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Weather Underground vs. The Weather Channel

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Toomer’s Oaks receive stronger sugar injections | oanow.com

http://www2.oanow.com/news/2012/may/22/toomers-oaks-receive-stronger-sugar-injections-ar-3840383/

The famed Toomer’s Oaks received a second round of sugar injections Tuesday – this time, however, the dosage is much stronger.

“We are doing pretty much the same thing we did in March,” Auburn University horticulturist Gary Keever told the Opelika-Auburn News. “The only difference is that last time we used a solution of one and a half percent sugar to water, whereas this time, we changed it to about 10 percent.”

It marks the second injection taken in by the trees in the past two months.

“The sugar injections should cause a flush of new growth in the coming weeks,” Keever said. “If we see that, it will be a positive sign for the trees.”

The process involves drilling a series of 49 small holes at the base of each tree, then siphoning the solution into each tree via tubing from a reservoir. The procedure, which began around 8 a.m. Tuesday, is being done with the help of Auburn landscape personnel, Keever said.

In addition to these treatments, Keever said the trees are receiving liquid fertilizer and root stimulants every two weeks in order to keep the trees alive.

He added that the trees would most likely receive similar treatment in the future.

“We are probably going to do another one of these sugar treatments,” he said. “Of course, that’s provided there isn’t some dire change for the worse.”

Despite the production of new foliage from the first treatment, the trees started to display signs of herbicide damage in mid-April. Keever said the herbicide was either still in the soil or in the tree, causing the herbicide to move out to the new growth.

The trees were poisoned with Spike 80 in late 2010. Harvey Updyke, a former Texas state trooper who lived in Dadeville, was arrested and charged with two felony counts of criminal mischief, two misdemeanor counts of desecrating a venerated object and two felony counts of unlawful damage, vandalism or theft of property from a farm animal or crop facility. He is scheduled for trial in Lee County Circuit Court in June.

In January, AU President Jay Gogue accepted a recommendation to replace the oaks, should they die. The trees are approximately 80 to 85 years-old.

Plants ‘talk’ to owners via app and wi-fi sensors

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18158817

22 May 2012 Last updated at 16:26

The app gives detailed care instructions

For those who are not naturally green-fingered, the idea of a talking plant may be very appealing.

Now a wi-fi sensor promises to help keep plants alive, alerting owners when their plants need water, light and food.

The sensor gathers data such as soil moisture, temperature and light intensity from plants.

The data is analysed and detailed care instructions sent to the owner via either a web-based or smartphone app.

The device is the brainchild of a Swiss firm, Koubachi, named to sound like Tamagotchi, the digital “pets” that were all the rage in the 1990s.

“The Koubachi wi-fi plant sensor is the first device ever that enables real-time monitoring of a plant’s vitality,” says Philipp Bolliger, chief executive officer and inventor of Koubachi.

The device, which goes on sale around Europe from 22 May, is placed in the soil of any pot plant to monitor the key “vitality parameters”.

Would-be gardeners will have to pay £99 for one sensor, which can be used to monitor and set up alerts for all household plants. That includes a lifelong free subscription to the Koubachi system, including regular updates of the app and the plant library.

DIY sensors

The release date was chosen to deliberately coincide with the Chelsea flower show, the popular garden design show.

Jeremy Green of tech analysts Ovum thinks the market for smart objects could be huge.

“On the one hand you have these highly packaged solutions that do one thing but do it very well and on the other there is a huge market for DIY sensors – geeks slashing things together,” he said.

The market for smart objects, or the “internet of things” as it is known, is expected to explode. According to research firm IDC Nielsen, some 1.84bn devices will be connected to the net by 2016.