2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Vegetable and strawberry growers on the central coast of California are under regulatory pressure to reduce nitrate loading to ground and surface water supplies. We developed a web-based software application, called CropManage (https://cropmanage.ucanr.edu) for lettuce in 2011 to facilitate the implementation of the soil nitrate quick test (SNQT) and evapotranspiration (ET) based irrigation scheduling. The software allows growers to quickly determine an optimal fertilizer N rate based on the SNQT and crop N uptake curves and determine the amount of water to apply based on reference ET data and modeled crop coefficients. Users can access the software through a web browser on their smart phones, tablet and desktop computers. Both flowmeter and soil moisture data can be imported and displayed within the application. Since 2011, CropManage was expanded to accommodate additional commodities, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cilantro, spinach, baby lettuce, and strawberries. In addition, the user interface was improved to facilitate communication between farm managers and field staff and to be easier to view and use on small screens. A web application protocol interface (API) was also developed to allow CropManage to communication with other software. Field testing of the software in broccoli, celery, lettuce, and strawberry has demonstrated that growers can significantly reduce N fertilizer and water use without compromising production and quality.