LINCOLN SQUARE — Next time you see a pretty plant you can't identify, instead of asking the Twitterverse, "What's this thing with the purple flowers and green leaves?" just grow it.
GrowIt is a free mobile app created by a couple of recovering Big Agriculture employees.
Co-founders Mason Day and Seth Reed, who met while working for a large seed company, describe their creation as "Yelp meets Instagram" for plants.
The Instagram comparison lies in the sharing of pretty photos of pretty plants. The Yelp analogy comes from users' ability to also rate said plants — is it hardy? great for shade? a late bloomer? — and sound an alarm if something should be avoided.
Yes, most of this information is available via search engine, in online gardening forums and even books, but the point was to put all of this expertise at users' fingertips, Reed and Day said.
The business partners noticed that the horticulture world lacked a young customer base. To get those folks interested in plants, it's got to be on their phone, they said.
"People want easy," said Day and Reed.
But the app, which launched in 2015, isn't just for Millennials who don't know a begonia from a geranium. GrowIt's robustness relies as much on veteran gardeners as newbies.
The app's "help me identify" function, under which users post pictures of mystery plants, depends on having more knowledgeable members join the GrowIt community, who can then chime in with a proper ID.
Reed and Day continue to add features to the app, including a project organizer with shopping list.
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