Automatic indoor plant rotator?
May 8, 2017 11:31 AM Subscribe
Before I launch my $3.5 billion Kickstarter project, I thought I should ask: are automatic indoor plant pot rotators a thing? It would be a stand that a plant pot sits on that turns very slowly.
Only if it's made from primitive technology. Like, for example, it hangs from a single thin organic string and somehow turns with the warmth of the sun or the passing breeze, or it floats in a dish of water and turns with a small windmill made of naturally discarded feathers collected at the local owl farm, or it is powered by a water clock you fill by hand once a week that also has an adjustable drip for watering the plants, but not with modern solar panels or, heaven forfend, with an electrical motor feeding off batteries or the local coal-burning power plant. Make it so biodegradable that you have to be careful it isn't eaten whole by your plants. Make it a touch Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinson to tickle fancies and open wallets. Send me money if you make any.
But plants tend to follow the sun of their own accord. What is the point of artificially rotating them and making them have to constantly readjust themselves to find the sun?
posted by pracowity at 1:22 PM on May 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
But plants tend to follow the sun of their own accord. What is the point of artificially rotating them and making them have to constantly readjust themselves to find the sun?
posted by pracowity at 1:22 PM on May 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
To pracowity, you rotate plants for aesthetic purposes. When the leaves turn toward the sun on a houseplant, you end up looking at the "back end" of the plant, with all the leaves facing away from the sightline inside the room. So you rotate occasionally to keep the more attractive side facing the room instead of the window.
posted by raisingsand at 1:34 PM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by raisingsand at 1:34 PM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
The one GuyZero links to is lying when it says it has an attractive design, it's ugly as hell, and if you read the reviews you'll see a lot of constructive feedback that maybe you can resolve.
I'd buy a thing like this for the right price. A lot of our plants are in rooms where all the light necessarily comes from one side, and we have to turn them not just for aesthetics, but because the plant will literally become stunted on one side if it's not evenly exposed to light over time.
posted by padraigin at 2:37 PM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'd buy a thing like this for the right price. A lot of our plants are in rooms where all the light necessarily comes from one side, and we have to turn them not just for aesthetics, but because the plant will literally become stunted on one side if it's not evenly exposed to light over time.
posted by padraigin at 2:37 PM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: The product that GuyZero links to is very close to what I want, it's just a shame it's so ugly and doesn't beep when the battery is flat. The demand for these things must be much less than I expected. Here's hoping something better will appear on Tindie one day.
posted by bergnotburg at 9:34 AM on May 9, 2017
posted by bergnotburg at 9:34 AM on May 9, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by GuyZero at 11:36 AM on May 8, 2017