David Doll0 commentsJanuary 31, 2021Technology

Technology Corner: Q&A w/ Phytech

EDITOR’S NOTE: This entry is part of an ongoing series to highlight a new technology related to almond and tree nut production. The question/answer format is set to focus more on the technical aspects and application of the technology. I would like to thank Mark Sherfy from Phytech who took the time to answer my questions regarding their irrigation monitoring platform. Phytech is an irrigation technology that monitors the tree’s water stress. Please describe the basic hardware system and software analysis that is behind Phytech’s irrigation management technology. Phytech has several different sensors in the field and each sensor has an important role to play in the overall puzzle. We are about understanding exactly what the tree needs and what it is feeling. The ‘bread and butter’ of our organization is our dendrometers, but we also have several other sensors such as water pressure, soil moisture probes, fruit sensors, frost sensors and loggers. By using all these sensors, we can give the grower daily irrigation recommendations and we display an intuitive color scheme that helps the grower understand the current plant status of the orchard. On top of this, we have just launched an analytical section on our website that displays all the season’s data in one area. This displays such things a heat maps, bar and line graphs over different periods of time. Varieties, blocks, and ranches can also be compared to see where adjustments need to be made. It is a tool that gives growers instant recommendations daily, but it’s also an analytical tool that can change the grower’s overall strategy. What crops have been successful in utilizing Phytech’s products? Quite a long list of crops. We have been extremely successful in the almond industry as we have found out that the ETc is not only different per orchard,

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David Doll0 commentsAugust 6, 2020Technology

Technology Corner: Q&A w/Tule Technologies

EDITOR’S NOTE: This entry is part of a series to highlight a new technology related to almond and tree nut production. The question/answer format is set to focus more on the technical aspects and application of the technology. In many articles, I discuss the importance of irrigation. With that in mind, I though I would reach out to a company that assists with irrigation scheduling based on site-specific data: Tule Technologies. Thanks to Valerie Bednarski for taking the time to answer my questions. Tule is an irrigation technology that determines site specific water use for a specific crop. How does this technology work? Tule measures the actual evapotranspiration (ET) of your orchard. We are able to do this using the Surface Renewal Method that was developed at the University of California at Davis (Paw U et al. 1995; Snyder et al. 1996; Shapland et al. 2012a and 2012b; Shapland et al. 2014). ET is the process of evaporation from plant and soil surfaces and from within plant tissues (i.e., water movement through stomata). In most modern agricultural systems, ET is the dominant process of water loss from a field. (Editor’s note: more info on ET here) What equipment is installed, and resources are used to determine water use? The Tule Sensor is installed in the orchard and is positioned above the canopy. The sensor is able to measure the amount of evapotranspiration from the orchard based on air movement.  As the wind moves over your orchard, it picks up the water that transpires from the trees and carries it to our sensor. This is how we are able to measure the crop water use over a broad area. An installed pressure switch is fitted to the irrigation system. This provides a direct measurement of irrigation durations. Using site specific irrigation specifications,

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