An app that provides information on the optimum temperature, water, humidity, etc. for each plant and sends push notifications with plant care tasks to ensure that your plant thrives.
That more greenery helps abate pollution is as a fact as plain as the sky is blue.
The amazing ability plants have to purify the air around them makes them ‘nature’s life support system’, a phrase coined by NASA.
In a study conducted by the space organisation and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America in the late 1980s where houseplants were examined, it was found that several plants were capable of filtering out common volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
This finding seemed to be quite crucial for these compounds were more commonly found indoors, and were surprisingly far more polluted than outdoor air.
Although the study took place was nearly three decades ago, the nature of indoor pollutants has not changed very much.
Welcome Agastya Ahluwalia, a 17-year-old boy from Gurugram, who has come up with a revolutionary app that lists out all of the air purifying plants as mentioned in the NASA study.
In addition to this, it provides information on the optimum temperature, water, humidity, etc. for each plant and also sends push notifications with plant care tasks to ensure that your plant thrives!
The Purify Gardening app has features that let you share your plants’ progress through pictures and notes, and also allows its users to share tips.
Surrounded by plants while he grew up, Agastya was inspired by his mother’s green thumb and thus always inclined to take up gardening.
“I’ve spent all my life in a place where pollution has affected tons of people. In an attempt to make the environment cleaner at home, I gave growing some plants a go. Turns out, growing plants was a tad bit more complicated than simply showering them with water whenever you wish”, he says.
Agastya calls himself a tech enthusiast.
Having learnt coding and programming, he’d previously made small-scale applications for his school. “I’ve always found myself greatly inspired by technology. Clubbing my interest for the twos, Purify was conceived—more like nature meets tech!” he laughs.
But why only air purifying plants?
The amount of pollution and the subsequent smog that followed Diwali celebrations last year ended up having an impact on the high-schooler,
“I have a pet dog at home. Seeing him struggle through the after effects of the festival prompted me to research on different eco-friendly measures that would reduce indoor pollution. That’s how I stumbled upon the air purifying plant list by NASA and since then, there has been no looking back”, he remembers.
Currently available to download on Google Play Store, Agastya aims at reaching out not just to plant lovers but even those with no experience in gardening.. “Through Purify, anyone can get started and grow air purifying plants.””, he adds.
Thanks to Agastya, not only can people make their indoors greener but a lot cleaner!
You can download the app here.
You can reach out to Agastya at agastya_5@hotmail.com.
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