Objective plant assessment within seconds from 10.000 km away

The Phalaenopsis orchids at the Piet Vijverberg Nursery, with their three branches and unusually large number of buds, are now assessed from a distance by Asian employees. Images taken of every plant at the nursery are transmitted to Asia within only a few seconds, where an employee checks the plants for various characteristics and immediately sends back the results to the Netherlands. Based on this assessment, each plant is then optimally routed in the production process and WPS system.

Sander and Piet Vijverberg

PostNL uses this same technology to identify mail items with handwritten addresses and to provide these with the appropriate address information, in order to enable automatic sorting. In collaboration with WPS Horti Systems, this technology is now being used at a Phalaenopsis grower. A first!
The Piet Vijverberg Nursery feels very strongly about reliability and quality. This development contributes to the further perfecting of the sorting process and consistency of batches. This means that customers of the Piet Vijverberg Nursery get exactly what they have ordered.

Complementary to current camera solutions

This technology and working method was devised and developed by WPS Horti Systems in conjunction with PostNL and the Piet Vijverberg Nursery in order to offer growers optimal reliability in plant assessments. WPS considers this unique innovation a service supplementary to existing camera solutions. Most camera solutions for Phalaenopsis orchids were developed to assess plants with one or two branches. The Phalaenopsis market has undergone considerable development in recent years and growers aim to differentiate their range by offering plants with three or more branches. Assessing these plants with high reliability using the current camera techniques in horticulture is a growing challenge. An inspection with human eyes enables the grower to distinguish themselves in the market by offering superior reliability and quality.

WPS Horti Systems sees numerous opportunities not only for horticultural products that - due to pricing - require proper assessment of specific plant characteristics, but also for other cases in which the human eye combined with WPS technology could have added value.

For more information and to stay up-to-date on the latest developments, visit WPS Horti Systems or www.postnl.nl/shore.

For further information, please contact:
WPS Horti Systems
Hans Koornneef
Hans.Koornneef@wpshortisystems.nl
www.wpshortisystems.nl