IUNU

We love working with growers who are building a strong data foundation. "The grower's eye is valuable but inconsistent," says Perry van Adrichem of HortiTech. No two people see a plant exactly the same way, and no one can check every plant every day. IUNU helps extend that expertise, giving growers a consistent, daily view of every plant, not just ten samples a week. And when harvest predictions miss, it's costly. In Perry's words, a system like this "will earn itself back." Thank you to Perry van Adrichem and the HortiTech team for putting IUNU to work and sharing what they're seeing. https://lnkd.in/g-AftVPH

Hey Philly! 🔔 Adam Greenberg, our CEO, is attending the GreenTech North America trade show today and tomorrow. Find him on the trade show floor to learn more about growers who plan their harvests weeks in advance and have automated the collection of hundreds of crop registration data points daily. Can't find him right away? Send us a note and we can coordinate meeting up.

Last week we presented on how AI can improve efficiencies across the greenhouse supply chain. "You know we're propagators. How can you help us?" They weren't asking about technology. They were asking how the knowledge built before a plant ever hits a production greenhouse travels forward. How results flow back so next season starts from what actually worked, not what was assumed. The plant recipe gets a lot of attention. What happens before it ever applies gets far less. These are the people who understand that what happens in the first few weeks sets the conditions for everything that follows. The foundation of a season is decided earlier than most operations realise. Thirteen years ago we started building computer vision for one reason: objective truth data. Not estimates. Not samples. What is actually there. We use that data to empower the people growing the crop who already know what to do. We also have a pretty good AI assistant keeping an eye on things. But honestly, that's table stakes now.

In Canada, when an engineer graduates, they take part in a quiet ceremony called the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer. It is one of Canada's most enduring engineering traditions. They receive an iron ring, worn on the little finger of the working hand. The hand that holds the pen. The hand that signs the drawing. The ceremony has been held since 1922. It is not a celebration. It is an obligation. A reminder that the work an engineer puts their name to will be stood on, driven over, and lived inside by people who will never know who designed it. The ring is meant to catch on the page as you work. A small, physical reminder, every time it does, that what you are building rests on something. That the foundation matters as much as everything visible above it. Canadian engineers have passed this tradition down for over a hundred years. Not because they are required to. Because they understand that the strength of anything built is determined long before anyone can see it. There is something in that worth carrying into any field where people build things and others depend on what they build. Every decision made this season is built on something. A forecast. A planting plan. A quality assessment. The strength of those decisions is determined by what the data underneath them actually is.

Farmers have welcomed kestrels onto their land for centuries. The kestrel hovers above a field, perfectly still, scanning. It sees what no one walking the ground can see. The precise location of an anomaly before it becomes a loss. It works quietly. It does not disturb the crop. It does not ask the farmer to change how they work. And when it finds something, it goes directly to it. Growers have never seen the kestrel as a threat. They see it as an ally. Something that moves through the operation, sees what they cannot see from where they are standing, and makes them faster at knowing. LUNA AI's autonomous system was built with the same idea. It moves through the greenhouse rows every day without an operator, without anyone entering anything, without disrupting the work happening around it. It sees every plant in every section. It builds a record that could not exist any other way. The kestrel does not replace the farmer's judgment. It makes the farmer faster at knowing.

The most reliable input to any operation in horticulture is the plant itself. Not a spreadsheet. Not a climate model. Not an estimate. This Thursday, August 20, Yoeri van der Laan is presenting at Research Centre Hoogstraten on why that distinction matters more than most AI strategies account for. A strategy built on inferred conditions is only ever as good as the inference. A system built on direct, continuous observation of the crop itself starts from something harder to argue with. The reasearch centre currently measure by hand today. LUNA AI's Autonomous tier collects that same plant data on its own, with a fully automated mobile camera unit and no operator required, continuously and at scale. That's the shift Yoeri is presenting on: what it looks like to build an AI strategy on direct observation instead of inference, and what changes when the data collection itself no longer needs a person walking the rows. If you're at Proefcentrum Hoogstraten Thursday, find Yoeri and see it firsthand

We love working with you as well! Thanks for the shout out!

Better visibility leads to better decisions, and last week we saw a great example of that at Noordhuys. John and I visited the team to review a new reporting concept built using data gathered by IUNU, designed to provide a more complete view of the crop. One of the most interesting moments was seeing data confirm a recent crop steering decision before the effect became visible in the weekly manual registrations. We also explored differences between compartments, helping validate observations that were already being made in the greenhouse and turning them into measurable insights. For me, this is where technology creates value. Not by replacing experience, but by helping great growers see more of what is already happening in their crop, understand it sooner, and make decisions with greater confidence. Thank you to the entire Noordhuys team for the trust and partnership. Looking forward to the next steps together.

Heading into Day Three at GreenTech and no shortage of good conversations. The kind where you lose track of time. If you haven't had a chance, please stop by Booth 01.340 and say hello. #GreenTechAmsterdam #GreenhouseGrowing #ControlledEnvironmentAgriculture #AgTech

𝑶𝒉 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕! 🥂 We love bringing together our customers, partners, and future customers every year at GreenTech and last night was no exception! We had the honour of hosting our largest dinner yet. 🎉 We would like to thank all who joined us for a wonderful evening and are already looking forward to next year. 🙌 Couldn't make it? Please visit us at Booth 01.340 to say hello. 👋