In this article
How do you, as a fruit grower, decide the right moment for irrigation, frost protection and a spray that really has an effect? Many choices in the orchard are still made on experience and gut feeling. But more and more growers want to back up those decisions with data from their own plots.
In Zeeland, fruit growers René Bal and Toon Steijn have been working on this in a very focused way for a number of years. In a recent background article in the trade magazine Nieuwe Oogst, they explain how they use data from their pear and apple orchards to optimise cultivation – with the help of the Wolky Tolky base station and sensors.
Measuring what is really happening in the tree
In the middle of a block of Conference stands the Wolky Tolky base station, connected to various sensors in the orchard.
It measures, among other things:
- temperature at different heights
- leaf wetness
- humidity and air pressure
- wind direction
- light intensity
- trunk diameter and fruit diameter via a dendrometer
That dendrometer plays an important role. In the growing season it is clamped around a pear and records the fruit diameter every five minutes. That gives the grower – instead of just a feeling – a continuous growth curve of the fruit.
What do you use that for?
- Irrigation: with a limited freshwater source, you want to know exactly when to irrigate and when not. The growth curve helps to recognise moments of stress in the tree and respond to them.
- Resilience: stress in the tree is linked to susceptibility to diseases such as black rot. By reducing stress, you work towards a more resilient crop.
As Wolky Tolky co-founder Yannick Smedts puts it: steering outdoor crops ever better towards a desired result, just as has been done in greenhouses for years.
From data to decisions in practice
Collecting data is never a goal in itself. The point is that the grower can make better choices with it every day. At the Steijn–Bal partnership, that happens on several fronts:
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Night frost monitoring:
Thanks to temperature measurements at different heights in the orchard, they know exactly when the Tow & Blow wind machine needs to run. The machine has now been set up so that the fan switches on automatically based on the measured data. -
More targeted crop protection:
Leaf wetness data and temperature are linked to warning systems for scab, among other things. That way sprays can be timed better, or sometimes skipped altogether. -
Estimating insect pressure:
For pear psylla, a warning model from PC Fruit is fed with the orchard’s own climate data. That makes the estimate of insect pressure more specific and gives more to go on when asking: “Do I need to step in now, or can it wait?”
Step by step, this builds an ever more factual picture of what is happening in the orchard. Not only at the moment itself, but over several seasons.
Cloudia: a chatbot for the grower’s data
Because the amount of data is growing fast, Wolky Tolky is also working on a next step: Cloudia, a chatbot that helps growers understand their own data.
Think of questions like:
- “When did I have the most growth stress last season?”
- “How does fruit growth this year compare to last year?”
- “What does my growth curve look like compared to other businesses?”
Cloudia should be able to answer these questions in plain language and help growers make connections between climate, growth and crop measures faster.
Working towards “work smarter, not harder”
The Wolky Tolky base station has room for around twenty sensors and is now used by more than a thousand users in 40 countries, from fruit growers to seed breeders. Wolky Tolky recently won a business award in the municipality of Peel en Maas with the theme “Work smarter, not harder” – exactly what automatic monitoring in growing systems makes possible.
The story of the Zeeland fruit growers shows well what that means in practice:
- less guessing, more steering
- better handling of limited water sources
- more targeted use of machines and products
- a more resilient crop by reducing stress
Want to steer on data in your orchard too?
Are you a fruit grower and do you want to know what your own weather and growth station could mean in your situation – for example for irrigation, night frost protection or crop protection?
Feel free to get in touch. We’re happy to think along with you about:
- which sensors are most relevant for your crop and soil;
- how you can start small and expand later;
- how you can link your data to existing warning systems and models.
Read the full article about the Zeeland fruit growers and Wolky Tolky on the Nieuwe Oogst website:
Zeeuwse fruittelers verzamelen data in boomgaard.
