Frequently Asked Questions

We’re Source.ag, a team of over 100 ambitious and bright minds working at our office in Amsterdam, to democratize access to fresh fruit and vegetables while honoring our planetary boundaries.

How do we do this? By empowering fruit and vegetable growers with AI-driven solutions to help them cultivate more efficiently and allow them to improve their results, reduce risks in their operations, and scale their business. As a partner of growers worldwide, we stand shoulder to shoulder with growers to learn from them. By doing so, we leverage their knowledge and insights and combine this with our technical expertise to make it scalable. Learn more about Source.ag.

Ready to explore what Source can do for you? We're excited to assist you in embarking on this journey. Click the link below to request a demo.

Our team is dedicated to guiding you in selecting the perfect fit for your needs and ensuring a smooth start. Connect with us today to begin your Source experience!

Our dedicated onboarding team is committed to guiding you through each step of your initial weeks with Source, ensuring a seamless integration into your workflow.

Beyond this period, our support team is always available to address any queries you might have about utilizing Source effectively.

Additionally, our customer success team ensures you leverage Source to its fullest potential, optimizing your experience. Moreover, we offer access to exclusive customer groups where you can share insights, and experiences, and receive support from a community of fellow growers.

Our solutions are optimized to ensure they work together seamlessly to handle everything from plant measurements to AI-driven cultivation predictions. Here’s how it works:

1. The Source Plant App enables you to make a digital copy of your plants and ensures consistency in plant measurements.

2. The data gathered from the Plant App combined with the data from the already existing climate computer and other infrastructure, gets sent to Source Track.

3. Source Track thus gathers the climate and plant data in one place and makes it possible for users to compare performance, and plans and set specific goals to track the development of their cultivation.

4. Source Cultivate helps find the optimal crop plan by running simulations, thus ensuring optimal harvest yield.

5. Finally, Source Control suggests the most beneficial irrigation strategy and feeds this to the climate computer.

Yes, the Source Plant App is an offline-first app. Which means that it can be used without an internet connection. Simply complete all your measurements and save them locally on your app. When the iPad is connected to the internet somewhere else, it will ensure to update everything centrally in your account as well and you can then make new strategy predictions based on the input you gave.

The Source Plant App is created for iOS and can’t be used on Android. 

We recommend measuring around 20 plants per variety for the best results.

No, you don’t need to purchase an iPad to use Source. During the onboarding stage, our specialists will help you get started and supply you with the ideal number of iPads for your operation.

The Source Plant App is the first step in starting with Source and becoming AI-ready. With the Source Plant App, growers can easily register key plant measurements by creating a digital twin of their plants. Those key measurements can then be viewed in Source Track.

When using Source Track you can benefit from:

• One platform to track everything that makes or breaks cultivation allowing you to make informed cultivation decisions.

• Actionable insights that empower both new and expert growers to efficiently adapt to changing conditions.

• Faster onboarding and training of new growers.

• Easy knowledge sharing across multiple facilities and companies.

• Source Track makes sure your greenhouse facilities become AI-ready.

Source Track encourages you to set a growing strategy and goals at the start of your season. Based on observations made during the season, you're encouraged to update your crop plan regularly. Doing so, growers working with Source Track have observed an increase in harvest yield and time efficiency.

No, you don’t need to purchase an iPad to use Source. During the onboarding, we will deliver the needed amount of iPads for your operation.

Yes, Source Track is compatible with all sensors and climate computers. Learn about all our compatible partners on our partner page.

Your cultivation plan, combined with the Source Plant App, forms the foundation of our solutions. The data you collect using the Source Plant App is translated into actionable insights, which are displayed on the overview page and in the weekly summary in Source Track.

Source Cultivate is the cultivation simulation and management tool designed to simplify the relationship between cultivation strategies and overall profitability. Source Cultivate benefits growers by providing accurate yield forecasting, assisting in harvest decision-making, and offering season simulation to maximize profitability and minimize business risks.

Yes, Source Cultivate can help in logistic and workforce planning by predicting the yield more accurately, which allows growers to anticipate the required process resources more accurately. This allows growers to plan staffing needs efficiently and manage logistics, like scheduling trucks for harvest times, thereby lowering operational costs and enhancing overall efficiency.

