Wilbert Lammers: “This popular approach offers a data-driven methodology to optimize plant growth by maintaining three critical balances: energy, water, and assimilates. It emphasizes creating optimal conditions that support the plant's natural processes, leading to healthier crops and increased yields.”
Energy Balance Management: Smarter Use of Light and Temperature
Energy management is at the heart of NGG and growing by Plant Empowerment, ensuring that plants receive the right balance of light and heat for optimal photosynthesis. Priva's process computers allow precise regulation of factors such as temperature and light intensity, whether from natural or artificial sources. “By integrating technologies like Priva's climate systems and LED controls, growers can fine-tune the light spectrum to maximize plant productivity,” Wilbert explains.
Using Priva’s systems, energy costs are reduced while maintaining ideal growing conditions, contributing to a more sustainable operation.
Water Balance Optimization: Precision Irrigation for Maximum Efficiency
Water is critical to plant health, but over- or under-watering can lead to issues. NGG and the Plant Empowerment approach emphasizes maintaining the water balance through accurate monitoring and control. Priva's Precision Irrigation Management (PIM) system provides real-time insights into plant water uptake and evaporation. “Our growers use PIM to optimize irrigation based on accurate data, ensuring that every drop of water serves its purpose,” Wilbert highlights. This prevents over-saturation, minimizes drought stress, and optimizes nutrient delivery, promoting both plant health and resource efficiency.
For most growers, quickly monitoring and adjusting greenhouse processes, like irrigation, is essential in daily operations. Priva Operator offers intuitive dashboards that display key information about climate and other processes at a glance. Wilbert: “Growers can create personalized dashboards in an instant by using easy-to-use templates.” He explains: “If we’re talking about irrigation, you can for example add a valve group to a recipe. Navigating to the allocation table in Operator and adding these tables directly to the dashboard makes access faster and adjustments more efficient.
Visualizing Growth with the RTR chart
The RTR (Radiation-Temperature Ratio) scatter plot chart in Priva Operator is a powerful tool that helps growers monitor and optimize their greenhouse climate. By plotting daily RTR values as dots on a chart, it allows you to visualize the relationship between radiation and temperature at a glance. A dynamic target line reflects your 24-hour temperature strategy, helping you instantly see whether conditions align with your goals. If adjustments are made in the 24-hour strategy—such as increasing ventilation or altering heating schedules—the target line updates automatically, ensuring your decisions are always informed by the latest data.
For example, the scatterplot simplifies decision-making by highlighting deviations from optimal conditions at a glance. If dots consistently fall above or below the target line, it signals an opportunity to fine-tune your strategies to improve plant energy use. Coupled with the measured or calculated PARsum, the scatter plot gives a holistic view of how light and temperature interact to drive growth. Whether you’re optimizing for higher yields, reducing energy costs, or maintaining plant health, the RTR scatter plot ensures you’re always one step ahead in managing your greenhouse climate. Start using this graph in Operator, and make your custom dashboards.
Why monitoring KPI’s matters
Tracking these KPIs isn’t just about keeping tabs—it’s about empowering plants to grow better. By leveraging advanced tools like PAR sensors, and the Priva PIM, growers gain precise insights that allow for real-time adjustments. With the RTR scatter plot feature, you can view all key data in one place, such as the compact dashboard.
‘In Operator, you can quickly view all settings using the compact dashboard. An RTR-scatterplot can show you in an instance when you are deviating from the plan and need to adjust your strategies,” Wilbert explains.
“Adding strategies, such as the ventilation strategy, to a graph provides a clear overview, offering insight and full control over your plans,” Wilbert says enthusiastically.
By combining Priva’s innovative solutions with NGG and the Plant Empowerment approach, the future of greenhouse cultivation is brighter than ever.
