Systematic Water-Saving Management for Strawberry in Basic Greenhouses Based on the Internet of Things

Abstract

A new application of the internet of things in a low-cost greenhouse with no networked intelligent control equipment.The systematic water-saving management focused over the whole growth stage of crops, and it can effectively increase yield and quality.Replace some chemical fertilizer with fully-decomposed organic fertilizer and new types of fertilizer to reduce negative impact on soil and the environment.Regarding pesticide usage, we advocate prevention first and treatment second.Improve systematic water-saving management with regard decreases in crop yield and quality.Abstract. A basic greenhouse is an inexpensive type of greenhouse, which lacks networked intelligent control equipment; it is currently the most common type of greenhouse used in China. To manage planting activities intelligently and improve water use efficiency in these greenhouses, an intelligent planting management platform for strawberry based on the internet of things (IoT) is developed. On the platform, human-computer interaction occurs through the WeChat app on a mobile phone so that manual control of the strawberry environment in the greenhouse can be conducted. In this study, we add a user module in the perception layer of the IoT to obtain the information and manually control the environment in a basic greenhouse. The network layer uses narrowband IoT wireless transmission technology based on 4G. The application layer is designed with a systematic water-saving management knowledge base for strawberry. The systematic water-saving management feature includes seven parts: strawberry variety selection, planting seedlings, flower and fruit thinning, environmental control, disease and pest prevention and treatment, fertilizer management, and water-saving irrigation. Through the human–computer interaction platform, growers can receive decision-making options, planting management evaluation, query information retrieval, and regular relevant planting information. The application results of the platform showed the following: compared with management experience of growers, the water use efficiency of yield (WUEy) increased by 128.55%, the water use efficiency of production value (WUEpy) increased by 226.31%; the amount of chemical fertilizer decreased by 40%, the amount of pesticide decreased by 61.67%, and the cost of pesticide decreased by 32.48%; thus a decrease in the use of both fertilizer and pesticide was achieved. This study can directly provide technical support for strawberry intelligent management in basic greenhouses, and can also be used as a basic platform intelligent management systems for other crops grown in basic greenhouses. Keywords: Basic greenhouse, Intelligent agriculture, Internet of things, Sensor network , Systematic water-saving management, Water-use efficiency.