interesting post mcdonatl. I'll be interested also. Ive already lost track of some of trees. An app would be great.

I can GPS track our company's box truck to about 5 meters most of the time. Sometimes worse in tunnels or the like. I don't know if lat and lon on your phone will be good enough.....then again, if you are planting on 40 acres it just might be.

I would say search for a pc photo program like paint.net and put a tag and pic in a layer above your property outline.

I got a property outline when I bought my home. Google or your county probably has it also.

I use Google Maps. When I zero in on my 3/4 of an acre I get nearly a full screen. For a long term record you could do a screen copy and then add pins in an image processing program.

Periodically you could check it against Google Maps the next time the do a fly by of you neighborhood.

If you added triangulation you could get some quite precise positioning. If you step off the distances between know objects in the Google Map you would have a fairly accurate position

I will be watching this thread for any good answers. I would definitely be interested in a better solution than what I am doing now.

What I do now is use Wikimapia. I bookmarked the map, zoomed into my arboretum. I find the decimal GPS coordinates by going under the Login tab, selecting Extras, and then choosing Old Wikimapia. I zoom all the way in and center the map on the spot in question. Wikimapia then gives you a value with a seven digit after the decimal place precision. This precision is equal to around the nearest 11 millimeters (pretty darned precise).

There are at least four potential problems with this approach. First, not all places have detailed satellite images available (some places have newer/better images than other places). Second, images are not current. The ones of my arboretum are fairly new, but it's not like it shows the plant right after you plant it. Third, you may not be able to see a plant if it's under a tree's canopy or in a shaded area. Most of my place is fairly open, but there are areas where I have to guess at the location because of canopy/shade coverage. Finally, I am not sure of the accuracy of the coordinates. While the precision is great, the degree of accuracy has so far alluded me. I just hope it's reasonable, and it may be fine.

arcgis

At least based on my very brief look at ArcGIS, it appears to be more about working with the data and not so much about obtaining the data. It looks like a possibility for a large organization with money to burn, but I don't see it working for applications like my place.

Have you though about contacting your local County Agricultural agent?

I now there are systems available to give precise measurement of a field as the big farmers use it for plowing, planting and harvesting.

My guess is that you are looking for more precision and accuracy than is needed for the job you are trying to do. Yes when you plant a tree, you are talking of about a 2' circle. However the tree at maturity will require a circle about 30 feet in diameter, and a bush depending on what it is, 4' to 10'. Because of this you only need cover your yard with grid with 10' squares and locate each tree and bush with in that grid. If you plant a Maple and a rose bush in the same grid, it will be easy to tell the rose bush from the maple.

You could increase the accuracy of the location, by designating the southwest quarter of grid box 10. This would be similar to the Township/Section system surveyors uses to designate property. If you are not familiar with the method of surveying, there are many documents describing the system, as it was codified in the 1780's, and all property in US deeds today are still described by the same system.

thanks everyone, I have looked at ArcGIS and thought it had promise. I need to spend some more time trying it out. I know some farmers, so maybe if I talk to one of them, I can get more info about what they use. So I guess there isn't really "an app for that." Hmm?

The real weak link in the cell phone app approach is the phone, or more specifically the phone's antenna and filtering capability. This could definitely change over the next few years if a demand for phone GPS accuracy is sufficient to motivate development.

Let us know what you find out. Until I find something better, I'm using Wikimapia and overcoming the shadow and recent-change problems by visually estimating the points I cannot see, or see well. I wish I could find info on the accuracy issue, but, so far, no luck.

Ideally Locata transceivers would be integrated into all cellular towers, bringing centimeter-level location accuracy to everyday consumers, Gambale says. And receivers eventually will be small enough to embed in smartphones and thousands of other connected devices, ranging from watches to dog tags to selfdriving cars. “The next-generation systems need a lot of synchronization,” he says. “So the Internet of Things, which is inevitable and coming, raises the bar enormously.”

We need this.

I have resorted to survey flags and GPS points. The GPS points alone are a help but finding a seedling in summer growth without a marker is tough.

I am going to use GPS Navigator to mark (pin) the tree locations. This software then exports a .txt file which I can put in excel. It also loads from an excel spreadsheet and puts the locations on a google map. So I am going to keep a spreadsheet and update it as needed over time. When I want to look at the information on a map I will load it into GPS Visualizer. Someone said above that the accuracy is not good enough to go out to the trees and get the coordinates using my cell phone and they are right. I tried and the accuracy of 3-5 meters is too inaccurate. I can get much more accurate by using the map and identifying the tree locations via other landmarks. But unfortunately this doesn't work near/under the tree canopy. So I am not sure what I will do there, just wing it I guess. Close will have to be good enough. Thanks for the good discussion.

Few months ago I wrote an app for myself to keep track of my plants. I can only write apps on Swift, so iPhone or iPad only. There are 2 versions, first one is based on google maps. It is called Garden Envelope, absolutely free. Second version is based on apple maps, has a little more functionality and more polished. It is called PlantMap. Check them out to see which one has better maps for your garden. They are available from App Store.

My research into this area has uncovered a few options. The US forestry service has a number of tools called i-Tree that might help, https://www.itreetools.org/ Click on tools and check out i-Tree Eco. You will need to download the program. Eco allows you to create an inventory and define the fields you want. In addition to GPS you can record size, crown health, etc. Another tool called My Tree will allow you to record the trees on your property to determine the value they have for energy reduction, water runoff avoided, carbon capture, etc. It's not an inventory, but cool. The Design module can help you plan future plantings, and Species can help you select trees based on some variables.

I have also used Google Maps to save locations. locate a point on the map and click on Save. It will give you an option to save to Favorites, Want To Go, or create a new list. I haven't tried it, but you can stand under the tree, click on the location in Maps and then save it. Drop a pin, click on the GPS coordinates and save it. You can add a label to describe the tree.

Hope this helps. Let me know what you think.

Hello. Our geodetic company is in the field of mapping. Now there is a complete modernization of equipment and technology in general. Are there any ready-to-go options for this purpose? We are especially interested in stereo cameras.

For efficient mapping, systems such as SLAM are used. Of the ready-to-go options, I only know "Intel RealSense 3D" - https://dioram.ai/blog/intel-realsense/ (all the details are on the site). There are already several versions, you can also find out about them on the site. If you need special software for them, then Dioram can help.