Online platform offers real-time and detailed insight into root environment

The development of the online platform arises from the fact that Cultilene wants to offer more than just substrate solutions for contemporary horticulture. Cultilene feels jointly responsible for the success that growers achieve and therefore wants to support them in optimizing their cultivation strategy. A good and healthy root environment is essential in this regard. This also partly determines the extent to which the crop effectively absorbs the available nutrients and water. To keep the roots of the plant healthy, it is especially important to continuously monitor water content, EC, pH, oxygen and temperature - the so-called 'Big Five' of Cultilene – during the cultivation.

To give growers a more detailed and real-time insight into the important parameters in the root environment, Cultilene and 30MHz combine their knowledge. Cultilene has built up knowledge over the past 35 years with regard to root zone management in professional horticulture. 30MHz developed the ZENSIE platform: a tool to unlock and display data efficiently and wirelessly, from different sensors and other data sources.

In concrete terms, this means that various sensors are placed in the root zone of the plant, the data of these sensors is collected wirelessly within the ZENSIE platform. This is a dashboard, that the grower can view on his computer and on his phone or tablet. This way the entrepreneur can closely follow the developments in the field of water content, EC, pH, oxygen and temperature.

The grower does not have to analyze the collected data himself: Cultilene uses its knowledge to translate this information into clear graphs and advice. These graphs, which the entrepreneur can view via the dashboard, provide at a glance insight into the water and EC distribution in the substrate, reduction during the night, the saturation of the slab and the amount of drain. The data are compared with the ideal target values per day, as Cultilene is using these within the Framework (cultivation manual for substrate cultivation). In this way the grower sees exactly what the situation is and where adjustments in the irrigation strategy – in particular in terms of nutrients, volume and number of irrigation cycles - are required. If necessary, the Cultilene specialists can provide support here. "The new online wireless platform gives the grower a clear and up-to-date insight into what is happening in the root zone," says Lucie Paulet, innovation manager at Cultilene. "That provides tools to direct the crop towards an optimal plant balance for better production and quality."

At the moment, a pilot is being conducted with the online platform at a Dutch tomato grower. Later this year, the platform, which is easy to install and to use, will be widely available.