As we heard at Cultivate’18 during several sessions, consumers want their plants to have benefits beyond ornamental beauty. Because of this, it may be no surprise that edible flowers are garnering interest. Some varieties can be infused in drinks and dressings to add taste or boast medicinal benefits, or they can be used to complement a dish or beverage by adding color and texture. In November 2017, Whole Foods Market revealed edible flowers as the No. 1 food trend for 2018, and according to Ontario-based Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, a nonprofit organization for horticultural science, research so far supports this.

Vineland Research and Innovation Centre has partnered with Freeman Herbs, an Ontario-based grower and distributor of fresh herbs, to research consumer preferences for edible flowers and their position in the marketplace, and in 2019, Freeman Herbs plans to launch edible flowers in 4-inch pots in the produce aisle of supermarkets based on these findings.

How it started

Vineland started researching trends on edible garden plants in 2015. “It wasn’t specifically about edible flowers, it was about edible plants in general,” says Dr. Alexandra Grygorczyk, Vineland’s research scientist on consumer trends.

Grygorczyk conducted research that surveyed consumers on their preferences for edible garden plants like strawberries, raspberries or gooseberries. “We kind of threw in edible flowers just to see what would happen, and we were actually surprised because there was quite a number of people who were very interested in edible flowers,” Grygorczyk says.

Vineland’s survey found that 35 percent of participants were interested in edible flowers, and said they would purchase them over more traditional edible garden plants.

“We thought that was kind of surprising, and so we decided to look into it a little further,” Grygorczyk says.

In 2017, Vineland reached out to Freeman Herbs because of the potted herbs they grow and sell, and Vineland thought it could be a possible expansion for the company. It turns out that Freeman Herbs and Vineland were on the same page.

Marco de Leonardis, manager of research and development at Freeman Herbs, says the grower was already experimenting with edible flowers by letting some of their herbs grow to flower, so when Vineland talked to him about the project, he was on board with it.

The research

Vineland and Freeman partnered in 2017, and Freeman Herbs began production trials on more than 25 types of edible flowers. Ten varieties that performed best in production trials were eventually selected for the initial stage of the preference study with 200 Greater Toronto Area consumers: petunia, dianthus, pansy, impatiens, marigold, anise hyssop, nasturtium, peach sage, candy pop mint and snapdragon.

“Varieties that we are going to produce are varieties that are compact enough to be grown in a four-and-a-half-inch pot and they produce an abundance of flowers,” de Leonardis says. “The other thing is that [it needs] to be an ornamental flower, meaning that it needs to look good.”

De Leonardis says that the aesthetic of having edible flowers at home is also a strong motivator for the project, along with positioning edible flowers in the marketplace.

In the initial stage of research, Vineland found that the 200 consumers could be separated into two segments: bold flavor fans and smooth texture fans.

Those who preferred bold flavors and strong aromas made up 56 percent of participants, whereas 44 percent of participants preferred modest flavor and smooth texture. Grygorczyk says participants who fell into the smooth texture category disliked any flavor in the flowers whatsoever.

“Results also showed edible flowers such as nasturtium and candy pop mint should be marketed to the bold [flavor] fan group while impatiens and dianthus are of interest to smooth texture lovers,” according to Vineland's research report.

Edible flowers as a foodie trend

While Grygorczyk says she doesn’t think consumers would use edible flowers every day, she speculates their popularity as a foodie trend has to do with their ability to make meals and drinks photogenic.

“If I had to guess, I’d say it has to do with the fact that edible flowers are very Instagram-able. They just look beautiful,” she says. “[You can have] pictures of edible flowers in dishes. I don’t know if it’s really taste that’s driving it, rather it’s more of the look.”

When asked if the color of the flowers would influence a consumer’s buying decision over the taste or texture, Grygorczyk says that although it’s possible, that won’t be a part of the formal study.

