The future of variety management
INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE PRECISE LOCALISATION AND DOCUMENTATION OF FRUIT TREES
With the planting of the newly bred cider pear seedlings, which Dr. Walter Hartmann bred in a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project together with the "Kompetenzzentrum Obstbau Bodensee" (KOB), it was necessary to precisely label these seedlings. For this purpose, each tree was labelled with a weather-resistant plate and a QR code and stored as an item in our system. The coordinates are also stored in this master data. When the mentor for regenerative fruit growing from the USA, Michael Phillips, died suddenly and left behind no information about the trees and varieties, the usability of the trees died with him. This shock made us look for solutions on how to measure and map the coordinates of the mother and father trees, the seedlings, trees in other trials and, of course, our trees for our fruit production. We decided in favour of tracking via telemetry rod and "MagicMaps" app. The process begins with the use of a telemetry rod, a specialised device that uses GPS technology to capture precise location data.
The user physically places the telemetry rod next to the tree whose position is to be recorded. The rod then communicates with satellites to determine the exact geographical position (longitude and latitude). This method is particularly accurate and was able to provide reliable data even in dense forest areas. At the same time, the "MagicMaps" app comes into play. This app can be installed on a smartphone or tablet and serves as an interface for the collected data. As soon as the telemetry rod has recorded the location data of a tree, this information is transmitted wirelessly to the app. This data can then be visualised, edited and saved in "MagicMaps". The app allows users to create a map of the recorded trees, including additional information such as tree species, variety, age, health status and other relevant ecological or biological data.
