Water management is probably the most important management issue in nursery and greenhouse systems, because of its effect on plant growth and the problems associated inefficient application.
The majority of ornamental plants are now grown in containers in the US using soilless substrates like pine bark and peat, which do not retain a lot of water. As such, these plants have much smaller root systems than field-grown plants, but with large, leafy canopies. This is why these plants need frequent irrigations to keep them growing optimally.
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Our approach is simple: We want to irrigate plants at the right time and as precisely as possible, to optimize the growth of ornamental plants, and minimize the amount of leaching and runoff from production systems.
To do this, we are taking a systems approach to the problem, integrating our knowledge of plant physiology, operational variability and advances in sensor and wireless network technology.
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