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:

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)

Key Species Fields¶

Field labels in the UI are shown in German (or English, depending on your language setting); you'll find the internal field name (code name) in parentheses, e.g. for API access or CSV import.

Toxicity Warning on the Species Detail Page¶

For species with toxicity data on file, the species detail page shows a warning above the tabs, listing the affected groups, the severity, and the toxic plant parts and compounds — a safety notice for the humans and pets in your household.

Where the data is available, the warning shows:

• Affected groups — children, cats, and/or dogs, shown as coloured chips
• Severity — Mildly toxic, Moderately toxic, or Severely toxic. Severely toxic species are additionally highlighted with a higher-contrast red warning colour instead of the usual amber/yellow, so they stand out at a glance.
• Toxic plant parts — e.g. leaves, seeds, root
• Toxic compounds — the named toxic substances, where documented

If a species is verifiably non-toxic, or no toxicity data is recorded for it, no warning appears — so there is no false alarm for harmless species.

Propagation Methods (propagation_methods)¶

The Propagation Methods field is a multi-select that records how a species is typically propagated. It is visible in Intermediate mode and above.

This information feeds into care reminders, propagation planning, and the AI knowledge assistant. All bundled crop species master data already includes the standard propagation methods.

Best Propagation Time (propagation_months)¶

The propagation_months field (Best Propagation Time) adds a timing dimension to propagation methods: in which months is vegetative propagation — division, taking cuttings, removing offsets or runners — most likely to succeed?

The field is also a multi-select; the stored values are month numbers 1 (January) through 12 (December), deduplicated and sorted.

Where in the UI: In the Sowing & Harvest tab on the species detail page, in two places:

1. Propagation card — The card has a read/edit toggle (pencil icon in the top right):

   • Read view: "Best propagation time: March–April" (condensed month display)
   • Edit mode: 12 clickable month chips — click the desired months, then Save

2. Monthly timeline (bar chart) — The topmost row of the timeline is labelled "Propagation" and displays the stored months as a coloured bar (teal). This row is read-only — editing is done exclusively via the Propagation card (pencil icon). If no months are stored, the row remains empty.

Propagation Notes (propagation_notes)¶

The Propagation Notes field is a free-text field for expert knowledge (max. 1,000 characters) that explains how propagation works in practice for this species — which steps require particular care, which mistakes are common, and what makes the difference between success and failure.

The field complements the structured fields propagation_methods (techniques) and propagation_months (optimal timing) with the practical, hands-on detail that cannot be captured in a simple multi-select list.

Where in the UI: In the Sowing & Harvest tab on the species detail page, in the Propagation card — directly below the propagation method chips and the best propagation time. Switch to edit mode via the pencil icon in the top right of the card:

• Read view: The text appears as a distinct callout block, visually separated from the surrounding content. If no text has been entered, the area remains empty.
• Edit mode: A multi-line text field with a character counter (max. 1,000 characters). The text is saved together with the other fields in the section via the Save button.

All bundled species with populated propagation methods already have an expert notes text.

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

Reference Images in the Species View¶

Kamerplanter displays reference images for each plant species. These images are automatically sourced from public image databases (GBIF, Wikimedia Commons) and help you quickly recognise a species — even without a botanical background.

Where do reference images appear?¶

In the species list (overview): A small thumbnail appears in the left column for each species. If no reference image is available for a species yet, you will see a subtle plant icon as a placeholder — this is not an error; it simply means that the reference image acquisition run has not yet found a suitable licence-free image for this species.

On the species detail page (Overview tab): A large hero image appears at the top. Below it, the reference image gallery shows all available images for the species, sorted by plant organ (leaf, flower, fruit, whole plant).

Image sources and licences¶

Images are sourced exclusively from providers with publicly usable, licence-compliant photographs:

Sourcing reference images¶

Reference images are not loaded automatically when a species is created. They are produced by a one-time acquisition run triggered by an administrator. For normal operation this run is needed only once — it can be repeated as needed (for example, after importing new species).

Which species receive images? The acquisition run searches the image databases for all species in the master data. Species for which no CC0/CC-BY images can be found (rare or exotic plants) receive no entry — this is transparent system behaviour, not a data error.

Connection to plant identification¶

The same reference images displayed in the species view also form the basis for plant identification. The DINOv2 recognition system compares a captured photo against the stored reference embeddings to determine the most likely species.

See also: Plant Identification

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)

Seed Type (seed_type)¶

The Seed Type field describes how a cultivar is propagated, and matters most if you plan to save your own seed and sow it again next season — it tells you whether the offspring will come true to type.

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

The actual crop-rotation planning (recommended successor families, wait times, automatic check when creating a plant) is managed separately under Master Data → Crop Rotation — see Companion Planting & Crop Rotation.

Managing Activities¶

Besides botanical master data, Kamerplanter also maintains Activities as their own master data — reusable templates for care tasks such as topping, defoliation, repotting, or harvest preparation. They form the basis for the activity plan tab of a planting run and for workflow templates.

Where to find them¶

Navigate to Master Data → Activities. Built-in system activities can be edited but not deleted.

Creating an Activity¶

Click Create Activity and fill in the sections:

Preparing Master Data with AI¶

Importing Master Data via CSV¶

For initial setup or batch creation, you can also import species, cultivars, and botanical families via a CSV file instead of creating them one by one. The import runs through a secure two-phase process (validation report before the actual creation) and is described in full on its own page, Master Data Import — which also covers the supported columns per data type and how duplicates and validation errors are handled.

Prerequisites¶

• Kamerplanter instance running and accessible
• For CSV import: see the prerequisites on the Master Data Import page

See Also¶

• Master Data Import — Import species, cultivars, and families via CSV file
• External Data Enrichment — Automatically fill in missing species data from GBIF and Perenual
• Preparing plant data with AI — Detailed guide to the AI pipeline
• Plant Identification — Identify a species from a photo
• Setting Up Plant Identification — Start the reference image acquisition run (for administrators)
• Growth Phases — Phase control per species
• Planting Runs — Accompany plants from sowing to harvest, apply an activity plan
• Companion Planting & Crop Rotation — Compatibility and crop-rotation master data
• Task Planning — Workflow templates based on activities
• Fertilization — Nutrient plans and feeding charts
• Propagation Management — Lineage graph, cuttings, grafting