PLOTERA

🌱 Now in Beta — Free to Use

From Soil to Harvest —
Plan Your Best Garden Yet

Name: Plotera
Author: Plotera

Visual garden planning for home growers.

Plotera helps you plan, track, and grow your vegetable garden from seed to harvest — built by a home gardener, for home gardeners.

Get it on Android

Download on the iPhone

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Features

Everything your garden needs

From planting to harvest, Plotera keeps you on top of everything.

🗺

Visual Garden Grid

Map your garden on a visual grid. Assign plants to zones and see exactly what's growing where.

📅

Planting Calendar

Know what to sow and when. Location-aware planting windows for your climate zone.

💧

Watering Schedules

Set watering intervals per zone. Get reminders when plants are overdue.

📚

Plant Encyclopedia

100+ plants with companion planting, rotation guides, germination times and more.

🌱

Seedling Nursery

Track your seedling trays from sowing to transplant. Know what's ready to go in the ground.

🗂

Seed Inventory

Manage your seed collection with packet scanner, stock levels, expiry dates and growing specs.

🌤

Live Weather

Real-time weather for your garden location with 7-day forecast, UV index and humidity.

📷

Photo Gallery

Document your garden's journey with photos. Attach them to gardens, zones or seed packets.

See it in action

Real screenshots from Plotera

Garden Grid

Planting Calendar

Plant Profiles

Ready to grow smarter?

Free during beta. No credit card required.

Our Story

Built in a garden

I'm a person who has a hobby of having hobbies. A little while ago I started a small veggie garden with my youngest daughter — purely for the joy of growing our own produce and helping her understand where food comes from and why sustainability matters.

We have a small block of land and we're doing our best to maximise it — fruit trees, vegetables, chickens, the works. After revisiting my seed collection one afternoon, I quickly realised I had no idea what was planted where, what had been fertilised, the soil conditions, what grew well next to what.

I looked for apps. There were a few, but none that did quite what I needed. So I built my own. Plotera was born from that afternoon in the garden with my daughter — and I hope it helps your garden too.

What Plotera does

Visual garden grid — plan exactly where everything grows
Location-aware planting calendar for your climate
Watering & fertilizer schedules with reminders
Seed inventory with packet scanner
Seedling nursery tray tracker
Plant encyclopedia with companion planting
Live weather for your garden location
Photo gallery — document your garden journey
Yield logging & cost tracking

Pricing

Simple & free to start

Plotera is free during beta. We're committed to keeping a free tier forever.

Current · Beta

Free

during beta · always

✓Unlimited gardens

✓Full garden grid & zones

✓Planting calendar

✓Watering & fertilizer tracking

✓Seed inventory with scanner

✓Seedling nursery

✓3D garden growth view

✓Plant encyclopedia

✓50MB photo storage

✓Live weather

Future · Pro

Pro Plan

TBD

coming after beta

We're still figuring out what Pro will include. Ideas being considered include expanded photo storage, advanced analytics, and more.

Beta users will always get a generous free tier — you won't lose what you have today.

Get In Touch

Have a question, bug report, or feature idea? We'd love to hear from you.

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🔍

Getting Started

🏡 Home Dashboard ▶

Your central hub. See garden summaries, active alerts, weather, and quick links to all features.

Tap the Gardens tab to see all your gardens and open one.

The Nursery tab shows your seedling trays at a glance.

Tap the ☰ menu (top left) to access every section of the app.

Weather data is pulled from your saved location — update it in My Account.

🌿 Creating Your First Garden ▶

Create a garden manually, or use the Optimal Garden Builder when you want Plotera to suggest a starter layout.

Tap ＋ New Garden from the menu or the Home Dashboard.

Give your garden a name (e.g. "Back Yard Beds") and set the grid size — columns × rows.

Choose your climate zone so the planting calendar gives accurate advice.

Tap Build Optimal Garden Instead if you want recommended plants, paths, and zone sizing generated for you.

You can create multiple gardens — great for separating veggie beds, pots, and greenhouse.

✨ Optimal Garden Builder ▶

The Optimal Garden Builder creates a suggested garden layout from your size, postcode, growing preference, soil type, and path choice.

Start it from the menu or from the Not sure what to plant? prompt during garden setup.

