Hawke’s Bay companies develop orchard scanning technology to help growers

The Green Atlas Cartographer in apple scanning mode.

A technology development by two Hawke’s Bay companies is making it easier for growers to gather information on what is happening in their orchards.

Since 2019 Fruition Hawke’s Bay has provided Green Atlas Cartographer orchard scanners to growers, allowing them to precisely count buds and fruit on all their trees and vines.

However, the detailed data generated by the scanners was not simple for growers to absorb at a glance so Fruition worked with agri-tech expert HortPlus to create interactive digital maps on its client portal.

Fruition Hawke’s Bay managing director Jack Hughes described the new maps as “making it easy to see what is happening in the orchard and to decide what action needs to be taken”.

”The maps bring together all the crop density information gathered by the Cartographer scanners and present it on personalised ‘heat-maps’ of growers’ orchards, allowing them to easily see the current state of play,” Hughes said.

”The new maps are a handy tool to help growers make informed decisions on where priorities are and how crops can be optimised sooner, easier and cheaper.”

Fruition is the exclusive New Zealand partner for Green Atlas scanners. Hughes said four machines covered 2600ha of kiwifruit and apples in 2023-2024, and Fruition was excited about the scanners’ ability to simultaneously collect fruit size, number and leaf area data.

“This combination provided a fundamental measure of crop load and the capacity of trees to size fruit to market requirements.

”There’s more work to do in figuring out the ‘optimums’ for different variety and growing system combinations and we’re focused on working with our clients to develop simple, practical metrics that are easily adopted on the orchard.”

The new maps are not the first time the two companies have collaborated. The partnership has spanned more than 10 years, resulting in a range of new technology and resources for Fruition clients.

Other innovations include the Trappa app that certified scouts employed by Fruition can use to record the type and number of pest insects caught in pheromone traps placed around apple orchards.

The data recorded in the app is automatically pulled through to Fruition’s client portal, providing Fruition consultants and apple growers with data to inform pest control decisions. The “hot trap” function shows relative pest pressure throughout each orchard and guides block subdivision decision-making.

HortPlus and Fruition have also worked together to make soil moisture data, uploaded from sensors on orchards, available on the Fruition portal. This data shows how much water plants are using and where in the soil profile they are taking it from. Recommendations help growers make decisions about if, when and how to irrigate.

HortPlus director Mike Barley said working on leading-edge technology with another business in Hawke’s Bay, where HortPlus was founded, was a source of pride and indicative of the region’s strength as one of New Zealand’s agri-tech hubs.

”Over the years, Fruition Hawke’s Bay has always been open to new technology and investing in technology that will add value for New Zealand growers - it’s been a natural and productive partnership.”