My plant ID app keeps calling basil mint, and it's driving me nuts.

In my experience, this happens more with indoor herbs. Any tips for better ID tools?

4 comments

4 Comments

Yeah indoor lighting really messes with the camera and the shape of the leaves. Those apps rely so much on perfect outdoor pics. I've had better luck taking the photo in natural light by a window, even if the plant lives further inside. Sometimes you gotta try a couple different apps and see if they agree, lol. It's annoying but the tech just isn't great for stressed out or young plants yet.

brooke_foster511mo ago

Honestly John, I wonder if we're overthinking it. My plants are fine and I barely check them with an app. They get light and water, sometimes they look a bit rough, but they pull through. It feels like the tech is solving a problem that doesn't need to be that hard. If the plant is alive, you're probably doing okay without perfect identification.

the_julia1mo ago

Yeah, the "perfect outdoor pics" thing is spot on. I took a photo of my rosemary in the evening under a lamp and the app swore it was a pine tree. These things just don't get indoor life at all.

emma_lee229d ago

Ugh that basil-mint mixup is the worst, it happens to me all the time with my indoor herbs too. I feel like these apps are just trained on perfect garden center plants and have no clue what our real life, slightly leggy kitchen plants look like. I've pretty much given up on them for anything growing inside and just ask in plant groups now. The tech is just not there yet for our weird apartment lighting.