An orchid tracking system . . .

[Tschimm]

Ok

[AKNicolle]

Orchid Album is now available on the App Store! To run it, you'll need an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iOS 5.0 or higher. There's also a free Lite trial version available.

More details on my website. Enjoy!

[tropterrarium]

I put a little FileMaker relational DB together. The main thing I wanted to get out of it is range of culture recommendations from various sources, and to print custom, miniature labels. Each species can have multiple culture recommendations associated with it (light hi/low, temp hi/low, humidity, watering frequency) and the db automatically selects the extremes to print on the custom labels (Gempler).

I also made a repot/remount tables, and even flowering periodicity tables, but the problem is keeping the data up to date (about 200-300 plants). In reality, I find myself only entering data when I get the plant, when I divide it, when it dies, or when I manage to ID a noID plant or correct a mis-identification. Flowering I rather track through my photo-db (around 11K records for ~50k shots), as I tend to photograph all the interesting flowers whenever they crop up.

With all those tracking intentions, always consider the time it takes to maintain it. It's more than you think.

[AKNicolle]

Are there any decent options for tracking an orchid collection on the Mac platform? Everything I've found thus far is Windows only.

I'm considering developing a version of Orchid Album for Mac computers, but I'm not sure how much interest there would be in such a thing? A Mac version would allow transfer of databases to and from the iPhone/iPad version, and would have pretty much the same features.

[Laserbeak]

Originally Posted by AKNicolle

Are there any decent options for tracking an orchid collection on the Mac platform? Everything I've found thus far is Windows only.

I'm considering developing a version of Orchid Album for Mac computers, but I'm not sure how much interest there would be in such a thing? A Mac version would allow transfer of databases to and from the iPhone/iPad version, and would have pretty much the same features.

I'm planning to write one. One more for a seller/grower of orchids but it would be usable for just personal collectors. Perhaps the personal version would be free but you'd have to pay for the commercial version. I have so many things going on right now, plus my Mac Pro's RAID Card died and ATTO (never buy from them) won't honor the warranty and replace it. I have my MacBook Pro, but I need to get a connector to attach it to my big monitor to do real work. Right now I just use it for web surfing in bed.

[SimJam]

Cool congrats on the App. Bummed no android gerson though but I understand the issues.

Im a tracking fannatic lol

Im using photobucket and a notebook now since I only have 8 orchids for a total of 2 whole months lol

Excel would be great to track their progress and required conditions throughout the year. Particularly since I had not taken much notice of sun exposure in my apt .... im sure I'll have to do some moving around as the year goes on.

[AKNicolle]

Having recently released a PC collection tracking app for bonsai (Bonsai Album), I'm curious if anyone would be interested in a PC version of my iOS app, Orchid Album?

It would have much the same features as the iOS version, as well as the ability to transfer databases to and from the iPhone/iPad version. It'd also be localized into French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, like the upcoming Orchid Album iOS update.

You can get a pretty good idea of what it'd look like by checking out Bonsai Album for PC: Bonsai Album for PC « The Fiction & Apps of Andrew Nicolle

There are already several options for tracking orchids on your PC, though there does seem to be a gap in the market between the high-end (Orchid Wiz) and some cheaper options that haven't been updated in years. I'm also not seeing any apps with related mobile versions.

Any thoughts?

[RosieC]

It sounds like a good idea.

I would be, except that I'm programming my own. No intention of selling mine, I never finish the projects I start, but I have it at a point that works well enough for my needs. Mine is really an exercise in learning new languages and new techniques.

I think there could be people interested in that sort of thing.

[AKNicolle]

After much pondering of the logistics, I've decided to start working on a PC version of Orchid Album

You can learn more in today's post: Announcing Orchid Album for PC

[Tschimm]

Great Nicolle.
Let me know if you need help with localizing the iOS version to German