Decision Support Irrigation: Get your irrigation strategy right
Choosing a solid irrigation strategy is a challenge a grower faces every day. Stopping and starting your irrigation at the right moment is pivotal to achieve your overnight dryback. By using the most recent weather forecast in combination with data about your personal climate control strategy, Decision Support Irrigation will provide a prediction of when the optimal irrigation stopping time will be. To further support your irrigation strategy, Decision Support Irrigation also gives insight into important parameters such as radiation and water EC.
The
optimal stopping time
Decision Support Irrigation consists of a dashboard containing graphs about the predicted optimal irrigation stop time, radiation levels at moment of first drain and after the final irrigation shot, dryback performance and water EC levels. The graph below shows the water content of you substrate in blue. A new pink transparent bar will appear every day around 10:00 AM. This bar represents the predicted optimal stop period to reach your desired dryback. It is advised to stop your irrigation some time within that 30 minute window.
There is also an indicator that shows the advice, which can be seen in the figure below.
To track
the performance of your irrigation strategy with respect to dryback, two different
graphs exist. Firstly, the graph below shows the dryback percentage as well as
showing the amount of water given in relation to the incoming light in cc/mol:
Secondly, a
graph that shows the achieved dryback over a period compared to the target
dryback.
Light at crucial moments
Light is an
important factor to determine your irrigation strategy. The next graph shows
information on the level of light at two crucial moments. Firstly, the amount of
light at moment drain is realized for the first time. Secondly, the amount of
light sum that was received after the last shot of irrigation was given. Both
these are available in radiation levels as well ass PAR levels.
EC graph
The graph
below shows the EC levels of both the irrigation shots and the drain.
Furthermore it shows the irrigation amounts in cc/mol.
Overview
The final two graphs give an overview of all important data regarding irrigation. The first
one is an overview of all relevant measurements, where as the second one is a
table that shows not only measurements but also settings of to decision support
irrigation.