1. Getting started
BudLog is a grow journal that lives in your browser. There is nothing to install and no account to make: open the app and start adding plants.
Phone To get an app icon on your home screen, open BudLog in your phone’s browser, then use the browser menu: Share → Add to Home Screen on iPhone (Safari), or the ⋮ menu → Add to Home screen / Install app on Android (Chrome).
You can also download BudLog as a single file and run it offline.
2. Add your first plant
Plants tab → Add a plant
- Give it a name (for example Blue Dream #2). Strain is optional.
- Pick the grow medium: indoor / soil, outdoor, greenhouse or hydro.
- Pick the current stage: seedling, vegetative, flowering, flush or harvested.
- Set the start date and tap + Add plant.
Watering reminders start with a sensible default for the medium (soil about every 3 days, outdoor 4, greenhouse 3, hydro daily). Treat that as a starting point and change it on the plant’s page once you know how thirsty it really is.
3. The Dashboard and reminders
Dashboard tab The dashboard lists everything that needs attention: waterings, feedings, jar burps while curing, and a nudge when a vegging plant has reached your target length.
- Items show how late they are (overdue 2d), when they are due today, or when they are coming up.
- Tap Water now or Feed now to log it. The reminder clears and the timer restarts.
- If several plants are due, use Water all due or Feed all due to clear them in one tap.
- Outdoor plants and harvested plants skip the parts that do not apply to them.
Getting real phone notifications
BudLog does not send push notifications. The simplest way to get them is to export your reminders as a calendar file and import it into your phone’s calendar (see Exports).
4. Inside a plant
Plants tab → tap a plant Each plant has its own page with these sections, top to bottom:
| Section | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Summary | Stage, medium, day count, last watered and fed, plus Water now, Feed now, Share Card, Edit settings and Delete. |
| Light Schedule | Hours on per day and a target veg length (not shown for outdoor plants). |
| Environment | Temperature, humidity, pH and EC readings with trend charts and calculated VPD. |
| Trichome Check-in | Clear / cloudy / amber estimates for timing the harvest. |
| Harvest & Cure | Harvest date, wet and dry weight, curing and jar burping. |
| Costs & Efficiency | Optional setup and expenses, giving cost per gram and yield efficiency. |
| Photo log, Notes, Activity | Photos, observations and a log of everything you have done. |
Fixing a mistake
Double-tapped Water now? In the Activity list at the bottom of the plant page, tap edit to change an entry or remove to delete it. The reminders update straight away. Readings and trichome check-ins can be edited or removed the same way.
5. Light schedule and flipping to flower
Plant page → Light Schedule Set the hours of light per day (for example 18 or 12) and a target veg length in weeks.
When a vegging plant reaches that target, it shows up on the Dashboard and on its own page with a Flip to flower button. Tapping it switches the plant to flowering at 12/12 and records the flip date, so BudLog can show how many days into flower you are.
6. Environment log and VPD
Plant page → Environment Log temperature, humidity, pH and EC / PPM whenever you take a reading. You only need to fill in the ones you measured.
- After two readings you get a small trend chart for each metric, with the range and the latest value.
- Tap the °F / °C toggle to switch temperature units. The choice applies everywhere in the app.
- Whenever a reading has both temperature and humidity, BudLog calculates VPD (vapour pressure deficit) and charts it, with a note on whether the latest value is in range for the plant’s stage.
You enter readings yourself. BudLog does not connect to sensors or pull in weather data.
7. Trichome check-ins
Plant page → Trichome Check-in Trichomes are the tiny crystal-like glands on the buds, and their colour is a popular way to judge ripeness.
- Look closely at a few buds from different spots with a jeweler’s loupe or your phone’s macro camera.
- Estimate roughly what share looks clear (translucent), cloudy (milky white) and amber (golden).
- Enter the three percentages, add an optional note (for example “top colas only”) and tap + Log check-in.
BudLog shows a plain-language read on where the plant is, from still developing through near peak to past peak. Rough guesses are fine, and they do not need to add up to exactly 100%.
8. Harvest, drying and curing
Plant page → Harvest & Cure
- Log the harvest. Enter the harvest date and, if you like, the wet weight, then tap Log harvest. The plant moves to the harvested stage and stops showing watering reminders.
- Add the dry weight once it is dry. BudLog works out the dry-down percentage.
