Smart Gardening: Burdwan Man Waters Plants Through Apps

Sanat Singha is seeing bountiful yields after setting up Wi-Fi connectivity in his rooftop garden to water each plant through dedicated pipes at periodical intervals.

Burdwan: Sanat Singha of Purba Bardhaman has a fix for rooftop gardeners who struggle to water the plants amid their routines. He has set up a smart garden where watering is done through mobile applications and Wi-Fi. This unique set-up arouses curiosity as smart gardens are not something we usually come across.

Sigha, office superintendent of the College of Agriculture under the Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV), is a resident of Jhapantala of the city who explained the concept of this novel gardening technique. He said the watering of plants is done through dedicated pipelines which can be controlled both through mechanical switches and mobile applications. People from home and abroad can control it to provide the daily dosage of water to the plants.

"We often face problems with gardens when travelling. We tell neighbours to take care of the plants but they often forget about it amid other engagements. This negligence leads to drying up of plants, spoiling our mood during tours," Singha said.

"After I shared the issue with a techie friend, he advised me to set up Wi-Fi to control it through the app. Each tub is connected to a pipeline which sprinkles waters," he added.

Singha checks on cauliflowers at his rooftop garden (ETV Bharat)

There are 600 tubs in Singh's rooftop garden which includes eggplants, kidney beans, cauliflower and others. He uses organic fertilisers like vegetable husks, waste tea leaves, chicken excreta, mustard oil cake and cow dung. Organic technology is also used for pest control.

Singh said a drop of shampoo in a bucket of water along with onion husk and waste tea leaves are mixed properly to spray on the plants. The garden yielded 250 cauliflowers and 120 sacks of ginger apart from onions, beans, carrots, chillies, coriander leaves, peas, bottle gourd, papaya and other winter veggies.

"I use only organic environment and have planted about 250 cauliflowers, kidney beans, eggplants, peas, beans, coriander leaves etc. The Wi-Fi system has immensely helped me nourish the plants and the CCTV cameras help to monitor them constantly," Singh said.

But the only drawback in this novel setup is the power supply as load-shedding will send the smart system into hibernation.