Thermographic Imaging and Indoor Growing
Why thermographic imaging is valuable to indoor growers
What is a thermographic image?
Thermographic imaging uses infared cameras to create a heat map of the surface area of an object.
All objects give off a certain amount of heat in the form of infared radiation. Thermographic cameras sense the wavelengths of radiation that objects give off and convert them into images such as the one pictured above.
Thermographic images display the range of an object’s surface temperature, identifying areas that are hot or cold.
Thermographic cameras take photos of an area/object to capture the heat emissions at a singular point in time. This method of temperature measurement is often used to determine the effectiveness of insulation within a building and within certain types of medical equipment, but it can also be used to monitor your crops’ surface temperatures.
How can this technology be used in a greenhouse climate controls system?
Monitoring a crops’ surface temperature can help growers understand their plants’ health and metabolic functions at a deeper level. With a better understanding of the plants themselves, growers can more efficiently tune their indoor climate to the optimal conditions.
With thermal imaging of their crops’ surface temperature, growers can:
- Spot growing oddities such as pests, bacteria, and viruses early on
- Better understand the crops' water usage to optimize irrigation
- Gain insight into transpiration rates
- Advance their breeding and phenotyping skills
- Identify unviable seeds/seedlings
- Understand your plants’ circadian rhythms
How is thermographic imaging different from other methods of temperature measurement?
Thermographic images can display the temperature of a large area—possibly an entire greenhouse. They also don’t require any contact with the plants themselves to function, so they are completely non-invasive. Plus, thermographic images display the (differences in temperature) temperatures of different parts of the plants and sections of the grow space, rather than a summary of the entire surface area.
Thinking about utilizing thermographic imaging to help optimize your grow? Are you considering upgrading or fine-tuning your controls system? TC Control Group is here to help. Contact our experts to discuss your grow, learn more about controlled climates, and get a quote for your own controls system needs.
