Building a Water Sensor

Hi Permies! A college friend and I have been working on a soil moisture sensor for the past six months that we believe can help gardeners, but we have some questions. Any other feedback would be great too. Website: sproutsensor.com.

The project connects many moisture sensors to a single WiFi hub. A mobile app then reminds you when to water and also shows you the soil moisture history.

Our questions are:

-How do you know when to water your plants?
-Do you ever forget to water your plants?
-Is it more common to over or under water?
-How many plants do you have?
-Would you use this sensor? How many? (If the price was right)

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

This sort of product is great, and it seems the market is about to take off..

http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/solar-powered-battery-free-smart-watering-system-promises-intelligent-irrigation.html

I guess the question I'd have is what makes Sprout differ from the other 7 products in that article or linked from it?

Thanks for your feedback!

Great question. What separates Sprout from the others is definitely the cost. With sensors priced at $15 ea, our goal is to make them as simple and robust as possible. We are finding that a lot the current sensors out there have reliability issues and are very expensive. We're not trying to do anything too fancy by adding functionality that you won’t need, like integrating a large detailed plant database or taking measurements of soil pH levels. The sensors will stick to the most important question: does your plant need to be watered or not.