The Requirement

A commercial nursery and fruit growing facility was looking to optimize plant performance and yield by intimately understanding the impact of changes in the physical growing conditions. These include the metrological conditions, soil temperature, soil pH and EC as well as the soil moisture content, sap flow, leaf temperature and the EC of the irrigation run-off water.

Our Solution

A fully telemetered system installed with the help of the Van Walt South Africa team, connecting a vanwaltDATAHUB to six TDR soil moisture probes monitoring the water content of the soil, soil temperature and the soil EC; four sediment pH probe sensors, an Ambient temperature and humidity sensor; one Keller sensor to monitor EC in the irrigation run-off and one each of the sap flow and leaf temperature sensors monitoring the plants. The data from all these sensors is fed into a control room every 15 to 30 minutes for analysis and over the course of the next year, the Fall Creek team will be following the data closely to analyse, interpret and share the findings with stakeholders. The site will therefore not only enable the Fall Creek team to gain in-depth knowledge on the varieties of fruit but will also serve as a valuable knowledge tool for current and potential producers.