In our eagerness to expand our company, we arrived with our agricultural sensors in Italy to vineyards and olive trees.
Importance of agricultural sensors in Italy
Italy is one of the main agricultural countries of the European community, with a continental and Mediterranean climate, highlighting wine and oil. The vineyards cover all the regions of Italy and the olive trees mainly in the south, most of them in the Puglia region.
After reaching most of the crops in the Iberian Peninsula, where we have sensors in almost all the Communities, our company is beginning its journey in other countries such as France, Algeria and Italy.
Italy is the largest wine producer in the world. Its climate favors it especially. We found 21 areas with denomination of origin.
Trellised vines with sensors
We visited the downtown area in a trellis vineyard plantation. The area has a temperate climate in winter due to the influence of the sea and hot in summer. Crops need irrigation.
The trellis vines form large palisade rows to serve as a guide for the branches and encourage them to grow vertically, facilitating cultivation and harvesting.
This type of plantation favors the installation of drip irrigation.
With a detailed study of the plantation, our engineers prepare a humidity and salinity control of the vineyard. We follow from the mobile or tablet the entire phenological state of the plant by means of:
- Humidity sensors that determine the water needs of the plant at all times.
- Temperature probes of the subsoil that allow us to know the health of the root system.
- Conductivity sensors to measure the accumulation of salts and control them.
Especially in the central and southern areas of Italy, the need for irrigation is increasing and therefore its control means that the benefits in the plantation are considerable.
Our agricultural sensors in Italy are going to give agriculture an important boost in saving water and energy.
Controlled irrigation needs in the vineyard
- Brotación: En esta fase la viña necesita una humedad controlada que influye en su crecimiento vegetativo. Es muy importante controlar el estrés hídrico de la planta en esta fase.
- Veraison: the fruit has rapid cell multiplication and the need for controlled humidity is essential for the quality of the grape
- Maturation and harvest: humidity directly influences the quality parameters of the wine, influencing the pH and acidity.
- Leaf fall after harvest: water control is important for the accumulation of water in the vine.
Agricultural sensors in olive trees
Another crop to highlight in Italy is the olive grove. It is the second oil producing country after Spain. Unlike the vineyards, we do not have any denomination of origin. It stands out for being the country that consumes the most oil, importing a lot from Spain.
The main problems of the olive grove in Italy are:
- Small plots and traditional cultivation.
- Few intensive plantations.
- High labor costs.
- Need to improve quality with irrigation control according to zones.
Plantae installs agricultural humidity, temperature and conductivity sensors in olive trees to control irrigation and measure accumulated salinity.
The olive tree resists drought well, but irrigation with humidity control favorably influences the quality of the olive.
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