Terms of Service

Welcome to SoilStack. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the SoilStack website and application located at soilstack.net (the "Service"). SoilStack is operated as a sole proprietorship by Heath Hoffman, based in Indiana, United States. In these Terms, "SoilStack," "we," "our," and "us" all refer to this same operation. "You" refers to the individual using the Service.

By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the Service.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account or using SoilStack, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

Age requirement. You must be at least 13 years old to use SoilStack. By using the Service, you represent that you are at least 13 years of age. If you are between 13 and the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction (typically 18), you represent that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf.

If you are a parent or guardian and you believe a child under 13 has created a SoilStack account, please email support@soilstack.net. We will delete the account and all associated personal information within 7 days. See our Privacy Policy for more.

Authority to bind. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. Description of Service

SoilStack is a garden planning application that provides:

• USDA hardiness zone lookup based on ZIP code
• Personalized planting schedules and frost date calculations
• Garden management tools including plant tracking, plant nicknames, duplicate planting tracking, task calendars, harvest logging, and a garden journal
• Weather forecasts and weather-based calendar adjustments using National Weather Service data
• Disease pressure monitoring based on observed weather conditions
• Feeding and treatment recipe management with customizable product application rates
• A seed inventory system for tracking your seed collection
• A public plant library with growing guides for 685 named plant varieties
• Public zone pages with planting calendars and recommended supplies for 10 USDA zones
• Plant triage tools for diagnosing common garden problems
• Educational information about plants and gardening techniques
• Research-based product recommendations with links to third-party retailers (see Section 7)
• Exportable garden plans and calendars for offline use
• An optional email newsletter with seasonal planting reminders and zone-specific updates (see Section 8)

The Service is currently provided free of charge. We may introduce optional paid features, subscription tiers, sponsorships, donation options, or other revenue models in the future. When we do, we will communicate changes to registered users in advance, including pricing, billing terms, and any new features. Core free features will not be removed without reasonable notice. Future paid features, when introduced, will be governed by separate billing terms that will be presented to you before any charge is incurred.

Certain pages on the Service contain affiliate links to third-party retailers, including Amazon.com and Seeds Now (via the Refersion affiliate platform). These links generate a small commission when you make a qualifying purchase through them, at no additional cost to you. This revenue helps us keep the Service free and free of third-party display ads. See Section 7 for full details. All affiliate relationships are clearly disclosed wherever affiliate links appear.

We reserve the right to modify, add, or remove features of the Service at any time as we improve the product. We will make reasonable efforts to notify users of significant changes through the Service or by email.

3. User Accounts

To access certain features, you must create an account. You agree to:

• Provide accurate and complete registration information
• Maintain the security of your password
• Not share your account credentials with any other person
• Notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to your account
• Accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account
• Use only one account per person; no automated account creation

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

4. User Content

Your Content: You retain full ownership of all content you create within SoilStack, including garden area configurations, plant selections, plant nicknames, harvest logs, custom recipes, product rates, journal entries, notes, and any other data you enter ("User Content"). Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of your User Content to SoilStack.

Limited License to Us: By using the Service, you grant SoilStack a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, display, and process your User Content solely for the purpose of providing the Service to you. This license ends when you delete your account or delete the specific content. We do not use your User Content for advertising, data brokering, or any purpose beyond operating the Service.

No Aggregate Use Without Consent: We will not use your individual User Content to train machine learning models or sell aggregated behavioral data without explicit opt-in consent.

Content Moderation. While we do not pre-screen User Content, we reserve the right (but have no obligation) to remove or refuse to display User Content that we reasonably determine violates these Terms, infringes the rights of others, is unlawful, or is otherwise harmful to the Service or its users. We may also remove User Content in response to valid legal requests.

Responsibility for Your Content. You are solely responsible for the User Content you create and for the consequences of submitting it. You represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights to the User Content you submit and that it does not infringe the rights of any third party.

Export Rights: You may export your garden data at any time using the export features provided. We believe your data belongs to you. If you intend to delete your account, you should export any data you wish to keep before initiating deletion, since account deletion removes data immediately and permanently from active systems.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other users' accounts, or our systems
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers
• Upload malicious code, viruses, or harmful content
• Scrape, crawl, or collect data from the Service using automated tools without permission
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any portion of the Service
• Attempt to bypass rate limits, CAPTCHAs, authentication, or other security measures
• Create accounts through automated means or in bulk
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute access to the Service
• Impersonate any person or entity, including SoilStack staff
• Use the Service to send spam or unsolicited communications
• Frame, mirror, or proxy the Service to create the appearance that it is operated by someone other than SoilStack

We implement automated rate limiting, honeypots, fail2ban IP banning, and other security measures to protect the Service. Excessive automated requests or repeated probe attempts against non-existent administrative URLs may result in your IP address being temporarily blocked at our network firewall. Repeated or willful violations of this section may result in permanent termination of your account.