Research will continue over the summer, comparing American consumers to Canadian consumers with possible results at the end of the season. Grygorczyk says an online survey will follow this to better understand consumer preferences for flower colors.

American consumers vs. Canadian consumers

The research so far has only focused on Canadian consumers, but both Vineland and Freeman Herbs are confident that edible flowers are trending in the U.S., too.

“From talking to Freeman Herbs, their perspective is that the American market is more accustomed to things like edible flowers,” Grygorczyk says. “They’re more accustomed to seeing edible flowers on the market, whereas you don’t see that very much on the Canadian market.”

De Leonardis says because of this, Freeman will likely start selling edible flowers to U.S. markets before Canadian markets.

“I think that American consumers are more advanced on the use of edible flowers. It’s already something that exists. Canadians [still need] educated about it,” de Leonardis says.

Price and production: what’s the difference?

The biggest difference in producing edible flowers is the “organic premium.”

De Leonardis and Grygorczyk both emphasize that the entire process of growing edible flowers must be organic.

“There [are] very different regulations when it comes to what kind of crop inputs you can use on [edible flowers],” Grygorczyk says. “You can’t spray them; you can’t put pesticides on them.”

De Leonardis explains that it is important to have a designated spot for the flowers to keep them organic, just like you would with herbs and vegetables.

“I have a spot in my garden where I grow my herbs, I grow my tomatoes, that is 100 percent organic,” he says. “I don’t spray them, I use organic fertilizers. If I have to use a pest control, it would be an organic pest control.”

The need for organic production could influence prices, he says.

“I would say that probably it would be more expensive than your ornamental varieties for various reasons. One is the organic premium,” de Leonardis says. “The seeds are more expensive. The whole process — the cost itself of producing an organic flower rather than a conventional ornamental — it makes that cost higher.”

Supplying to garden centers

While Freeman Herbs will initially be supplying its edible flowers to supermarkets, it is possible the company could supply them to garden centers in pots as an addition to the herbs and vegetables they already sell. De Leonardis says Freeman Herbs would not supply seeds of the edible flowers to garden centers, focusing first on supermarkets.

How to educate consumers

De Leonardis says garden centers should focus on the care of edible flowers when educating consumers on the trend.

“I would say that the information that the garden center would need to give is to reinforce what our instructions are,” he says. Freeman Herbs will supply instruction labels on the pots because the flowers will initially be supplied to supermarkets, which de Leonardis says don’t typically have experts in plants like a garden center.

Freeman Herbs is still working on the marketing plans for the edible flowers, but de Leonardis says the labels could contain information on the care of the flowers, what flavors consumers could expect from them and possible recipes in which the flowers can be used.

Grygorczyk says garden centers should educate consumers on how to use the flowers, not just the care.

“[Consumers] just need more help with understanding what to do with them,” she says. “Even having a poster with meal ideas [or] with pictures of edible flowers in meals would probably help.”

De Leonardis also stresses that garden centers educate consumers on how to transplant the edible flowers if they wish to have them in their garden instead of keeping them in the pot.

“[Consumers] could definitely put them into their garden. Obviously, if the weather permits it,” he says. “If you put [the flowers] in the garden in the good weather and you do not use chemicals they will stay organic. You will not want to put them in a place where you use weed killers.”

However, de Leonardis says keeping the flowers in their pots would be best.

“It’s easier to look after them in the pot than in the ground because of the diseases and things like that,” he says. Consumers could even repot the flowers and use sterile potting mixes supplied by garden centers if they wish. “The idea is that you buy the pot, you bring it into your house, it’s beautiful to look at, and at your need, you’ll be able to harvest and use it as a food or as a decoration for your dishes.”

De Leonardis also emphasizes that using edible flowers can also be beneficial for people's health.

“People need to understand that flowers often have medical benefits as well,” he says. Some edible flowers contain carotenoids, which have vitamins and can act as antioxidants.

