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Growers Manage Beyond the Crops with RedBud Software

The cornerstone of any successful commercial greenhouse business is in its pest management. Yet, managing and monitoring its progress can be a challenge. Luckily, RedBud Software has been at the top of its game with a controlled platform to help make pest management seamless for growers.

Created by a research team at Ohio State University and launched in 2018, RedBud’s integrated system allows users to improve their overall operations, from record keeping, task management and more, ultimately helping growers reduce costs, maximize crops and overall input from their teams—all while recording what is being used to meet Environmental Protection Agency regulations. (Growers can choose from 200 EPA-approved control products, in addition to insects and other biologicals in pest management through the RedBud system.)

RedBud recently added two new features to the software to help improve management of personnel and overall tasks: Task Management and Teams. Growers can assign tasks to crew members—everything from plant care and moves, equipment maintenance, scouting, and more—and track all assigned, pending and complete activities with these new features, in addition to a platform for disseminating the best teams throughout their facilities and communicating issues among crew members to avoid miscommunications and improving efficiency.

Already part of the RedBud platform are several key features: Space Planning, which tracks indoor growth space throughout various facilities, pests and equipment by zones to monitor how crops are being affected, desired environment conditions per crop, and more; Equipment Maintenance to identify and track equipment maintenance issues, including scheduled maintenance reminders to help avoid costly down time; Pest Scouting and Management for growers to record pest counts in real time and better correct any issues early on and recognize any repeat patterns by section or crop; and the Space Planning feature helps track everything from available indoor growth space throughout various facilities, record pests and equipment by zones to see how crops are being affected, identify desired environment conditions per crop, and more.

In a recent interview, Bob Wiggins, CEO, said the company is looking to expand its features to include management tools that will cover irrigation, humidity, data management from greenhouse control systems, and more.