Fruit Bites for July 13-15 New Technology

BL: Welcome back to another “Fruit Bites” brought to you by Valent U.S.A. With us again is Valent’s Allison Walston. And this week Allison, we are talking about new technology in tree fruit!

AW: 20 years ago, when I moved to the area fresh from grad school, there weren’t fancy apps for my cell phone and we were sticking plywood donuts on the back of airblast sprayers to reduce drift. Needless to say, new technology has entered our tree fruit world and more is on the way. From tower sprayers that help with coverage while reducing drift, entire orchards going from 4-leaders to fruiting walls with platform pickers. We even drop sterile codling moth from drones.

BL: Seems like a lot of changes. What is the most exciting upcoming technology?

AW: most exciting is the aerial/satellite imagery that can detect the number and size of fruit on the tree PLUS map the density which will help determine thinning efficacy. We can make better management decisions with these tools.

BL: Well, thanks Allison. Join us again next time for Fruit Bites, brought to you by Valent. Until then, I’m Bob Larson.