| Tuesday Tools & Products: SunStick |
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| Written by Heleigh Bostwick Tuesday, 13 December 2011 | |||
 Created just for houseplants, SunStick Home a gardening tool that measures the light intensity inside the home. You often see labels on houseplants specifying the number of foot-candles it needs. Foot-candles correspond to varying levels of light intensities, low (75 to 150 foot-candles), medium (200 to 500 foot-candles), or high (500 to 1000 foot-candles) light intensities. Looking like a stylized flowerhead complete with a long green stem, SunStick Home uses a patented technology located in the flower head to measure the light in the immediate area in which it is placed. After 20 minutes, the flower changes color indicating it has finished measuring the light intensity. The color on the flower is then matched to a color-coded chart that corresponding to light intensities. Although SunStick Home is easy to use the inventors have a couple of tips. The first is to make sure to measure on a sunny day. Place the flower right on top of the plant to measure the light. If you haven’t placed the potted plant yet, then use a stack of books or small table that approximates the top of the plant. If the room has two very different light intensities throughout the day (for example it has a western exposure and no other), then measure the light at each “extreme” and average the results. SunStick Home is the invention of two Michigan women who consider themselves avid gardeners as well as entrepreneurs. There’s also a version for outdoor use (pictured above): SunStick 
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