How we write our plant guides

Since 12 October 2026, every new Plant Doctor guide is drafted with AI from named expert sources, and each factual claim in it is checked automatically against the passage it comes from before the guide is published.

Updated 21 October 2026

Where the facts come from

Each guide starts from sources with a named publisher: university extension services, the Royal Horticultural Society, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the ASPCA, the US Environmental Protection Agency and peer-reviewed plant research. We do not use content farms, other apps’ blogs, AI summaries, Wikipedia or Reddit as sources. Every guide lists its sources at the end, and the institutions we cite do not review or endorse the app. The 30 guides published on 12 October 2026 cite 5 to 12 sources each.

The steps before a guide goes live

1. An AI model drafts the guide from its sources, following our written content standards.
2. An automated check tests reading level, structure and links. It requires a named, linked source for every pet-safety note, and it blocks pesticide doses and homemade chemical mixtures.
3. A separate AI check compares each factual claim with the exact passage in the source it cites. A claim the source does not support is rewritten to match the source or removed. For the first 30 guides, the check covered 1,455 claims.
4. An AI harm review looks for advice that could hurt a plant, a pet or a person, and the guide is fixed before it moves on.
5. An AI edit makes the language plain and easy to read.
6. Plant Doctor approves the guide for publication. Approval decides whether a guide goes live; the fact check itself is automatic.

If we change how guides are made, we update this page. Our earliest guides were published before we consolidated these rules and checks, so they may look and read differently.

Safety rules our guides follow

• Pet-safety notes always name and link their source, such as the ASPCA. We do not make those calls in our own voice.
• No guide says whether a wild plant or mushroom is safe to eat.
• The least toxic steps come first. Guides give no doses for concentrated pesticides and never suggest mixing chemicals.
• For a severe or unclear problem, a guide points you to a local nursery or extension service.

Found a mistake?

Email [email protected] with the page address and the sentence. We check it against the source and correct the page if it is wrong.

For your own plant, Plant Doctor, an AI plant diagnosis app for iPhone, suggests the most likely cause from three photos and gives a care plan.