“It’s not just a fancy way to make a plate or a dish colorful and eclectic,” de Leonardis says. “It’s not just because it looks good, it’s because it’s good for you.”

Samantha is an editorial intern for GIE Media’s Horticulture Group.

Signs and tags are essential for customers to better navigate your garden center and to learn more about products when staff members are busy. In our travels, we’ve spotted some great examples of signage that guided us through stores, provided helpful information and even made us laugh.

Signs, labels and tags that promote a brand and locally grown products

Longfellow’s Garden Center’s branded pots and a friendly tagline — “Making pretty … pretty easy” — promotes the Centertown, Mo.-based company and also serves as a reminder to customers that gardening doesn’t have to be so intimidating.

Colonial Gardens in Blue Springs, Mo., makes it clear that its hanging baskets are grown in-house, as are the vegetables it sells in its market. The company also showcases other local companies when the products aren’t Colonial-grown.

Providing free lemonade is just one small way Greenscape Gardens in Manchester, Mo., surprises and delights customers, especially when temperatures are in the 90s, as they were on this Thursday in May. Small gestures like this go a long way with customers and help them remember your store.

Solution-based signs

The team at Greenscape Gardens are experts at creating solution-based signs. They have sections specifically for deer-resistant, pet-friendly and pollinator-attracting plants, keeping it simple for customers.

Customers can stop by the Hillermann Nursery & Florist Garden Pharmacy for all their plant care and pest control questions, and the area includes welcoming signage and comfortable seating. One of Hillermann’s talented team members makes many of the signs by hand. Some are sold to customers while others are used to denote different areas of the Washington, Mo.-based store.

Longfellow’s Garden Center makes sure customers know where its perennials are located and that this particular selection of plants can attract hummingbirds to the garden.

Where can I find that?

Hillermann Nursery & Florist is on a very busy road, and the store is not at eye level, so to make sure people don’t miss it, president Sandi Hillermann McDonald says they installed what she likes to call the Hillermann “Hollywood” sign.

Putting gift items at various price points in one area is a good idea any time of year, especially on the biggest holiday for garden centers — Mother’s Day. Greenscape Gardens reminds customers to remember their grandmothers on Mother’s Day, too.

Hillermann uses large, colorful letters to promote its perennials area.

Bremec Garden Centers, with three locations in Ohio, has signage that is both attractive and informative.

Signs that made us laugh

Perhaps it’s not surprising that most of the humorous signs spotted were about restrooms, but they also helped customers navigate the store.

Hillermann’s women’s restroom sign is likely a favorite of its female clientele.

Greenscape Gardens’ sign answers a likely common question.

Hillermann makes sure its customers are actually paying attention to its signs.

Signs that promote deals

Customers could try their luck at Bremec Garden Centers in July. In each store, patrons could spin a roulette-style wheel and land on a random discount between 20 and 50 percent off their entire purchase. Signage around the store promotes the deal and encourages customers to take a spin.

Signs that explain important policies

Bremec Garden Centers displays its tree and shrub guarantee and return policy on signs near those areas to make sure customers know the guidelines before they get to the register.

Bremec images and captions contributed by associate editor Conner Howard.

ADOBE STOCK

Deeply connected, trust-based client relationships are rare. That’s precisely why you should make creating and nurturing them a priority.

These days, trust is at an all-time low. People are suspicious of organizations, institutions and leaders across the board. At the same time, competition is fierce. Your clients can leave you at any time (and for any reason) and replace your services with something faster, shinier and sexier. But here’s the good news: When you’re able to engage with clients the right way and build deeply connected, trust-based, authentic relationships with them, you automatically set yourself apart.

Strong client relationships are hard to come by and clients know it. That’s why when you know how to create them, you’ll win your clients’ loyalty, earn referrals and enjoy repeat business for life. Deep connections like this can’t be faked. They require your attention, your care and your authentic desire to serve your clients to the best of your ability. In both bad times and good, your commitment to them should be your top priority. Not everyone is willing to create and nurture these kinds of relationships. If you are, your business will thrive.

