Greenhouse – a customer story

“Real time temp and humidity alarms have allowed us to respond before the plants are in distress.
The ezeio™ is extremely easy to integrate and configure.

Now when there is an issue around the facility we ask… could we use eze System for that?”

Background

The customer is a tissue culture lab that provides clonal root stock to nurseries. Tissue culture process starts with a single shoot which is grown in a nutrient rich medium and divided further into clonal shoots.  This process is repeated many times till the desired plant numbers are reached.

The company supplies many cultivars of Walnut, Almond, Pistachio, Cherry, Pecan and Apple rootstocks. More than six million root stocks are delivered each year. Significant time and effort goes into a single order and on-time delivery is critical. For this reason, Micro Paradox needed a dependable monitoring and alert system to monitor the environment of its grow rooms and greenhouses.    

Challenges

  • Consolidating multiple sensor types over multiple greenhouses and grow rooms
  • Connect to a network of sensors up to 250 ft from controller
  • Sensors and electronics in harsh, humid environment (near 100% RH)
  • Power failures and communication loss can't affect the monitoring and alarm system
  • Must be compatible with industry standard sensors and controls for future expansion

Requirements

  • Access real time and historic data from multiple sensors throughout the facility
  • Operate in the harsh environment of a greenhouse
  • Alerts via text, voice and email
  • Allow multiple users to access the system at the same time
  • Redundant power and communication for power failure or network loss alerts

The Solution

Several ezeio systems were installed within the facility, and connected to multiple sensors of varying types.

In the greenhouses, each ezeio was installed in IP67 enclosures with a backup battery and with cellular communication as an automatic fallback if the local power or network should fail. Modbus capable Temperature & Humidity sensors were used, linked to the greenhouse ezeio.

Each ezeio has additional input/output capacity for future expansion.

Easy installation and easy expansion 

Result

The customer was so pleased with the system that they are planning to expand the use of ezeio’s throughout the facility.

New projects include;

  • Monitoring fertilization pH & EC levels
  • Mister pump cycle verification
  • Greenhouse access alarm system
  • Power quality monitoring