In crop management, whether in precision or traditional agriculture, there are two critical aspects that must be carefully considered for a successful season: yield estimation and fruit sizing.
In previous articles, we discussed the role of the OnFruit 360 tool in yield estimation.
Today, we describe the operation and applications of DendroFruit — a tool designed to monitor the growth and size development of fruits.

Measuring fruit size is a common task in the field, especially to determine the optimal harvest time. It is also used to monitor fruit quality, detect production issues, plan thinning operations, and organize harvest logistics.
With these objectives in mind, Agerpix has developed and patented a monitoring hardware system to evaluate fruit growth dynamics: DendroFruit.
The generated information is updated daily, collected, analyzed, and made available to the client through a web platform that allows quick and easy data visualization.

The DendroFruit system consists of a set of sensors placed on selected fruits throughout the orchard, allowing real-time monitoring of fruit growth dynamics.
The result is a graph that shows the fruit’s growth over time.

The model is generated using the season’s own data.
The light lines represent the sizes measured by each DendroFruit device, the green line represents the modeled size based on measured data, and the blue line represents the prediction obtained by applying the model.
As we can see, this makes it possible to determine the ideal time window to begin operations and to plan resources in advance.

This information becomes even more valuable when data from multiple years and meteorological sources are collected, especially when humidity and temperature sensors are installed near the dendrometer.
With all this information, we can monitor potential issues, set management goals, and clearly understand what is needed to achieve those objectives. It can act as an alert system that notifies us when intervention is necessary and how to proceed.
If you are below your target goals, you’ve identified the issue and can anticipate a solution.

The information generated by DendroFruit allows the work to be approached from two perspectives:

1. Current size and predictive model: we know the current fruit size, and the predictive model indicates the approximate size expected at harvest.
   This information, combined with the automatic calibration data generated by OnFruit 360 and the predictive model, provides an overall view of the results expected at harvest time.
2. Target size and thinning: we establish a target size and use DendroFruit’s real-time data to fine-tune fruit thinning, setting thresholds and removing fruits that are below the desired size.

Additionally, to ensure efficient management, the fruit growth dynamic curves indicate how to manage the crop with the proper number of fruits and the right size.
DendroFruit serves as the foundation for creating these curves, which are complemented by the yield and size data obtained with OnFruit 360.

Therefore, DendroFruit is an extremely valuable tool for managing fruit production and quality. Permite obtener una visión precisa del calibre de los frutos y conocer la situación actual y futura de las plantaciones para tomar mejores decisiones.