Here are 12 relationship-building habits that keep clients coming back.

1. Commit to a personal code of integrity and live it each day. Integrity should be a core value that steers all of your client interactions. This means committing to being honest and working hard with their best interests in mind. Develop a set of business integrity mantras you can strategically place around your office on Post-it notes or posters. Use them to remind yourself to align all of your decisions with your code of business conduct.

2. Give them peace of mind. Your clients should always be in good hands with you. Develop a system that works for you to proactively give clients the highest level of service at all times; whether it is having a perfectly tweaked project management system in place in your business or having a very clear line of communication. Make sure you respond to your clients in a timely manner and that you provide expert answers to all of their questions.

3. Build trust by keeping your promises. If customer connections are the cornerstone of a successful business, trust is the cornerstone of a healthy client relationship. Remember to keep your word and to deliver without fail. Keeping your word can be as small, but important, as never canceling an appointment or never going over the allotted time for a meeting. This guideline may seem simplistic, but this approach will not only impress and delight clients, it will allow them to trust you with more business in the future. Building client trust makes you a winner every time.

4. Be honest about what your services can deliver. Don’t oversell or overpromise the results you offer. Manage your clients’ expectations so they won’t be disappointed. But whenever possible, do put them in touch with others who can help them. Be sure to expose your clients to your networks just to be helpful. Maybe they come to see you for insurance policies, but your consultant pal from college could help them streamline their business initiatives — so you connect them. This will only widen your networks and strengthen your client relationships.

5. Don’t sell your customers products they don’t need. Be up front about products that would be a waste of their hard-earned money. Make your clients’ best interests your focus in approaching them with your services. This tip is part of a larger philosophy of moving away from seeing a client as an immediate sale and moving toward building a long-term relationship. This approach ensures that you are successful in building a solid foundation for your client relationships.

6. Deliver consistent service. Clients come to expect what they have experienced with your services in the past. Align yourself with a clearly defined mission, set of goals and level of commitment and ensure that clients receive the same level of care by delivering consistently high-quality service, time and time again.

7. Be authentic with clients. Authenticity, by definition, can’t be faked. Your customers will know if you are being friendly just to make a sale, but genuine interactions allow people into your life by sharing your personality and getting them to know the real you. Friendliness goes a long way.

8. Find thoughtful ways to show you care. Just showing up for your clients because you genuinely care about them is a sure way to solidify your connection with them. Send out birthday cards. Make a donation to a charity in your client’s name. Get to know each of your clients and show genuine interest in their lives. Remember details and ask about their families and lives. Create an emotional connection any chance you are able. Once relationships have been established, attend family weddings, funerals and bar and bat mitzvahs.

9. Check in even when you have nothing to sell them. Clients love to know that you care about them beyond the sale of services. Reach out to your clients from time to time and check in with them to see how they are doing. Take them to lunch, meet up for a game of golf, ask them about the outcome of an important family event. These ways of connecting are opportunities to find out if there is anything you could be doing even better to make this client happier.

10. Don’t forget about your existing clients, even when your business is booming with new ones. Clients can tell when they’re on the back burner. Consciously devote time to touching base with your loyal long-term clients — even when new customers are banging down your door.

11. Resist going on autopilot. Even if you have your sales technique down pat, find a way to actively engage with every client. Clients can sense if you’re phoning it in. Try to step into the shoes of your client each time you’re having a meeting. Find ways to really connect with the human being sitting across from you, and remember that you are striving to improve their lives.

12. Apologize if you make a mistake and fix the problem immediately. In most cases, customers aren’t interested in holding grudges — they want to forgive and forget. The best way to smooth things over when you’ve messed up is to make a heartfelt apology and then make it right. Take a moment to address mistakes and put in place ways to continually improve on your process by addressing obstacles that may slow down your momentum.

