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Orchards and vineyardsOrchards and vineyards, watched through the frost night.
Fruit and vines are worth the most when one night of frost or one week of disease can take the crop. Temperature at canopy height, leaf wetness, soil water and cameras in each block report to a record that wakes the grower in time and keeps the spraying record honest.
Plan a deploymentHow it worksStation Builder- Industry
- Agriculture
- Measurements
- 5
- Sources cited
- 5
Agriculture · Orchards and vineyards
One cold night decides the year
On a clear spring night, cold air slides off the slopes and pools in the hollows of an orchard or vineyard. A few degrees at bloom can take the crop. Growers who know the temperature in their coldest block, minute by minute, start protection in time and stop it when it is no longer needed.
What is measured
Canopy temperature, wetness and soil water
Sensors at canopy height in the cold spots read temperature and humidity, from which dew point is computed. Leaf wetness sensors time infection periods, soil probes guide deficit irrigation, and a block station records wind for spraying. A camera shows the block when an alarm sounds.
- Instruments
- Canopy temperature · Leaf wetness · Soil probes · Block weather station · Camera
The base node
An estate node awake all night
Every block point signs its readings and sends them through the night. The estate node compares each block with the grower’s frost threshold and raises the alarm locally, so the phone rings without waiting for the cloud. Each morning it computes infection risk from wetness and temperature.
Radio and links
From the hollows to the phone
LoRaWAN reaches the hollows and slopes from one gateway on high ground; where hills shadow the valley floor, mesh relays carry the signal. The gateway and the block camera reach the office and the grower’s phone over the public cellular network.
- Links
- LoRaWAN · Public cellular · Mesh
How it works
From a cold block to a running wind machine
A canopy temperature is signed by its endpoint and sent over LoRaWAN to the gateway. The estate node sees it cross the grower’s threshold and raises the alarm to the phone and, where agreed, to the wind machine controller. The record keeps the reading, the alarm and the response.
From order to operation · Order
Scope the blocks and the risks
The scope reads the estate map, the frost protection in place, the spraying programme and the irrigation design. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the point plan by block, the cold spots to confirm, the alerting design, the integration with spraying records and a price per block and per season.
Plan a deploymentFrom order to operation · Survey
Find the cold spots
Crews and the grower survey the estate on a clear night with portable sensors to find where cold air pools. They confirm gateway coverage across slopes and hollows, choose a weather station site, and mark points clear of wind machines, sprinklers and the paths of harvest equipment.
From order to operation · Permits
Neighbours, masts and data
Masts near roads or homes follow planning rules, and shared gateways on a neighbour’s land are agreed in writing. Who may see the data, including advisers and buyers asking for spraying records, is written into the contract, and every agreement is kept with the estate’s record.
From order to operation · Build
Build for dawn alerts
Sensors, endpoints, the block station, camera and gateway are built, tested together and enrolled with their identities. Frost thresholds and alert contacts come from the grower’s protection plan, and each point is configured for its block. Every part is labelled with the block it serves.
Open the Station BuilderFrom order to operation · Install
Install at canopy height
Crews mount temperature sensors at canopy height in the cold spots, place leaf wetness sensors in the canopy and soil probes in the root zone. The block station is levelled and sited, the camera aimed over the block, and the gateway mounted on high ground. Each point is photographed and located.
From order to operation · Commission
Test the frost alarm before it matters
Each endpoint proves its identity and joins the gateway. Temperatures are checked against a reference thermometer, leaf wetness against a wetted test, and the frost alarm is triggered on purpose so the grower’s phone rings. The infection model runs on the first day’s data.
From order to operation · Operate
Protect, spray and water on evidence
On frost nights the grower watches block temperatures and dew point and starts protection when the alarm sounds. Infection periods time the sprays, wind data confirms the window, and soil water guides deficit irrigation. Every decision is logged with the readings behind it.
From order to operation · Maintain
Check before bud burst
Before each season every temperature sensor is checked against a reference, leaf wetness sensors are cleaned or replaced and batteries changed on plan. After pruning and harvest, points are checked for damage. Every change is recorded, so frost records stay comparable across years.
Book field servicesData products
For growers, advisers and buyers
Growers and frost crews receive alarms by block; agronomists receive infection periods; irrigators and winemakers receive deficit irrigation schedules; buyers and regulators receive spraying records with the conditions at each spray. Each product carries the readings behind it and the siting of each sensor.
See the data productsEvidence
Nights and sprays on the record
Every frost night, alarm, protection start and spray is signed and kept with its time and place. Temperatures are checked against a reference before each season, frost practice follows FAO guidance and spraying records follow the sustainable use rules, so any buyer or inspector can verify them.
