Automated horticulture is the solution.

Quite right.

I can envision a future in which each plant is tended by a solar
powered computerized system capable of sensing environmental
conditions and adjusting them to remain within preset bounds.
Irrigation, temperature, illumination, humidity, air movement,
nutrition, all independently manipulated optimally for each plant by
simple off-the-shelf technology available today.


Where can you find this kind of hardware off the shelf. When I ask at
various vendors around here, they give me a blank stare as if I was using
some strange, alien language. Controllers are easy enough to find, but
sensors for temperature, humidity, soil moisture and nutrients, that will
pass data to the computer are a different story. Occassionally, I find a
vendor far far away that might have a suitable sensor for temperature, but
no such luck for the rest. This is the final hurdle in the construction of
my growth chambers or wardian cases.

The programming side is easy. And I can see the technology being modular,
and therefore quite scalable from something small enough for a single
african violet to something large enough to handle the largest orchid
collection imaginable. I can even see a future in which such hardware is
connected to a relational database containing data documenting optimal
growing environments for each species/variety/grex/&c., at least given
common experience with the plants, so that all one need do is enter the
names of the plants being maintained and the computer will either tell you
that it isn't possible to keep the named species together because the best
environment for one will kill the other, or compute the best environment to
keep all identified plants happy

The real question is, "Who is going to finance the development and
marketting of such products?"

Cheers,

Ted