If your business is anything less than thriving, you should first and foremost examine your relationships with your clients. The truth is, you are far more in control of your brand’s growth than you give yourself credit for.

That’s why it’s so important to take true ownership of the connection you build with your clients. You’ll be amazed how much your deeper commitment to them will pay off in the long run.

Paul is the author of “The Success Code: A Guide for Achieving Your Personal Best in Business and Life.” He is a financial representative at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, where he has been a top producer for 40 years. www.paulgkrasnow.com

In Japan, one type of drone cross-pollinates lilies by remote control.

In North Carolina, a second type flaunts a protruding proboscis. In the Netherlands, a third steers around obstacles on its own.

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are used in various applications, including military operations, aerial surveying and field agriculture. Their use in confined spaces has been limited so far, but more researchers and companies are beginning to explore how they can be used in protected crop production. Some researchers predict that in the coming years, drones will be adopted for routine use in commercial greenhouses.

Due to declines in bee populations, one use for greenhouse drones that appeals to many developers is artificial pollination. In March, Walmart requested a patent for pollinating UAVs, and both self-pollinating and cross-pollinating drones have appeared in global studies and projects. Drones can also collect and map greenhouse environmental data. UAVs that can predict yields and monitor plant health likely aren’t far away from being implemented by tech-minded greenhouse owners and operators.

Drones for studying the environment

Dutch company Applied Drone Innovations (ADI) develops and prototypes drones that monitor plant growth and stress, as well as greenhouse environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, luminosity and volatile organic compounds, says CTO Lucien Fesselet.

ADI was founded by four friends, aeronautical engineering bachelor’s students at the Inholland University of Applied Sciences, whose project, “Drones in the Greenhouse,” won the 2016 Wij Inholland Award for best student project. By press time, all four company founders had already graduated university with the exception of Fesselet, who turned in his thesis days before this interview.

“It is very ambitious [work], especially when it started,” Fesselet says. “We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. And it did delay our study a lot.”

In 2017, ADI obtained access to 600,000 euros in funding — 300,000 from the Inholland University of Applied Sciences and 300,000 euros in subsidies from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research — for a two-year project called HiPerGreen. As part of its affiliation with the university, the company acquires help from students in degree programs as diverse as horticulture, agriculture, mechanical and aeronautical engineering, business, and law. In turn, the students gain experience and receive university credits.

Also in 2017, ADI demonstrated its technology to Martijn van Dam, the Netherlands’ former Minister for Agriculture, at Bunnik Plants, a grower in Bleiswijk.

Bunnik Plants was the first greenhouse the company worked closely with. “We’ve had a very good relationship with them, and they help us a lot in terms of understanding the problem, understanding how a greenhouse works,” Fesselet says. “When we started this, we were [educated in] aeronautical engineering. We called this the ‘green finger feeling’ when you know how plants behave. We were so far from having any of this.”

Since then, the company has formed close collaborations with five greenhouses, which mostly grow potted plants, Fesselet says. In that time, the company’s founders have also expanded their knowledge of biology, programming and mechanical engineering.

ADI’s protoypes are currently about 65 centimeters diagonally and require a pilot, Fesselet says. But he and his colleagues hope to reduce the size and make the drones autonomous.

The company wants its drones to be able to adapt to specific requirements and conditions in different greenhouses, Fesselet says. “We try to make it as modular as possible,” he says. “The way that we look at it, we try to distance ourselves from the drone itself. We want to more look at it as a platform that is capable of flying anywhere in the greenhouse.”

A helping hand for self-pollination

Close by in the Netherlands, at the Delft University of Technology’s Micro Aerial Vehicle Lab (MAVLab), researchers have been using self-navigating drones to pollinate flowers in greenhouses. This undertaking resulted in the development of the Autonomous Pollination and Imaging System (APIS), a “multicopter” (drone with multiple rotors) that aids self-pollinating crops such as tomatoes.

