Fit roots for Plant Health
Plant health is crucial to achieving the best possible yield and quality with the lowest possible dependence of pesticides. Although the plant root system is poorly visible, roots play an essential role in maintaining plant health.
This whitepaper elaborates on the micro life in the root zone which is often underestimated in the current practice but plays a key role in plant health and resilience.
Next level Data-Driven Growing
For a grower, it is not unthinkable that his crop management system becomes his best full-time crop consultant in the nearby future. Think of a crop monitoring system that sends sensor data about the water, energy, and assimilates balance of the plants to a central data platform. Based on all this data, the system takes decisions and controls the greenhouse climate in such a way that crop growth is optimized. This may sound like science fiction, but it is becoming a reality. The first steps have already been taken and are described in the previous whitepaper about « Data-Driven Growing in practice. » The focus was on the following questions: ‘What happened?’ and ‘Why did it happen?’.
This whitepaper describes the next steps: ‘What will happen?’ and ‘What is the best that could happen?’. Knowing the best thing that could happen is the ultimate goal for crop growth optimization.
Next Generation Growing: energy, water & assimilates balance
Next Generation Growing (NGG) is a new way of growing introduced in the Dutch greenhouse industry by the Dutch Cooperative Grower Association. Hoogendoorn has been involved in the research since 2006. Although NGG is mostly associated with energy savings, the primary aim is to optimize plant growth by improving the greenhouse climate conditions. So the main focus is on plant growth and development. Although substantial energy savings are achievable as well this is regarded as a bonus rather than a goal. In the Netherlands, an intensive educational program was introduced. Within this program already over hundreds of Dutch growers and consultants have been educated and trained to expand their knowledge of physics and plant physiology. By applying the principles of NGG they improve their results and minimize energy costs at the same time.
This whitepaper provides in short some backgrounds and applications of NGG, energy, water & assimilates balance.
Data-driven growing in practice
Data is a hot topic in the horticultural sector. More and more companies are implementing data-based solutions. A lot of new research and development is based on data and therefore alsvacancies for data analysts in horticulture start to pop up. However, why has data become so essential? Is data analysis really that profitable? Which data should be collected? How important is data quality? How to start with data analysis? Which tools must be used? For answering these questions, understanding the fundamentals of data analysis is crucial.
In this whitepaper, some important requirements are discussed to get started with data-driven growing in practice.
Advanced process control in greenhouses
In order to promote plant growth and development, and thus to optimize production, modern greenhouses are equipped with a computer system for climate control. This climate control system helps to achieve an optimal greenhouse climate, despite adverse weather conditions, and preferably regardless the different seasons.
In this whitepaper, some backgrounds of climate control system are discussed in general. Special attention is paid to the different requirements to obtain high-quality process control in terms of stability, smoothness and efficient use of water, energy, CO₂ and nutrients.
Improving greenhouse operations with weather data
By growing plants in greenhouses, we can benefit from the outside conditions to create an optimal growing climate inside. At the same time, we can protect the crop from undesired weather conditions, like cold, precipitation and wind. Greenhouse growers often would have made different decisions if they had known the exact weather circumstances in advance. By integrating weather forecast data in your day to day operation, you can take full advantage of the given outside conditions.
This paper describes the backgrounds and applications of using a weather forecast to optimize plant growth and increase the energy efficiency of your greenhouse operations at the same time.
Smarter Growing
Three plant balances mainly determine the growth processes of a plant: the energy balance, the water balance, and the assimilates balance. These plant balances are interlinked via the stomata. Under all conditions, the plant aims to keep its three plant balances in balance. That is why increasing one growth factor, e.g. PAR light, also needs adjustment of other factors such as temperature, CO2 uptake, Relative Humidity (RH) and water uptake to obtain a higher plant growth rate indeed.
This paper describes the background and applications of using a thermographic camera to optimize
plant growth.
The energy balance of the plant
The growth processes of a plant are mainly determined by three plant balances: the energy balance, the water balance, and the assimilates balance. These plant balances are interlinked via the stomata; the microscopic little pores in the leaf that let water vapor out and take CO2 in. Under all conditions the plant aims to keep its three plant balances in balance. So, if evaporation is high under sunny conditions and the water availability inside the plant becomes too low, stomata start closing in order to decrease evaporation and prevent dehydration. As a consequence the temperature of the leaf will rise. Besides that, closing of the stomata obstructs CO2 uptake, thus slowing down the photosynthesis process which negatively effects the assimilates balance. That is why increasing one growth factor e.g. PAR light also needs adjustment of other factors such as temperature, CO2 uptake, Relative Humidity (RH) and water uptake to obtain indeed a higher plant growth rate.
This paper describes the main lines of a screening strategy that is focused on growing strong and resilient crops that give high yield and quality, and allows saving fossil energy at the same time.
Water balance of the plant
The growth processes of a plant are mainly determined by three plant balances: the energy balance, the water balance, and the assimilates balance. These plant balances are interlinked via the stomata; the microscopic little pores in the leaf that let water vapor out and take CO2 in. Under all conditions the plant aims to keep its three plant balances in balance. So, if evaporation is high under sunny conditions and the water availability inside the plant becomes too low, stomata start closing in order to decrease evaporation and prevent dehydration. As a consequence the temperature of the leaf will rise. Besides that, closing of the stomata obstructs CO2 uptake, thus slowing down the photosynthesis process which negatively effects the assimilates balance. That is why increasing one growth factor e.g. PAR light also needs adjustment of other factors such as temperature, CO2 uptake, Relative Humidity (RH) and water uptake to obtain indeed a higher plant growth rate.
This paper describes the main lines of an irrigation strategy that is focused on fulfilling the needs of the plant in terms of water availability and nutrient uptake, and on keeping the root system in optimal condition at the same time.
Assimilates balance
The growth process of a plant is mainly determined by three plant balances: the water balance, the energy balance and the assimilates balance. These plant balances are interlinked via the stomata; the microscopic little pores in the leafs that let water vapor out and take CO₂ in. If evaporation is high under sunny conditions and the water availability inside the plant becomes too low, stomata start closing in order to decrease evaporation and prevent dehydration. As a consequence the temperature of the leaf will rise. Besides that, closing of the stomata obstructs CO₂ uptake, thus slowing down the photosynthesis process which negatively effects the assimilates balance. That is why increasing one growth factor e.g. PAR light also needs adjustment of other factors such as temperature, CO₂ uptake, Relative Humidity (RH) and water uptake to obtain indeed a higher plant growth rate. Under all conditions the plant aims to keep its three plant balances in balance. By observing the plant’s behavior via the balances, many aspects of how plants react to changing circumstances are revealed in a relative simple way. Although there are many complicated internal physiological processes going on, it is always obvious what goal they serve: restoring the three balances as good and as quickly as possible.
Plant empowerment
Next Generation Growing (NGG) is a new way of growing introduced in the Dutch greenhouse industry by the Dutch Cooperative Grower Association. Hoogendoorn has been involved in the research since 2006. Although NGG is mostly associated with energy savings, the primary aim is to optimize plant growth by improving the greenhouse climate conditions. So the main focus is on plant growth and development. Although substantial energy savings are achievable as well this is regarded as a bonus rather than a goal. In the Netherlands, an intensive educational program was introduced. Within this program already over hundreds of Dutch growers and consultants have been educated and trained to expand their knowledge of physics and plant physiology. By applying the principles of NGG they improve their results and minimize energy costs at the same time.
This whitepaper provides in short some backgrounds and applications of the Next Generation Growing methods.
