Various greenhouse automation equipment like computer software and sensors are connected and used to collect data in the greenhouse environment to boost crop yields. This new innovative technology (IoT or the Internet of Things) makes use of numerous sensors linked to a central greenhouse environment climate control computer.
The greenhouse sensor system has elements that monitor and control temperature, humidity, electrical conductivity, pH, carbon dioxide (c02), fogging, shading and read external weather conditions via a weather station.
Greenhouse Savings
The collective information helps to control not only specific elements within the internal growing environment, but also saves time, energy costs and labour. In available software programmes an irrigation schedule to control up to 5 different feed formulas and expandable zones.
Growers today are investing in greenhouse technology & controls to ensure that their crop will produce healthy yields and run a more productive operation which in turn means, better financial performance for the company.
Climate control
The climate-controlled greenhouses can help any grower get better at quality control or enhance crop yields, with advanced computer technology. Farmers probably have heard of the importance of using greenhouse automation for your operation, but what does that mean? What systems will really help to reduce labour costs and give you a better return on your plants.
While it is possible to control the temperature of the greenhouse manually, the best thing to do is to install a climate control greenhouse computer to maintain the ideal climate, every day for your crops.
Monitored Climate for Optimal Growing
Climate control of greenhouses is precisely what it sounds like. It refers to the regulation of the temperature and humidity inside the greenhouse in all growing climates to ensure that the crops can thrive and even live past their “season”.
Computerised management
Grower set points are created within the greenhouse automation software and are triggered when things hit a certain level. During high-temperature climates, you can mist or spray water inside the greenhouse to bring down the temperature inside the greenhouse with automation.
You can also take the help of a fogging or misting system to move warm air with the help of water evaporation using a fine spray.
There are other manual methods, but farmers who want to make the best of modern technology prefer to integrate the climate control system. This will help seasonal crops to grow throughout the year.
A climate control system automates the greenhouse to reach the desired temperature as required by your crops’ growing process. The system monitors and handles humidity, shading, fogging, and much more. This is accomplished via real time sensors, that communicate wirelessly in the greenhouse.
Greenhouse Sensors
A sensor is any tool that measures some chemical or physical characteristics and alters the results into an electrical signal collected by the main automation computer and then this data can be easily read and interpreted by the grower. Automation can make growing easier with lots of instrumentation to be a more precise grower and get all elements feed to a crop that it is looking for.
However, user input is always required by you the grower to set limits, create schedules and create your own feed formulas, the automated software helps with controlling all the things you use to have to do manually, opening a vent for instance and keeping a close eye on all data values.
If the pH of the water gets too high for instance, our software will trigger an alarm, before you would have to test for pH yourself or by some other semi-automated sensor. With a climate management system all data and controls become centralized to make things like monitoring and user input easier for you the grower.
Temperature and humidity
Greenhouse temperatures rise under intense sunlight. This rise in temperature is referred to as “solar gain”. To enter the greenhouse, light must travel through the greenhouse glass or plastic, in doing so the light loses some of its energy which is converted to heat. Without a cooling system, the temperature and humidity within the greenhouse can rise to over + 45 °C.
To successfully optimize the environment within the greenhouse means countering the adverse effects of the external environment with the proper greenhouse controls and automation to ensure temperature and humidity levels stay optimal for crop health and growth.
Fog, pad and fan control
With expandable control and modules for our greenhouse control equipment, there is no limit to what you can automate or control. Fans, Co2, Lighting, etc can all be configured and controlled by our growing software. This means that you will have precise control over the internal environment to optimize for the perfect growing conditions for your crop.
Irrigation and Misting Programs
Keep your crops fed well on a schedule with precise feed control, our systems work down to the millilitre (mL) which means that you will save on both water and fertilizer costs. Most growers report that they save around 30% on water costs and 40% on fertilizer costs annually.
This not only means big savings for the grower, but because of the exact formulas going out to the crops each day on a proper timed schedule, you will see a large increase in plant health yields as well.
Source: Compilation of information by Nebula Group.