Absolutely. Source Cultivate is designed to benefit all growers, regardless of their affiliation. Independent growers, in particular, can gain significantly from the improved insights and accurate forecasts provided by Source Cultivate, as it helps them manage risks and negotiate better prices without the buffer of a cooperative.

With Source, your approach to understanding seasonal outcomes goes beyond an overview of the overall results. It's not merely about seeing the final numbers; it's about delving into the intricate details of the entire season. Source Cultivate takes this analysis to a deeper level. It allows you to pinpoint specific weeks that deviate from your initial expectations. This isn't just about identifying anomalies; it's about understanding the root causes behind these variances.

Yes, we’ve developed Source Irrigation Control with the capability to function without the constant need for an internet connection, ensuring reliability even in areas with limited internet connectivity.

To work with Source Irrigation Control your facility ideally should have the following sensors: substrate drain sensors, EC drain sensors, and substrate moisture sensors (scale or in-slab). We can work with different brands of sensors, please visit our partner page or reach out to us for more information.

Autonomous Irrigation Management: It allows growers to achieve their desired irrigation outcomes autonomously, regardless of changing weather conditions.

1. Advanced AI Integration: Source Control uses AI for intelligent data cleaning, ensuring sensor data reliability, and customizing plant-specific parameters in models, retraining them regularly with specific plant data.

2. Reduced Manual Intervention: The technology predicts irrigation needs every 15 minutes, reducing the time growers spend on irrigation management.

3. Improved Work-Life Balance: Source Control manages irrigation autonomously, reducing growers' workload and improving their work-life balance by freeing up time for other tasks. Source Control keeps working when the grower is off the clock.

4. Scalability: It enables greenhouse scaling by increasing the number of hectares a grower can manage and reducing the learning costs for new circumstances, climates, or seed varieties.

Source Irrigation Control is the AI-driven support solution for autonomous crop plan execution. It works in five ways:

1. Autonomous execution of ideal irrigation strategy based on your crop plan.

2. Automate management of substrate EC levels.

3. Smart interpretation of your sensor data.

4. Hyperlocal prediction of the local weather forecast, updated every 15 minutes.

5. A unique model is trained for every greenhouse in which you use Irrigation Control.

We've created a sophisticated approach combining two advanced models for nutrient uptake and plant water consumption. These models go beyond basic calculations, deeply understanding plant-environment interactions. The nutrient model ensures precise nutrient delivery at the right times, which is vital for plant health and productivity.

Meanwhile, the water model accounts for the plant's varying water needs across different growth stages and environmental conditions, considering factors like size, climate, and more. Together, these models accurately predict plant needs.

Upon onboarding and authorization, sensor providers can create and manage sensors within the Source system, sending measurements directly through the API. Please take a look at our step-by-step guide to find out how it works.

• 4 Steps to Start Using The Source API for Sensors

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of rules and protocols that enables different software applications to communicate with each other. It defines the methods and data formats that applications use to request and exchange information, allowing developers to integrate various systems, access web services, and add functionality without starting from scratch.

The Source API for sensors is a technical interface that allows sensor providers to integrate seamlessly with the Source ecosystem. Once onboarded and authorized by a grower, the sensor provider can create sensors within the Source system and send measurements through the API, which the grower can then use within Source products.

The Source API for Sensors supports integration with many sensor manufacturers. If your sensors are from a manufacturer not on our partner list, please contact us, and we will contact your sensor supplier about the possibilities of integrating with Source.

• Authorization
  The Source API for sensors uses the OAuth2 Client Credentials flow for authentication.

• Companies
  The List companies request can be used to retrieve the authorized companies and their company IDs for which the sensor provider can create sensors and can submit measurements.  

• Measurement types
  The List measurement types request can be used to retrieve the supported measurement types of the Source API for sensors. 

• Sensors
  The Create sensor request can be used to create a sensor at the appropriate company. To create a sensor, you must enter: “serial” (Unique identifier of the sensor in the sensor provider’s backend), “companyId” (Unique identifier of the company in the Source.ag backend), “name” (name of the sensor). After creating the sensor, you will receive the “sensorId”. 

Measurements
The submit measurements request can be used to upload measurements to Source.ag. The measurements can be uploaded in bulk format. Each measurement must consist of: “timestamp” (Date-time with timezone in ISO 8601 format), “measurementType” (Name of the measurement type), “sensorId” (Unique identifier of the sensor in Source.ag backend), “value” (Measurement value)