Gardening goes digital with Clemson professor's new mobile apps

Published: July 26, 2012

CLEMSON — Finally, gardeners can have it both ways: Even in the serenity of the great outdoors, all the resources of modern science are available at their fingertips.

New mobile phone applications created by scientists at Clemson University and half a dozen other land-grant schools puts an entire science library — equipped with alerts to warn of major disease and insect pests — right in the gardener's pocket.

"It's sort of like having an expert with you on the job every day," said Sarah A. White, an assistant professor in the Clemson University Institute of Environmental Toxicology and one of the developers of the tool. "The app will send you a text to alert you about pests as they emerge and even remind you about time-sensitive gardening tasks."

The mobile apps cover the gamut, from basic horticultural practices to control of diseases, insect and weeds. They include alerts to current disease and insect threats, information on how to combat them as well as major horticultural practices and recommendations.

The scientists developed two versions of the mobile phone software: a sleek version for the home gardener, called IPMLite, and a super-charged version called IPMPro for "green industry" professionals.

"Nursery and landscape professionals conduct business on the go; they truly have a mobile office, often their trucks," explained Amy Fulcher, lead developer of the applications and a University of Tennessee plant scientist. 

"IPMPro dramatically simplifies day-to-day plant care and pest control decision-making in the field," Fulcher said. "It provides a library of information in the convenience of an app, and features real-time alerts to help professionals stay on top of emerging pests and timely plant care."

The developers recommend IPMLite for home gardeners and landscaping enthusiasts, Master Gardeners and garden club members.

The apps take their "IPM" name from the practice of "Integrated Pest Management," a technique developed to help farmers manage crop pests by using environmentally friendly methods that take into account biological control — such as the life cycles of plants and pests — as well as chemical controls, like pesticides.

"It's a good-sense approach to pest control," White said. "The IPMLite and IPMPro apps were developed with the most successful, proven methods recommended by leading horticulture and pest management professionals in land-grant universities across the South. Gardeners tend to be a pretty self-sufficient bunch, but no single one of us could have had all this knowledge at our disposal in the field until now."

Features for the mobile apps include:

• Reference libraries for cultural practices and major pests;
• Automatic text-like alerts for time-sensitive issues such as pest control;
• Advice adjusted specifically for the location of the gardener;
• Images, pest lifecycle and management options for major pests of woody plants;
• Both calendars and chronological lists of action items for easy reference;

The professional version also includes pesticide recommendations for major diseases and insects and built-in pesticide recordkeeping to make outdoor and on-the-go recordkeeping easy.

The Clemson and University of Tennessee scientists worked with colleagues at North Carolina State, Virginia Tech and the universities of Georgia, Kentucky and Maryland to create the applications.

IPMLite and IPMPro were designed for a 20-state region stretching from west of the Mississippi River, east to New Jersey and south to Florida — areas the U.S. Department of Agriculture classifies as Plant Hardiness Zones 4 through 8 (with capability for Zone 9a and 9b).

Cost of the home gardening version is $9.99; the professional version runs $24.99. They are available through Apple (iPhone and iPad) and Android marketplaces. More information is online at ipmproapp.com and ipmliteapp.com.

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