Measuring frequency
As mentioned, measuring micronutrients is the next step. The wishes of the growers who purchase the first series-produced systems are being investigated. “You may wonder whether growers are already waiting for hourly insight into micronutrients. We can measure at a very high frequency, but flooding the grower with data is not the intention.”
At one of the test locations, measuring macronutrients every hour day and night was investigated in recent years. That was technically fine, but the grower couldn’t really do anything with it. “The grower eventually asked us for a daily average. It was already a few years ago. Growers have now gone one step further. Next year we will see what exactly growers need for data on micronutrients.”
The current systems have already been made suitable for measuring micronutrients. “You need different reagents to measure micronutrients, but apart from that we have already technically pre-sorted them. For example, space has already been made on the visualization side for displaying the six micronutrients.”
Behavioural change
With the CE-Line system, autonomous fertilisation is coming closer, but are growers already doing it? “No, in our opinion partly”, Simon and Wilco indicate. “There is interest, also from suppliers of systems for autonomous cultivation. They contact us for information about nutrients.” Together with growers and other technical parties, Wilco sees it happening in the future. “Growers who work with liquid fertilisers and already have automatic container fillers, already have the necessary technical resources for this step.”
The grower’s behavior will also change, he notes. “One of the growers we tested with started making adjustments to his fertilizer recipes for his AB containers three times a week instead of once a week. To this end, it has adjusted the AB bin volumes. If the bins are empty more quickly, you can switch more quickly as a grower.”
Wilco wants to say that with the advancement of new techniques, growers are also working differently. “The trend used to be to make large, fairly cumbersome systems and above all to ensure that there was always enough water. Now you see precision fertilization emerging, also in outdoor cultivation. Growers work with smaller volumes. A manure injection unit works fastest for growers, but acceleration and more flexibility are also possible for growers who work with AB containers, if the grower wants and dares.”