Choose a preset size or enter dimensions in metres. Plotera converts that to a grid using roughly 30cm per cell.

Your postcode estimates climate, while your preference prioritises fruiting crops, leafy greens, herbs, roots, quick growers, or a mixed layout.

The preview shows path cells, recommended plant zones, companion-aware choices, and expected harvest timing before you create the garden.

👤 Account & Settings ▶

Manage your location, units, appearance, and preferences from My Account.

Set your location for accurate local weather and frost alerts.

Switch between Metric (cm/mm) and Imperial (feet/inches) at any time.

Toggle Dark Mode or enable/disable interactive tips in the Appearance section.

Use Export Data to download a backup of all your garden data as JSON.

Garden Tools

🌿 Garden Grid ▶

A visual map of your garden. Each cell represents a zone — an area where you plant, water, and track things.

Tap a cell to assign a plant, set a zone name, and configure watering or fertiliser schedules.

Coloured zones with plants show what's growing and when it needs attention.

Tap the zone name at the top of the garden view to rename or manage the entire zone.

Use Garden Settings to rename, resize, or delete your garden.

🌾 3D Growth Simulator ▶

The 3D garden view can show a virtual growth stage for each planted zone based on your planting date and expected harvest time.

Open a garden, switch from 2D to 3D, then use the Growth Simulator toggle in the top-right of the 3D view.

Plotera estimates progress from Date planted and Days to harvest in each zone.

Stages move through Just sown, Seedling, Young plant, Growing, Flowering, Fruiting, Harvest ready, and Finished crop.

The models are low-poly previews grouped by plant type, so tall crops, climbers, roots, leafy greens, and sprawling crops appear differently.

📅 Planting Calendar ▶

A month-by-month guide showing what to sow, transplant, and harvest — tailored to your climate zone.

Browse months using the arrow buttons. The current month is highlighted automatically.

Green = sow outside, yellow = sow indoors, blue = transplant, orange = harvest time.

Tap any plant name to jump straight to its full encyclopedia entry.

The calendar respects the climate zone set when you created the garden.

💧 Watering Schedule ▶

Track watering for each zone and get notified when plants are overdue for water.

Set a watering interval per zone (e.g. every 2 days). Plotera tracks the last time you watered.

Overdue zones are flagged with a ! badge in the drawer menu.

Tap Log Watering on a zone to record it done and reset the timer.

Watering history is stored so you can see patterns over time.

💧 Watering Advisor ▶

The Watering Advisor gives plant-specific watering guidance based on the crop, soil or growing medium, current weather, and watering method.

Open it from the menu, Garden Tools, or a zone's quick panel using Water Tips.

Choose a planted zone or a common vegetable type, then answer soil, weather, and watering-method questions.

Results include frequency, watering depth, best time of day, key tips, and signs of over-watering or under-watering.

Use this for advice; use Watering Schedule when you want recurring due reminders and log history.

🌿 Fertiliser Tracker ▶

Log fertiliser applications per zone and get reminders when the next feed is due.

Set a fertiliser interval for each zone (e.g. every 14 days).

A yellow ! badge in the menu means one or more zones need feeding.

Tap a zone entry to log a fertiliser event with the type and amount used.

🌿 Fertilising Advisor ▶

The Fertilising Advisor builds a feeding plan from the plant, growth stage, growing setup, last feed date, and any nutrient symptoms.

Open it from the menu, Garden Tools, or directly from a zone. If opened from a planted zone, the plant can be pre-selected.

Choose the growth stage: seedling, vegetative, flowering, fruiting, or dormant/end of season.

Results include nutrient focus, recommended product, frequency, application method, cautions, and plant-family notes.

Suggested feed jobs can be added to your To Do list, and recent advice is saved in the advisor history.

✅ To Do List ▶

Keep track of garden tasks with priorities and due dates.

Tap + Add Task to create a new to-do with a name, priority, and optional due date.

Tasks are sorted by priority: High → Medium → Low.

Overdue tasks show a red date. The badge count in the drawer shows open tasks.

Tap the tick circle to mark a task complete — it moves to the done section.

📍 Zones ▶

Zones are named areas in your garden (beds, pots, rows). Each zone tracks its own plants, watering, and history.

Create zones from the garden grid by tapping empty cells.

The Zones page shows a full summary of all zones and their current status.

