What is GrowWise?
GrowWise generates personalized, organic vegetable grow guides for Florida home gardeners — tailored to a location, month, crop, and growing setup, and grounded in University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension sources. Your ratings tell us where the guidance is accurate and clear, and where it needs work.
⚠️ There are two workflows — start with Section 1
Section 1 walks you through evaluating a guide that is already on the site — that is what we need right now. Section 2 covers generating your own guide to test, which is temporarily unavailable while we resolve an account issue. Please start with Section 1; we will let you know when Section 2 is back on. First, a one-time setup below.
When you reach the final review/submit page, you will see a unique compensation survey code. Copy it and enter it on the data collection platform to receive compensation for your ratings.
★ Before you start: tell us about you
Open the evaluation link your GrowWise contact sent you in a web browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, or Firefox). On the home page, fill in “About you” and click “Save & start evaluating.” You only do this once. (Your info stays on your device and with the GrowWise team only.)
1 Section 1 — Evaluate an existing guide
Use these steps when you are reviewing a guide that is already on the site. Do them for each guide you review.
Step 1 · Pick a guide
Scroll to “The guides” and click “Evaluate →” on any card (marked ④ on the home page above). Each card shows the crop, region, month, and setup. Do them in any order, stop anytime, and come back later — your progress is saved on this device.
Step 2 · Read the guide
The guide opens on the left; your rating form is on the right. Page through the guide with the section buttons and read every crop and section you want to rate before moving on.
Step 3 · Rate the 7 statements
For each statement, pick 1–5, or Can’t judge if it is outside your expertise or you did not review that part.
| Rating | The statement you’re agreeing / disagreeing with |
|---|---|
| Accuracy | The horticultural advice is accurate for this crop and region (Florida). |
| Clarity | The instructions are clear and easy for a home gardener to follow. |
| Completeness | The guide covers what’s needed from site preparation through harvest. |
| Images | The step images match the instructions and show plants at the correct growth stage. |
| Consistency | Information is consistent across sections (full detail, visual guide, week-by-week). |
| Organic | The recommendations are appropriate for organic gardening. |
| Usefulness | Overall, I would recommend this guide to a Florida gardener. |
Answers save the instant you click — the Saved ✓ note confirms it. There is no separate save button.
Step 4 · Flag anything wrong & add comments
- “Did you spot any errors, inconsistencies, or image problems?” — choose Yes or No. If Yes, a box appears: tell us where and what. This free-text feedback is the most valuable part.
- “Which crops in this guide did you review?” — this is optional. If you want, you can note the crops you assessed. “Which sections did you review?” and “Any other comments?” also help us understand what you read.
Good examples of a flagged issue
- “Site selection step 2: the picture shows seedlings in the bed, but the step should show cleared soil before planting.”
- “Visual guide step 8: image shows fruit on a 2-week-old seedling.”
- “Sunlight advice differs between the full-detail section and the visual guide.”
- “Planting month looks wrong for this crop in Central Florida.”
When you select “Yes,” choose one primary issue category, optionally add the issue type(s) that best fit the problem, and describe the section or step, what you saw, and what should have happened instead so the research team can group failures more easily.
Then move to the next guide, or jump to “Submit your responses” below when you are done.
2 Section 2 — Generate and evaluate a new guide Paused for now
⏳ Temporarily unavailable
Generating new guides is paused while we resolve an account issue. Please skip Path B for now and stick with Path A above — we will let you know when it is back on. The steps below are for when it returns.
Step 1 · Generate a guide
On the home page click “Generate a new guide” (marked ③ on the home page above), then fill in the form: a Florida ZIP code, one or more crops (type a name and press Enter), a month, and the setup. Click “Generate guide.” GrowWise builds a fresh guide from scratch, synthesizing crop data on the fly if needed.
Step 2 · Evaluate the new guide
When it finishes, GrowWise drops you straight into the same review screen. Use the same evaluation steps from Section 1 above: read the guide, rate the 7 statements, and flag anything wrong and add comments.
Ideas worth trying (pick a couple)
- A cool-season crop in a hot month (e.g. lettuce or spinach in July) — does it warn you about timing?
- A fruit that doesn’t suit Florida (e.g. cherry, apricot) — does it say so and suggest alternatives?
- A crop the system likely hasn’t seen (an unusual herb or vegetable) — is the guidance still sound?
- Your own ZIP and a crop you actually grow — how accurate is it for conditions you know?
✓ Submit your responses
When you are done — after any number of guides, from either path — open “Review & submit my responses” (home page, or the link under the rating form). Check the summary, then click “Submit my responses.”
📩 If submitting says no collector is configured
That is expected for this pilot — your responses are safe on your device. Just click “Download JSON” and email the downloaded file to the address shown there (your GrowWise contact). That file is your submission; the latest one you send counts.
Quick reference
Section 1 (existing guides) is what we need now · Section 2 (generate) is paused 1 = strongly disagree · 5 = strongly agree “Can’t judge” is always OK Saves automatically — no login Flagging issues helps most Submit = Download JSON + email itThank you — your feedback directly shapes GrowWise. 🌱