System and Method for Crop Management

A method of crop management of a plant variety to be planted at a geographic by adjusting the amount of moisture in the soil near the plant, where the method uses a system including a computer having a processor, one or more soil moisture sensors located at the geographic location, and an irrigation system having valves operable to deliver water to the geographic location, where the crop has several phonological stages between the transplant date and the harvest phonological stage, where each phonological stage has a predetermined, estimated number of degree growing units at the beginning of the phenological stage and an optimal range of soil moisture for each phonological stage of plant growth, where the processor is programmed to determine the operation of the valves based on soil moisture levels determined from measurements from one or more soil moisture sensors, and where the processor is programmed to access predicted temperature data from a Prediction Weather Data Module, and historical temperature data from a Historical Weather Data Module, said method comprising:

• determining one or more stakeholders involved in harvesting or transporting the crop to the point of consumption and whose activities depend on advance notice of a harvest date, where the one or more stakeholders include harvesters of the crop, shipping vendors who arrange for shipping the produce from the geographic location, and buyers who accept the vendors' shipments and distribute the produce to stores or others who supply the crop produce to consumers,
• calculating a transplant date at the geographic location based on a desired harvest date using predicted temperature data at the geographic location from the Prediction Weather Data Module;
• transplanting the crop on the calculated transplant dale, for one or more current dates after the calculated transplant date,
• determining the number of growing degree units between the transplant date and the current date using the historical data from the Historical Weather Data Module,
• estimating the current phenological stage from the determined number of growing degree days, the historical data from the Historical Weather Data Module, and the predetermined number of degree growing units at the beginning of each phonological stage,
• determining a range of optimal soil moisture levels corresponding to the estimated phenological stage,
• determining the current soil moisture percentage (SMP) in the soil,
• operating the valves to provide water to the soil if the current SMP is less than the range of optimal soil moisture levels,
• calculating a predicted harvest, date using the calculated number of growing degree units and the predicted temperature data from the prediction weather data module, and
• providing the predicted harvest dates to the one or more stakeholders involved in harvesting and transporting the crops to the point of consumption.

An apparatus for crop management of a plant variety to be planted at a geographic location by adjusting the amount of moisture in the soil near the plant, where the method uses a system including a computer having a processor, one or more soil moisture sensors located at the geographic geographic location, where the crop has several phenological stages between the transplant date and the harvest phonological stage, where each phenological stage has a predetermined, estimated number of degree growing units at the beginning of the phonological stage and an optimal range of soil moisture tor each phonological stage of plant growth, where the processor is programmed to determine the operation of the valves based on soil moisture levels determined from measurements from one or more soil moisture sensors, and where the processor is programmed to access predicted temperature data from a Prediction Weather Data Module, and historical temperature data from a Historical Weather Data Module, said apparatus comprising a computer having a processor programmed to:

• determine one or more stakeholders involved in harvesting or transporting the crop to the point of consumption and whose activities depend on advance notice of a harvest date, where the one or more stakeholders include harvesters of the crop, shipping vendors who arrange for shipping the produce from the geographic location, and buyers who accept the vendors' shipments and distribute the product to stores or others who supply the crop produce to consumers,
• calculate a transplant date at the geographic location based on a desired harvest date using predicted temperature data at the geographic location from the Prediction Weather Data Module;
• receive a confirmation that the crop was transplanted on the calculated transplant date;
• for one or more current dates after the calculated transplant date,
• determine the number of growing degree units between the transplant date and the current date using the historical data from the Historical Weather Data Module,
• estimate the phenological stage from the determined number of growing degree days, the historical data from the Historical Weather Data Module, and the predetermined number of degree growing units at the beginning of each phenological stage,
• calculate a predicted harvest date using the determined number of growing degree units and the predicted temperature data from the Prediction Weather Data Module,
• provide the predicted harvest date to the one or mote stakeholders involved in harvesting and transporting the crops to the point of consumption,
• determine a range of optimal soil moisture levels corresponding to the estimated phenological stage,
• determine the current soil moisture percentage (SMP) in the soil, and
• providing instructions to water the soil if the current SMP is less than the range of optimal soil moisture levels.