Getting started on GreenerThumb

1. Create an account

Browsing the wiki, Help-ID board, and Sightings feed works while signed out. Anything you own — a plant, a growth log, a submission — needs an account.

1. Head to Sign up and register with an email + password.
2. Verify the password meets length requirements; you'll be signed in on completion.
3. Open Settings and pick a username — that's what appears on your public profile (/@your-name) and on every contribution you make.

2. Track your plants

The core of the app. Add a plant once, log growth whenever you notice something worth remembering.

1. Add a plant via the + Add Plant button in the nav, or /plants/add. Free-form species input gets normalized to a wiki entry when it matches.
2. Log growth from the plant detail page — pitcher count, health rating, action type (watered / fertilized / sprayed / repotted / pruned), notes, and a photo.
3. Group plants into gardens from /gardens — useful for grow tents, shelves, or locations with a shared watering schedule.
4. Bulk care from the collection page: select multiple plants, log one action for all of them at once.

3. Contribute photos to the wiki

The species wiki is powered by community photos. Your approved submissions get a credit on the species page and rank you on the contributors leaderboard.

1. On the plant's edit page, flip Make this plant public. Private plants can't submit.
2. Make sure the species resolves to a wiki entry — hybrids and unknown species can't submit.
3. On the plant detail page, scroll to the Photos tab and click Submit to Wiki on your best shot.
4. Moderators review submissions. Track status (and withdraw if you change your mind) at Settings › My Wiki Contributions.

Heads up: there's no direct text editing of species pages — that's moderator-only. To suggest a change to wiki copy, use Feedback.

4. Post a Help-ID

Got a plant you can't name? Post photos on the Help-ID board and let the community weigh in.

1. Click New request or head to /help-id/new.
2. Upload 1–4 photos showing the key ID features (whole plant, close-up of any pitcher / flower / leaf pattern).
3. Add optional context — where the plant came from, size, any visible label.
4. Other users suggest identifications; you pick the one that looks right, which marks the post resolved.

5. Log wild sightings

Saw something interesting in the wild, a greenhouse, or a nursery? Sightings is the public field-notes feed.

1. Open /sightings/new and upload a photo.
2. Type the species as best you can — the form normalizes it and deep-links to the wiki when it matches.
3. Optionally add a place name, coordinates, and a note about the habitat or context.
4. Your sighting appears on the public feed and, if the species matches a wiki entry, on that species' page under Wild sightings.

6. AI Growth Vision

Every photo you log builds a visual timeline. AI scans compare new photos against the plant's history to flag early warnings — you don't need to do anything extra to opt in.

• Health trajectory. A pitcher browning across three weeks is easy to miss. The timeline catches it.
• Pitcher count drift. If the AI thinks the count doesn't match what it sees, it'll ask.
• Day 1 vs today. The simplest comparison is often the most motivating — and most diagnostic. Open a plant's Photos tab to see it.