Electric Plant<\/a>, which has been spending the past three years collecting data to build a large language model, Bombadil, capable of interpreting the subtle electrical signals coursing through a plant\u2019s stem and relaying details about the plant\u2019s needs to growers.<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/lee-von-kraus-and-justin-mast-electric-plant.jpeg\")
Electric Plant co-founders Lee von Kraus (right) and Justin Mast stand next to a tree with a sensor attached to it.Image Credits:Electric Plant<\/p>\n
The founders believe their model could one day lead to a tool that would let people \u201cspeak\u201d to plants. \u201cWe\u2019re listening more than we\u2019re speaking, but listening\u2019s the first step,\u201d said Mast, co-founder and CEO of Electric Plant.<\/p>\n
To bring its sensors and Bombadil to market, Electric Plant recently raised an $11.2 million seed round led by Onto Ventures and Climactic, with participation from Ponderosa, Endeavor Catalyst, Ludlow, Michigan Rise, The Fund, Schox VC, and Dug Song.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even in the most controlled greenhouses, farmers and growers don\u2019t have full visibility of what their plants require, Mast said. Traditionally, farmers, growers, and foresters have relied on coarse tools that react to plants\u2019 demands for water, nutrients, or light. And tools like soil probes, handheld spectroscopes, and satellite imagery work well enough, but they leave much to be desired, Mast said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat technology is sophisticated, but its ability to get at the inside of the plant isn\u2019t very sophisticated. Most of that stuff still lags quite a bit behind the real-time needs of the plant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Electric Plant had to start somewhere, though, so it used those devices to train its Bombadil model, which is capable of interpreting electrical signals in about 125 different species. \u201cWe know the model will surpass a lot of that equipment,\u201d Mast said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The startup\u2019s sensors are also significantly cheaper than existing tools, which generally cost thousands of dollars. \u201cThis is tens of dollars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The sensors, about the size of a regular iPhone folded lengthwise, are attached to a plant using stainless steel screws. The screws must penetrate the cambium \u2014 the layer of living tissue just under the bark \u2014\u00a0to connect to the microvolt changes occurring within the plant. Data collected from these sensors is sent to a base station via a low-power wireless network. <\/p>\n
Electric Plant only needs a couple sensors per acre for accurate results, Mast said. The data gets interpreted by Bombadil in the cloud, and the results are sent back to the customer, who can use it to, for example, adjust their watering or fertilizer schedules. Mast claims such a system can boost yields while reducing water use by 20% or more.<\/p>\n
Mast wouldn\u2019t disclose who Electric Plant\u2019s initial customers are, but it\u2019s easy to imagine applications in agriculture and forestry.<\/p>\n
Bombadil\u2019s first hundred-plus species runs the gamut of plant forms, from ferns, redwoods, and tomatoes to dahlias, Mast said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most diverse model ever created on biological electrical signals,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one\u2019s ever done anything equivalent to this in the animal world.\u201d<\/p>\n
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Mast\u2019s life was changed by a cyborg plant. A few years ago, Mast was reading through some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1017,111,139,69,312009,5301,145],"class_list":["post-636497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-exclusive","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plant-monitoring","tag-plants","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}