Orchard Watch – aka “How is the Orchard Feeling Today?” – is our nickname for a set of weather “stations” at the UMass Orchard in Belchertown, MA. Orchard Watch consists of:
- Two Onset Computer Corporation (https://www.onsetcomp.com/) RX 3000 “mother” stations that collect all the mote (see next) weather data as well as collecting their own: air temperature, humidity, rainfall, wetness, solar radiation, wind speed and direction, and soil temperature and moisture content.
- Seven “motes” that each measure: same, all of the aboved.
For more, Orchard Watch has a dedicated website: https://orchardwatch.wordpress.com/
Some interesting facts, in addition to the above, about Orchard Watch:
- Data from the motes is transmitted to the two mother stations by a proprietary wireless network called HOBOnet: https://www.onsetcomp.com/resources/product-overview-videos/hobonet-field-monitoring-system
- The HOBOnet “field monitoring system” at the UMass Orchard is composed of nine locations divided into “North” and “South” mother stations, North having 3 motes and South having 4 motes (in addition to an in-canopy wetness sensor). Figure 1. The motes are separated (at the maximum) by 3,000 feet horizontally and 180 feet vertically. Thus, nine micro-climate sites.
- Mother stations and motes log environmental (mostly “weather”) data every 5 minutes, from every sensor – air temperature and humidity, wind speed/direction, rainfall, solar radiation, leaf wetness, soil temperature and moisture – and transmit the data (every 15 minutes) via cellular to an Onset website called Hobolink. On Hobolink, current conditions are displayed, charted, and the data is archived for later retrieval. Currently, this costs $700 a year ($350 for each mother station).
- How much data is there? The math: there are 104 sensors, each with a data log point (air temperature for example) every five minutes, times 12 (per hour) times 24 (per day) equals nearly 30,000 data points per day! Think 30,000 spreadsheet cells per day! Times 365 days per year equals nearly 11 million data points (spreadsheet cells). That’s a lot!
The original intent of Orchard Watch was to monitor microclimate to get a feel if it makes any difference when used in orchard pest management models – for example apple scab – that predict pest severity/incidence. In addition, there was some thought about a public-facing website “How is the Orchard Feeling Today?” Neither in particular have come to realization. There is, however, a lot of data mining that could be done. I have pulled together three minimal examples for consideration.
Temperature
How much did the temperature differ within Orchard Watch? Turns out not that much (with one caveat). I pulled the temperature data for May, 2024, charted in Figure 2. Consider, however, that I have found that on a clear, cool (cold?) night the temperature does indeed differ significantly. For example, most recently, on January 22,2025 the low temperature recorded differed by 7 degrees F. (Zero degrees in the higher elevation to -7 degrees F. in the lower elevation.) Figure 3. And not the first time that has happened: https://orchardwatch.wordpress.com/2020/10/18/cold-air-sinks-confirmed/ Why – all other things being equal – orchards should be planted on higher ground vs. lower to manage frost/freeze risk. Thus you see orchards on hills (most of the time).
Wetness (leaf presumably)
This is interesting. I buried a wetness sensor in a tree canopy so I could compare that to one of the wetness sensors out in the “open.” (Did I mention that the mothers and motes are all out in open areas, not in orchard blocks themselves.) Hypothesis being the wetness sensor in the canopy would be “wetter.” Wrong. Figure 4. Guessing the canopy shields the wetness sensor from dew (or light rainfall), thus it records less wetness vs. sensors out in the open that collect dew?
Apple scab
Did a quick comparison here on scab infection periods between the mother weather stations on NEWA – the motes are not on NEWA so do not have the capability to run the scab infection period model with those – and also included another Onset and Rainwise station here at the UMass Orchard that are not part of Orchard Watch. For the month of May, 2024. Figure 5. Interesting, generally line up that would trigger fungicides sprays with the exceptions of May 1 and May 23-24. No idea why, probably a result of recording more wetting events/precipitation. Not convinced that overall, microclimate is going to make that big a difference in these models, however, certainly could use further investigation?
So, I got a lot of data, it is out there, free for the taking, I just need to find someone with some big data mining/analysis skills to make any of it actionable. Any takers out there? Or does anyone really care?
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| Figure 1 - Overview of OrchardWatch 'Hobonet' wireless network at the UMass Orchard, Belchertown, MA |
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| Figure 2 - Average, maximum, and minimum monthly temperature (May 2024) at nine OrchardWatch locations |
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| Figure 3 - Minimum air temperature (degrees F.) on 22-January, 2025 at nine Orchard Watch locations |
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| Figure 4 - Wetness (leaf) outside vs. inside canopy, May 2024 (week 4) |
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| Figure 5 - Apple scab infection periods (as predicted by NEWA) for May 2024 at two Orchard Watch locations (OW-N and OW-S) and two other on-site weather stations (Belchertown and Belchertown-2) |
