An automated infrared sensor
system tells farmers when plants are thirsty or hotter than their ideal growing
temperature and need cooling off with irrigation water. Photo courtesy of
SmartCrop.
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Plants Text Message Farmers When Thirsty
By Don Comis
April 29 , 2008
Beginning this crop season, farmers will be able to receive text
messages on their cell phones from their plants saying whether they are thirsty
or not.
Accent Engineering, Inc., of Lubbock, Tex., developed the SmartCropTM
automated drought monitoring system based on a patent held by the
Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
They are offering it for sale in time for this growing season.
Battery-operated infrared thermometers placed in irrigated fields
monitor leaf temperatures and relay that information to a computerized base
station. A cell phone modem can be hooked up to the base station to download
data to a personal computer. This modem can also send text messages to a
farmer's cell phone.
ARS plant physiologist
James
Mahan at the ARS
Plant
Stress and Germplasm Development Research Unit in Lubbock is one of the
original theorists of the idea behind SmartCropTM. Each plant species has a
fairly narrow range of internal temperatures it prefers for best growth. When
leaf temperature goes above the upper limit or threshold of that range for too
long, the plant needs water, as much for cooling down as to quench its
thirst.
In the Texas High Plains area, for example, Mahan found that cotton
begins to suffer from drought if cotton plant leaves stay above 82 degrees
Fahrenheit for more than 6-1/2 hours. Farmers can choose the time-temperature
threshold at which they would like to receive an alert, and adjust it at any
time.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.