One of cucumber grower Vahl's greenhouses in the Koekoekspolder in IJsselmuiden, Netherlands, has been home to a special gutter for several months. It is a weighing gutter. Row 46 in the greenhouse at 7 Verkavelingsweg is where we should be. Here is Wireless Value's revamped weighing gutter that gives cultivator Johan van den Berg valuable insights. "I finally get good data again with which I can also adjust my irrigation strategy," he says.
On the gutter at Vahl is a 2-metre mat of rock wool
At the cucumber grower, they also used weighing gutters in the past. Measuring water yield is nothing new for the growers. Measuring drain with a weighing chute and also the option of being able to specifically measure the gift of a dripper and all that wirelessly, are.
Both options are on the updated weighing chute. Vahl is the first to have started working with it. The gutter was installed there during cultivation, in mid-August. "It was 45 minutes of work," says Kees van Vliet. The Agri account manager supervised the first installation of the renewed weighing gutter, a final prototype of which was on display at GreenTech Amsterdam, on behalf of Wireless Value.
In principle, growers can easily install the gutter themselves. The gutter has been specially designed for it. The gutter is now 2 meters long, but extendable to 2.80 meters and equipped with just a few butterfly nuts to keep installation simple. Installation will follow even more growers during the upcoming crop change season. Wireless Value also sells the gutters internationally, which also comes with a clear manual.
The weighing gutter is wireless and can therefore be flexibly (re)placed, if necessary.
Discussion about drain
When do you drain and why? These are two important questions Kees often asks growers. By asking the question, he triggers the discussion, fed by figures the weighing gutter collects from the greenhouse.
Sometimes, in practice, it turns out that growers water (much) more than the crop can absorb at that time. "Why would you want to make drain after 6 pm?" is a question I ask growers, for example," Kees points out.
At Vahl, they aim to get as much cucumber as possible from light, both in exposed and unexposed cultivation. The grower calculates this in grams per mole. In the future, the grower would like to monitor this via parameters from the greenhouse directly and in real-time. Light is a determining factor for watering. Every how many joules do you give a turn, is a question cucumber growers ask themselves continuously for optimal cultivation.
The self-designed drain meter at the end of the gutter catches the water and when the adjusted volume is reached, the tray tilts. The number of times the tray tilts, multiplied by the volume of the tray, gives the drain number. The water flows quickly to the tray thanks to a precise trough. That way, you can clearly distinguish which drain belongs to which gift.
Different greenhouse climate
Light, however, is not the only factor determining the degree of consumption of the substrate slab. Compared to a few years ago, cucumber growers have started firing differently. Less pipe goes in, for example. "In the greenhouse, you don't always feel that, but it does have an effect," Johan knows.
Because of the modified heating regime, which also includes more economical ventilation and more screens, the climate in the greenhouse is different. More CO2 remains in the greenhouse, but also more humidity. As a result, evaporation is sometimes lower. The growers see this reflected in the crop measurements they take in their greenhouses, also with sensors from Wireless Value.
Grower Kees and Kees from Wireless Value in the greenhouse at the weighing gutter
At times when evaporation stops, for example, it is important to be careful not to keep watering too much. Sometimes this still happens, out of habit. "If there is too much water at the wrong time, the plant can start gushing," the cultivator knows. That moisture secretion by the plant can encourage the fungus Mycosphaerella, which is notorious in cucumber, resulting in loss of production, for example.
At Vahl, they want to contain the drain in cucumber cultivation. Discharge is no longer allowed, so growers rely on recirculation. Making too much drain makes that more difficult.
Nor do the growers want to make too little drain. Making a drain keeps EC in balance. Since the introduction of the new weighing chute, growers have already made adjustments, thanks to new insights from the clearly visualized data in Wireless Value's platform.
Example display of watering and draining for two days in the fictitious example. Click here to enlarge.
Direct action thanks to data
Also on Thursday morning in the greenhouse at Vahl, a small adjustment to the watering follows a data insight from Wireless Value's platform. The rest time between turns goes down by 5 minutes, from 35 to 30 minutes. No drain has yet been made that morning and the growers are keen to do so, despite the somewhat dark autumn day. "The alarm option that comes with the weighing chute can also help with this," Kees points out. "In it, the grower can set that at a certain level of consumption, another turn should be given."
At Vahl, they started working more with sensors starting this season. In the past, the growers also gained experience with various plant sensors. A stumbling block in some cases was that the sensors did not provide the data that the growers could use immediately. This is clearly the case with Wireless Value's weighing chute, which focuses on measurements around the plant. "A sensor should be "need to have", not "nice to have", says Kees.
The data that cucumber growers from the Koekoekspolder build up using the sensors are important for day-to-day operations, but also for the future. The growers use data to support their feelings, but also to use it to help the new generation of growers. They, too, will soon be able to see clearly in red and blue in Wireless Value's platform when turns have been taken and what the drain on them is.
In the future, they will also be able to measure the EC and PH content of the water, as well as water data converted into square meters. Data the grower can use immediately.
In week 36, this greenhouse started cutting cucumbers the third traditional crop.
For more information:
Kees van Vliet
Wireless Value
Waanderweg 30a
7812 HZ Emmen
Mob.: +31 6 411 537 27
Tel.: +31 591 633200
[email protected]
www.wirelessvalue.nl