The drone detects flowers with a camera, shoots a jet of air that vibrates a branch of flowers and takes a picture of the flowers to capture the pollination and check that it was successful, according to project materials. When APIS’ battery reaches 50 percent, it goes to charge at one of eight ground stations, which the researchers compare to air traffic control towers.

Researcher Christophe De Wagter was the tutor for the project, and he saw multiple reasons why his team should do this work. “The combination of indoor positioning systems and collision avoidance systems of small sizes has opened the road to flight within greenhouses,” he says. “On top of that, concerns exist that in time, alternatives will be needed for pollination.”

Although the first generation of APIS is limited to self-pollinating crops, De Wagter says the goal is to continue developing technology until the drones can pollinate all types of flowers. In the meantime, researchers still need to test the first generation in a greenhouse.

Artificial from stamen to pistil

While some researchers have developed some drones to self-pollinate, another has retrofitted a drone to cross-pollinate. Dr. Eijiro Miyako, senior researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), was part of a group that cross-pollinated Lilium japonicum flowers using a remote-controlled UAV that they bought on Amazon for about $100. To collect the pollen, they attached horse hair coated with an ionic gel to the bottom of the drone.

For the project, described in a 2017 study in the journal Chem titled “Materially Engineered Artificial Pollinators,” Miyako learned how to fly the drone with enough accuracy to direct it to deliver pollen from the stamen of one plant to the pistil of another.

“These types of drones would somewhat contribute [to] making crops in the greenhouse,” he says. “That said, we need more high-tech equipment such as GPS [global positioning system] and AI [artificial intelligence] for realizing automatic controlling of the drones. Consequently, the size of drones would be bigger against our expectations due to the incorporation of heavy computers.” Miyako suspects it will take about five years before technology like his can be used in commercial greenhouses.

Since the study came out, many scientists and horticulturists have sent Miyako encouraging messages and requests to collaborate on projects. “My research has become rather popular in a short amount of time,” he says.

But in addition to positive responses, Miyako also has received heated messages from beekeepers who worry pollinator drones will replace bees. “In fact, they often e-mailed me, “Do NOT take away our work by unnatural robots,’” he says. But Miyako says his intention is not to replace bees, but rather to help counter their decline.

Natural versus artificial pollinators

Pollination drones or no pollination drones, there is reason to be worried about bee population declines, says Dr. Christina M. Grozinger, distinguished professor of entomology at Penn State University and director of the university’s Center for Pollinator Research. She says half of the U.S. bumblebee species that are studied have experienced population declines.

Reasons for decline are varied, and they can include such factors as habitat loss, pathogens and parasites, pesticides and climate change, Grozinger says. While ornamental growers don’t typically release bees in their greenhouses — and likely won’t use drones in the future for strictly pollination purposes, either — Grozinger says they can take steps to help bee populations such as implementing integrated pest management programs and selecting certain plants.

Grozinger is not diametrically opposed to artificial pollinators as a whole, but she doesn’t think the technology seems particularly practical to use on many plants, either. “Bees and plants have co-evolved over millions of years together, so a lot of plants require fairly sophisticated handling techniques that the bees have developed in order to access the pollen, pick it up and then transmit it to the right place,” she says. “For some plant species that have more open flowers, you could potentially [use drones], but it just seems like it would make more sense to have bees around that could do that for you.”

Strawberries are an example of a crop that Grozinger says she cannot see drones pollinating. “Strawberries have a really interesting pollination system, where they have to be pollinated by different-sized bees to be able to pollinate each ovule and create a strawberry that’s the right shape,” she says. “It’s like the poster child of this system where you need a lot of different kinds of pollinators to produce a high-quality product.”

In response to the opponents of his project, Miyako notes that people have reacted negatively to past technological developments, such as cars, electric appliances and the iPhone. “I’d like to respectfully hear different views and perspectives, because we all have different ways of thinking,” he says.

