Doing Research in the Orchard

Doing Research in the Orchard

Doing Research in the Orchard. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. We talked yesterday with Gwen Hoheisel an extension educator with WSU about research being done in orchards and vineyards utilizing an electric ATV with some good results. But part of that research also extends to devices attached to the vehicle that are getting some good reviews. HOHEISEL: For us what we have been doing with it is we attach other research equipment to it in this concept or idea of mobility or having machines that can add other things to them. So we have a Weedseeker trial, so we've attached a Weedseeker to the front. The Weedseeker is a way of delivering herbicides to only weeds. She says the ATV has shown itself very useful, powerful and versatile. HOHEISEL: We've also got our caliper and counter which is really used in nursery or orchard systems. It goes through and can count how many trees are in a nursery which they do that by hand, they do that manually like 4 times a season. It also through 2 lasers can target the tree and tell you the diameter of the tree. These kinds of "robots" are nothing new in the field but the level of sophistication has improved dramatically including an optical robot called the "Scout." HOHEISEL: It's this long, tall mast that goes up in the air and there's 6 stereo cameras and lighting and it's to run through an orchard and it looks at apple location and size. It will be interesting to follow these advancements in the coming years. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
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