This is so exciting I can barely breathe. A tremendous amount of background programming went into the creation of this feature and I'm pleased to introduce the launch of our Local Reports feature.

For each plant in the database, you can now enter a report on how well it performed for you. You will give it a location (and you can save the location to be your default, so that you don't have to re-enter it each time), the year that pertains to the report, sunlight exposure, soil conditions, comments, etc.

Once you enter the report, it will show up on the plants database "view page" for that plant. People will then see that it grew in your area, along with your opinion of how well it performed (if you entered that.) They can then click to view the full report and see the nitty gritty details.

Pretty cool, eh? Well, there's more!!

I have created this so that I can add extra local report options on a plant-by-plant basis. So if, for example, you go to add a report about a daylily, then you are given additional options to enter in (bud and branching counts, fragrance, etc.)

In the future, we can enhance each custom database with its own custom local report options. We could add "Taste" to vegetables, for example, or "Days to Harvest" for tomatoes. Slug susceptibility for hostas, etc. The possibilities here are pretty limitless.

If you grow a plant for a number of years, you may want to also issue multiple reports for each year you grew it. Some years are wet and other are dry, and the plant may perform differently. All of that is easily notated in the local report field.

I know you want to see how this works so go open up any plant in the database, and scroll to the bottom and click on "File a local report" and you'll be on your way.

If you'd like to see an existing report in action, I posted one to Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'Kellogg's Breakfast')

Now, this was a huge update of the code. I completely altered the way data in our database is stored today and, although I tested it very thoroughly, there may be unforeseen problems. If you see any problems in the database, please let me know!!

Love it!

I think that the bud count and branching are mixed up.
When I click on bud count, my choices are 2-way branching or 3-way branching, etc.
When I click on branching I get "under 10" or 10-15 buds, etc.

Edited to say:
Just a suggestion, if someone doesn't have rust then I think there should be an option for "unknown" on Rust Resistance.

Thanks Dave!

This is a huge advance, but there is some temporary collateral damage. Plant data can be added to entries where data already exist, but not to entries with no current data. The new information does not show up when I click on "Preview your proposal."

I think this is a wonderful addition, Dave! There are always bugs to be worked out in any major programming change, and I'm sure you will do so with dispatch. I'm really looking forward to using this feature!

Thank you, Dave!! I know this process has involved a lot of reading, discussion, and programming, so I really appreciate that you implemented it!!

kidfishing said:Love it!

I think that the bud count and branching are mixed up.
When I click on bud count, my choices are 2-way branching or 3-way branching, etc.
When I click on branching I get "under 10" or 10-15 buds, etc.

Edited to say:
Just a suggestion, if someone doesn't have rust then I think there should be an option for "unknown" on Rust Resistance.

Thanks Dave!

The same thing happened to me, too. I also noticed that nothing happens when I click on the blue ?'s for information. (I'm using Chrome v. 43.0.2357.134, if that helps isolate the issue in any way.)

I'm really excited to try this out, though! I didn't submit anything yet because I didn't know how you were going to make the above change. Everything looks great so far, though!

Oh! How wonderful to possibly see a more "local" report to know what will actually grow here near my location vs. anywhere else in the world! This new feature will surely save me time (not having to search all over the internet to try to find additional info about a plant's growth in my region) and even money (wasted on plants that don't grow successfully in my region).

Dave - You are on the cutting edge as always! Thanks for making ATP a site above the rest!

I looked at a submission for a regional report.

We have a lot of gardeners on ATP who are from around the world. Would it be possible to add to the location a country?

I automatically think of them and added USA after my city and state.

Clicking on the blue circled question marks doesn't bring anything up.

I fixed the bud count/branching mixup.

The blue circle - just mouse over it and you'll see the popup tooltip. I'll make it clickable sometime later.

Zuzu: I'll be fixing that bug you reported soon.

Becky, you can put whatever you want into the location. You can do "City, State" or whatever. It works internationally, too. "Beijing, China" resolves just as well as any other location.

I see no way to edit my report. I filled out the top part thinking I could add the details later, and I made a typo in the comments. How do I edit that, or how do I delete the report to do another one?

I was just going to ask that same question! Can we edit any report we submit?

Also, are we going to have an option to search any of this new regional report by region?

I would love to do a region sort on any plant to see if anything comes up for my region but my region is by city and state and country. That is why I asked about the location. I was thinking of a search option. Maybe that could be something added down the road?

This is a great new feature, Dave!

I will make them editable/deletable tomorrow and will post here when it's ready. And eventually we will have nice searching options for this.

@zuzu, thanks to your good report, I found and fixed this bug. It shouldn't happen again.

Great! Thanks, Dave.

Dave,
Thanks for all the effort and time put into this update!

You can now edit local reports. To do so, just open up the full report and, if you're the one who originally submitted it, you'll have an option at the bottom to edit it.

I think ATP has the best member and website support on the internet!

Would it be possible to add 'dappled shade' in the drop down box? To me there is a difference between 'full shade' and 'dappled shade'. Thanks.