things I had hoped the Easy Bloom would provide about a specific location, was information as far as how adding a grow light might affect my ability to grow a certain plant or plants. Unfortunately the combination of their product and software couldn't make anything like that happen. I had planned on building several wardian cases for inside my house, and was hopeful that the Easy Bloom would be able to give me some recommendations on which terraium plants would do best. I've since discovered that they have almost nothing in the way of terraium plants in their library. I later was advised that EasyBloom wouldn't sense grow lights. I took 8 readings inside my house where I was going to be placing sealed containers with grow lights. EasyBloom told me that I couldn't grow anything, which was not anywhere near accurate. I have since built those cases (with grow lights) and now have an incredible combintation of very exotic plants that are thriving and completely take care of themselves.

Having given up on using EasyBloom for my terraium plants, I moved to seeing how it would work for my outside plants. When I finally got around to testing this January I was a really disappointed in how little information it provided. I put the sensor in about 20 places all around my house, on North, West and Eastern explosures. I seemed to get the same set of plants being recommended, no matter where I put it, which made no sense to me based upon my experience, schooling and education. I had assumed that in this day where computer modeling is a well developed science, that my Plant Sensor would give me a whole lot more information and a wide range of choices. But apparently their software is just using zone setting as their basis for making recommendations(mine is 8b). That lumps me in with Austin, TX and Gainsville, Florida. If you've ever been to all 3 of those places like I have, you'd know that Phoenix weather is nothing like the weather in either of those 2. As a result, some of the recommendations I got were laughable: When I stuck the sensor in a section of my thriving bermuda grass lawn, it didn't even come up with bermuda grass as a recommendation. Instead it's top recommendations suggested that I grow blackberrys, watermelon, onions, lettuce, pumpkin etc....the Arizona sun will crucify those plants.

Despite all the setbacks, I still hadn't given up on the plant sensor yet. I told myself that would be okay and that I could live with it so long as the fertilizer portion of the product worked. But again, that didn't happen. Calling customer service turned into a disaster. After paying for the annual subscription in January, the EasyBloom software kept telling me in February & March that I had to download a firmware update before it would work. I tried several times during that period without success. No matter how many times I would attempt to run the update, the software continued to say that I needed new firmware - I've since found out that I have the most recent firmware. The software told me to contact support, who then questioned if I had a subscription. I advised the customer service person of the messages I had received, about the other information, and gave her the date the money was taken from my bank account. I asked for her to help me figure out whether I had an Easy Bloom or an Easy Bloom Plus - which I couldn't determine. She told me that she wasn't able to look up my record despite my having registered so she couldn't tell if I was registered or what product I had. On my first call to customer support she had told me confidently that I just had the regular Easy Bloom and that was the likely reason why I couldn't get fertilizer readings. Fortunately for me, after I got off the phone with them I went back to Amazon.com to see how much it would cost to buy an EasyBloom Plus. There I discovered that they were wrong and that I did, in fact, have an Easy Bloom Plus.

Then I discovered my real problem. EasyBloom sold itself to Black & Decker, exactly when I do not know. Bottom line, no matter what they say, they aren't supporting it. Instead of being able to send me a new unit (I would prefer the Black & Decker one if thats the equivalent of the plus) they're now going to jerk me around for the next several weeks, wasting my time. They seem to have no interest in me as a customer.

At some point in time, with development, the EasyBloom may turn out to be a useful product. I'm disappointed that I'm unable to speak with anyone in their tech support who actually knows what the program will do. Being able to learn what they have in development would assuage much of my frustration, if they were actually moving towards something that was closer to what the YouTube Video actually claimed would give me hope that I didn't throw away my money on this product. So far the only person I've been able to talk to is a customer service person who doesn't seeem to know anything about plants, computers, software, etc. or anything that I have questions about. Worse yet, she tells me that she is the only person I can talk to. From what I understand, all she's able to do now is take my number and PROMISE (very key word here) that they'll call you back. I'm expecting that will result in playing telephone tag with someone for weeks, at which time my frustration will have reached the point where I just don't care anymore. Perhaps this review will get them to respond, but I'm doubting it. They've already gotten their money and probably have little to gain from helping me.

