New technology senses nitrate levels in plants and water

Dec 07, 2023

Bravo. A few qeustions. Is it possible that these consumable sensors could get into the food harvested from the plant?Can they make sensors for phosphorous and potassium also?

Good question akamai. As an observer at this point, it doesn't appear the probe that gets inserts into the corn stalk stays in the corn stalk. The leads might accidentally break off, but humans aren't consuming that part of the corn plant anyway. I think there was some confusion in the article/interview about the sensor being "consumable". As I understand it, it is not a single use sensor. It can be used many times before it needs to be replaced. I believe James called it consumable because it has the ability to be replaced when it does wear out over time, but I don't believe it's meant to be replaced after each use. Great question about phosphorous and potassium. You might need a different probe or you could train an algorithm to read different plant nutrient levels from the same sampling instance. Perhaps in a future version.

Thanks! To your first question, it is hard to envision this would happen as the sensors, including the consumable bits, are part of a device the person measuring nitrogen carries through the field to make measurements. It isn't left in the field where it could cause problems at harvest. To your second, yes we are exploring the potential to measure phosphorous using the same technology and potentially integrated into a single device with the nitrate sensor in the future.