Plant App to support pepper and cucumber cultivations

Launched in summer 2022, the app initially supported only tomatoes and is now being used by 800 hectares of tomato growers comprising tens of tomato sorts. The app will expand to support pepper and cucumber growers, and is now used to measure more than 120 unique varieties. 

Ernst van Bruggen, CPO and co-founder of Source.ag: "The release of the pepper and cucumber app is an important milestone for Source.ag in our mission to empower the world’s growers with AI. Currently, growers face a major challenge in accurately measuring plants, with mistakes often going unnoticed. At the same time, high quality generative and vegetative plant measurements are an essential prerequisite for growers to become A.I.-ready. That is why we built our plant app. It provides the best starting point for our AI-based models to learn how varieties respond to their environment, and based on that accurately simulate its future state. In addition, we provide clear protocols that simplify the process of making reliable plant measurements for anyone in a greenhouse. This means that a grower can easily delegate this task to someone else within the greenhouse, allowing for greater efficiency and productivity. ’’

The app offers many benefits to growers, including providing accurate and detailed data on individual plants that can help improve yield forecasting and refine cultivation strategies. Using the app, growers can track various generative and vegetative plant metrics, including length growth, head thickness, and ratio of leaf length in the head. Essential plant metrics such as cumulative fruit set, plant load and fruit development speed are automatically calculated based on these plant measurements. Clear protocols ensure consistent plant measurements across all cultivations for better comparison. With a refined design, the app minimizes errors in registering plant data. This is especially important for peppers and cucumbers, where closely monitoring each fruit from the flowering stage can help understand reasons for abortion, which greatly impacts weekly harvest projections. 

Arus Biersteker, Head Grower and General Manager at 20-hectare pepper grower C. Zwinkels:  “Keeping a consistent and clear overview across three greenhouses is not without challenges. It’s easy to miss important details and it can be difficult to stay on track with plans originally set, especially with a new cultivar. The Source Plant app gives me a clearer view of the current status of my cultivation, and of course any adjustments or decisions I need to make. With Source I can also look further ahead, forecasting using real plant data, which is much more accurate. I can see how many set fruits I can expect just by looking at the number of flowers which I register in the app. ‘’

About Source.ag: 

Source is accelerating access to fresh fruit and vegetables by empowering the world’s growers with AI. Founded in 2020 by Rien Kamman (CEO) and Ernst van Bruggen (CPO), Source.ag has brought together a team of experienced engineers and plant scientists and has partnered with the world’s leading growers to build the sector’s most advanced artificial intelligence. Their proprietary algorithms simulate plant behavior to define and execute optimal cultivation strategies, taking into account millions of data points on climate, biology, and resources. By enabling more growers to operate more facilities more efficiently through pioneering tech, Source is making greenhouse agriculture accessible, profitable and globally scalable. They’re on a mission to provide nutritious food to more people, using fewer resources.  

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