Blossom is getting a refresh.
Tyler Lizenby/CNETPlantLink charmed me when I reviewed it more than three years ago. It was a simple sensor that stuck in the dirt near your plant and reliably kept track of the soil moisture so you knew when to water. Blossom was an irrigation controller similar to Rachio that monitored the weather and helped you avoid watering when rain was imminent.
Both have been resurrected and rebranded as part of Scott’s new all-encompassing Gro line at CES. The Gro platform is designed to help everything in your garden work together.
Blossom is now simply the Gro 7 Zone Controller. PlantLink is the Gro Water Sensor. Scott’s Gro also includes a drip irrigation system you can easily set up for your potted plants and a micro sprinkler to give your small garden plot a spritz.
Each piece of the platform is designed to work independently, but each piece will work with the rest if you want as much smart gardening help as possible. For example, the Water Sensor can talk to the 7 Zone Controller to help it water more accurately.
The 7 Zone Controller is now $150, which is the same price as Blossom of old. (That converts to roughly £110 or AU$200.) Like the original PlantLink, the Gro Water Sensor needs a hub to communicate with the cloud. A single sensor and hub pack cost $100 (about £75 or AU$125), which is a little more than the PlantLink’s $80 starter kit used to cost. Scott’s justifies the difference with more robust sensors that can withstand the weather and be used outdoors.
I like Scott’s approach to making a smart garden even greater than the sum of its parts, and these particular parts are pretty smart on their own.
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