Plant Balance Metrics Now Available for Pepper Growers

Since launching for tomato growers in September 2025, Plant Balance Metrics have given growers a clear, quantitative answer to one of cultivation's most fundamental questions: how is my crop truly doing? Now, pepper growers gain access to the same level of insight.

Plant Balance Factor (PBF) compares light input with the plant's sugar usage to show whether you're steering conservatively or aggressively. A score above zero indicates a conservative approach with excess energy available, while a score below zero points to a more aggressive strategy where the plant is drawing on its reserves. It gives you a single, standardized number to assess your crop's energy balance each week.

Generative Trend Indicator (GTI) reveals whether your crop is trending toward generative growth (fruits and flowers) or vegetative growth (leaves and stems), based on plant measurements over several weeks. It helps you validate whether last week's climate and irrigation decisions produced the response you intended, so you can adapt faster when they didn't.

Together, these two metrics transform how pepper growers steer their crops. Instead of interpreting multiple data streams separately and relying on intuition, you get a clear weekly picture of where your crop stands and where it's heading.

How to get started

Both metrics are live on the Plant Balance page under the Cultivation overview in Source Workspace. GTI requires three plant measurements to be registered: head width, flowering height, and leaf length. Once those measurements are in place, the indicator populates automatically.

Growers can also take it a step further within Cultivation Management by simulating future Plant Balance scenarios. Test the impact of decisions like adjusting temperature or changing your pruning strategy, and see the potential effects on yield and plant health before making changes in the greenhouse.