Transparent plant-wearable sensors with tunable mechanical and sensing properties fabricated via facile transfer printing

Climate change and population growth increase the need for sustainable agriculture, particularly in crop monitoring. Conventional methods such as morphological analysis and remote sensing lack the resolution and continuity for accurate, organ-level tracking. Wearable electronics offer a promising alternative, but key challenges remain in achieving transparency, stretchability, biocompatibility, and minimal invasiveness. Here, we present an ultra-thin, transparent, and minimally invasive plant-wearable sensor fabricated using patterned substrate transfer printing (PSTP), a scalable and etching-free process that enables high-resolution patterning of hybrid conductors onto flexible substrates. The sensor integrates silver nanowires (AgNWs)/ Indium tin oxide (ITO) and AgNWs/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonic acid) (PEDOT:PSS)/ITO conductors with tunable strain sensitivity to enable accurate monitoring while minimizing impact on plant growth. The patterned AgNWs/PEDOT:PSS/ITO films show ∼80 % transmittance, low sheet resistance (∼25 Ω/sq), a 13.6-fold lower gauge factor than AgNWs/ITO, a smooth surface (∼4.7 nm RMS roughness), and stable performance under 150 % strain. We demonstrate the utility of PSTP-fabricated sensors for real-time monitoring of plant growth and temperature, as well as in flexible and stretchable devices such as electrochromic displays and light emitting diodes (LEDs). This work establishes PSTP as a universal platform for next-generation bio-integrated electronics in agricultural and wearable applications.