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Managing Master Data

Kamerplanter stores all basic plant data -- species, cultivars, and botanical families -- as master data. This forms the basis for planting runs, nutrient plans, phase control, and care reminders.

Overview

Master data is the central knowledge base of the system. Each plant species is captured with up to 80+ structured fields:

Entity Description Example
Botanical Family Plant family with crop rotation category Solanaceae (nightshades)
Species Botanical species with taxonomy, climate, light, propagation Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)
Cultivar Breeding variety with cultivar-specific properties San Marzano, Cherry Roma

The hierarchy is: Family → Species → Cultivar. Each cultivar belongs to exactly one species, each species to exactly one family.

Managing Species

Creating a Species

  1. Navigate to Master Data > Species
  2. Click New Species
  3. Fill in at least the required fields:
    • Scientific Name (e.g. Solanum lycopersicum)
    • Common Names (e.g. Tomato, Tomate)
    • Family (e.g. Solanaceae)
    • Genus (e.g. Solanum)

Expertise levels affect field visibility

In Beginner mode, only the most important fields are shown. Advanced fields like allelopathy score, photoperiodism, or root type only appear in Intermediate or Expert mode. You can always access all fields via the "Show all fields" toggle, even in Beginner mode.

Key Species Fields

Field Description Example
Lifecycle Annual, Biennial, or Perennial Annual
Growth Habit Herb, Shrub, Tree, Vine Herb
Root Type Fibrous, Taproot, Tuberous, ... Fibrous
Frost Sensitivity Hardy, Half-hardy, Tender Tender
Nutrient Demand Heavy feeder, Medium feeder, Light feeder Heavy feeder
Photoperiodism Short-day, Long-day, Day-neutral Day-neutral
Toxicity Toxicity for cats/dogs (ASPCA data) Toxic to cats

Editing a Species

  1. Click on a species in the list
  2. On the detail page you can edit all fields
  3. The detail page also shows associated cultivars, growth phases, and nutrient plans

Managing Cultivars

Cultivars are breeding varieties within a species. They inherit base properties from the species and add cultivar-specific data.

Creating a Cultivar

  1. Navigate to a Species detail page
  2. In the Cultivars section, click New Cultivar
  3. Fill in the fields:
    • Name (e.g. San Marzano)
    • Breeder (optional)
    • Traits (e.g. disease-resistant, high-yield, compact)

Botanical Families

Families group related species and form the basis for crop rotation planning. Kamerplanter comes pre-installed with the most common families (Solanaceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Cucurbitaceae, ...).

Creating a Family

  1. Navigate to Master Data > Botanical Families
  2. Click New Family
  3. Enter the name and optionally the crop rotation category

Preparing Master Data with AI

Manually collecting all plant data from various sources is time-consuming. Kamerplanter therefore offers an AI-powered pipeline that fully prepares and quality-checks new plants.

The pipeline uses Claude Code Agents to:

  1. Automatically generate plant documents -- An agent researches taxonomy, growth phases, nutrient profiles, pests, and companion planting data
  2. Perform scientific review -- A second agent checks the data from an agrobiology perspective
  3. Deliver import-ready CSV data -- Each document contains ready-made CSV lines for bulk import

Example invocation in Claude Code

Create a plant document for basil
Claude Code recognizes the context and automatically starts the appropriate agent.

Currently over 32 plants are fully documented -- including vegetables, herbs, ornamentals, and houseplants.

Detailed guide: Preparing plant data with AI

Importing Master Data via CSV

For initial setup or batch updates, master data can be imported via CSV files. The import follows a secure two-phase process:

flowchart LR
    A["Upload CSV"] --> B["Preview & Validation"]
    B --> C["Fix errors"]
    C --> B
    B --> D["Confirm import"]

Supported Entities

Entity Identification Use Case
Species scientific_name Initial population of botanical species
Cultivar name + parent_species Cultivar catalog imports
BotanicalFamily name Plant families
NutrientPlan name + source_chart Manufacturer feeding charts

Performing an Import

  1. Navigate to Master Data > Import
  2. Select the Entity (Species, Cultivar, Family, or Nutrient Plan)
  3. Upload your CSV file -- encoding and delimiter are auto-detected
  4. Review the Preview: Each row is validated individually, errors are shown per field
  5. Choose the Duplicate strategy (Skip, Update, or Fail)
  6. Click Confirm Import

Download CSV templates

Under Import > Templates, CSV templates are available for each entity. These contain all supported columns with example values.

Use AI-generated CSV data

The AI pipeline provides ready-made CSV lines in section 8 of each plant document that can be imported directly.

Prerequisites

  • Kamerplanter instance running and accessible
  • For CSV import: CSV file in UTF-8 format

See Also