Like Miyako, De Wagter says his lab has no intention of replacing natural pollinators with artificial ones. “The goal is certainly not to reduce the amount of natural pollinators either,” he says. “Instead, we do think it is wise to keep developing technology which could help in case this would be needed.”

Working to help the bees

Thomas Parrish decided to develop his pollination drone because of bee declines. Parrish is a professor who teaches information technology at Edgecombe Community College in Tarboro, N.C. He is also CEO of OpenRobotix Labs, which develops mobile technologies.

In addition to his roles at OpenRobotix Labs and Edgecombe Community College, Parrish is chairman of the board of the Conetoe Family Life Center, which helps builds communities through healthy eating. One of the organization’s services is to teach beekeeping and sell the resulting honey.

In his time on the board, Parrish says he has been educated about bee population declines in North America.

Parrish says the idea for a pollinator drone was influenced by his son. “We had a conversation around the table, and my son said, ‘Well, Dad, why don’t you look at building drones that can pollinate, and that way, we have something to help us out until we figure out what’s happening with the bees?’” he recalls.

OpenRobotix Labs is currently developing a pollination drone called the Poli-X1. The model is equipped with a proboscis in the front that touches flowers and transfers pollen. The company developed the drone to stay level as it flies back and forth. It also designed the technology to prevent “prop wash” — air current from the drone’s propellers — from blowing the pollen away.

While it sells some of its technology, OpenRobotix Labs has not yet sold any pollination drones. The company is seeking funding to further develop the technology.

Parrish says the goal is for the company’s pollination drones to recognize specific flower species and only pollinate species that need to be pollinated.

The Poli-X1 is about the size of Parrish’s hand, but he says he would like to develop a drone that is about a third that size. Another next step, he says, would be for the drones to self-charge via solar power. “This will be ideal technology for large-scale greenhouse companies because you could just basically have these drones sit, and at a certain time of day, they can get up and take off,” he says.

Since he took the pollination drone idea to the drawing board in December 2016, Parrish has implemented the technology in the fields at the Conetoe Family Life Center. He and his colleagues are working on some glitches pertaining to the drone’s plant identification capabilities.

Parrish thinks pollination drone technology will eventually be used in commercial ag applications. “If we don’t get the funding to do it, then somebody else ultimately will,” he says. “I think within the next 10 to 15 years, you’re going to see this as being something that agricultural companies are going to be using.”

Monitoring plant growth and health

Some drones, such as ADI’s, monitor crops themselves along with their environment. “By looking at multiple parameters, we’re trying to detect stress in the plants,” Fesselet says. “Then, based on those types of stress, we’re also trying to correlate with the kind of damage there is.”

Meanwhile, APIS, the pollination drone from TU Delft, has an onboard greenhouse map and can differentiate between multiple crop types in a single bay, De Wagter says. The drone also has imaging that allows it to detect flowers in real time. “But which post-processing can be done on the images has not been investigated in detail,” he says. “There are many image processing experts worldwide, and we believe that from this big data, many new products can be extracted. This certainly includes growth models, yield predictions and health predictions.”

Other technologies from the MAVLab could be used in monitoring commercial crops in the future. The lab develops and prototypes technology, and industry can commercialize it, De Wagter says. “We focus on technology to safely navigate in GPS-denied and confined spaces, for instance, close to plants without damaging them,” he says. “To this purpose, we have, for instance, also developed the dragonfly-like DelFly, which gently bounces off crops when it hits them and can navigate indoors. We do, however, not develop plant models nor health analysis software, but we give the drones high-end onboard cameras in order to collect the data needed for such analysis.”

Drones are developing quickly. Whether they mimic a bee or resemble a dragonfly; pollinate, monitor plant growth and stress, or take environmental readings; navigate on their own or with the help of a pilot; drones are likely to start zipping around commercial greenhouses.

Patrick is associate editor of Greenhouse Management magazine.