Your plant can have a wearable device, too — and it’s made of paper

Precision horticulture, using technology to optimize crop production, has grown in recent years. To help farmers improve crop resilience and reduce losses caused by environmental stress, researchers have developed wearable devices designed specifically for plants, placed near their leaves, to monitor environmental conditions linked to plant stress.

But many existing wearable devices are made of environmentally unfriendly materials, like petroleum-based polymers, and lead to electronic waste. Sustainable agriculture has an urgent need for biocompatible alternatives.

Vasquez et al. worked on developing environmentally friendly sensors, integrating biodegradable substrates with sustainable fabrication techniques, for detecting changes in temperature, ammonia concentration, and humidity near plant leaves.

Substrates, the largest components of a sensor, have a significant environmental footprint. By creating biodegradable paper substrates and using sustainable, biocompatible inks to print the sensor components, the group created sensors that can decompose into nontoxic byproducts. In tests, the sensors had a lifetime of up to four weeks in a controlled greenhouse environment, though without protective reinforcement, they will degrade more quickly in an open field.

“Our focus was not just on developing functional devices, but also on carefully considering how the materials and designs we choose will impact both the plants and the surrounding environment,” said author Sahira Vasquez.

Sensors like these are not intended to be permanent. Instead, the researchers envision farmers using them for time-limited applications without leaving behind waste or environmental impact. For example, a greenhouse or orchard may need extra monitoring during critical growth stages or after pesticide application.

“Sometimes, simple devices can be both practical and functional. We don’t always need complex or high-cost solutions,” said Vasquez. “Even low-tech approaches can provide valuable, actionable data for farmers when designed thoughtfully.”

Source: “Plant wearables: Bridging technology and sustainability in precision agriculture,” by Sahira Vasquez, Pietro Ibba, Michele Gullino, Giuseppe Ciccone, Ahmed Rasheed, Ciro Allarà, Paolo Lugli, and Luisa Petti, Applied Physics Letters (2025). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0256426 .