I always wanted a garden pprogram that included all of my specimens (perhaps with a remote database of common plants, so I could import relevant data on those that I grow, zone specific) and included a calendar with date ranges for important husbandry duties (fert, weed, lime, prune, etc). 

I always remember to do stuff after the ideal time of year.

Paul, Bob, Mariann, and a few others ---- you guys understand what an application like C++ or Java and a backend database can do.  Boy if we got together...Look out world!!!  HA!  I am a System Architect.  My area of expertise is databases.  Mostly, Sql Server, MySQL, Oracle, SYBASE, and unfortunately MS Access.  It is my life.  I'm also involved in data migration also known as ETL (extract, transform, Load) of data from any source to a target.  I'm also involved in the business intelligence side of the data as well using Reporting services and designing data cubes for our business users.

This database software idea for me started when my local nursery told me the only figs that grows in the Charlotte area was the Brown Turkey.  I asked her what other figs does she carry and she said only the Brown Turkey.  I asked her why and she said she has a huge mother tree at her residence and its been there for over 20 yrs without any winter protection.  When I told her she was wrong and showed her pictures of my fig trees in my orchard...she shut up.  I ask her why lie to people and she said she only knew of the Brown Turkey so that's what she sells.  I told her my job is now to educate the Charlotte community of the hunderds of different fig varieties out there.  She said, good!  We all can learn.  Since then, the NC Dept of Arg have reached out to be for information on figs.  Some of them have even purchased fig trees from me.  They said they were excited to learn about a person in our area that's very passionate about figs.

Years ago I had 2 large Black Maderia fig trees.  Both fruited and gave me some awesome figs.  But one day, both dried up and died on the same day.  I was so upset but had no facts on the trees.  That puzzled me.  Today, I keep better notes about my figs so that this sudden death doesn't happen again.  

I'm a "fact--result" type person.  Must be the military in me (retired Air Force Major)!  I want to capture alot of data on my figs over time.  Again, everybody's data needs are different.  For me, my goal is to see how my trees are performing growthwise and fruit production over time using certain fertilizers and potting techniques for my zone.  I will be sending this data to UCD and NC Arg later this Fall.  In other words, I am building a data warehouse just for figs.
 I have over 200 varities of figs and pretty close to 1000 trees now.  Some of my trees are in shade and some are in full sun and some in partical sun.  If I have 3 trees in each of these areas.  I want to see how they perform with the same fertilizer or no fertilizer or more water or less water etc.  I have some in SWPs and some in the ground.  I want to track their growth and fruit production and taste.  A database can hold a lot of data including pictures of my trees.  I can even export a slice of data and export it to Excel and Power Pivot, I can see different views of the data about each fig.  And use Power View to present it in a presentation format.  I can create all kinds of data reports.  For instance, I can show:   2013 Growth by Date, 2013 Growth by certain fertilizer, 2013 fruit production, 2013 ripening date by zone, etc, etc.  This is a good decision support system.  The list is endless!  Without it, I would be guessing in everything I do to my trees.  The public community can easily get confused when they read one nursery tips and then another.  What I've learned is most nurseries get these facts from Dave Wilson or Monrovia and they just paste these on their web site.  At least with my data, I know its true to my climate and shows the results of my actions.

HOW BOUT THOSE FIGS!!!!!!!!

Dennis, Paul and Bob,  I am a retired Systems Analyst who ran a custom software development company for the past 18 years. We did a lot of proprietary software for major hardware and software vendors and a lot of scientific software applications such as applications for modeling airborne and water pollution. Some of my  group were involved in the development of software used to design lakes and ponds to trap waterborne pollution from the Chernobyl disaster. We also did a lot of GPS based software such as an application for a US farm equipment company that enabled them to put an on board computer in their tractors that calculated and custom mixed fertilizer based on soil samples and GPS locations within large fields.  We worked with about 50 different development environments and most of the commonly available computer platforms.

With a properly developed database, using a relatively inexpensive or possibly free database product and a user friendly inquiry product, there is no practical limit to what we could we could do if some of the more computer oriented F4F members put our heads together. The hardest part of such a product might be identifying the right OS and products to use so that whatever we did would be affordable (best is free), small footprint and easily available to members world wide. Have not checked out the apps that have been listed in this thread but perhaps there is an app out there we could build on. If we want something which could run on a smart phone, then building it ourselves is probably the way to go because industry knowledge comes into play and we are in a better position to figure out how to minimize the number of key strokes necessary to input while in the field complete an entry.

The main thing I'm wanting and working toward, is being able to easily manager everything from my phone (5" screen) and even snap and upload pictures tied to a specific tree entry.  I don't want to have to remember or write something down and go to my computer to be able to update something and I don't want to have to do a lot of scrolling and zooming on the phone screen to enter data.  The pictures would then be in the cloud and could be hot linked to other places, such as a post on this form.

I dont have any programming ability, but would be glad to help test out apps for iPhone or PC.

This kind of software would be so helpful.  Over at the GardenWeb Fruit and Orchard forum there was a request for suggestions for similar software, and not much useful seemed available.  I would love a better way to keep my orchard information organized.