FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What are the key benefits of Gardin's phenotyping system?

Enhanced crop monitoring: The system offers continuous and non-destructive monitoring of plant growth, allowing for timely interventions and optimized crop management practices.

Improved yield and quality: By identifying stress factors or nutrient deficiencies early on, farmers can take corrective measures to enhance yield and improve the quality of their produce.

Efficient resource utilization: The system helps in optimizing resource allocation by providing data-driven insights into irrigation, fertilization, and other input requirements.

Accelerated breeding programs: Researchers can utilize the system to evaluate and select plants with desirable traits, expediting the breeding process.

Increased sustainability: With precise monitoring and targeted interventions, the system promotes sustainable farming practices by minimizing chemical usage and reducing environmental impact.

What crops can the system monitor?

The system can be used for a wide range of crops, including fruits, leafy greens and ornamental plants.

What decisions can I make with the data?

Growers understand their farms better than anyone else. What Gardin provides is quantitative results so growers can test improvements to the farm and get rapid feedback from the plants.

This reduces the time to test hypotheses from weeks to seconds and accelerates the path to real-time optimisation.

Can this integrate with farm automation?

As they get closer to real-time plant feedback, growers can start to make rapid decisions on climate control.

Gardin is developing algorithms to make this decision making even faster, by providing clear instructions on how to adjust various aspects of climate control including lighting, CO2, and irrigation.

We are able to partner with growers and infrastructure providers to create a seamless user experience for the next generation of indoor farms.

How many sensors do I need? Can they move?

Our insights are useful to growers on the level that they can make decisions.

In a greenhouse we take a statistical sampling approach with between 6-16 sensors / ha depending on the granularity of control in the farm that measures enough plants to give sufficient confidence to the grower but without excessive hardware.

In vertical farms we typically monitor a higher density due to the high level of control and can integrate with mobile platforms that move the sensor around the farm, but statistical sampling can also work effectively in many cases.

Do the sensors need to be connected to the plants?

No, the Gardin sensors are contactless. They monitor the plants at a distance of up to 2m.

Do I need to calibrate the sensors?

No, the sensors are calibrated in the factory and do not need any further adjustment.

Do I need to run cabling across my farm?

The sensors require power and to provide the best connectivity we have designed the sensors to be connected to your network via a single Power over Ethernet cable. These are readily available and simple to install.

Can I move the sensors around my farm?

You are free to move the sensors wherever you feel they can provide the most useful insights.

Do I retain ownership of my data?

Gardin has developed a data classification system to allow customers to be confident in their data ownership while allowing Gardin to deliver the insights required. Please contact us for more details.