I built a growlist/collection tracking tool for plant people

[CarnivorousPlantLover]

All of my plant pals (including me) were tracking our collections in spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are flexible, but awful on mobile, don't handle imagery well, and are limited in functionality. Being a software guy, I thought "hey, I can probably build a better tool!" So, I took a crack at it and built collecto.rs. Here's my growlist, as an example of what I built to help with the problem: https://collecto.rs/David

Mobile and desktop screenshots:

Things I focused on improving:
- A mobile-optimized web app that works way better than a spreadsheet across any sized screen. -Makes it super easy to take/add photos directly from your phone.
- Plant images featured front-and-center in both grid and list views - way more visually appealing than a spreadsheet.
- Powerful filtering, sorting, and searching to make finding the right plant/s a breeze.
- Easy sharing of your full collection, a filtered view of your collection, or even a specific plant. Don't want to share? - Set your entire collection, or specific items as private.
- A plant database of 471,000 plants to quickly find plants to add to your collection. You can also manually add plants and the details that are important to you. I just finished a spreadsheet import feature to help folks easily migrate their existing spreadsheet collections into collecto.rs (not yet available in the interface, but reach out if you'd like me to upload your existing spreadsheet for you)
- Mark plants for sale - so you can afford more plants . A plant swap/trade feature will be complete in ~1 week.
- Light mode/dark mode for easy viewing.
- Lots more fun ideas in the pipeline (seeking plant people feedback to help prioritize what's most important to folks)


How do you track your collection today? What features are important to you? Is what I built to scratch my own itch something you would use? I would love your thoughts, feedback, and feature requests to help prioritize what I build next.

P.S. I'm also in the process of adding other "natural wonders" collection categories like birding, reptiles and amphibians, insects, and fossils, rocks, minerals and gemstones.

 

[oneeye]

I think most people in the garden really don't care about all that information. They just want to work with what they have. Getting information today is so easy and the amount of sources are countless. Thank you for posting friend.

 

[CarnivorousPlantLover]

I think most people in the garden really don't care about all that information. They just want to work with what they have. Getting information today is so easy and the amount of sources are countless. Thank you for posting friend.

Sure, for some folks tracking isn't important. For others, it's very important. My garden is comprised of mostly Sarracenia, ornamental carnivorous plants, and for me, and lots of my friends in the carnivorous plant community, it's important and useful to keep track of what we have.

It lets us share our collections with friends, provides us a means to discuss, trade, and to avoid accidentally picking up duplicates. It also helps to stay organized and know where things are in the garden.

I'm sure many others would find it useful, too.

 

[CarnivorousPlantLover]

Speaking of trading... I just pushed out a simple feature to take some of the friction out of trading plants. Now, you can...
• Mark plants in your collection as available to trade
• List what you’re interested in trading for

Importantly, anyone viewing your profile can make an offer (doesn't have to be a user of collecto.rs) and no personal contact info is exposed to strangers unless you want to pursue a trade off-platform.

It’s intentionally lightweight and not meant to replace local swaps or community trading threads. It's more like a way to make intent clearer and reduce back-and-forth.

Seeking feedback:
1. Is listing “what you’re looking for” helpful?
2. Would you want trade history / reputation documented? -Maybe this helps build credibility?
3. Anything that would make this safer or less spammy?


Here's an example link of my collection filtered by items that are available to trade: collecto.rs/David?by=isForTrade&collection=plants

Here's a direct link to an item available to trade (Sarracenia Saurus): collecto.rs/David/i/6351a210-61f5-477e-9ae3-940a271e5817

 

[Meadowlark]

Seeking feedback:
1. Is listing “what you’re looking for” helpful?
2. Would you want trade history / reputation documented? -Maybe this helps build credibility?
3. Anything that would make this safer or less spammy?

As related to this garden forum, one member requested we set up a seed exchange. We set it up and there was zero response (except from me) including from the one who requested it.

Not sure why that is...or if it is unique to this audience...but the fact is folks were just not interested in a seed exchange. I suspect a plant exchange would be similar.

 

[CarnivorousPlantLover]

As related to this garden forum, one member requested we set up a seed exchange. We set it up and there was zero response (except from me) including from the one who requested it.

Not sure why that is...or if it is unique to this audience...but the fact is folks were just not interested in a seed exchange. I suspect a plant exchange would be similar.

Bummer! That's unfortunate. Sorry you put in that effort and the seed exchange fell flat. Thanks for your feedback, though.

Our core value is in the ability to help you track and manage your plant collection. My hypothesis is that by having an "available for trade" button 1-2 taps away on every plant in your collection, it will make the process so simple that folks give it a try.

You can then take the list of all of your tradable plants with you and share across relevant forums, blogs, social media, or in-person events you use/attend. It's just so much more convenient than having to post, repost, and whip out a spreadsheet to discuss with people.

We'll continue to develop trading, as a feature of collecto.rs, to help facilitate an easier and more delightful plant swap experience.

 

[Sheal]

As related to this garden forum, one member requested we set up a seed exchange. We set it up and there was zero response (except from me) including from the one who requested it.

Could it be the postal/shipping cost @Meadowlark?

 

[Meadowlark]

Could it be the postal/shipping cost @Meadowlark?

Yes, could be a factor. I think one of the biggest factors however, was all the rules and regulations that some governments apply to such.

Seeds are relatively light weight and the cost to mail isn't prohibitive IMO. @Martin Mikulcik kindly just sent me some of his specialty tomato seed to try out in my Texas heat just recently.

Maybe I can return the favor to him sometime with some of my seeds.

I really enjoy exchanging like that...just somehow satisfying to send them away and/or get some to try out.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

I'm already a seed exchange so for me to post would be kind of redundant

Otherwise I think what holds people back is, firstly this community is international. A lot of us are in either the usa or England but there's people from all over and dealing with customs is hard. Probably the international barrier is why there's no photo of the month prizes, but if you ever did want to get that going you could put me on the continental usa list.

The post office is obtuse. It costs me $5.40 for just the postage, if you have the post office print the label it's like $8 and then you have to find packaging that most people don't have lying around. I don't think it's so much the price as the hassle. It could easily take a first timer a few hours. And that's just seeds, live plants are even harder and have more shipping restrictions as well

And lastly, most of us probably don't think what we have is special enough to justify all that. Like they have a 3 year old packet of purple top turnips or some pumpkin they never planted. For 10 bucks you could buy 3 of those of better quality.

What would really be special, is a seed exchange, not of premade commercially obtained packets, but of seed collected off the plants you grow or found. Family heirlooms, unique crosses. Once we had a Scotch bonnet pepper naturally cross with i suspect a C. Annuum, and the resultant seed was so interesting but we tried for a few years to stabilize the cross and we failed and lost it to the course of time (probably because it was too hot to eat).

Old gardens often have varieties you can't find anymore. Nature has a lot of hard to find varieties. For me it might be prunus munsoniana, in Texas you might find carnivorous plants idk, but i think we largely don't appreciate our native plants because we have them so regularly, but others definitely would.

 

[Sheal]

I always keep packaging from items received. Having a family scattered world wide it makes sense to hang onto it for future use. However, since Britain went through Brexit and also a certain president's antics of late, the cost of sending parcels abroad is now extortionate. Although seeds would be a possibility.

I may have some rare heirloom tomato seeds available for next year, but I'm not sure whether I can grow the few that I have left this year yet, circumstances prevail.

 

[Meadowlark]

the cost of sending parcels abroad is now extortionate.

An adjective I have never seen used before...