Brilliant but Challenging

Is learning to drive a formula one car is easy?  I don’t think so, those racing cars are death traps in the wrong hands (me).

Now I may have used an extreme example, in the above statement, as an advanced environmental computer is far less likely to kill you, but without the knowledge required to steer the most advanced greenhouse systems the chances of making huge financial mistakes are real.

Recently I have been working on a new project and quickly realised I required expert help.  With the expert help it has saved a very large amount of time.  Growing is becoming more technical. The difference between a basic environmental computer and the more technical systems are polls apart.  The speed at which technology is improving poses a huge challenge, not just growers but consultants and suppliers to the industry, especially as there are so many different systems to navigate. 

From a crop registration perspective, it doesn’t matter what system a grower uses.  I can give advice on the direction of the crop in all aspects, but when it comes to physically inputting the necessary setpoints, to achieve the desired outcomes, and due to the multitude of different systems, the growers need to have the best possible knowledge to make these changes in their systems.  However, growers can only have this knowledge if the systems are backed up with a strong support network. 

The environmental system I have been navigating is one of the best system available for high tech greenhouse production but without extensive knowledge then it is easy to see how costly mistakes could be made.

My two cents worth: After my recent observations I think there could be some basic screen pop ups that could alert growers to the changes certain setpoints will have on other parts of the system – for example humidity influence on venting/heating.   All of these are written in textbooks but I think pop up alerts on the desktop (that can have an enable/disable function) would be great to notify growers of the different scenarios that may occur when using an influence/setpoint. 

I also encourage growers to sit in on tutorials, if available from whomever you are purchasing your system.  Backup from your local dealer is crucial as working from different time zones poses its own problems.

Article written and compiled by Stefan Vogrincic

All Article’s checked and edited by Marie Vogrincic

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