Log harvests, notes, and events directly from a zone's detail panel.

Planning & Tracking

🗂 Seed Inventory ▶

Keep a record of all the seeds you own — stock levels, expiry dates, and source details.

Add seeds manually or use the 📷 Packet Scanner to read details from a seed packet using your camera.

Set expiry dates — you'll get a notification when seeds are approaching their use-by date.

Track stock quantity so you know when to reorder before planting season.

🥕 Yield Log ▶

Record every harvest — what you picked, how much, and from which zone.

Log a yield from any zone's detail panel or from the Yield Log page directly.

Track weight or quantity — great for seeing which plants perform best.

Export your data anytime to analyse yields in a spreadsheet.

💰 Cost Tracker ▶

Log garden expenses to understand what your produce actually costs to grow.

Add expenses like soil, seeds, tools, and fertiliser with categories and amounts.

The total running cost is shown at the top so you can see cumulative spend.

📋 Zone History ▶

See everything that's ever been grown in each zone — essential for planning crop rotation.

History records automatically when you change or clear what's planted in a zone.

Use this alongside companion planting info to plan next season's layout.

Plants & Nursery

📚 Plant Encyclopedia ▶

A library of 114 vegetables, herbs, and fruits with detailed growing guides.

Search by name or filter by category (Tomatoes, Brassicas, Root Vegetables, etc.).

Each entry shows spacing, depth, sun requirements, frost tolerance, and companion plants.

The Planting Windows section shows the best months to sow for your climate zone.

Companions in green are good neighbours; companions in red should be kept apart.

🌱 Seedling Nursery ▶

Track seedlings from sowing through to transplant with a visual tray grid.

Create a tray by tapping + New Tray. Set the number of rows and columns to match your physical tray.

Tap any cell to set the plant, status (Sown → Germinated → Ready → Transplanted), and notes.

When cells are Ready to Transplant, you'll get a notification to move them out.

The Home Dashboard shows active trays at a glance with a progress summary.

📷 Photo Gallery ▶

A photo diary for each garden — document progress, pest damage, and great harvests.

Tap + Add Photo to upload from your camera or photo library.

Photos are compressed to 800px and stored up to a 50MB limit per garden.

Add a caption to each photo to remember what it shows.

Notifications & Alerts

🔔 Notifications ▶

Plotera watches your garden and surfaces alerts at the right time — no manual checking needed.

💧 Watering due — a zone has passed its watering interval.

🌿 Fertiliser due — a zone hasn't been fed for its set interval.

✅ To-do overdue — a task has passed its due date.

🥕 Harvest ready — a plant is past its expected days-to-harvest.

🌱 Seedlings ready — nursery cells are marked Ready to Transplant.

❄️ Frost warning — your local forecast drops near freezing.

🗂 Seeds expiring — seed packets are near their use-by date.

Data & Privacy

💾 Import & Export ▶

Back up or move your entire garden data as a JSON file.

Go to My Account → Export Data to download everything as a .json backup file.

To restore or import data, use the Import option and select your saved file.

Your data is saved to the server automatically every time you make a change.

💬 Contact & Support ▶

Found a bug or have a feature idea? We'd love to hear from you.

Tap Contact / Support in the menu to send a message directly from the app.

You can report bugs, request features, or just share what you've been growing!

Ongoing Development & Updates

📘 v3.5.38 — May 2026 ▶

Help guide updates for garden setup and advisor tools.

Advisors — added Help entries for the Watering Advisor and Fertilising Advisor.

Garden Builder — updated Help to explain manual garden setup and the Optimal Garden Builder flow.

🌾 v3.5.37 — May 2026 ▶

3D Growth Simulator controls and help guide.

Growth Simulator toggle — the 3D garden now has a top-right control for virtual grow mode.

Help guide — added a new section explaining how the simulator uses planted date and days to harvest.

🌿 v3.5.36 — May 2026 ▶

Clearer 3D growth-stage labels.

Growth stages — the 3D garden now uses clearer labels from Just sown through Harvest ready and Finished crop.

3D summary — the garden viewport groups active zones by short stage names like Seedling, Growing, Flowering, Fruiting and Harvest.

🌱 v3.5.35 — May 2026 ▶

Email notification digests and notification audit.

Email reminders — users can turn on daily email digests for due garden reminders.

