Love them or hate them, gadgets are a part of everyday life these days. Almost everyone has at least one, and now there are gadgets designed for houseplants. Are they “must buys” for houseplant lovers? Or is simplicity still best? Here’s a look at two of the newest houseplant gadgets on the market.
This gadget from Hammacher Schlemmer claims to help purify the air in homes and offices. It consists of a plastic enclosure with a fan. A houseplant is placed inside and according to the website ‚”the integrated, specially designed fan draws in ambient air toxins and circulates them around the plant’s leaves and roots, which absorb and metabolize the toxins.” It also claims to have a removable tray to make watering said plant easy. It retails for $200.
Do houseplant lovers need this? No. Does it really do anything more than simply putting a few houseplants in a room does? No. As long as the room has good air circulation, and most rooms do, this kind of gadget is completely unnecessary. Houseplants will purify the air all by themselves. The website recommends using Spider Plant and Peace Lily and both of them are good choices. However, almost all plants, especially Pothos, Snake Plant, and Ivy are good choices for cleaning the air. Rather than spending $200 on the Botanical Air Purifier, simply spending $20-$30 on the plants themselves is a much better idea.
This gadget is supposed to make growing plants a no-brainer. It works like the AeroGarden, using a special seed cartridge. Once the desired one has been chosen and inserted in the planter, the planter is hooked up to a computer via USB so a ‚”growing program” can be downloaded. After that, it pretty much takes over, controlling light and fertilization and letting the owner know when the water tank needs to be filled. Some models actually act like dehumidifiers and take water out of the air instead. It’s not yet on the market but will be available for sale in a few months starting at $23. The cartridges will retail for between $4 and $7.
Is it worth it? Perhaps for the black thumbs out there but for everyone else, it seems to take the fun out of growing houseplants. That said it just might be the perfect gift for the houseplant lover who also loves gadgets!
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