6. Disclaimer of Gardening & Weather Advice

All task recommendations, timing suggestions, and garden intelligence features — including adaptive scheduling, GDD-based estimates, weather-based prompts, disease pressure alerts, and consequence scoring — are planning aids based on general horticultural data. They do not account for every variable in your specific garden and should be used alongside your own observation and judgment. A suggestion to water, feed, treat, or protect your plants is a recommendation, not a directive.

Actual growing conditions vary based on many factors including:

• Microclimates and local weather patterns
• Soil conditions and quality
• Specific plant varieties and seed quality
• Gardening experience and care practices
• Unexpected weather events

Weather Data Disclaimer

Weather forecasts, alerts, and weather-based gardening prompts displayed in SoilStack are sourced from the National Weather Service (NWS) and are subject to the inherent limitations of weather forecasting. Weather conditions can change rapidly and forecasts may be inaccurate. You should not rely solely on SoilStack's weather prompts for decisions that could result in significant loss, such as frost protection measures for valuable plants or timing of critical agricultural operations. Always verify weather conditions through multiple sources and use your own judgment.

Disease Pressure Disclaimer

Disease pressure alerts are based on general models derived from agricultural extension research and observed weather patterns. They indicate when conditions may favor certain plant diseases, not that disease is confirmed present in your garden. Disease risk varies significantly based on local conditions, soil health, plant variety resistance, and gardening practices. These alerts are not a substitute for hands-on inspection of your plants or consultation with local extension offices.

Plant Identification & Food Safety Disclaimer

SoilStack provides general information about plant varieties, including edibility characteristics of common garden crops. We do not provide plant identification services for wild or unknown plants, and we do not certify the safety of any plant or harvest for consumption. Never consume any plant or plant part based solely on information from SoilStack. Always verify plant identity and edibility with multiple authoritative sources (local extension offices, qualified mycologists for fungi, your physician for allergy concerns) before consumption. Cross-contamination, misidentification, allergic reactions, and pesticide residue are risks that you assume when harvesting and consuming garden produce.

SoilStack is not a substitute for professional agricultural advice. For commercial farming, landscaping projects, or specific agricultural concerns, please consult with local extension offices, master gardeners, or agricultural professionals.

We are not responsible for crop failures, plant losses, food safety incidents, or any damages resulting from following information provided by the Service, including weather-based recommendations.

7. Affiliate Relationships & Product Links

SoilStack participates in two affiliate programs:

• Amazon Services LLC Associates Program — an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, SoilStack earns from qualifying purchases.
• Seeds Now affiliate program (via Refersion) — Seeds Now is a seed retailer; SoilStack earns a commission on qualifying seed purchases made through our links. Tracking is provided by the Refersion affiliate platform.

How Affiliate Links Work on SoilStack

Affiliate links appear on plant growing guide pages, zone landing pages, and disease information pages. Affiliate links direct you to products sold on Amazon.com or Seeds Now. If you click through and make a purchase on those sites, SoilStack earns a small commission on that sale. This commission comes from the retailer, not from you — you pay the same price you would if you had visited the retailer directly.

Affiliate links on SoilStack are always identified with a "(paid link)" label near the link, in compliance with Federal Trade Commission endorsement guidelines (16 CFR Part 255). Pages containing affiliate links also include a disclosure notice explaining the relationship.

How We Choose What to Recommend

Product recommendations on SoilStack are based on horticultural research and the specific growing requirements of each plant variety or zone — not on commission rates, paid placement, or advertising agreements. We recommend product categories (such as support structures, soil amendments, seeds, or treatment products) that are supported by university extension research for the plant, zone, or condition being discussed. Neither Amazon nor Seeds Now influences, reviews, or approves our product recommendations.

What We Do Not Do

• We do not accept payment from brands or manufacturers to recommend specific products
• We do not choose products based on which ones pay higher commissions
• We do not claim to have personally tested or reviewed every product we link to — our recommendations are based on matching published growing requirements to product specifications
• We do not guarantee the quality, availability, or pricing of any product on Amazon.com or Seeds Now
• We do not run ad networks, display third-party banner ads, or allow advertisers to purchase placement within the Service

Product Availability & Pricing

Product prices and availability on Amazon.com and Seeds Now are subject to change at any time. SoilStack does not control and is not responsible for any retailer's pricing, product availability, shipping, returns, or customer service. Any purchase you make through an affiliate link is a transaction between you and the retailer (Amazon.com or Seeds Now), governed by their own terms of service and policies.

