THE GREAT INDOORS
Many of our customers have migrated from fully outdoors to protected cropping and have seen great improvements in yield and quality of their crops.
Some studies show that you can get an extra four to six weeks of production with protected cropping techniques versus open field cropping/farming.
CLOSED DOOR TO PESTS & DISEASES
Sometimes conditions are perfect for pests to visit your crops or diseases to establish themselves.
Overwatering or underwatering can create a perfect environment that will encourage visitors you don’t want to stay.
GETTING AHEAD OF THE WEATHER
The weather can play a significant role for any grower and keeping track of weather patterns and optimizing accordingly is the key to great crops.
With an automated system it can trigger watering when the climate data or even the run-off show specific levels.
WHAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATED IN THE GROWING ENVIRONMENT?
With sections of the environment exposed to the elements there are still things you can automate that will help grow your business and take the hassle out of some of the more time-consuming tasks. Depending on the size, type and structure of your production you can monitor or control:
Irrigation
Fertigation
Run-off
Root zone
Your system should alert you when there’s a problem and allow you to access and manage everything remotely.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO AUTOMATE YOUR PROTECTED CROPPING ENVIRONMENT?
With additional external factors to consider, plants in these environments need to be closely monitored to ensure the conditions are ideal for growth. The climate can change rapidly over the day requiring different watering schedules to be established.
Automation will take care of that for you as it can factor in all the variables and then trigger the system to make changes.
WHAT ARE THE OVERALL BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION?
The overall benefits of automating your growing operation are vast and plentiful. Regardless of how you’re looking to develop your growing enterprise, automation offers universal benefits that allow you to achieve your goals - and then some.
Decrease your labor costs
Automation can either decrease your labor costs or allow you to free up workers to focus on other areas of importance. Perfect if you are looking to expand your business or introduce new skills to your workers.
Be accurate
Know exactly what’s happening in your greenhouse and make data driven decisions based on facts and not assumptions. The technology exists to benefit you as the grower!
Increase quality and yield
If you don’t measure you can’t improve. Automation will give you the knowledge to increase quality and yield, learn from previous crop cycles, and give you better return on investment (ROI).
If you want to know more about the benefits of automating your protected cropping environment get in touch and we will be happy to share our knowledge and expertise to get you up and running.
OUR SOLUTIONS FOR PROTECTED CROPPING
The size and scope of your operation may require different solutions. Please contact us for a more detailed discussion on what is the best approach for your business.
HYDROPONICS & SUBSTRATES
Hydroponics is a great sustainable way of growing with water savings anywhere between 70% and 90% depending on the type of crop and your set-up.
IRRIGATION & FERTIGATION
Avoid wasting energy and manage your climate, irrigation, and fertigation with our simple but comprehensive controllers. Especially set for your single zone, you can monitor your zones continually to ensure ongoing best practice.
MULTI-CROP SOLUTIONS
Different plants have different needs so it’s imperative, when growing multiple crops on the same site, that you have the tools and automation established to fulfill those needs. Our tools offer the customization and flexibility to ensure all crops can be neatly managed.
MULTI-AREA SOLUTIONS
As your growing empire expands to multiple sites, it can be hard to stay across the progress and day-to-day management of each and every one. That’s where our automation tools come into play allowing you to access all sites with ease - remotely.