Trutina, plant weight monitoring system 

Cultivation presents considerable challenges to growers, including the method of irrigation, which is crucial to successful production. Different growing platforms possess different water storage and rewetting abilities due to their density, special compound, substrate type and size. Efficient irrigation scheduling provides plants with sufficient water for desired production and quality while minimizing water losses. Specialists agree that varieties with great genetic potential are unable to produce higher yield without a proper irrigation strategy.

Plants need healthy and constantly renewable root system with suitable amount of oxygen in the growing platform. To be able to reach optimal level of growth, they need controlled change in the water content in accordance with the time of the day. The change of water content triggers vegetative or generative impulses in the plant. To keep the balance within the plants, accurate and reliable control needed. The optimal water content depends on the time of the day and by following a couple of rules, our plants can be successfully managed.

The timing of the first morning watering has a great effect on the plants. The effect of irrigation on plants is primarily determined by the difference between the highest value of water content during the last watering of the previous day and the water content value of the first watering the following morning. To maintain the balance of the growth rate this value should be between 6% and 12% in greenhouses with climate control systems. This difference can be smaller in the case of growing facilities with considerable daytime/night-time fluctuation in temperature, so that the vegetative effect of the growing platform containing more water could compensate the generative effect of the higher difference in temperature.

Infoboard 

Trutina, a weight monitoring system is a great tool for improving greenhouse control and strategy, making production significantly more efficient resulting in higher production yields and major cost savings. The system consists of a hardware unit and cloud based software. It enables customers to follow plant weight (biomass) in real time, weight trends of a separate growing substrate with hanging or platform based method, showing related supporting info (biomass production, plant activity, plant energy balance etc.). The unit can calculate the necessary amount of irrigation and drain tendency as well, which enables irrigation planning. Tutrina has been tested and can be used for tomatoes, capsicums and cucumbers.

The device stores the measured data and continuously uploads them to the Cloud, the information then can be viewed on your computer or smartphone and the dashboard surface can be fully customised.

RNR Limited is currently offering a 3 months trial for the first Grower to get in touch.                                

For more information and contact details, please visit www.rnr-ltd.co.nz.