How one nursery is reaping the benefits of smart sensors - and how you can too!
Smart sensors are actively improving production practices at Queensland's Golden Grove Nursery, paving the way for other nurseries to see the benefits that investments in technology have the power to bring.
Golden Grove Nursery is using the sensors to uncover valuable data and insights to help decrease water usage and effectively manage nutrients and disease. With El Nino on the way, these insights will be more valuable than ever.
Golden Grove Nursery, a leading citrus production nursery in Australia, actively participates as the pilot smart production nursery in GIA's strategic levy-funded project called "Digital remote monitoring to improve horticulture's environmental performance" (ST19024).
This innovative project aims to assess and promote technology adoption to improve decision-making skills and production efficiencies, optimise labour usage, and enhance environmental performance in Australian horticultural businesses.
What’s in it for industry?
Golden Grove Nursery is one of the four pilot "smart farms" in the Great Barrier Reef area participating in the project.
These farms employ remote sensor technology to continuously monitor environmental indicators like nutrient leaching, sediment run-off, water and energy use efficiency, and more.
The purpose of the project is to provide proof and rationale to the broader nursery industry that technology works, and that by making investments in a digital nursery, there are boundless tangible gains on offer.
How is the nursery faring?
Golden Grove Nursery has installed sensors to measure water quality, moisture in the growing media, plant stress, and leachate.
Wayne Parr, Director of Golden Grove Nursery, reviews the data each morning to assess water quality and crop microclimate. This data informs daily production tasks and helps Wayne identify any issues that require attention.
The sensors monitor the moisture available in the root zone, daily plant water usage and growth, and nutrient movement throughout the nursery. This information aids in reducing nutrient leaching and determining the daily fertigation (fertilisation and irrigation) requirements.
Additionally, the sensor data helps explain variations in crop water usage during different stages of growth, such as crop initiation, cultivar grafting, and tree maintenance. By adjusting the irrigation and fertigation schedules accordingly, the plant's water requirements are met, and nutrient leaching is minimised.
For example, when new seedlings are potted, the irrigation is adjusted to provide short bursts of water, maintaining moisture and nutrients at the top of the container within the small root zone of the seedlings.
Conversely, when trees are pruned for grafting, reduced plant water usage is reflected in the media moisture sensor data, and the irrigation schedule is adjusted accordingly. This data also helps prevent issues like root rot from overwatering and nutrient loss from high leaching rates.
The development and installation of these sensors, along with water quality sensors and a 'free chlorine' sensor for the disinfection system, have proven beneficial to the production nursery. However, some sensor systems have encountered connectivity and operational issues, affecting data delivery and delaying the implementation of sensor-driven irrigation automation.
These issues are being resolved by adding new functionality or options to the Hitachi Control Tower (HCT), which visually represents the data. Further upgrades to the control software will be tested in the coming months to enable irrigation automation.
Growing interest in smart technologies
The project's communication efforts, including webinars, workshops, case studies, and eNews articles, have been successful in generating interest among industry members regarding the adoption of smart technologies.
Feedback from workshops shows that industry members are exploring new technologies and evaluating or upgrading their production systems.
Feel like you are missing out? Get in touch with project officer, David Hunt today to learn more about how innovation and digital integration can benefit your nursery today.
To learn more about the Golden Grove Nursery case study, visit: https://www.greenlifeindustry.com.au/communications-centre/case-study-golden-grove-nursery-optimizing-efficiency-with-smart-technology.
For project-related information, email Project Officer David Hunt at: david.hunt@greenlifeindustry.com.au.
Hort Innovation funded project ‘Digital remote monitoring to improve horticulture’s environmental performance’ (ST19024) using the Hort Innovation nursery products research and development levy and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.