Survival of the fittest, a cornerstone principal in Darwin's theory of evolution, claims that organisms which are best adapted to their environment, will thrive, and survive. In farming, constant adaptation to the changing conditions of the plants is key for having a sustainable business.
By being connected to their trees – via the trunk and the fruit sensors - our customers are prepared to adapt. Understanding real-time water needs and having a clear visibility of their trees' health is the key for optimizing production.
In California, Israel and other countries in the northern hemisphere, growers are now switching their attention from the trunk – to the fruits.
Up until now, the main objective was maintaining a positive trunk growth. Avoiding yield-affecting stress was crucial and was done by monitoring the plant status (Avoiding the "red" zone) and following closely the growth and MDS (Maximum Daily Shrinkage) recorded in each block.
As citrus are starting to transition from the vegetative stages to the reproductive, growers are paying more attention to their fruit size and reaching their target size, determined at the beginning of the season.
Optimizing water delivery in this time of year is challenging, but is made much simpler when you have immediate feedback from the trees, and a clear visibility of what's need to be done.
With fruit sensors detecting fruits' size, dendrometers (trunk sensors) measuring growth and water demand - growers have all the data required to act efficiently. To make decision making quicker and better, our customers monitor their fruits' actual size against the target fruit size trajectory and easily see what needs to be done.
Phytech's irrigation recommendation is another benchmark to help with irrigation decisions.
Let's see some examples that show how the trees' data is being presented, and facilitates decision making:
