Pothos are easy to grow and easy to propagate. One pothos could turn into 30 without a huge amount of effort.
I kinda like the idea of living in a space with 30 pothos plants.
I guess the engineered one would also be easy to propagate? Which raises an interesting question, after I buy one, can I just give away dozens of clones? Are there IP restrictions? Does the plant die without the special sauce bacteria?
>after I buy one, can I just give away dozens of clones? Are there IP restrictions?
The grapes, apples, chestnuts you buy at a supermarket are already IP-protected and propagation is already restricted or forbidden. Even some hybrid plants in IKEA have "propagation is against the law" labels, you are expected to kill any offspring.
As far as I understand, what is forbidden is not to propagate but to then sell the propagated plants or fruits, I.e. propagating plants from IKEA to give to a number of friends should be OK. This would be like saying you cannot make copies of a book you bought for personal use.
Most Pothos are free to propagate. Things from Costa farms and some other places are things to look out for. IP on plants is an interesting thing. One popular plant in the recent past - Raven ZZs - was IP protected.
“The court heard the question of whether Schmeiser's intentionally growing genetically modified plants constituted "use" of Monsanto's patented genetically modified plant cells. By a 5-4 majority, the court ruled that it did. The Supreme Court also ruled 9-0 that Schmeiser did not have to pay Monsanto their technology use fee, damages or costs, as Schmeiser did not receive any benefit from the technology.”
I have bought other houseplants (bromeliad hybrids, for one) that say they are patented and can't be propagated. I see that in theory that applies to individuals[1] but I am skeptical there's any kind of enforcement unless you're selling your pirated plants.
The unspoken rule of the horticulture world is that hobbyists have a gift economy in “illegal” propagations. Over a longer time horizon the “gift economy” is bartering with credit. I give you some when times are good, I accept some after a pest infestation or a lousy house sitter.
Only commercial growers license plant patents.
I’m filling a fifth of an acre with purchased plants and it gets expensive quick, especially if you aren’t very very patient. I’m already propagating cuttings of mostly natives and a few herbs to trade with others. Few can afford retail.
Then you have 30 plants to take care of and find space for. It would be basically impossible to stop you from propagating and giving away cutting if the plant can do that. All of that other stuff seems like extra cost to develop with questionable gains to sales.
Based on the OP post and the notion of a wait list for something that should be trivial to propagate as you mentioned, I'm guessing this whole thing is a $$/Month subscription to a proprietary variant of a common plant.
"Just one Neo P1, as the company dubbed its initial product, can remove as much pollution from a home’s air as 30 regular plants, the company says. Neo P1 was in development for four years, and is a bioengineered version of a common houseplant called Pothos."
What does this even mean? What is 'pollution' in this claim? Just grow and happily propagate regular pothos which are wonderful plants, and if you need to filter your air... get certified filters?
Four years seems extremely fast for that. Every iteration you have to grow enough plant mass to test it. That must take weeks or months, even with the most optimal growing conditions.
As for proprietary variants, some Pothos already come with tags saying that propagation is forbidden (which, to me, at least, means I will propagate the hell out of it even if I didn't really want to).
Hi missosoup,
Lio here, co-founder of Neoplants. At this point we are not considering subscriptions for Neo P1, only bundles to keep things simple. When it comes to that article quote, it is referring to the 4 pollutants we are targeting: Benzene, Toluene, Xylene and Formaldehyde, which are the 4 main Volatile Organic Compounds commonly found in houses, highly carcinogenic and very hard to eliminate (not just capture). You can learn more about that on our Product Page here: https://neoplants.com/product
> Then you have 30 plants to take care of and find space for.
Pothos are pretty much vines, so seems pretty easy to put the pot on a high surface and let them fall down or creep along, unless they're too structurally solid to do that?
Hi socialismisok, Lionel here from Neoplants. We do not want to prevent our customers from propagating their neoplants, so Neo P1 will not die without its soil nor without its microbiome, so if you feel like sharing some cuttings to your friends for them to discover our concept, you’ll be able to do it. However, when it comes to air purification performance, purchasing the full value proposition will be needed, not only to ensure the bioengineering features are well expressed in the plant but also for the microbiome, the shell and the size of the plant that play a crucial role in our products. In addition, all of the bioengineering we do is proprietary IP and we will deliver a certificate of authenticity with your Neo P1.
I kinda like the idea of living in a space with 30 pothos plants.
I guess the engineered one would also be easy to propagate? Which raises an interesting question, after I buy one, can I just give away dozens of clones? Are there IP restrictions? Does the plant die without the special sauce bacteria?