Ridder Growth Monitor

Our Ridder Growth Monitor is an affordable plug-and-play solution that accurately measures the weight of high-wire hanging crops such as tomatoes  and cucumbers. This gives growers valuable and precise insight into the daily growth and growth trajectory of their crops. The Ridder Growth monitor is designed to be easily installed and connected to our high-tech process computers.

The Ridder Growth Monitor is essentially a weight measuring system that sends data to Ridder process computers from a large representative area from up to 8m2. This gives growers a more precise average over the whole crop, compared to other systems measuring single plants. Our software then converts this data into a clear and easy-to-read overview that tells growers exactly how much their crops have grown, showing the weight and the growth trajectory in kilogram/m2. The dashboard shows daily growth, cumulative growth since the start of measurement and average daily growth. Our advanced software filters for anomalies like de-leafing and lowering the plants, giving growers an accurate insight into the daily growth of their hanging crops.

Why Monitoring Growth is relevant for Growers
This can be explained by drawing the comparison with the WHO standard of growing for children that is used all over the world. Question is, why do we measure children’s growth? Because growth charts are an easy and accurate way to track how your child is growing and developing, and to signal early on if something is wrong. Much like humans, plants’ growth trajectories can tell a grower a lot about how the plant is developing and if there are early signs of distress. However, there has not been an affordable and accurate way to track the actual change in weight of your hanging crops. That’s why we developed the Ridder Growth Monitor.

Tracking the actual weight and thereby the growth of hanging crops, not only gives growers insight into the crops’ performance and yields, but also enables them to signal problems early on. Ultimately, the data that is collected over time gives growers insight into how crop growth is affected by the growing conditions and climate strategy. Comparing current growth rates with previous periods, or similar crops allows growers to accurately assess the performance of the crop.

When multiple monitoring systems are installed, growers can compare the performance between different areas and different periods (previous week, year month, or year), providing a truer picture of the uniformity of the crop’s performance.  This enables growers to make data-driven decisions, leading to a better ability to predict, prevent and plan.