Smart Alerts Help to Achieve Optimal Rootzone EC and WC

Growers utilise BumperCrop to guide their irrigation strategy

Studies show that effective root zone management can lead to up to a 10% increase in yield and improvement in fruit quality. Because of this, the adoption of smart technologies like real time substrate monitoring and alerting is expected to double in the next five years. Adoption is being led by Europe, especially the Netherlands. Historically the Dutch have been fast adopters of new technology which has made them world leaders in greenhouse production. New Zealand growers aren’t waiting to start benefiting from these new technologies. South Auckland cucumber grower Edward Lee actively seeks out new technology that helps him to run a more efficient and productive greenhouse. “To survive in this industry, you need to be as pre-cise as possible.” His approach is paying off as his business continues to thrive. Edward’s latest technology addition is BumperCrop’s real-time substrate monitoring and alerting solution. “Knowing the WC & EC trends of my slabs allows me to irrigate precisely and achieve stable levels. More accuracy translates to greater yield and earning more from my crop’

Automated text-alerts remind Edward to keep his EC levels stable. Over the last two months he has received several high EC alerts that prompted him to act quickly to keep his rootzone in bal-ance and prevent problems with his crop. “I need to provide just the right amount of EC to pre-vent root stress’: Having timely information allows Edward to make decisions around when to stop and start irrigation as well as the frequency and length of irrigation.

Edward has found viewing WC & EC data and alert thresholds levels easy with BumperCrop. There is a handy Mobile App as well as a user-friendly website to view current substrate read-ings in relation to threshold targets. “I like being able to get readings on my phone wherever I am. This gives me confidence that my greenhouse is operating smoothly even when I am not there.”

Alerts can also be setup to guide growers to achieve consistent substrate water content levels. Consistency increases yield and these alerts can also be used to help with detecting unexpect-ed and costly issues such as clogged emitters or a malfunctioning irrigation system. “Being aware of and adapting to changes in WC & EC has been particularly critical over the past few past weeks as changes in the weather and daylight savings influence crops. ”

Grant Fannin is another cucumber grower benefiting from smart substrate monitoring. “I check my substrate trends regularly to ensure they are staying within optimal zone. I’ve found the sensor data to be very reliable.” Grant finds it to be more precise than weigh scales. “I can see how my WC trends change over time as the plant grows and this is not distorted by other factors like the weight of the plant”.

BumperCrop sensors are designed to work in different media including rock-wool and coco fibre substrates. BumperCrop is a New Zealand based company that offers affordable smart green-house monitoring solutions.

Two BumperCrop sensors in cocopeat at NZ Gourmet Kumeu

The automatic nature of the sensors means that he can get data at all times, not just when he has time to do a runoff measurement. This makes it much easier to keep WC & EC trends on track and within his desired parameters, leading to improved production. If Rob sees something is out of balance, he can now correct it much more quickly than before resulting in healthier plants. Text message alerts that can be configured to go off when WC or EC reaches a certain level help to remind him when his attention is needed.

Water Content and EC reading trends for two sensors shown over a 3 day period.

Rob recently decided to purchase two additional units, each with two sensors bring his total number of sensors to six. Having additional sensors makes it easier to detect differences across the slab and in different crops located around the site. In particular this is important for his ber-ries which have a much lower tolerance to EC. The EC of the fertilizer going on for berries is nor-mally kept at about 1.

“This is a fantastic tool that’s great value for money.” Rob has been looking for a better alterna-tive to the expensive and complicated gear that’s out there for a while. He also finds being able to see the readings on his phone at any time, without the need to go and take any manual meas-urements to be another big advantage.