How to benefit from real-time drain analysis

with greenhouses in Poland was happy to find that real-time drain analysis has solved various problems in their production - in this case study, we’ll show you how.

Horticultural Farm Tomasz Rosłoniec is located in Poland, with greenhouses in Dziecinów and Brzezinka (Mazowieckie region, near Warsaw), operating since 2002. Specialized in pink and cherry tomatoes, producing them on an area of 5.6 hectares, they are just behind their sixth season using our Trutina greenhouse monitoring system - with complete satisfaction.

The reason why this farm was looking for a precise monitoring system is that they wanted to have real-time control of their biomass and drains. They knew well how important these data can be, especially to optimize their irrigation strategy, and also, to have an immediate feedback about whether the applied changes give positive or negative results.

For this reason, they have already measured the drainage, but the process was entirely manual and time-consuming: the drain amounts were estimated, gained from buckets.
They needed to check it twice a day, in the middle of the day and at the end of the last irrigation. It provided some insights but it was not accurate and very labor intensive - a schedule that cannot be maintained on the long-term.

This is why Farm Tomasz Rosłoniec decided to automate this process and started using the Trutina greenhouse monitoring system.

The most remarkable impact Trutina gave to the farm is the real-time analysis. Now, they are able to monitor the drains in real time, which gives them a much higher control of the parameters in the growing medium. Real-time, in this case means that they get updated information to their online dashboard every 5 seconds (!), that is available even via their smartphones.

By having immediate feedback of how the plants react to irrigation, they are able to verify each change in their watering strategy and fine-tune it to an even more optimized level:

Of course, a better watering strategy has further consequences: most importantly, a higher yield. The farm confirmed that their production has increased since they started using Trutina, achieving a higher amount of yield at each production cycle.

The benefits of a better drain control does not end with higher yield. One of the most important advantages, especially today when energy and material costs are skyrocketing, is the reduction of fertilizer consumption. We all in this industry face the fact that the cost of fertilizers has dramatically increased recently, even by 200-300%.

With Trutina, having better drain control, this greenhouse can use less fertilizer, saving remarkable costs. In these hard times, such savings may strongly contribute to, or even decide the survival of any business.