As it is right now, according to their customer service, the fertilizer recommendations SUPPOSEDLY don't give you readings for the actual Nitrogen, Potassium or Phosphorus levels, nor for any trace elements. I'm not sure what you get, since my unit doesn't work right now. Since I would think that has to be the basis from which they're making the recommendations, I don't understand the problem in making the source data available. I can think of no reason to keep that information secret, other than to keep someone from being able to take that information and go elsewhere to buy their fertilizer. From reading the reviews, I'm guessing they'll just tell me that I'm over or under or just right on fertilizer and then recommend a certain kind of fertilizer, which I'm sure they'll love to sell you a premium price. That's the other thing I found out about EasyBloom. What they want for their plants, gardening supplies, etc. is outrageous!

Bottom line is that at some point in time, someone is going to come out with a product which will actually do what the EasyBloom says it will do - Give you a list of plants that will grow in various places inside and out, and then be able to help you keep them growing. EasyBloom, especially on their videos on YouTube, gives the impression that it will do exactly what I thought it would do right now. But right now, my EasyBloom Plus doesn't. I'm hoping that someday someone will develop a product actually that will actually do that. However does will end up making a fortune.

I've used both the plus and original easybloom and found them both to be intuitive and helpful. Using an EasyBloom is easy for even the most non-technical user. With the new "fertilizer" feature, the EasyBloom plus is a great tool to save money and will help prevent over fertilizing your plant. I use it around the house and outdoors without any issues. I've discovered new plant ideas based on the readings and will be experimenting this spring.
I give it a green thumbs up!

My husband and sons gave this to me (gardener & plant lover) for Mothers Day. It is fairly easy to use. I have had a few occasions when I've had to reboot my computer to recognize the sensor plugged into the USB...which may seem like a computer problem (not EasyBloom) but my computer is brand-new so I doubt thats the case.

The EasyBloom software is informative and easy to use. I wish, however, that you could zoom in on the lighting or moisture graph...or pick a range and get more detailed info but it doesn't.

So far so good with this product. I like that I can put it in the soil anywhere and leave it to monitor, for as long as you wish (no big deal if you forget and leave it there for a week or more...it just tracks the entire time).

I need to play with the fertilizer option next.

I also had the earlier product which was very easy to use.

This new addition has the ability to tell me whether I'm using enough fertilizer which has always been a mystery to me. We have some expensive plants and some demanding citrus trees.

I've always heard the devices to provide that kind info cost thousands of dollars. I'm amazed these folks figured it out (and the web site has gotten really good)

Already found out we are not giving our Dark Japanese Maple enough love. Off to Home Depot this morning to buy some fertilizer.

I'll be analyzing my backyard for the next few weeks ;-)

MB

Both the software and packaging claim that Easy Boom will collect sunlight, temperature, humidity and soil moisture data after 24 hours. This is simply not true. When I failed to get moisture data, I contacted the company and was told that this information was only available in MONITOR mode for monitoring specific plants. This can take up to a couple of weeks depending on the "watering cycle".

While the sunlight, temperature and humidity data seems to be reasonable, I have a real problem dealing with companies who intentionally misrepresent their products.

FOLLOW-UP: Subsiquent communications with the company assured me that basic soil data should be available in RECOMMEND mode. They sent me a replacement unit, and I am pleased to say that this unit provided all of the data that was promised.

Not only is the product awesome, but the 24 hour support is great too (for all your late night fertilizer questions!). And on that note, the fertilizer subscription has been worth paying for. We discovered we were over fertilizing a couple of our plants. So far very happy. And when I wrote and asked for an ehancement to their search feature they responded - normally those sorts of emails go to a block box somewhere. Very happy.

This is a great product. My wife and I didn't know a thing about gardening but thought it would be great to teach the kids. This product was so easy to use. It has helped with watering and placement of our plants.

I recommend this product for any without a green thumb.

I bought the easy bloom plant sensor to help improve my gardening skills. The hardware comes with good software that helps increase your overall gardening knowledge. The sensor itself is easy to use, its durable, its very accurate in its reading and most of all its a fun tool to have in helping to improve your garden output. Great gift.