An orchid tracking system . . .

[RandomGemini]

You know, my husband is an App developer for iOS. If anyone would be interested in exchanging a few PMs with me about what would work best for more experienced growers, I could talk to him about developing a better orchid tracking app.

[MattWoelfsen]

Originally Posted by RandomGemini

You know, my husband is an App developer for iOS. If anyone would be interested in exchanging a few PMs with me about what would work best for more experienced growers, I could talk to him about developing a better orchid tracking app.

RandomGemini, here is what I consider an ideal app for iOS/iPad:
1. Name: Vanda
2. Secondary Name: falcata
3. Plant Name: Higashidemiyako 東出都
4. Tertiary Name (optional)
5. Purchased Date
6. Price plus shipping
7. Vendor Name
a. Website?
b. Telephone?
c. Vendor address
d. Form of payment accepted?
8. Vendor description of Plant
9. Vendor Photo of plant
10. Photo of plant when it arrived.
11. Wish List?
12. Photo of plant at sighting (if wish list item)
13. Notes Regarding plant.
a. Auto date entry
b. (Twitter style) note/comment/observation
14. Have an ability to continue to add more photos/observations--creating provenance of the plant
15. Automatically archive plant from active list when plant is no longer owned:
a. Died? When? What happened? Autopsy of plant finding.
b. Gave it to new owner
i. To whom? (Name, address, contact telephone #, email address)
ii. Gift? Sold? If sold, how much?
iii. Donated? To Whom? Declared value?
16. Anything else--free form notebook style field

The app must be able to import standard spreadsheet files or database files.
The app must be able to export into standard spreadsheet format, all data or portions of data.
The app must be cloud-enabled for any file updates on any platform--Mac, iPhone, iPad.

Can you tell I have thought a lot about this? LOL! I keep all of the above information in my Numbers app on my iPad. But I have to do my data management in Numbers, Pages, and Photo.

[RandomGemini]

I don't know that he can import from whatever spreadsheets you might already have (too many points of data and too many possible variations to import it correctly, unless you formatted it specifically to the app's standard), but I do know that he could export them to Numbers, no problem.

[Fairorchids]

Add to MW suggestions:

Awards obtained
Cultural notes
When repotted
Breeding attempted
a. Whether pod or pollen parent
b. Whether successfull or not

[peeweelovesbooks]

Originally Posted by MattWoelfsen

RandomGemini, here is what I consider an ideal app for iOS/iPad:
1. Name: Vanda
2. Secondary Name: falcata
3. Plant Name: Higashidemiyako 東出都
4. Tertiary Name (optional)
5. Purchased Date
6. Price plus shipping
7. Vendor Name
a. Website?
b. Telephone?
c. Vendor address
d. Form of payment accepted?
8. Vendor description of Plant
9. Vendor Photo of plant
10. Photo of plant when it arrived.
11. Wish List?
12. Photo of plant at sighting (if wish list item)
13. Notes Regarding plant.
a. Auto date entry
b. (Twitter style) note/comment/observation
14. Have an ability to continue to add more photos/observations--creating provenance of the plant
15. Automatically archive plant from active list when plant is no longer owned:
a. Died? When? What happened? Autopsy of plant finding.
b. Gave it to new owner
i. To whom? (Name, address, contact telephone #, email address)
ii. Gift? Sold? If sold, how much?
iii. Donated? To Whom? Declared value?
16. Anything else--free form notebook style field

The app must be able to import standard spreadsheet files or database files.
The app must be able to export into standard spreadsheet format, all data or portions of data.
The app must be cloud-enabled for any file updates on any platform--Mac, iPhone, iPad.

Can you tell I have thought a lot about this? LOL! I keep all of the above information in my Numbers app on my iPad. But I have to do my data management in Numbers, Pages, and Photo.

Whoa....that's way too much information for me.

[RandomGemini]

Originally Posted by peeweelovesbooks

Whoa....that's way too much information for me.

Me too actually. Maybe there should be a beginner and an advanced notebook? That way you can choose how much or how little info you want? Maybe it could allow you to add fields?

[peeweelovesbooks]

Originally Posted by RandomGemini

Me too actually. Maybe there should be a beginner and an advanced notebook? That way you can choose how much or how little info you want? Maybe it could allow you to add fields?

I don't necessarily think beginners use or want LESS information. I consider myself not a beginner (been growing orchids since 2007) and I really would opt out for less information.

This is the information that I use:

1) Name
2) Vendor
3) Year purchased
4) Miscellaneous comments.



I really don't need any other information than that. I would get bogged down with so many details, especially when the number of orchids increases.

[Leafmite]

Hmm...and all I do is list my orchids and other plants so that if I lose the tag, I know the name (I know all my plants/orchids without looking at their tags).

[blackvine]

Wow. Such a variety of needs. I think the perfect app would include a menu of fields - user can choose what he or she wants!

[No-Pro-mwa]

I have been trying to think of how to do this myself. I do put labels in them when I re-pot them with the date. I'm afraid I will have to do it by hand as I am not so good on the computer.

I don't have a fancy phone just a track phone so I can't look things up anyway. I'm just thinking of doing it in a folder. I know I'm old fashioned.