Notification check — push/PWA notifications remain app/device based, while email reminders now work through Plotera's SMTP service.

🔐 v3.5.28 — May 2026 ▶

Forgot password and secure reset code flow.

Forgot password — users can request a reset code from the sign-in screen.

Safer reset — Plotera sends a short-lived 6-digit code instead of emailing temporary passwords.

✉️ v3.5.27 — May 2026 ▶

Branded signup and welcome emails.

Verification email — redesigned with Plotera colours, brand styling and a clear 6-digit code block.

Welcome email — redesigned to match the account verification experience after the user confirms their code.

✉️ v3.5.26 — May 2026 ▶

Extra SMTP diagnostics for verification email setup.

SMTP fingerprint — admin can confirm the app is reading the expected password value without exposing it.

Port checks — admin can test both 465 SSL and 587 STARTTLS from the Nursery System tab.

🛠️ v3.5.25 — May 2026 ▶

Admin release notes, signup email diagnostics and safer account creation.

Nursery release notes — admin now has a running version log of Plotera changes.

Email diagnostics — admin can check SMTP status and send a test email without creating a test account.

Signup protection — failed verification emails now roll back cleanly instead of leaving a half-created account.

Version fix — app, server package and service worker cache versions now align.

🚀 v3.5.24 — May 2026 ▶

Public website redesign, pricing tiers, bug fixes and Google Analytics.

New public website — completely redesigned homepage, features, pricing, about, FAQ, contact and demo pages.

Three pricing tiers — Free, Pro ($5.99/mo) and Advanced (TBC) now defined. All features remain free during beta.

Ambassador programme — digital ambassador programme launched for content creators and gardening influencers.

Demo page — interactive planting calendar and 114-plant encyclopedia now publicly browsable at plotera.app/demo.

Contact form — new contact page at plotera.app/contact. Email not shown publicly — contact via form only.

Page transitions — removed after testing because the body opacity approach could cause blank screens.

Google Analytics — GA4 tracking added across homepage, all public pages and the app.

SEO improvements — keyword-optimised titles, H1s, schema markup, og:tags and internal linking updated across all pages.

Bug fix — nav menu showing duplicate "Features" link resolved.

Bug fix — mobile floating bottom bar on homepage resolved.

Bug fix — footer links now centred on mobile.

🌿 v3.5.17 — May 2026 ▶

Pricing page, demo plant panel, contact form and nav consistency fixes.

Pricing page — three-tier pricing cards (Free / Pro / Advanced) with ambassador section.

Demo plant encyclopedia — emoji icons added, clicking a plant now opens a slide-up panel instead of loading a new page.

Contact page — email address removed from public page, contact by form only.

Nav consistency — homepage and all SEO pages now use identical nav markup and mobile menu.

Bug fix — duplicate route registrations in seo.js causing inconsistent page rendering resolved.

🛠️ v3.5.15–16 — May 2026 ▶

Homepage redesign, feature cards, botanical backgrounds and SEO foundations.

App/website split — public website (plotera.app) and logged-in app (/app) are now separate. The homepage is a full product marketing page.

Homepage — screenshot carousel, install badges, feature strip and 12 feature cards rebuilt from scratch.

Botanical backgrounds — vintage vegetable illustrations added as background decoration across public pages.

SEO pages — /features, /pricing, /about, /faq, /contact, /demo all built. robots.txt and sitemap.xml updated.

Beta banner — "all features free in beta" messaging added across homepage, features and pricing pages.

Login fix — returning users no longer prompted for email verification on sign in.

📋 Roadmap ▶

What's planned — no promises on timelines, but this is the direction.

Pro tier launch — watering wizard, fertilising wizard, full calendar, nursery, photos, harvest logs, notifications and reports behind Pro. Beta users get discount.

Advanced tier — AI plant health advisor, seed packet AI scanner, deeper 3D growth tools, soil/rain sensors.

Community platform — share tips, seed reviews and region-specific knowledge. Gardening community built into the app.

Ambassador programme — content creators and gardening influencers get Plotera free for life. Details at plotera.app/pricing.

Server push — saved push subscriptions are still roadmap; email digests now cover off-device reminders.

From Soil to Harvest —Plan Your Best Garden Yet

From Soil to Harvest —
Plan Your Best Garden Yet