Internet Of Things (IoT) in THE HYDROPONIC GREENHOUSE by JEVGENIJS KARKLINS
Internet Of Things (IoT) in THE HYDROPONIC GREENHOUSE by JEVGENIJS KARKLINS
A special interview of Jevgenijs Karklins, Regional Sales Manager at Aranet IoT to Christos D. Katsanos, editor-in-chief of hydroponics.gr, during his visit to Ierapetra, Greece in October 2023
Q – Christos D. Katsanos – What is the Internet of Things?
A- Jevgenijs Karklins – IoT means that nowadays not only people use the internet but also things like cars, industrial equipment, and home appliances can communicate between themselves and with humans over the internet. Such kind of communication allows us to make many processes easier, faster, and more efficient.
Q – What is the Internet of Things in Horticulture?
In horticulture, the things that can communicate with you are the greenhouse and the crops. With the help of sensors, you can collect real-time data about the climate conditions inside your greenhouse, and about the performance of industrial equipment like heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, irrigation, and fertigation systems. You can track the performance of your crops by monitoring conditions in the root zone, the water uptake, the biomass gain, the temperature of the leaves and fruits, the transpiration, and so on.
Q- What Aranet stands for and what are your products?
A – Aranet is a complete ecosystem for collecting any kind of data with wireless sensors, storing the data, and visualizing it in the cloud platform. The beauty of our system is its ease of use and very simple during the implementation. In terms of hardware, it has only two parts:
1. wireless sensors, that are battery-powered and do not require any cabling for installation and
2. a base station that collects the data from all the sensors in a greenhouse, saves it in internal memory as a backup and also sends it to the cloud in real time. Based on this data agronomists can make decisions and adjust their growing strategies.
Q – Can you explain one of your sensors, for example Aranet substrate sensor?
The Aranet substrate sensors are critical for hydroponic horticulture because they provide real-time information about conditions in the substrate on a plant level. The information it provides is Temperature in the substrate, WC% (amount of water) in the substrate, and EC (electrical conductivity) of the water.
Monitoring these parameters allows you to precisely adjust irrigation schedules, the amount of water you give to the plants, and the concentration of fertilizers. Precise irrigation results in better yields eliminates waste of water and fertilizers and saves the environment. Growers can share real-time data with their colleagues and consultants to make better decisions.
