Agricultural areas, especially tree nurseries, are facing decisive changes. Due to growing water deficits or seasonal water surpluses, irrigation and drainage systems need to be adapted. In some regions, these restrictions are already resulting in water abstraction bans^[1].

At the same time, the traditional centrepiece of many plant substrates, peat, is under critical scrutiny. Its popularity among gardeners and nurserymen stems from its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. But the climate impact of peat extraction, which releases stored carbon into the atmosphere in the form of_CO2, is forcing us to look for alternatives. Alternatives such as the wood fibre substrate offer their own challenges, particularly in water retention, which further complicates irrigation practices.

In addition, the shortage of skilled labour adds to the pressure. The additional work created by these challenges needs to be spread across fewer shoulders.

The project vision is to create an intuitive AI solution that not only allows farms to efficiently adapt their irrigation to the peat substitute substrates, but also to control them fully automatically. In addition, the interaction with such complex systems is to be completely rethought. The aim is to explore a form of interaction that allows gardeners to speak intuitively with a digital colleague rather than making complicated inputs on screens. For example, FloraGPT will provide customised advice and guidance as peat replacement has specific watering needs. In addition, the system will enable written documentation and adjustment of irrigation parameters via a digital voice assistant directly in the field. The AI will process this verbal information so that it can be used as analyses at a later date. This should help gardeners, for example, to organise the use of peat replacement products efficiently.

The ultimate ambition is a well thought-out know-how and water management system that is optimised throughout all growth phases. A central element of our strategy is the introduction of a user-friendly interface supported by generative AI. FloraGPT, inspired by ChatGPT[1], enables intuitive interaction using artificial intelligence. Users can formulate their complex requests in understandable language (via text or voice input) and receive clear answers. This makes it much easier to use.