A Plant Doctor That Asks Questions
Most plant apps diagnose from one photo and guess. Leaf Scan's new Plant Doctor asks follow-up questions, requests the photos it needs, and ends with a treatment plan it helps you carry out.
Show a typical plant app a sad leaf and you'll get back two words: "watering issue." Over or under? Which is it? How do I fix it? Silence. One photo in, one vague label out.
Real plant doctors don't work like that — they ask things. Is the soil wet or dry an inch down? When did the spots appear? Can I see the underside of that leaf? With this update, Leaf Scan's Plant Doctor finally works like a real one.
Diagnosis is now a conversation
Start from any plant ("Something wrong?") or snap a photo of any struggling plant, even one you don't own. Describe what worries you in your own words — or don't; the photo alone is often enough to begin.
If the Plant Doctor is confident, it tells you immediately. If it isn't, it asks one or two pointed questions, each answerable with a tap — Wet / Damp / Dry — or by taking the specific photo it requests, like the underside of an affected leaf, with the camera opening straight into a close-up hint.
And it never drags. By the third exchange at the latest, you get its best assessment, honestly framed: "Most likely spider mites; less likely heat stress — here's how to tell for sure."
It already knows your plant
Because the Plant Doctor lives inside Leaf Scan, it starts every case with context other apps don't have: the species, your watering history, the light reading you took, and recent growth check-ins. "Has it been watered more than usual lately?" is a question it can answer itself by looking at your care log.
That context is the difference between "watering issue" and "you've watered twice as often as recommended since the heat wave — this looks like early root stress, and here's the recovery plan."
Every diagnosis ends in a plan
No more screenshots of advice you'll forget. Each case closes with a concrete treatment plan: isolate the plant if it's contagious, do-now steps, and recurring ones — "apply neem oil weekly, three times." One tap adds the whole plan to your care schedule.
Then comes the part we're proudest of: the plan schedules a follow-up photo, and the AI compares before and after to verify the treatment is actually working. Diagnosis, treatment, recovery — one closed loop, in one app.
A safety note: if you've told Leaf Scan about your cat or dog, treatment suggestions take them into account. And for anything beyond houseplant scope — a mature garden tree, suspected fungal infection spreading across a yard — the Plant Doctor will say plainly that a local professional is the right call.
- Answer follow-ups with a tap or a guided photo — no typing required.
- Best assessment guaranteed by the third exchange. No endless loops.
- One tap turns the treatment plan into scheduled tasks.
- Follow-up photos verify recovery automatically.
FAQ
Do I need to know what's wrong before I start?
No. A photo and "it looks sad" is a perfectly good opening. The Plant Doctor's questions exist precisely because you shouldn't need to know which details matter — it does.
What if the diagnosis is uncertain?
Then it says so, and gives you the ranked possibilities with how to tell them apart. We'd rather give you an honest "most likely X, possibly Y" than a confident wrong answer — that's a core Leaf Scan principle.
How many diagnoses are included?
Free accounts include one full diagnosis case per month; premium is unlimited. A case includes the entire conversation, the treatment plan, and recovery follow-ups — not just one message.