The steady stream of visitors.....

Part of the role of The National Precision Growing Centre is to educate both industry practitioners as well as the wider public in how precision growing is undertaken.

This week we had a diverse range of visitors from those with a hobby background in horticulture, right up to one of the leading exponents of precision growing.

We firstly welcomed 34 members of the Springvale Garden Club to observe first hand how a commercial glasshouse operates. The group recieved an explanation of both climate and irrigation management from staff member Tony Bundock, whilst our trainee Sara Nour, gave a guided tour around the crop growing area.

 

The group finished their tour with an opportunity to buy some of our wonderful fresh tomatoes!

At the other end of the scale, we welcomed Grodan's Andy Lee to Cranbourne this week as he tours Australian as part of his customer support program. As ever, Andy was a wealth of knowledge and gave us some great guidance in terms of crop and climate management strategies.

Andy Lee and Tony Bundock inspecting the crop

GRODAN introduces new wireless, multi-sensor measuring system for substrate growing

Based on professional growers’ needs for higher accuracy and reliability in monitoring water content (WC), electrical conductivity (EC) and temperature in substrates, GRODAN is now introducing a state-of-the-art innovation: the GroSens® wireless, multi-sensor measuring system.

When GRODAN asked its customers what challenges needed to be overcome to achieve precision irrigation, it quickly became apparent that there was a need to measure WC and EC more accurately and at multiple locations in the greenhouse. “The current WCM meters still work well and are used a lot; however in the past 15 years a lot of technological developments have taken place.” explains Vincent Deenen, Director Marketing and Development at GRODAN. “After intensive research, we have now designed a solution to precisely match the growers’ needs, the GroSens system”.

 

The newly introduced GroSens® system: making precision irrigation possible

The GroSens benefits The wireless GroSens system enables 24/7 real-time insight into the WC, EC and temperature of the stone wool substrate. It contains multiple sensors that are designed with double the number of measuring points compared to its predecessor, the WCM II. Based on statistically reliable trials, GroSens measures the WC and EC at least 5 times more accurately than existing Water Content Meters (WCM). The fact that there are multiple sensors, and thus more measurement points in the irrigation section, leads to more reliable and representative WC and EC figures. The wireless sensors allow tremendous flexibility in where you can measure in the greenhouse and they are easy to install. The GroSens system is modular; the basic set consists of 3 Sensors and can be extended with more Sensors, to suit each grower’s needs. In short, GroSens is an ideal measuring tool for growers who want to take Precision Growing to the next level.

 

“The GroSens system, in combination with GRODAN stone wool substrate products and advice, is the best way of achieving optimum results in production and cost savings. Launching this system is another step in the GRODAN Group’s strategy of making Precision Growing possible for growers,” concludes Deenen.

The patented GroSens system will be introduced to the market gradually and will eventually replace the current GRODAN WCM’s. For more information, please visit he GroSens page