- Start curing when you jar it up. Set how often to burp the jars, and the Dashboard reminds you. Tap Burp now each time.
- Use Cure notes for jar humidity, smell and texture, then tap Stop curing when you are done.
9. Costs and efficiency
Plant page → Costs & Efficiency This panel is optional, and it is where BudLog turns your records into numbers.
- Setup: enter your grow space (sq ft or sq m) and the light’s actual wattage, then tap Save setup.
- Expenses: add what you spent (seeds, soil, nutrients, electricity) with an amount and date. Remove any entry you added by mistake.
- Results: once a dry weight is logged you see cost per gram, grams per watt and grams per square foot or metre.
To change the currency symbol, go to Options → Settings.
10. Stats
Stats tab After you log some harvests, the Stats tab shows totals and averages across all your grows: harvest count, total dry yield, average per harvest, average days to harvest and average dry-down. It breaks yield down by strain and by grow medium, so you can see what works for you. If you have logged costs or wattage it also shows total spent, cost per gram and grams per watt.
11. The Harvest Card
Plant page → Share Card Any plant can be turned into a square image with its photo (if it has one), name, strain and stats. It is at its best once a dry weight is logged, because it then leads with the yield.
- Download saves the image, Copy image copies it, and on most phones a share sheet lets you post it straight to your social apps.
- If your browser blocks one of these, press and hold the image on a phone to save or share it.
12. Tools
Tools tab Quick calculators for the grow room. They are independent of your plants.
- VPD calculator: enter air temperature and humidity (and how much cooler the leaf is than the air) to see the VPD and which stages it suits.
- Feed mixer: enter your batch size and each product’s dose from the bottle (ml per litre or per gallon) to get the millilitres to add. Your recipe is remembered on the device.
- EC / PPM converter: convert between EC (mS/cm) and PPM on the 500 and 700 scales. Check which scale your meter uses.
- Quick converters: grams / ounces, litres / US gallons and °F / °C.
Every tool has Clear, Copy, TXT and CSV buttons, so you can wipe a calculator or save its inputs and results.
13. Batch actions and clones
Plants tab Tick the checkbox beside several plants (or tap select all), then use Water or Feed in the bar that appears to log it for all of them at once. Clear unticks everything.
Plant page Cloning: tap Clone on a plant to make entries for cuttings. Choose how many (1–24), a name (numbered automatically if you make more than one), a start date and a stage. Clones copy the strain, medium, watering and feeding intervals and grow setup, start with empty logs, and link back to the mother plant, which in turn lists her clones.
14. Backups, exports and moving devices
Options tab
| Export | What you get |
|---|---|
| Plant list (CSV) | One row per plant. Opens in Sheets, Excel or Numbers. |
| Reminders (.ics) | A calendar file with recurring watering, feeding and burp events. Import it into your calendar for real phone notifications. |
| Activity log (CSV) | Every watering, feeding, note and cure entry across all plants. |
| Full backup (JSON) | Everything: plants, photos, readings, harvests, costs. Your safety net. |
Tap Generate on a card, then Copy or Download the result.
Restoring on a new device
- On the old device, generate a Full backup (JSON) and download or copy it.
- On the new device, open BudLog and go to Options → Import a backup.
- Choose the file, or paste the JSON, and tap Import. Plants that already exist are left untouched.
15. Themes and settings
Options tab → Settings Pick one of four colour themes: Terracotta, Sage, Lavender, or the dark Midnight. You can also set the currency symbol used for costs. The temperature unit is switched from any Environment panel or the VPD calculator.
16. Troubleshooting
My plants have disappeared
BudLog stores data per browser and device. Check that you are in the same browser, not in a private or incognito window, and that site data has not been cleared. If you made a backup, restore it from Options → Import a backup.
A download did nothing
Some in-app browsers (for example inside a social app) block file downloads. Use the Copy button instead, or open BudLog in your normal browser.
Photos make things slow
BudLog shrinks photos automatically, but a plant with dozens of photos still adds up. Remove old ones you do not need, and keep a backup.
The numbers look wrong
Cost per gram and efficiency need a dry weight, expenses and (for grams per watt or per area) a saved setup. If something is missing, the panel tells you what to add.
Anything else, or an idea for a feature? BudLog is a small independent project that is still being improved, and feedback is always welcome.