Solar Weight-Based Plant Management With ESP32

Growing plants is fun and watering and caring for them is not really a hassle. Microcontroller applications to monitor their health are all over the internet and the inspiration for their design comes from plant's static nature and the ease of monitoring something that doesn't run around and sweat. I am relatively new to plant growth and guides on the internet seemed to be written by well meaning but not engineer types. A friend who I asked "how much do I water them..." replied the only way is to heft the plant and if it feels light you water it. He is very good at "growing". Sticking your finger into the soil does not really help much. Most of the Instructables utilize a cheap soil moisture probe which is prone to a variety of failures--the most blatant of which are inaccuracy and corrosion.