The first public Beta test version of the new Plant Base 2 program is available for download.  A lot more information and download links are on the web pages for the Beta test.

Some sections of the program are not finished yet, but with most of the main features working I thought that some users may want to to take an early look at it.  As with any Beta software, it is best to treat it with a little caution! However during many hours of testing here, recent builds have behaved well with no major issues.

There will be further Beta versions as bug fixes are done and extra code added. I’m expecting it to take quite some time yet before getting to Release Candidate stage.

Although the new program has a few small extra features, the main aim is to match the functions of the original. Other feature enhancements will be considered for future versions.  Another big motivation is that the new database format will also be used for the Android edition. Although progress on the stand-alone Android program has been slowed up by development of Plant Base 2, it is now working with the exact same database files.