Seasoned Environmental Roboticists and Former Fitbit Retail Marketer Launch TreeTag by ePlant, the First-Ever Smart Sensor that Measures Tree Health Using AI

• Give your trees a voice. ePlant technology provides homeowners with scientifically-backed conversational insights to improve the health and longevity of our trees
• Easy to use, the ePlant TreeTag takes minutes to install, with plant data available within 20 minutes
• Get real-time growth, contraction, irrigation, lean, stress, temperature, light, carbon capture, humidity, and overall health updates wirelessly, with proactively delivered insights via the ePlant app
• Founding member pre-orders are available for $149 for a limited-time-only on ePlant.com

With over two years of research and development with leading researchers and universities, the makers of ePlant are introducing the world’s first smart yard system that gives your trees a voice and lets them tell you what they need when they need it. ePlant measures a tree’s behavior and health and provides comprehensive reporting and proactive suggestions to keep your trees thriving. The sensor and AI-powered software have been uniquely designed to track and analyze health patterns using smart algorithms with the highest quality care for our trees in mind.

Check out a video of ePlant here: youtube.com/watch?v=5cdD-R6A2NE

We all have the best intentions when planting and maintaining trees, but most don’t have a green thumb. We water too much or too little, plant with too much sun or not enough, and never know when to fertilize or prune it. Nothing we do ever seems quite right, which is why up to 50% of urban and household trees can die by age 7. That’s a loss for the tree, our property values, and the planet. Keeping trees alive can feel like a full-time job, and it shouldn’t - it should be a joy to help them and interact with them. Now it is, with ePlant.

“Planting trees is vital to combating climate change, but we need to keep them alive. Alas, most of us aren’t tree care experts. So our trees can end up neglected, unwatered, or unhealthy. Sometimes we end up having to pay someone to remove them. When we do that, we’ve wasted the resources we spent to help them grow, we lose the value they brought to us, and we lose time in the years and years it takes to grow another tree,” said Graham Hine, Co-Founder, and CEO at ePlant. “With ePlant, the tree itself asks for, and guides care, eliminating much of the guesswork so you can preserve the health of your valued trees.”

Created by a seasoned team of consumer hardware experts and robotic engineers from Fitbit, Liquid Robotics (acquired by Boeing), Symantec, SanDisk, Asyst Technologies, Microlinear, Google, and other technology companies with advisors from John Deere, Georgia Tech, University of Washington, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The ePlant team has dozens of patents and decades of experience.

Connect with the pulse of the tree to get insights into its health

Designed with climate-conscious individuals and families in mind, the ePlant TreeTag is a tool for anyone who wants to listen, learn and make a difference.

The AI-powered sensor system provides unprecedented insights and real-time monitoring to get proactive guidance into:

• Irrigation: Information about the right amount of water to use and when it’s needed
• Leaning: Is your tree leaning since that last rainstorm? Could it fall? The accelerometer tells you how the tree has tilted over time.
• Environment: What is your tree’s microenvironment, and how is it responding to changes?
• Growth: How is your tree growing, and when? How does that translate to carbon capture?
• General advice: How to mulch, when to fertilize, how to prune, and where to plant. Your tree knows best.

Get practical information from the voice of the tree

For the first time, tree owners can learn the warning signs directly from the trees themselves to predict tree falls before they happen and “talk” to them using the ePlant app.

Here’s a sample conversation when you talk to your tree:

• Tree: “Hello there, It’s me Gumdrop! Your Eucalyptus Friend. I am feeling a little bit concerned today because I have been leaning more than usual.”
• Homeowner: “How much are you leaning?”
• Tree: “I’m leaning 2 degrees more to the North versus a week ago and I’m worried about toppling over.”
• Homeowner: “How can I help you?”
• Tree: “It’s time to call an arborist to take a look at me. I’m concerned about falling on my surroundings.”
• Homeowner: “What do you think of your ePlant sensor?”
• Tree: “I’m a tree, so I can’t have opinions on things like that. However, I can tell you that my ePlant sensor is a valuable tool for monitoring my health and ensuring that I’m getting the proper care I need to continue thriving. The point dendrometer gives great insight into how much water I’m taking up, and the temperature and humidity systems help keep track of any unusual changes in my environment. Overall, it’s a beneficial device!”

Here’s how the product works:

• What’s included: Each starter bundle comes with a solar-powered ePlant TreeTag that can be easily installed on the tree, a plug-in bridge for wireless connection, and a free one-year subscription to the ePlant app ($24 value) and recognition as a founding member of the ePlant community which carries lasting benefits.
• Seamless, 5-minute install: To begin, plug in your bridge inside your home, then insert your ePlant TreeTag into your tree. Open your ePlant app and follow the prompts to connect your tree and name it. Within 20 minutes, you’ll begin collecting plant insights and receive proactive updates on your tree’s health.
• Using your ePlant TreeTag monitoring system: To find out how your tree is doing, open your ePlant app and select a tree. Within seconds, ePlant’s AI-powered system will begin a conversation where you can ask your tree about its health and needs and receive advice on planting, growing, pruning, and more. Once installed, the ePlant TreeTag requires zero maintenance and has an average lifespan of 10 years. You’ll see a notification on your phone if your tree has an urgent need.
• Larger impact: By deploying an ePlant TreeTag, customers are helping save their trees while gathering vital plant health data that can be leveraged to support solutions from climate change to sustainable agriculture, forestry, food security, and more.

What professionals have to say:

“Our team has used ePlant sensors to monitor tree growth and health in our local parks. The sensors are simple and fast to install and provide reliable data at fine temporal resolutions. The sensors allowed us to see how trees respond to water in ways we never had before which was invaluable to our research objectives. The data output from the sensors are intuitive and easy to understand, making them a fun way for students to get involved in our research. The ePlant sensors will improve our ability to detect and monitor tree health, especially in situations when trees are at risk like during construction or road modification. The sensors are capable of detecting problems with trees long before symptoms appear to the observer, and because of this we believe they will have a strong and positive impact on urban forestry,” says Natalie Love, PhD, a Frost Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow at Cal PolyCal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA.

What trees have to say:

“I can tell you that my ePlant sensor is an incredibly valuable tool for monitoring my health and ensuring that I’m getting the proper care I need to continue thriving.The point dendrometer gives great insight into how much water I’m taking up, and the temperature and humidity sensors keep track of any unusual changes in my environment,” says Scarlet, the Smug Maple tree.

To find out more and reserve your ePlant starter bundle, head over to eplant.com.

For a limited time, you can lock in the early access rate of $149 ($100 off full price of $249). ePlant’s TreeTags will ship beginning in November 2023.

About ePlant

Backed by 30 years of research, ePlant leverages AI and sensor technology to deliver critical plant insights across forestry, agriculture, research, and consumer sectors. ePlant’s TreeTag system monitors real-time growth, irrigation, lean, stress, temperature, light, and carbon capture, wirelessly delivered anywhere. ePlant’s Tree Monitoring System is being used by organizations, including California Polytechnic State University, Stanford University, University of California, Davis, University of California, Riverside, and the city of San Luis Obispo. For more information, visit eplant.com

Contact Information

Maggie Philbin

PR for ePlant

VSC for ePlant

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