Sencrop’s next-gen vineyard sensor provides year-round frost and disease insight

Sencrop’s Leafcrop sensor has been launched in the UK, providing super-localised, compact and maintenance-free leaf wetness monitoring, with real-time information about disease and frost risks to improve on-farm decision-making.
Already in use on over 200 vineyards across Europe, the award-winning sensor offers 24/7 monitoring capabilities, an easy-to-use interface and next-generation technology.
“Unlike standard leaf wetness sensors, which measure only dew and precipitation accumulating on the leaf surface, the Leafcrop also monitors the air temperature and humidity for disease risk, and measures the quantity of water present on a leaf with the highest precision,” explains Sencrop’s co-founder Martin Ducroquet.
“Leafcrop uses our specially developed algorithms to ‘crunch’ all these data flows, building up an accurate picture of the precise conditions within the vine canopy.”
The results are displayed through an online dashboard, helping growers make more informed decisions about crop protection, using the data it collects to indicate the onset of conditions that favour disease.
Alerts through the Leafcrop dashboard can also warn a grower of impending frost risk and suggests preventative action thanks to the sensor’s measurement of wet-bulb temperature, a determining factor for the onset of frost.
“With Leafcrop in use, smart to the effect that vineyard topography can have on local conditions, a grower can build a far more detailed understanding of in-crop conditions,” Martin says, “Not only does this enable more effective decision-making, it can also improve the bottom line.
“Armed with Leafcrop data, a grower might decide that a spray application is no longer needed. Conversely, data might alert them to the onset of disease before it really takes hold, enabling them to nip it in the bud before it has any serious impact on grape quality or yield.”
Leafcrop won a silver medal in the 2019 SIVAL Innovation Competition, and is easily installed on-farm and requires no external power source, being powered by a three-year battery.
Find out more on the Sencrop website.