UK: Agrovista highlights precision agronomy at Fruit Focus 2013

Precision is the key theme on Agrovista’s stand at Fruit Focus 2013 as monitoring technology and coir developments combine to provide the ultimate in crop production control. The purchase of Plantsystems last year means Agrovista can now provide growers with the latest technology to monitor aspects such as temperature, relative humidity, irrigation, soil/growing medium moisture and EC levels, and influence these remotely, says Mark Davies, head of Agrovista’s soft fruit business.

Soft fruit monitoring stations are radio-linked to growers' PCs or smart phones

“Plantsystems telemetry solutions use radio-linked monitoring stations that provide accurate real-time data from any location. These are ideal for use in tunnel crops grown in pots, bags or troughs,” he says. Irrigation can be applied via an irrigation switch controller according to soil moisture status from office PC or a smart phone. “This allows growers to fine-tune irrigation and fertigation to match crop need precisely, helping to optimise input use, improve quality and increase crop profitability,” says Mr Davies. A continuous record of data is available any time. A new development shows soil moisture status in an easy-to-access “traffic light” format which allows growers to see instantly whether they need to irrigate or not. Each soil moisture station is plotted on Plantsystems’ interactive mapping system as a circle, which changes colour depending on the soil moisture status being measured.
Combining this technology with one of the highest quality coirs on the market, from partner Botanicoir, gives growers even more precise control over moisture, PH and EC levels, he says.

The product was developed during three years’ work between Agrovista, Botanicoir and leading UK growers and independent agronomists. “The result is Botanicoir Precision Plus – precision because of the very precise way the product is buffered to achieve the ideal chemical analysis, and plus due to our refined grading process and the use of short-cut fibre, which produces great structural integrity with a long useful life,” says Mr Davies.

When the moisture levels enter the red zone the grower applies irrigation to irrigate back to field capacity

“The Botanicoir Precision Plus is eminently "steerable" allowing growers to quickly react, increasing or decreasing moisture content, pH or EC level,” he explains. This is especially useful during more stressful periods of crop growth and will help to maximise saleable yield and quality and reduce costs.

Botanicoir’s Precision Plus bags and Plantsystems technology will be working in harmony on stand 300 at Fruit Focus.