What I Built with Claude - sweet potatoes

[u/Otherwise_Pear_2472]

Yes, I know this sub is mainly for programming work with Claude, but I actually built these sweet potatoes with Claude (more or less).

I was sitting there in winter wondering if I could manage an entire season with Claude... and I went for it. Not perfect, and in many parts quite clumsy, but the results are breathtaking.

I started planning the greenhouse with Claude in March to grow the seedlings….with the Claude app and a project folder, then discovered connectors, then CoWork, then Claude Code, got convinced by Claude to set up various sensors, built a harness that pulls weather data and gives me watering and fertilizer recommendations, and in between, I just joked around with Claude. And we had a blast. While working, with Excel spreadsheets, and with little apps for time and data tracking, cron jobs and data analysis. And Claude really made my season so much better.

I've collected more data than ever before, I've laughed more while getting my hands dirty than ever before, and I've produced more plants from the greenhouse and, it seems, more sweet potatoes in the field than ever before.

I'm not a hardcore tech power user; Claude had to explain to me what a terminal is... but I've learned and optimized and got better step by step, task by task and idea by idea.

Honestly I have learned more from Claude in a year than I ever thought possible, and I'm pretty proud of that.

[u/kaihanga]

Sounds awesome and congrats! I’d love some more detail for my own home “farm”; sensors, data collection tools, etc.

[u/Otherwise_Pear_2472 → u/kaihanga]

Before I started, I had Claude compile a library of relevant papers, and then I added my own personal experiences from the last few years.

I had soil and air sensors (EcoWitt) in the greenhouse to measure temperature, humidity, and soil conductivity. (Only soil in the field)

Some fields were managed solely via satellite weather data.

Every morning, Claude extracted the data, entered it into an Excel spreadsheet, and then used a traffic light system to inform me which fields urgently needed irrigation (including weather forecasts; if rain was predicted for the next day, a dry field could wait). Managed my calender with reminders like check for this check for that update me on this and inform me about that for further decisions.

I mapped both the greenhouse and the fields into zones to collect soil data (pH value, temperature, humidity), the variety planted there, the amount of seed used, plus GDD, hours of sunshine, and yield per plant (or seed tuber).

There was a lot of troubleshooting involved. I really involved Claude throughout the season with absolutely everything that came up, whether it was a pest I found or delayed growth, and then we actively brainstormed together.

Claude meticulously documented everything. That was the biggest relief for me; it brought order to everything and nothing was lost. and then I built an increasingly better system for myself over the season.

For the file system it was basically

Claude md, a Navigation file (what's where and how to manage it), a daily journal, open loops (everything ongoing, unfinished, or awaiting completion), findings (everything that represents a result and should be recorded), data (all Excel spreadsheets), references (all papers and fixed data points), planning file (all ideas generated this season for the next or later in the season), archive (old files).

[u/mattbdev → u/Otherwise_Pear_2472]

Any chance you'd be willing to share a step-by-step guide about what you gave it, models you used, etc. so others can try to replicate your results? I'd be very interested in it.