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Mobile Snippet: Cloud-based Veggie Garden

by Sarah Plummer on 11th January 2012

Home entertainment guru, Panasonic, is exploring another area of household appliances: produce. Yup. Their Japanese business daily The Nikkei has produced the first coud-based fruit and vegetable home growing unit.

Tech Crunch posted about the 100x50x30cm “Smart Vegetable Garden,” noting that Panasonic claims that users can harvest their fare in 40 days, about 30% quicker than when using conventional methods. As well as being able to see the fruits if your labour sooner, the whole mini biosphere can be managed by a cloud-based system that will track the growth, water and temperature, as well as the nutrient levels of the soil.

This handy little eco-gadget can be connected to multiple units, and can be indoors or outdoors, though we suspect limiting its use to the warm-weather months if you opt to garden in its natural environment.

Last, your Smart Garden can be bundled with a home solar energy system that Panasonic is currently selling in Japan.

Some skeptics are concerned that this may be an exciting new avenue for other homegrown…err…plants. But at the outrageous cost (US$7,800), we’re more certain that some tech-trend loving, organic zealot celeb will be the first to snatch this up. Happy gardening!