Spraying the vines when the mistral sleeps
Hugo grows grapes on the hills above Cassis, just east of Marseille.
Listen to the story:
The challenge
He must spray his vines against mildew, but only when the air is calm and the hours ahead are dry. The mistral blows the spray away, and a shower washes it off. Last summer he sprayed three times for nothing, and lost a fifth of one plot.
How the flow works
With xMap Flows, Hugo built Vane. Vane is an AI employee: a flow of 6 blocks.
Every evening at six,
Every evening at 6 (Schedule)
over his vineyards at Cassis,
His vineyards at Cassis (Area of interest)
Vane reads the forecast hour by hour for the next two days,
Hour by hour, two days (Weather forecast)
keeps the hours with light wind and no rain,
Calm and dry hours (Filter)
picks the earliest good window,
Earliest window first (Sort and limit)
and tells him when to start the sprayer.
Tomorrow’s spray window (Email)
What it solves
- Spray blown away: solved by Weather forecast and Filter
- Showers wash it off: solved by Filter and Sort and limit
- A fifth of a plot lost: solved by Email
The result
On Thursday evening, Vane says the mistral drops at five the next morning, and the rain holds off until night. Hugo sprays at dawn, and the spray stays on the leaves. This year he sprays half as often, and every plot comes in clean.
Hugo can’t tame the mistral. He just knows when it sleeps.
An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.
The flow, block by block
- 1
- 2
His vineyards at Cassis
Sets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.
- 3
Hour by hour, two days
The weather forecast (Open-Meteo, from national weather services) for up to 16 days: temperature, rain, wind and UV.
- 4
- 5
Earliest window first
Puts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.
- 6
Templates to build it
Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.
- Rain alert for my cityAn email only on days when rain is expected in your city.
- High UV days: advice for my clinics' patientsOn high UV days, a short sun safety tip for each clinic's patients.
- Heat stop for outdoor work, every hourA WhatsApp heat stop to supervisors when a site reaches 45 degrees.
- Wind alert for crane liftsA Slack alert to stop crane lifts when strong wind is forecast.
- Frost warning for my farmsA WhatsApp frost warning to farm managers when nights get cold.
- Restaurants worth reviewing this monthYoung, well-loved restaurants worth reviewing, every month.
Learn how it works
- How to build a WhatsApp assistant that answers about placesCustomers ask on WhatsApp; an AI agent searches and replies.
- How to get rain alerts for your sitesA message when rain is forecast where it matters.
- Weather forecastUp to 16 days for each place or city.
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Build this flow on your own city
Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.