Picketa Systems just unveiled a crucial new feature for its LENS platform: Custom Critical Levels. This breakthrough gives agronomists unprecedented control over nutrient management, making it easier than ever to improve crop health and yields.

The digitalization of this next level of precision fertilizer management will provide more detailed insights to help farmers manage profitability and sustainability.

Critical levels are used to assess whether plants have the right amount of nutrients or if they are experiencing deficiencies or toxicity. Traditionally, these charts, which measure nutrient percentages or parts per million, have been static and often fail to account for the unique conditions of each field, a specific varietal, or stage in the growth cycle.

“While default critical levels provide a general reference for agronomists to gauge nutrient adequacy, they tend to be broad and generalized, created from academic trials conducted decades ago. Our new feature addresses this limitation by offering a more dynamic approach tailored to the specific conditions of each region, variety, field, or section,” the company’s representatives recently announced.

Custom Critical Levels are particularly valuable for potato growers because potatoes have specific nutrient requirements that can vary significantly based on the variety, soil conditions, and growth stage. This feature allows agronomists to tailor nutrient management plans specifically to each potato field, ensuring optimal nutrient levels throughout the growth cycle. By fine-tuning nutrient application, the technology can help improve yield quality and consistency while also reducing the risk of nutrient deficiencies or toxicities that could impact crop health.

Customization for Optimal Crop Health

Custom Critical Levels empower agronomists to fine-tune nutrient management throughout each growth stage. This feature allows them to create and adjust templates specific to each field, addressing the fact that crops often deviate from standard growth timelines.

For example, if a crop emerges earlier than expected, agronomists can modify the critical levels to align with the actual growth stage, ensuring accurate nutrient management.

The aim is to develop tailored nutrient profiles based on region, soil conditions, crop varieties, and weather patterns. Agronomists using the platform can start with legacy critical levels but are encouraged to customize them based on their expertise. Additionally, this feature assists growers in confidently monitoring and adjusting their nutrient plans to keep crops on track throughout the season.

Trusting The Agronomists: Adjusting Levels

This powerful tool requires trust in the agronomist’s expertise. While Custom Critical Levels offer the flexibility to create new templates, it’s often more practical to adjust existing ones based on field conditions and growth stages. Experienced agronomists can leverage their knowledge and the insights from LENS real-time tissue analysis to make informed adjustments rather than starting from scratch.

“This approach ensures that the nutrient management plan is not only customized but also rooted in practical experience and data. By collaborating closely with your agronomist and making informed adjustments, you can achieve the best results for your crops and make the most of this innovative feature,” a recent press release reveals.

Who Can Leverage This Feature

Custom Critical Levels can be accessed through the company’s Fieldbook platform and exported as spreadsheets or PDF reports. This feature offers valuable benefits for farmers – access to precise, up-to-date data to manage crops effectively with real-time insights. Tailor foliar applications based on these results to ensure optimal nutrient mixes for current crop conditions; agronomists – develop and customize nutrition programs to align with specific regional, soil, and crop conditions, enhancing the effectiveness of nutrient management; input companies – assess the efficacy of products through research and verify their impact with growers on a large scale; seed breeding experts – leverage detailed data to advance research and development of new hybrids and crop varieties.

Most potato varieties are in the ground for 90 to 120 days before getting harvested, so growers must make the most of this time window to ensure they get the best outcome possible by the end of the season. With so much effort and resources going into the crop each year, growers are always looking for proactive ways to manage their resources, always striving for maximum yield. One of the best ways to do this is to monitor the health of crops at regular intervals throughout the season.

Initially designed for potato analysis, the LENS works by analyzing crop tissues and comparing them to a global database of crop conditions gathered from thousands of plants at different growth stages. Its reliability has been demonstrated through repeated studies conducted across hundreds of fields on four continents.