Humidity probes-Installation in García de la Cruz oils-The best for the olive tree

Today we have the opportunity to build two humidity probe installations for Aceites García de la Cruz, the leading oil mill in Castilla La Mancha and the sixth in Spain in terms of business volume, as well as being the leading exporter of its excellent quality oil to Japan.

Humidity probes

The sensors / humidity probes have been installed in two farms in Madridejos (Toledo).

• One with picual olive tree and support irrigation, in order to measure humidity at 60cm and 40cm deep and thus optimize manual watering.
• A second in cornicabra olive tree with drip irrigation.

From this post we want to thank the person in charge of Finca Rubén and the entire Aceites team García de la Cruz for their hospitality and the commitment they have made when installing sensors directing their farms to precision agriculture and the optimization of resources.

Advantages of installing humidity sensors / probes

The great virtues of this cordless humidity PROBE technology are:

• Its easy installation (although the wireless sensors / probe can measure up to a meter in depth).
• Its wireless communication without cables, with Hub / receiver equipped with solar panel.
• Access to data in real time regardless of the location of the farmer or agricultural technician from the mobile or tablet.
• Monitoring of humidity data for each of the sensors / probe.
• Irrigation decisions based on the type of soil, crop.
• Wireless probe / sensor readings at different depths.
• The crop does not suffer water stress and its phenological state is controlled in real time.
• No salts accumulate around the root system if the control is exhaustive. 
• It saves time and energy, in addition to lowering the cost of irrigation water.

Advantages of controlling olive tree irrigation

The olive tree is quite resistant to the dry climate of the south, but at the time of fruit growth it is very important to maintain control of irrigation, so that the tree does not suffer from water stress that affects the size of the olive.

In the summer it is also very important to control the humidity or the olive tree will suffer stomatal closure, this influences the ripening of the olive, acquiring a rough appearance.

Without a doubt, olive oil producers are increasingly aware of the importance of applying precision agriculture to their olive groves, so that production gains in quantity and quality.