- Drawn against
- FAO frost protection · WMO-No. 134 · Directive 2009/128/EC
What you get
Agricultural field observatories
Soil moisture profiles, micro-weather and evapotranspiration with irrigation thresholds per field. Delivered as managed service and data licence, for growers, agribusiness, irrigation districts, crop insurers. Scale: Farm to region. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard.
Talk to salesNext step
Plan orchards and vineyards with us
Tell us the site, the measurements and the rules it answers to. We reply with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for orchards and vineyards. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.
Plan a deploymentOpen the Station BuilderOpen the Studio
01The place and its hazards
Where it runs, and what can go wrong.
Operating contextOrchards and vineyards are perennial crops on slopes and valley floors where cold air pools at night. Growers protect against spring frost with wind machines, sprinklers or heaters, time fungicide sprays to infection periods, manage water deficit for quality, and keep spraying records that buyers and regulators ask for.
Hazards
- Spring frost in cold-air pools at bud burst and bloom
- Fungal infections after periods of leaf wetness
- Hail and heat damage to fruit
- Spray drift onto neighbours and water
- Water stress at the wrong growth stage
02What must be measured
What, where, how often, and under which rules.
Each measurement names where it is taken, how often, and the public standard or regulation behind it. Numbers in the sources column open the cited source below.
| Measurement | Where | Cadence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air temperature at canopy height | The coldest spots of each block, found by survey | Continuous, reported at short intervals on frost nights | 1 |
| Dew point and humidity | Block weather stations | Continuous | 12 |
| Leaf wetness | Sensors in the canopy of representative blocks | Continuous through the season | 3 |
| Soil water | Probes in the root zone of each irrigation block | Several times a day | 4 |
| Wind at spraying | Block stations near sensitive edges | Continuous during spraying | 5 |
03The observation stack
From one base unit to a network.
The same blocks at every scale: instruments and a base node, a site with its radio, a fleet run as one, and a network federated on the open protocol.
- 01
Base unit
A block point: a canopy temperature and humidity sensor, leaf wetness and a soil probe on a LoRaWAN endpoint that signs every value.
Build a station → - 02
Site
An estate: points in every block and the cold spots, a block weather station with a camera, a gateway on high ground and a cellular link.
Plan a site → - 03
Fleet
Every estate of a grower group run as one fleet, with one frost alerting process and one record.
Managed offers → - 04
Network
Growers, advisers and buyers exchange observations, alerts and spraying records through open standards.
The open protocol →
- 01Compact weather station
- 02Soil probe
- 03Fixed camera
- 04LPWAN endpoint
- 05LoRaWAN gateway
- 06Micro node (Nano)
- 07Cellular modem/router
- 08Solar array
- 09Pole
Radio and links
LoRaWAN
Blocks on slopes and in hollows are reached from one gateway on high ground, at very low power.
Radio and links
Public cellular
The gateway and the block camera report to the office and the grower’s phone over the public network.
Radio and links
Mesh network
Where hills shadow a valley floor, a few mesh relays carry block points to the gateway.
Edge computeThe estate node watches temperatures through the night and raises the frost alarm locally when the threshold the grower set is crossed, then computes infection risk from leaf wetness and temperature each morning.
PowerBlock points run on batteries for seasons; the weather station, camera and gateway run on solar panels with batteries sized for a cloudy fortnight.
04How it works
From the instrument to the product.
One observation’s path, tier by tier, with the interface on every link and a bill of materials below; then how the one node grows to a site, a fleet and federated networks.
