Night frost remains one of the most significant threats to fruit production. A few hours of low temperatures can damage blossoms, reduce yields, and create substantial financial losses for growers.
To help fruit growers respond faster and more efficiently, FruitProtect developed an IoT-based monitoring and automation platform focused on orchard frost protection. By integrating the TCG120-4 4G LTE I/O module from Teracom, the company extended its platform beyond monitoring, enabling automated frost fan control through MQTT communication.
About FruitProtect
FruitProtect develops IoT solutions for agriculture with a strong focus on protecting orchards from night frost.
The platform combines wireless sensors, cloud services, mobile applications, and automation capabilities to provide growers with real-time information about field conditions. The system monitors temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and pump operation while generating alerts when critical conditions occur.
Today, FruitProtect operates more than 1,200 sensors across several European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, and Poland. Approximately 80% of the deployed devices communicate through LoRa technology.
For fruit growers managing multiple orchards, the platform reduces the need for travelling between locations during the night while providing accurate information from the areas that matter most.
Image: FruitProtect sensor installed in an orchard
The Challenge
Many fruit growers rely on frost fans to protect their orchards during cold nights.
A frost fan works by mixing warmer air from higher atmospheric layers with colder air near the ground, helping maintain temperatures above damaging levels. However, effective operation depends on accurate temperature measurements.
In many installations, temperature sensors located close to the frost fan do not accurately represent conditions throughout the orchard. As a result, fans may start too late, stop too early, or operate unnecessarily.
FruitProtect wanted to automate frost fan operation based on temperature measurements taken directly inside the orchard while maintaining reliable communication over cellular networks.
At the same time, operating costs needed to remain low enough for large-scale deployment.
MQTT Frost Protection Solution
The FruitProtect platform continuously collects temperature data from sensors positioned at representative locations within the orchard.
When the measured temperature reaches a predefined threshold, the platform automatically sends an MQTT command to a TCG120-4 module installed at the frost fan.
The TCG120-4 receives the command and activates a relay output that starts the fan. The process works automatically without requiring intervention from the grower.
The same architecture can also be used for irrigation control and other agricultural automation applications where reliable remote switching is required.
Image: FruitProtect mobile application
Image: FruitProtect and TCG120-4 system architecture
MQTT Frost Protection Communication Optimization
Reliable MQTT communication was a key requirement for the project.
The TCG120-4 was configured to publish status information and receive control commands through MQTT over a cellular connection. While the solution worked as expected, FruitProtect identified an important challenge during testing.
Initial cellular traffic was approximately 1 MB per day per device. For a growing deployment base, communication costs could become a significant factor.
With the latest firmware versions, the TCG120-4 includes MQTT communication enhancements that improve efficiency while maintaining reliable operation over cellular networks. These enhancements optimize communication with the MQTT broker and reduce unnecessary traffic while preserving reliable connectivity.
In this application, daily cellular traffic was reduced to approximately 50–80 KB per day, representing a reduction of more than 90%.
Results
The completed MQTT frost protection system delivers several important benefits:
- Accurate temperature measurements from inside the orchard
- Automatic frost fan control based on real field conditions
- Reduced need for night-time travel between locations
- Lower fuel consumption by avoiding unnecessary fan operation
- Reliable MQTT communication over cellular networks
- More than 90% reduction in cellular data usage
The solution is already operating in real-world installations and has helped FruitProtect expand its offering to new customers.
Customer Feedback
“The TCG120-4 integration works very well for our frost fan application. The low cellular data usage makes the solution scalable, and it gives our customers a reliable way to automate frost protection based on real orchard temperature measurements.”
Conclusion
For FruitProtect, the combination of accurate field measurements, MQTT automation, and reliable cellular communication created a practical and scalable frost protection solution for modern fruit growing.
This MQTT frost protection architecture enables growers to automate frost fan control while maintaining efficient cellular communication.
The project also demonstrates the value of close collaboration between technology providers and system integrators. What started as a request to reduce cellular data usage resulted in firmware improvements that now benefit all TCG120-4 users.
By combining FruitProtect’s agricultural expertise with Teracom’s MQTT-enabled remote I/O technology, growers can protect crops more effectively while keeping communication and operating costs under control.
Learn more about the device used in this application here: TCG120-4 product page.