Saturas: IoT makes trees more fruitful

CHALLENGE

Growing more while using less

Orchard crops like fruits and nuts make a crucial contribution to the global food supply and represent billions of dollars in economic value. In the U.S. alone, fruit and nut crops generate $30 billion or more each year.

These crops are nutritionally dense and highly valuable. They’re also quite thirsty. In California, almonds alone account for 10% of total state water use. But it’s estimated that as much as 20% of that use is the result of limited and imprecise measurement systems. In the absence of reliable information it’s reasonable for growers to overwater just to be safe. And all that overwatering doesn’t just waste precious water. Too much water may produce lower-quality fruits and nuts and could risk soil contamination due to increased runoff.

SOLUTION

Better measurement for better health

Stem Water Potential (SWP) is an important measure of plant health, equivalent in many ways to a human’s blood pressure, and scientifically recognized as the most reliable indicator of overall plant stress. SWP is also an important practical tool for irrigation management. However, the only way to measure SWP is to use a manual device developed in the 1960s for general agricultural use across many different crops.

So while SWP is potentially the most valuable measure available to a grower for crops’ water status and a practical tool for irrigation management , it’s been impossible to achieve the frequent, automated, affordable, easy to use readings. Saturas resolves this challenge with StemSense™, a unique, miniature sensor embedded directly in the tree to continuously measure SWP using a cellular data connection. StemSense™ is the equivalent of having a plant scientist at the orchard every day to measure SWP manually along with data-analysis for the growers’ specific crop and goals.

Interestingly, plants may exhibit horticulturally beneficial responses at moderate levels of water stress. In other words, plant can benefit from water stress. StemSense™ helps growers to better manage the stress level of their crop at different developmental stages without harming the crop and thereby, optimizing overall plant health, improving plant quantity and quality and increasing energy and water usage efficiency.

For example, in almond production, StemSense™ can assist the grower to impose mild to moderate crop water stress during the hull split phase to increase yields by reducing fungal diseases (hull rot) .

In prune production, StemSense™ can help growers produce moderate, controlled water stress two weeks before harvest, which promotes sugar accumulation in the fruit and reduces drying costs at the fruit dehydrator.

In walnut production, StemSense™ lets growers induce controlled water stress to reduce the risk of root diseases and promote the development of healthier root systems.