Orchards and vineyards: data path
– of 08
01 Instruments Measurement with sensor identity andcalibration 02 Field radio 03 Gateway 04 Node – Wrap in an observation envelope with timequality– Measure quality and uncertainty, attachquality flags– Buffer locally (store-and-forward when thelink drops) 05 Backhaul Commit with transactional outbox andpublish, delivered at least once 06 Site Consumer inbox deduplicates and applieseach record once into governed data 07 Data store Governed product through API, map orexport, correction-aware 08 Products OGC SensorThings APILoRaWANCommon Alerting Protocol 09 Power and structure Supplies 12 V DC to the field equipment 01 Compact weather station SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 02 Soil probe SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 03 Fixed camera Ethernet 04 LPWAN endpoint Analogue I/O · SDI-12 · RS-485 05 LoRaWAN gateway Ethernet · RF · GNSS antenna 06 Micro node (Nano) Ethernet · USB · Analogue I/O ·RS-485 · CAN 07 Cellular modem/router Ethernet · USB · RS-232 Site MQTT 5 with Sparkplug B Governed data store Versioned, correction-aware Frost alarms by block Infection risk periods Deficit irrigation schedules Spraying records with conditions 08 Solar array RS-485 09 Pole SDI-12 SDI-12 Ethernet LoRaWAN Ethernet Ethernet LTE/NR| Item | Equipment | Data ports | Protocols | Power in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Compact weather stationAll-in-one or compact station for temperature, humidity, pressure, wind and rain at a site. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 02 | Soil probeProbe for volumetric soil moisture, temperature and conductivity at one or more depths. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 03 | Fixed cameraFixed visible-light camera for site security, scene monitoring and machine vision. | Ethernet | RTSP with ONVIF profiles, MQTT 5 | PoE |
| 04 | LPWAN endpointBattery-powered endpoint on LoRaWAN, NB-IoT or LTE-M that carries one or more sensors. | Analogue I/OSDI-12RS-485 | LoRaWAN, OMA LwM2M, CoAP | Internal battery, Energy harvesting |
| 05 | LoRaWAN gatewayMulti-channel LoRaWAN gateway that forwards uplinks to a network server and schedules downlinks within duty limits. | EthernetRFGNSS antenna | LoRaWAN, MQTT 5 | PoE, 12 V DC |
| 06 | Micro node (Nano)Single-board or module-class node for sensor sites, gateways and low-power deployments. | EthernetUSBAnalogue I/ORS-485CAN | MQTT 5, OMA LwM2M, CoAP | PoE, 12 V DC, USB PD |
| 07 | Cellular modem/routerLTE or NR modem or router that uses a public carrier or private network as backhaul. | EthernetUSBRS-232 | 3GPP E-UTRA air interface, 3GPP NR air interface, OMA LwM2M | 12 V DC, PoE |
| 08 | Solar arrayPV modules with charge controller sized to the site’s load and climate. | RS-485 | Modbus | — |
| 09 | PoleUtility, street or dedicated pole with clamp positions. | — | — | — |
How it scales
01 Instruments Arbitrary qualified sensors and instruments whosemeasurements are ingested with calibration, units,geometry, time, custody and uncertainty. ×n 02 Node The minimum useful deployable unit: server, ruggedappliance, radio node, sensor gateway, satelliteterminal, AI, scientific, vehicle or virtual node. Node Node agent 03 Site The minimum independently operable localgovernance and failure domain: one or more nodesplus local network, identity, policy, evidence,storage, products and operator surfaces.SITE
Node Node Node ×n 04 Cluster An optional scale or specialisation domain forscheduling, shared storage, accelerators or datalocality.CLUSTER
×n 05 Fleet Coordinates plans, acknowledgements,convergence evidence, update campaigns andcorrection propagation across nodes and sites.FLEET
Fleet controller ×n 06 Federation An exchange of products, capabilities, events orwork across approved, independently administeredtrust domains, using explicit trust, policy,data-locality, version and correction contracts.TRUST DOMAIN
TRUST DOMAIN
TRUST DOMAIN
×n Verifier Applications Data in the field Telemetry Control Data upstream Control Data upstream Control Exchange Evidence Events Exchange- Data in the field
- MQTT 5 with Sparkplug B; connectors for LoRaWAN, OPC UA and instrument buses.
- Telemetry
- OpenTelemetry OTLP.
- Control
- TLS 1.3 with mutual authentication; protobuf messages over gRPC or HTTP/2.
- Data upstream
- At-least-once publication with repeat-safe keys over the control channel or NATS JetStream; QUIC MAY be used on lossy links.
- Evidence
- DSSE-signed in-toto statements; SLSA provenance; SCITT transparency receipts.
- Events
- Event envelopes mapped to CloudEvents 1.0; channels described in AsyncAPI 3.
- Exchange
- OpenAPI 3.1; the OGC API family; SensorThings; STAC; WIS 2.0.
05From order to operation
Every step, from the first call to a running site.
The same crew and the same record carry the work from scope to maintenance.
- 01 Order
Scope the blocks and the risks
The scope reads the estate map, the frost protection in place, the spraying programme and the irrigation design. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the point plan by block, the cold spots to confirm, the alerting design, the integration with spraying records and a price per block and per season. 1
- 02 Survey
Find the cold spots
Crews and the grower survey the estate on a clear night with portable sensors to find where cold air pools. They confirm gateway coverage across slopes and hollows, choose a weather station site, and mark points clear of wind machines, sprinklers and the paths of harvest equipment.
- 03 Permits
Neighbours, masts and data
Masts near roads or homes follow planning rules, and shared gateways on a neighbour’s land are agreed in writing. Who may see the data, including advisers and buyers asking for spraying records, is written into the contract, and every agreement is kept with the estate’s record.
- 04 Build
Build for dawn alerts
Sensors, endpoints, the block station, camera and gateway are built, tested together and enrolled with their identities. Frost thresholds and alert contacts come from the grower’s protection plan, and each point is configured for its block. Every part is labelled with the block it serves.
