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PlantGro is a software program for exploring plant, soil and climate relationships. This program can assist farmers, foresters, agronomists, consultants, horticulturalists, aid agencies, teachers and students to meet the challenge of matching plants to soils and climates.

PlantGro 4.0 is a versatile tool that can help you to assess the suitability of various climates and soils for different plants. The program is preloaded with over 1700 plant files (including annuals, perennials and tree species), over 40 soil files and greater than 180 site specific climate files.

A total of 23 parameters can be used in an analysis ranging from pH and cation exchange capacity to salinity and slope. These sample files provide you with the basis for beginning your own assessments.

The beauty of this program is the interface and the ease at which the sample files can be edited and completely new files can be developed based on your local data.

One powerful feature of PlantGro 4.0 is its batch mode facility. Multiple plant, soil and climate files can be selected and queried from those available to assess one parameter in reference to the others quickly and efficiently. For example, multiple plant types can be run against soil and climate files to rapidly identify the best adapted plants to a particular location. Output from this analysis is generated in Excel spreadsheet format for excellent management and manipulation potential.

PlantGro + SimCLIM

SimCLIM, a climate change scenario generation program, has been launched that is compatible with PlantGro. The integration of SimCLIM with PlantGro allows you to do unique and powerful analysis of the impact of climate change on plant suitability with soils. Climate change can thereby be factored into decision-making with regard to potential changes to cropping systems and tree growth. The powerful combination of SimCLIM and PlantGro software can provide you with the data to make better informed decisions for future sustainability and profitability.

A spatial version of PlantGro can be developed for nearly any location. Planners and policy makers can view different scenarios for landuse for their region and this can assist decision makers. Climate change scenarios can also be included for longer-term planning horizons.