Although it is often used by vegetable and fruit producers, a recent case study revealed that it can be used for flower crops too. The system in question is Trutina of Germon Systems, a manufacturer of plant monitoring systems for greenhouses. It is a smart greenhouse monitoring platform, and its success in flowers is illustrated by Germon System's project at the Breasion Rose greenhouses in China, where the Trutina Floral Customized Version is used.
Trutina
This Trutina system is concerned with monitoring, analyzing, and decision support for greenhouse crop data by combining multiple sensors with a cloud-based data analysis platform. The Germon Systems team comments on the features of this greenhouse monitoring system: "It performs real-time data collection every 5 seconds, such as substrate weight, light exposure, EC (Electrical Conductivity), and calculates crucial data such as irrigation volume, evaporation efficiency, substrate moisture loss rate, and so on. This helps growers develop better irrigation strategies to balance crops between vegetative growth and generative growth, aiding to reach the full production potential of crops in terms of yield and quality."
They add: "Users of Trutina get a detailed dashboard full of useful data to get instant feedback about the current state of their plants, so they can optimize the irrigation and efficiently control the growth. The system also provides a comprehensive graphical interface, thanks to the visualization users can understand how the measured values change over time and can compare different periods much easier."
An image of the Trutina dashboard
Breasion's story
Located in Qujing (Malong District, Yunnan Province), 100 kilometers from Kunming, this 10.5 ha farm includes several connected greenhouses, where nearly a hundred varieties of cut roses are cultivated. These greenhouses were constructed following Dutch greenhouse standards to achieve automation control over light, temperature, humidity, irrigation, and carbon dioxide. Their equipment includes environmental control systems from the Netherlands, fertilization and irrigation systems from Israel, light scattering films from Japan, shading and insulation screens from Sweden, and carbon dioxide supplementation systems from Germany.
Breasion greenhouses
Mr. Wu Qian, the founder of Breasion, decided to transition to the flower cultivation industry at the peak of his career as a financial professional. He wanted to transform classic rose harvesting into a scientifically grounded, high-tech process. "Our product positioning is to compete with imported goods, primarily targeting the high-end domestic market. What I aim for is to ensure that every ray of light, every drop of fertilizer, and every molecule of carbon dioxide can be fully absorbed by the plants to achieve higher quality," he says.
After several years of production, he realized that there was a missing piece in his existing setup: monitoring and analyzing crop physiological data. As a result, he had been searching for devices in this field and found the Trutina Plant Monitoring Systems which thereby made a debut in the domestic flower industry. Mr. Wu Qian elaborates: "I have been following Trutina plant monitoring systems for a long time and highly appreciate its professionalism. Therefore, during the IPM Shanghai in April this year, after visiting the TickRise booth and deep discussions with their experts, we decided to cooperate immediately."
Introducing Trutina to rose cultivation – a customized system
In fact, the Trutina plant monitoring systems in the Breasion Rose Greenhouse is a highly customized version - which is different from its standard editions, tailored for tomato, blueberry, strawberry, and more. In response to the specific cultivation scenario of Breasion and the requirements of Mr. Wu Qian, Germon Systems and TickRise (Gremon Systems' Chinese partner) added substrate sensors and other materials on top of the standard strawberry edition, creating an edition customized for flowers.
The design of this Trutina special edition primarily stems from Mr. Wu Qian's demand for managing the root systems environment and irrigation strategy. For this reason, this Trutina edition is designed to monitor root growth. The Germon Systems team comments: "The additional substrate sensors, along with the use of irrigation & drain sensors, provide a wealth of data. For example, data on irrigation and drain volume, VWC, ΔEC (difference in EC), and substrate EC. As well as data on irrigation and drain temperature and substrate temperature. Combined with light exposure and weight data, this edition systematically observes the variations in water demand throughout the day and differences in water absorption rates at different times, providing ample data support for fine-tuned irrigation strategy management."
Results
According to Mr. Wu Qian, the introduction of this Trutina edition resulted in cost savings and root improvement. He says: "With the arrival of Trutina plant monitoring systems, we can now access real-time data on root activity, allowing us to improve our irrigation strategy more accurately. After one month of use, we found that we saved 15.9% on fertilizers. It not only saved costs but also significantly improved the root system. This provides us with more confidence in safeguarding and enhancing the quality of our flowers. The next step is to explore more possibilities for utilizing Trutina data, such as achieving automatic adjustment of irrigation strategy."
"Growing flowers requires a scientifically rigorous and modern agricultural management approach. The current domestic cultivation methods are generally outdated, with ample room for improvement. It is well-suited to explore and break through the bottlenecks in flower cultivation, especially cut flowers, to enhance quality and competitiveness. Breasion pursues ultimate quality and is less concerned about quantity," he concludes.
For more information:
Gremon Systems
https://gremonsystems.com/contact-us