While literally helping plants to talk is not the premise of FloraPulse, which manufactures a water sensor that embeds into a plant’s woody tissue, that’s precisely what its technology does, says company President Michael Santiago.
Santiago appeared on the “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast to talk about how his company’s technology, which he worked on as a Ph.D. student at Cornell University, helps growers better understand the water stress of specialty crops, such as grapes.
FloraPulse offers real-time data to farmers and researchers while helping optimize irrigation and yields. Santiago said that, much like a person knows to take a drink of water, the sensor understands when the plant needs water.
“We can provide that same feedback for the trees,” he said. “That way you know all the trees have water when you water them. This really drives a lot of improvements and in a lot of different things like yield and quality, because you’re just keeping the trees happy.”
And while a lot of work has been conducted in grapes and nut crops, Santiago said the company plans to introduce smaller sensors to help blueberry and smaller caliper specialty crops.
Santiago said many winegrape growers use the data provided by FloraPulse to fine-tune the season’s vintage, much like winegrape growers in Bordeaux, France.
While pressure chambers — an established measurement of water stress in a plant — provide good data, it’s just a snapshot of a day in the life of the plant, Santiago said, whereas FloraPulse provides the grower automatic feedback on the water status of the plants.
And when that automatic feedback is appropriately applied, growers can slash their water use, he said.
“Ken Shackle [professor of plant sciences and pomology at the University of California, Davis,] did a study that he presented at the Almonds Conference last year, and he said he found by irrigating with this, he was finding a 40% decrease in water,” Santiago said.
As for the future of irrigation, Santiago said water use is becoming increasingly more scrutinized by states and that growers will need to show the efforts they’re making to appropriately use the valuable resource.
“I think what growers will be eventually is to be able to say ‘ I am using water very effectively,’” he said.
Watch the full podcast episode in the video player above.