Why We Use Affiliate Links

Revenue from affiliate links helps SoilStack remain free to use and free of display ads. We believe this is a better model than running ad networks, selling user data, or paywalling core features.

8. Email Communications & Newsletter

SoilStack sends two kinds of email:

Transactional email. When you create an account, reset your password, verify your email address, or take similar account actions, we send you service email related to that action. You cannot opt out of transactional email while you have an active SoilStack account; without it, the account cannot function.

Marketing email and newsletter. If you subscribe to our newsletter through any signup form on the Service, you agree to receive periodic newsletter emails from SoilStack. These may include seasonal planting reminders, zone-specific gardening tips, product announcements, and similar content. We use single opt-in: submitting your email subscribes you immediately and we send you a welcome email. We do not require a confirmation click before subscribing, though we may change to a double opt-in process in the future at our discretion.

Unsubscribe. Every marketing email contains an unsubscribe link in the footer. Clicking the link takes you to a confirmation page; one additional click completes your unsubscribe. No login is required. We honor unsubscribe requests immediately, well within the 10 business days required by the federal CAN-SPAM Act. After unsubscribing you may still receive transactional email if you have an active account.

CAN-SPAM compliance. Every marketing email we send includes our identity, a valid physical mailing address, a clear unsubscribe mechanism, and accurate "From" and "Subject" lines, as required by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

See our Privacy Policy for details on what subscriber data we store and how it is used.

9. Intellectual Property

Our Content: The Service and its underlying systems — including the application code, algorithms, scheduling logic, zone intelligence, adaptive task generation system, disease pressure engine, design, logos, brand assets, and original content (excluding User Content and third-party licensed data) — are owned by SoilStack and protected by copyright, trade secret, and other intellectual property laws. No license to our proprietary systems is granted by your use of the Service.

Trademarks. "SoilStack" and the SoilStack logo are trademarks of Heath Hoffman. The tagline "Know before you sow." is a trademark of Heath Hoffman. You may not use these trademarks without our prior written permission, except for nominative fair use (for example, referring to SoilStack in an honest review or news article).

Feedback: If you submit suggestions, feedback, or feature requests, you grant SoilStack the right to use that feedback without restriction or compensation. You retain no IP rights in feedback you provide.

Plant Data: Plant information and growing data is compiled from public agricultural extension resources and is provided for educational use.

Plant Images: Plant images displayed on the Service are sourced under Creative Commons licenses or other permissive licenses. Individual image attributions, including photographer credits and specific license types, are displayed on the relevant plant pages.

AI Training & Automated Indexing: SoilStack distinguishes between public content and user content for purposes of AI training and automated indexing.

• Public content — including plant growing guides, zone landing pages, hub pages, the help center, and other marketing or educational pages — may be crawled, indexed, and used to train artificial-intelligence models by search engines and AI providers. We affirmatively permit this use; we do not block AI search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, or Google-Extended.
• User content — including dashboard data, garden areas, plant nicknames, harvest logs, journal entries, seed inventory, custom recipes, account information, and subscriber records — is not made available for AI training, third-party scraping, or any use beyond operating the Service for you. This is enforced technically because these surfaces require authentication, and stated here for clarity.

You may not copy, reverse-engineer, modify, distribute, or create derivative works from our proprietary content or systems without written permission.

10. Third-Party Services & Outages

SoilStack relies on third-party services to operate, including but not limited to web hosting (Hetzner Cloud), content delivery and security (Cloudflare), email delivery (Resend), weather data (National Weather Service), application monitoring (Nightwatch), and affiliate networks (Amazon Associates, Refersion / Seeds Now). The full current list is published in our Privacy Policy.

The Service depends on these providers being operational. We are not responsible for service interruptions, data delivery delays, or feature unavailability caused by:

• Outages, errors, or changes by any third-party provider
• Internet service provider issues affecting you or us
• DNS issues, routing issues, or other network conditions outside our control
• Force majeure events including natural disasters, government action, war, pandemic, labor action, power failure, or widespread internet disruption
• Scheduled maintenance, which we will attempt to perform during low-traffic hours where possible

Links from the Service to third-party websites (including affiliate links, retailer websites, university extension references, and other external resources) are provided for your convenience. SoilStack does not control these websites and is not responsible for their content, accuracy, availability, privacy practices, or your interactions with them.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, SoilStack disclaims all warranties, including but not limited to:

• Implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement
• Warranties that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, error-free, or virus-free
• Warranties regarding the accuracy, reliability, currency, or completeness of any information provided through the Service, including planting schedules, frost dates, weather forecasts, disease pressure alerts, product recommendations, and plant data
• Warranties that the Service will meet your specific gardening, agricultural, or other needs
• Warranties regarding the quality, safety, or performance of any product purchased through an affiliate link

