Adcon Telemetry station for plant disease management and irrigation management
This station consists of an Adcon remote telemetry unit (RTU) plus appropriate sensors and can be utilized in all areas of agriculture (wine, fruits, vegetables, cereals, etc.). Among the crops for which standard Adcon software extensions are being used with tens of thousands of stations around the world, a few to be mentioned are the wine and table grape, apple, pear, potato, wheat, corn, etc. The three top diseases afflicting the grapes for instance (downy mildew, powdery mildew, and bunch rot), are being managed distinctly, by software extensions embedding the expertise of a great number of world-reputed specialists.
The Adcon agro station also allows measurement of necessary parameters for irrigations management, such as precipitation intensity, total rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil moisture. Remote control of irrigation valves is possible as well. The station also provides other valuable data for precision agriculture, such as the amount of heat received by the culture daily and cumulative (in degree-days), the number of chill hours or excessive heat hours, daily, monthly or yearly statistics for all measured parameters, etc.
Example of evolution during spring 2014 of grape downy mildew pressure indexes (Click on figure to enlarge)
A single station can be considered as sufficient for a cultivated area on which climatic parameters are known as being more or less uniform. That can mean hundreds or even thousands of acres in the plains, but less than that in hill or mountain areas.
The station collects through appropriate sensors and transmit to a central processing server data such as air temperature and relative humidity, leaf wetness, precipitations intensity, wind speed, solar radiation intensity, soil moisture etc. The server continuously analyzes these data and posts on the Internet processed data available anytime and anywhere for all users able to authenticate themselves through name and password.
Communication between the station’s RTU and the central server is usually ensured via the GPRS service provided by one of the mobile telephony providers that have GSM coverage in the area.
Example of evolution of the powdery mildew pressure index and also of the effectiveness of treatments applied. (Click on figure to enlarge)
The station is entirely powered by its own solar panel and can have a very long lifetime with recommended annual reviews for sensor cleaning and internal rechargeable battery replacement at every 3 years.
For farmers exploiting a single station or a small number of stations, the BEIA central server represents the best solution for data processing and access to processed data from anywhere and anytime through the Internet. BEIA charge for this service a small fee, that usually also includes the cost of the GSM-GPRS communication between the station and the server, as well as the remote support services that proved themselves as being useful and largely appreciated.
NEW: Winegrowing season as it was seen by the Adcon Telemetry agro monitoring system
Adcon precision agriculture station installed in a vineyard
On the mast, beginning from the from top:
– RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) Adcon type A753 GSM-GPRS
– Rain gauge
– Wind speed sensor (anemometer)
– Solar panel
– Solar radiation intensity sensor (pyranometer)
– Air temperature and relative humidity sensor
– Leaf wetness sensor
