Flying eyes over the crops for optimal plant health

As you walk through the greenhouse, surrounded by the soft hum of fans, a bright orange drone whizzes above the green sea of plants. This tireless flying assistant collects data on plant health and crop development, spotting what you can’t see – subtle color changes in leaves, early signs of disease, or irregularities in growth. It even predicts precisely when a batch will be ready for delivery. Meanwhile, an advanced cultivation system, with perfect irrigation and drainage, maintains a stable microclimate, strengthening the plants against diseases and pests. Together, these innovations provide growers with the ideal tools to ensure plant health, increase yields, and further optimize cultivation processes, resulting in healthy, uniform crops.

ErfGoedFloor: The foundation of healthy plants

This is the core of ErfGoed's focus: creating the ideal growing conditions with their unique cultivation floor and integrated water technology. The ErfGoedFloor ensures even distribution of water and nutrients and maintains a stable microclimate that promotes plant health. As Cor Bremmer, Operational Director at ErfGoed, explains, “Uniform plants result from giving each one the same amount of water and nutrients for the same duration. After watering, our floor evenly drains any excess and prevents pooling. The gravel layer retains moisture, creating an optimal microclimate that boosts plant growth and resilience.”

The importance of a healthy microclimate cannot be overstated. Stable humidity and temperature minimize the risk of diseases and pests by making plants more robust and more resilient. Thanks to the ErfGoedFloor, growers worry less about growth inconsistencies and can rely on uniform plant growth and bloom. This improves plant quality, reduces labor due to the benefits of automation, and increases yield.

Flying eyes in the greenhouse

The ErfGoedFloor fosters healthy crops, but effective crop monitoring remains crucial and can be challenging. Some factors are hard to detect by the naked eye, and scouting takes time. Objective data is also essential: “The human eye often sees what it wants to see. On average, there’s a 10% to 30% variation in results perceived by the human eye.”

According to Frans-Peter Dechering, CCO founder of Corvus Drones, drones provide an objective perspective on cultivation: “Our drones measure leaf area, detect color variations like yellowing or mildew, and count flower buds, enabling us to identify issues and abnormalities early on. For starting materials, we count the number of viable plants. Daily monitoring gives you an exact picture of the plants, so sales staff are always aware of the ready-to-ship inventory.”

These drones collect concrete data daily on various parameters, giving growers valuable insights that can improve crop health. Dechering adds, “With our drones, growers can not only detect abnormalities but also recognize and forecast growth trends in plants. This enables proactive management.”

How drones and cultivation floors strengthen each other

The synergy between the ErfGoedFloor and drone-based plant monitoring lies in how these technologies complement one another. While the cultivation floor provides a healthy, stable microclimate and uniform crop growth, the drone delivers detailed data to accurately monitor the effects of these conditions.

By gathering data from the entire greenhouse, drones give growers a comprehensive view of their crops. Detected abnormalities can be quickly addressed, leading to healthier plants, increased efficiency, and lower long-term costs. Dechering points out, “A scout can be sent directly to any area where the drone has detected an issue in the crop.”

The future of plant cultivation

ErfGoed and Corvus Drones continue to invest in innovation to enhance the tools available to growers, such as reducing cultivation risks, shortening cultivation time, and achieving uniform crops. The combination of cultivation floors and drones demonstrates how technology can work in tandem to optimally support growers. With the synergy of the ErfGoedFloor’s uniform growing conditions and data-driven insights from the drone, growers can tend to and optimize their crops with greater precision.

“The goal isn’t just to keep plants healthy but also to simplify and automate the cultivation process,” says Bremmer. “Thanks to the objective data provided by drones, growers can work increasingly efficiently and improve their yields.” As a result, plant cultivation's future is healthier, more sustainable, and profitable.