Posted by mistergibson on 2014-09-11 21:32:22 UTC
PermalinkDoes Growstuff have a database of plants that can be 'companion planted' for optimal soil health? I understand that many plants can help feed and protect each other if put in the soil in the right combinations. Knowing what plants do next to each other and why would be an awesome resource to those wishing to plant food forests.
4 comments
Not yet
I'm also wondering if there is a documentation section for the API … I do ruby coding and would love to know how to tap into this rich resource. :)
mistergibson:
Our API docs are available on our wiki… "version 0" is where we currently stand, and it's usable but a bit clunky. You may know we're actually crowdfunding to build out our "version 1" API. If you support our campaign there are some great API developer perks including workshops etc to help you build things with Growstuff data.
Companion planting is one of the things we were thinking of as a potential API use case. It's on our list of potential demo apps, in fact :) Using our open data, you should be able to determine which plants are most often planted together – maybe not quite the same as what most people mean by "companion planting" in terms of beneficial effects etc, but it could be used to suggest things like "Since you're planting tomatoes, maybe you'd like to plant basil as well?"
Hey Skud,
Thanks for turning me onto the API page – bookmarked :)
I really think the companion planting suggestions need to be derived from an algo that considers: soil chemistry, what the plant needs, and what it deposits in the soil. Also tracked should be what pests it wards off as a companion. Also, I think that plants and pests in the Growstuff db should be linked to an Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) creature ID. EOL tracks a huge number of plant and animal species of the world and each one is curated by someone someplace to stay up to date.
With a detailed and rich database all apps that tie into it have that much more power in the field. Just Saying