The smartphone as a helper in manual thinning of fruit trees

The smartphone as a helper in manual thinning of fruit trees

The smartphone already supports us in all kinds of processes. Why not in fruit growing as well?

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An intensive spring is already behind the fruit growers with work steps such as tree pruning, fertilization measures and pest control. However, the time for important measures in the plants is far from over. Shortly after fruit fall, the first manual thinning already follows. Almost 15% of the annual workload is spent on manual thinning as an important preparation for achieving the right fruit quality. What if technology could give fruit growers a hand?

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The smartphone as a practical support

Around the numerous measures and activities in fruit growing, a few companies are already developing solutions to support fruit growers and producers. Drones fly over the plants and record their status, often in combination with a myriad of sensors or other high-tech devices. But: this is complex and costs money.

Pixofarm is now making the latest technologies easily accessible and usable by developing a smartphone application that supports fruit growers with important decisions and measures in fruit growing. That's because the Pixofarm app makes it effortless and accurate to record slope, measure fruit size and growth, and estimate expected yield.

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More accurate block control with the Pixofarm app

The Pixofarm app is also used in quality control of manual thinning. Only a selection of trees needs to be photographed with the smartphone and the average slope per tree and loft is displayed. This eliminates the need for time-consuming and inaccurate manual tree counts before and after hand thinning. Fruit growers save time, can count many more trees and get more accurate results.

In combination with other Pixofarm services, such as size measurement and yield estimation, this not only allows various measures to be taken during the season to increase growth rate and yield, but also allows logistical measures to be better organized weeks before harvest and higher prices to be negotiated for the harvest.

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Services used:

SIZING
COUNTING

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