Control irrigation in the Marteño and Hojiblanca olive trees with probes

This time we are going to control irrigation on a farm with Marteño olive tree and Hojiblanca olive south of Córdoba, bordering the province of Jaén.

Although we already have extensive experience in cornicabra, picual and arbequina, this last type of olive tree, partly oriented to table olives, represents a major challenge for our technology.

The waterings, treatments, humidity margins, pruning and collection phases are completely different from the rest of the varieties.

Control irrigation by sensors

All olive varieties have the same common need:

• Optimize irrigation.
• Measure humidity at different depths.
• Check the conductivity.
• Measure the soil temperature.
• Optimize resources.
• Saving water.
• Energy saving.
• Minimize expenses.
• Provide the optimal amount of water to the crop at each time of the year.
• Avoid water stress.
• Get better quality and more quantity.

TYPE OF IRRIGATION

The Marteño variety or called picual, depending on which area, has a buried irrigation at 40 cm and located in the middle of the street. This has led us to install sensors at 30cm and 60cm depth to study the behavior of the water and observe the evolution after irrigation of almost 10 hours on alternative days.

Secondly, sensors were installed for olive trees of the hojiblanca variety with two types of irrigation:

• Buried about 20cm deep but at a shorter distance from the trees (about 3 years old)
• Surface drip for much more developed olive trees.

Likewise, 10-hour irrigations are applied, with which we hope to analyze the data and thus optimize irrigation saving electricity and water.

In buried irrigation, monitoring with probes is essential, because the wet bulb that occurs in the subsoil cannot be seen on the surface.

The vision through graphs of the humidity level gives us information in real time of the water needs of the olive tree at all times.

PLANTAE TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO CONTROL IRRIGATION

• 1 autonomous hub with gprs and solar panel.
• 6 LoRa humidity and temperature sensors measuring 30cm and 60cm deep to control irrigation. Wireless farm sensors / probe with smart function that provides real-time data.
• Online panel accessible from PC, Smartphone and Tablet with areas defined by variety of crops and irrigation sectors.