{"id":792556,"date":"2026-07-11T01:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/792556\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T01:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:49:15","slug":"wearable-tech-for-plants-allows-farmers-to-track-crop-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/792556\/","title":{"rendered":"Wearable Tech for Plants Allows Farmers to Track Crop Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"0\">We wear smartwatches to track our steps, sleep, and oxygen levels. Now, researchers at Tufts University are giving plants their own version of wearable tech.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"1\">Normally, farmers use drones, weather stations, or soil sensors to check on their crops. However, by the time those tools show curling leaves or dry soil, the plants are already suffering.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2\">To fix this, the Tufts team built two tiny sensors that work like a temporary tattoo that sticks to leaves. The other is a stretchy band that wraps around stems. Together, they track temperature, humidity, and growth in real-time.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">\u201cThe leaf sensor is more of an early warning system showing how the plant is responding in the moment, before visible signs appear,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/1135569\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said Nafize Hossain<\/a>, a graduate student at Tufts who led the research in the Sonkusale lab.<\/p>\n<p>Smart Wearables for Plants<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"plant wearable\" alt=\"plant wearable\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/plant-wearable.png\" data- class=\"wp-image-67021 size-full lazyload\"\/>The wearable for plants; Photo: Nafize Hossain<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">Instead of being plugged in, the sensors actually run on the plant\u2019s own moisture.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">The leaf sensor is made with thin crystal sheets and carbon. When water evaporates from the leaf, it passes through these materials and creates a tiny electrical current. This current gives the sensor all the power it needs to work.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">\u201cOther plant sensors exist, but their ability to track multiple stressors and growth-related parameters is limited,\u201d said Hossain, \u201cand the technology often relies on external batteries, which complicate field deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">Meanwhile, the stem band borrows from kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting. This design lets the band stretch without breaking. It tracks if the stem is getting wider, which points to healthy growth, or shrinking from stress.<\/p>\n<p>Putting the Sensors to the Test<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">To test the technology, the team put the wearable sensors on bell pepper plants. The devices easily told the difference between healthy plants, thirsty plants, and plants dealing with too much salt. The sensors are also tough enough to handle wind and bending in a real<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomorrowsworldtoday.com\/technology\/greenhouse-digital-twin-system-makes-farming-more-accessible\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> farm field<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\">Down the road, these devices could even track plant hormones and nutrients.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"12\">\u201cThe larger promise is not merely that one plant can wear one sensor,\u201d said Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts and senior researcher in the project. \u201cIt is that fields could one day contain networks of plant-level monitors, each reporting early signs of thirst, salt stress, disease or nutrient imbalance. Satellites and drones already give farmers a bird\u2019s-eye view. Plant wearables could provide something more intimate: the plant\u2019s-eye view.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We wear smartwatches to track our steps, sleep, and oxygen levels. Now, researchers at Tufts University are giving&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,337,128,42119],"class_list":["post-792556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-research","tag-science","tag-world-of-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}