Case Study: Greenhouse Iceberg Lettuce (90 Days)
Greenhouse lettuce trial shows 9–40% input savings and up to 25% yield increase
An internal 90-day greenhouse trial on iceberg lettuce evaluating whether CredoSense-guided decisions can reduce water, nitrogen fertilizer, and crop protection inputs while maintaining or improving marketable yield.
At a glance
Water Saving
Nitrogen Saving
Crop protection
Yield Boost
*Crop protection is reported as a normalized index within the facility (see Methodology).
Why this trial
Early signals and visible symptoms are often non-specific. This trial was designed to test whether a physiology-first diagnostic workflow can convert routine greenhouse observations into clear, measurable input decisions, reducing wasted water and inputs while protecting yield.
Trial setup and methodology
- Crop: Iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativa)
- Duration: 90 days (Jan–March 2025)
- Design: Six beds total, with 3 control beds (standard practice) and 3 CredoSense-guided treatment beds. Each bed contained 10 plants grown in 3 L pots with commercial potting mix.
- Irrigation: Hand-applied and logged as total volume per bed (L).
- Fertilizer: Calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN-27), logged as total product mass per bed (kg).
- Crop protection: Tracked as a within-facility index (unitless) to normalize application intensity across the trial.
- Outcome: Fresh yield (kg/bed) measured at a single harvest. Beds were the experimental unit (n = 3 per group).
How the crop protection index works
Each application event contributed to a bed-level score based on applied spray volume and a label-rate factor (to account for dosing differences). Event contributions were summed across the season and normalized to the control mean (≈100).
What changed in the CredoSense-guided beds
In the treatment beds, interventions were guided by CredoSense’s rapid, non-destructive physiological diagnostics to identify the dominant stress driver (water, nutrition, or biotic pressure) and translate that into practical greenhouse decisions.
Measurements were taken when plants deviated from expected performance, and actions were adjusted accordingly.
Results
Across the 90-day greenhouse cycle, CredoSense-guided beds used 36.1% less water (122.0 ± 3.6 L/bed in control vs 78.0 ± 4.0 L/bed with CredoSense), applied ~9% less nitrogen fertilizer (CAN-27) (0.300 ± 0.010 kg/bed vs 0.273 ± 0.006 kg/bed), reduced the crop protection intensity index by ~13% (112.0 ± 8.0 vs 97.3 ± 2.5), and achieved ~25% higher fresh yield (3.90 ± 0.20 kg/bed vs 4.88 ± 0.08 kg/bed).
CredoSense solution cuts inputs by 9–40% and lifts yield by 25% by diagnosing the stress driver, not guessing from symptoms.
Means and standard deviations were computed across beds and differences are reported as percent change relative to control. Given the small sample size (n = 3 beds per group), Welch’s t-test was used and 95% confidence intervals were estimated via bootstrap resampling (20,000 iterations).
Because this was an internal screening trial with manual logging and limited replication, the results should be viewed as evidence of operational potential and justification for larger, multi-cycle replicated studies.
Limitations and next steps
Replication was limited (n = 3 beds per group) and irrigation and input logging were manual. Crop protection was tracked using a normalized index; future trials will report crop protection in defined units (for example, product volume or active ingredient basis) for stronger cross-site comparability. Next, we plan to increase replication (≥6 beds per group) and repeat the study across multiple cycles.
Want to see what this workflow could do in your operation?
We will help you configure your benches or zones, align the workflow to your crop stage, and generate a field- or facility-ready summary report that your team can act on.