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Comment by failquicker | Hacker News Reader

I am not the OP, but that is an amazing idea. I remember those baby emails, and can just imagine screenshots of baby kale and turnips. Op, you really should do this. It would be amazing.

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...and boom goes the crowd-sourcing. Let everybody who is growing turnips send in turnip pictures, pick the best/representative few and promote those as exemplar turnips. That way you don't have to source "real" pictures of everything in every stage of the growing cycle, you just eventually get it all for free.

If done right, you could also start a nice strong community, which would certainly help. I can imagine different users competing for the "best turnip of the month" spot. Love your users, and they will love you back.

I guess one limitation is that gardens probably mature at slightly different rates (e.g. if you have a mild cold spell, development goes on 'hold' for a bit, which might put you out of sync). I guess Eric would have to interview some expert gardeners to ascertain the scope of the issue.

Presumably, to a first approximation, you could track the weather at your customers' location, and know what is going on with their plants. This would allow you to tailor your emails - and your product suggestions - over time.

Gardeners are ferocious, ferocious competitors. They are compelled to post pictures of their plants. Believe me; squeezing as much out of your plot as you can can become an obsession.

All that to say, bragging / help requests are going to be strong motivations for gardeners in the US, and I'm sure they'll be posting information if the OP wants to make a community out of the site.

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