No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from SoilStack or through the Service creates any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties; in those jurisdictions, the exclusions above apply to the maximum extent permitted by law.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall SoilStack, its operator, or its agents be liable for any:

• Indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages
• Loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, business opportunity, or other intangible losses
• Service interruptions, data loss, or data corruption
• Any damages arising from your use of or inability to use the Service
• Crop failures, plant losses, or food safety incidents based on information from the Service
• Inaccurate weather data, forecasts, or weather-based recommendations
• Disease pressure alerts, treatment suggestions, or plant resistance information
• Actions taken or not taken based on weather prompts or gardening suggestions
• Products purchased through affiliate links, including product quality, defects, performance, or suitability for your use
• Any damages or losses arising from transactions between you and third-party retailers accessed through the Service
• Outages or failures of third-party services that the Service relies on
• Unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data

In no event shall SoilStack's total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Service exceed one hundred United States dollars ($100 USD) or the amount you have paid SoilStack in the twelve months preceding the claim, whichever is greater.

These limitations apply regardless of the legal theory on which the claim is based (contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or otherwise) and regardless of whether SoilStack has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages; in those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

You agree that the limitations in this section are a fundamental basis of the bargain between you and SoilStack and that the Service would not be provided to you without them.

13. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless SoilStack, its operator Heath Hoffman, and any contractors or agents from and against any and all third-party claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising out of or related to:

• Your use or misuse of the Service
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your User Content, including any claim that your User Content infringes the rights of a third party
• Your violation of any law or regulation
• Your violation of the rights of any third party, including intellectual property or privacy rights

We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which case you agree to cooperate with our defense of that claim. You will not settle any claim subject to indemnification without our prior written consent.

14. Termination

Termination by you. You may delete your account at any time through your account settings or by contacting us at support@soilstack.net. Account deletion is immediate and permanent within our active systems; deleted data may persist in our 7-day rolling server backups before being overwritten. If you wish to retain any of your data, you should export it using the Service's export features before deleting your account.

Termination by us. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time for reasons including but not limited to: violation of these Terms, abusive or disruptive behavior, fraudulent activity, excessive automated requests, or conduct we reasonably determine to be harmful to other users or the Service. In most cases we will attempt to notify you before suspension, but we reserve the right to act immediately where necessary to protect the Service or other users.

During a suspension, your data is retained. If your account is permanently terminated by us for a Terms violation, your data will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy retention schedule.

Survival. The following sections survive termination of these Terms or your account: Section 4 (User Content — the limited license to display User Content already collected, until that content is deleted), Section 9 (Intellectual Property), Section 10 (Third-Party Services & Outages), Section 11 (Disclaimer of Warranties), Section 12 (Limitation of Liability), Section 13 (Indemnification), Section 15 (Governing Law & Disputes), Section 17 (General Provisions), and any other provision that by its nature should survive.

15. Governing Law & Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Indiana, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Informal resolution. If you have a dispute with SoilStack, please contact us at support@soilstack.net first. We will make a good-faith effort to resolve any dispute informally within 30 days before either side files a formal proceeding.

Venue. Any disputes that cannot be resolved informally shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Indiana, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts. Small claims court remains available for disputes that qualify under Indiana law.

No class actions. Disputes between you and SoilStack must be brought on an individual basis. We do not include a binding arbitration clause or a class action waiver in these Terms.

Time limit. Any claim arising out of these Terms or your use of the Service must be brought within one (1) year after the claim arose, or it is permanently barred to the extent permitted by applicable law.

16. Changes to Terms

We may modify these Terms at any time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the most recent revision.

Non-material changes (typos, formatting, clarifications that do not affect your rights or obligations) take effect immediately upon posting.

Material changes (changes that meaningfully affect your rights, obligations, or how the Service operates) will be communicated to registered users by email and/or by an in-app notice at least 14 days before they take effect. Your continued use of the Service after material changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not agree to material changes, you may terminate your account before they take effect.

17. General Provisions

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any additional terms presented in connection with specific features, constitute the entire agreement between you and SoilStack regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements between you and SoilStack regarding the Service.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held to be unenforceable or invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of that right or provision. Any waiver must be in writing and signed by us to be effective.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your rights under them without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a sale, merger, reorganization, or transfer of all or a substantial portion of SoilStack's assets, including a future transition from sole proprietorship to a different legal entity (such as a limited liability company).

Relationship of the parties. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between you and SoilStack.

Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and have no legal effect.

Notices to us must be sent to support@soilstack.net. Notices to you may be provided by email to the address associated with your account, by an in-app notice, or by posting on the Service.

18. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us: