About 20 Growers from Nonghyup Smart Agriculture Support Centers Tour ioCrops’ Jincheon Tomato Greenhouse

Among growers who manage smart-farm greenhouses, many are still more accustomed to open-field cultivation. In hydroponic greenhouses, water and nutrients must be adjusted based on data such as substrate weight, drainage volume, and moisture content, but opportunities to handle such environments firsthand are rare.

In response to this on-site demand, on the 2nd, about 20 growers from Nonghyup Smart Agriculture Support Centers nationwide visited ioCrops’ tomato smart farm in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province. The tour was arranged in the form of ioCrops inviting the growers at Nonghyup’s request. Growers at Smart Agriculture Support Centers are personnel dedicated to crop cultivation in the centers’ greenhouses, and most belong to Nonghyup.
 

Half were growers learning for the first time… Many questions on irrigation, drainage, and moisture content

Participants’ levels of experience varied. Yoo Jang-seon, ioCrops’ brand team leader, said, “Because many have worked in open-field-based farming, about half came to learn the smart-farm environment for the first time, while the other half already had some understanding.”

Before entering the greenhouse, they first went through disinfection procedures. To prevent viruses, diseases, and pests from spreading throughout the greenhouse, ioCrops completed participant disinfection before entry and then guided the tour route.

The growers toured the greenhouse where tomatoes are grown and examined how data collected by substrate weight sensors, drainage weight sensors, and other devices are used in actual cultivation. ioCrops grower Yoon Dong-joo introduced data-based cultivation methods and greenhouse operation know-how. Participants focused their questions on topics immediately needed in the field, such as irrigation and drainage management and substrate moisture-content management.

Grower Yoon determines the timing of the first irrigation in the so-called “morning dip” period, when substrate weight drops rapidly just after sunrise. Yoon explained, “We start irrigation by checking together the point when humidity in the greenhouse decreases, the trend of declining substrate weight, and the time when moisture content reaches its lowest point,” adding, “Rather than looking only at how many grams the substrate weight has fallen, we look at the deviation between the highest and lowest moisture-content levels.” This deviation is managed at about 15% in winter and 8–10% in spring and summer.

The drainage rate is set differently by season. It is kept above 30% in summer, 15–25% in spring, and 10–15% in winter. However, Yoon emphasized, “It can vary depending on the crop type, growth stage, substrate, and cultivation environment,” adding, “It is important to adjust it to the conditions of each farm.”

One grower who took part in the tour said, “In ordinary greenhouses, sensors are installed in various ways due to factors such as the internal structure, and depending on the circumstances, the data considered important and the degree of checking also vary,” adding, “This tour was highly meaningful because we could see a standardized series of processes for technologies with high adoption rates in domestic smart farms, such as sensors, from installation and data checking to cultivation decisions.”
 

Crop-protection robot that shifts rails on its own… Plan to supply pilot adopters first 

At the end of the tour, a demonstration was held of a crop-protection robot from ioCrops’ HERMAI series of autonomous greenhouse robots. The crop-protection robot demonstrated spraying work while moving along rails between crop rows, and also showed its row-shifting function, moving by itself to the next rail after finishing one row.

Regarding sales plans for the HERMAI crop-protection robot, Team Leader Yoo said, “It is not yet at the public sales stage, and we plan to prove its competitiveness by supplying pilot adopters first,” adding, “We will respond to more use cases while bringing the supply price into line.”