- 05 Install
Install at canopy height
Crews mount temperature sensors at canopy height in the cold spots, place leaf wetness sensors in the canopy and soil probes in the root zone. The block station is levelled and sited, the camera aimed over the block, and the gateway mounted on high ground. Each point is photographed and located. 3
- 06 Commission
Test the frost alarm before it matters
Each endpoint proves its identity and joins the gateway. Temperatures are checked against a reference thermometer, leaf wetness against a wetted test, and the frost alarm is triggered on purpose so the grower’s phone rings. The infection model runs on the first day’s data.
- 07 Operate
Protect, spray and water on evidence
On frost nights the grower watches block temperatures and dew point and starts protection when the alarm sounds. Infection periods time the sprays, wind data confirms the window, and soil water guides deficit irrigation. Every decision is logged with the readings behind it. 15
- 08 Maintain
Check before bud burst
Before each season every temperature sensor is checked against a reference, leaf wetness sensors are cleaned or replaced and batteries changed on plan. After pruning and harvest, points are checked for damage. Every change is recorded, so frost records stay comparable across years.
06Data products and integration
What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.
Data products
- Frost alarms by blockGrowers and frost crews
- Infection risk periodsAgronomists and spray operators
- Deficit irrigation schedulesIrrigators and winemakers
- Spraying records with conditionsGrowers, buyers and regulators
Integration
- Spraying recordsEach spray is logged with the wind, temperature and humidity at the time, exported to the record-keeping software.
- Frost protectionAlarms reach the grower’s phone and can signal wind machine or sprinkler controllers through their own interfaces.
- Farm softwareObservations are served through OGC SensorThings with their siting.
Exchanged through OGC SensorThings API, LoRaWAN, Common Alerting Protocol.
07Questions buyers ask
Before you scope it.
Will the alarm wake us in time?
The threshold is set by the grower with a margin, and the alarm is raised locally by the estate node, not after a round trip to the cloud.
How many points does a block need?
At least one in its coldest spot; the survey on a clear night shows where those are.
Can the system switch on wind machines?
It can signal controllers that accept a remote start; the decision rules are the grower’s.
Is the spraying record accepted by buyers?
It records conditions at the time of each spray, signed and kept, in the format the buyer asks for.
08Resources
The sources behind this page.
Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.
- 1Frost protection: fundamentals, practice and economicsFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations · 2005
- 2Guide to Instruments and Methods of Observation (WMO-No. 8)World Meteorological Organization
- 3Guide to Agricultural Meteorological Practices (WMO-No. 134)World Meteorological Organization · 2010
- 4Crop evapotranspiration: guidelines for computing crop water requirements (FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56)Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations · 1998
- 5Directive 2009/128/EC on the sustainable use of pesticidesEuropean Union · 2009
09Related
Use cases and solutions.
Use caseAgromet cooperative network
Compact weather stations and soil probes on farms, feeding irrigation, frost and disease models for a cooperative or an insurer.The full use case →SolutionAgricultural field observatories
Soil moisture profiles, micro-weather and evapotranspiration with irrigation thresholds per field.Solutions for agriculture →SolutionSensing as a Service
Observation networks designed, installed, operated and maintained for a monthly fee: weather, hydromet, air, seismic and environmental stations, with data delivered under a licence.Solutions for agriculture →10Agriculture: specialized fields
Other fields of this industry.
Specialized fieldRow crops and grain
Soil moisture and temperature by zone, field weather for spraying and disease, evapotranspiration for irrigation and satellite crop vigour, on LoRaWAN across the farm and cellular back to the office.The full field →Specialized fieldLivestock and dairy
Barn air and ammonia, heat stress, water and feed, animal welfare cameras and pasture water points, on a farm network that keeps the herd’s record and the emissions record in one place.The full field →Specialized fieldGreenhouses and controlled environment
Climate, carbon dioxide, substrate water and nutrient dosing, energy and outside weather for greenhouses and vertical farms, on the site network beside the climate computer, never in its way.The full field →Specialized fieldIrrigation districts and canals
Canal levels and flows, offtake deliveries, water quality, district weather and crop demand, on LoRaWAN along the canals and microwave to the district office, for fair and accountable sharing of water.The full field →Specialized fieldForestry and plantations
Fire watch from towers, forest weather and fire danger, sound for illegal logging, growth and carbon plots and satellite change, on LoRaWAN, microwave and satellite across the estate.The full field →Specialized fieldAquaculture
Dissolved oxygen, temperature and salinity at the pens, met-ocean conditions, feeding cameras and harmful algae watch for fish and shellfish farms, on cellular and satellite from the water.The full field →Specialized fieldRangeland and pastoralism
Rain, pasture growth, water points and herd movement across open range, with satellite forage maps and drought early warning, on LoRaWAN and satellite where no network reaches.The full field →Bring us the site.
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