Citrus

Why One California Farmer is Betting Big on Algae for Fertility

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 18:33:48 GMT

Rows of citrus trees stretch across the landscape under the California sun, their canopies forming neat green corridors between irrigation lines and tractor paths. Some trees are newly trimmed, others older and thicker from years of growth. It’s the kind of orchard scene that has long defined agriculture in this part of the state, where permanent crops dominate the landscape and generations of farmers have worked to coax productivity from difficult soils and an increasingly unpredictable water supply.

For fifth-generation farmer Justin Wylie , these groves are more than just another orchard to manage. They represent an opportunity to rethink how soil works on his farm and whether biology — specifically algae — can play a larger role in the future of California agriculture.

Wylie and his family farm roughly 4,000 acres across California’s Central Valley. Some of that land has been in the family for generations, while other acres are leased. Like many farms in the region, the operation produces permanent crops such as pistachios and citrus, commodities that require long-term planning and careful soil management.

“This is a long-term lease with an investment company partner,” Wylie says. “And we just entered into that lease last year. It’s a 15-year lease with a five-year extension.”

One of the ranches he’s currently working to improve came through a recent leasing agreement that gives the family time to invest in the land and experiment with new approaches. That time horizon matters. With permanent crops like oranges, orchard decisions can affect productivity for decades. The trees must be pruned, fertilized and irrigated carefully year after year, and the soil beneath them has to remain functional through increasingly hot and dry growing seasons.

When Wylie’s team first took over the ranch, some improvements were necessary before any new ideas could be tested.

“We were really lucky on this ranch,” Wylie says. “The previous guys, they did let some of the trees get overgrown, so we did have to come in and push a hedge and top and resize those trees.”

While the orchard needed structural work above ground, Wylie says the bigger opportunity lies beneath the surface. The ranch is now part of a broader effort on the farm to transition a portion of the acres toward organic and regenerative systems.

“For the majority of the ranch, as far as fertility, the soils, the condition of the ranch,” he says, “I think the big thing with this ranch is transitioning from a conventional model to an organic regenerative, which is part of our commitment in the lease. It’s part of the model of the lease here — that we transition the ranch from conventional to certified organic and regenerative.”

The transition is happening gradually. Wylie says roughly 25% of the farm’s acres are currently part of that shift, allowing the family to experiment with new soil-building practices without risking the entire operation.

But the push to explore regenerative systems didn’t begin with markets or policy. It started with a deeply personal experience.

A Personal Connection to Soil Health

Wylie says his interest in soil biology and regenerative farming took shape nearly a decade ago, around 2015 or 2016. At the time, his family was dealing with a serious health challenge involving his young son.

The experience pushed him to start researching nutrition, gut health and the human microbiome — topics that would eventually reshape how he thought about farming.

“[My son] was sick as a kid, and so we were doing everything we could to heal him,” Wylie says. “His gut ended up in the hospital a few times with an autism diagnosis.”

Doctors and therapists offered guidance, but the recommendations didn’t sit well with Wylie.

“And then at the time, the doctors and the therapist told us basically, ‘Practice acceptance,’” he says.

Instead, Wylie started searching for more information about gut health and what researchers were learning about the microbiome. Over time, he began seeing parallels between the human digestive system and the biological activity that happens in healthy soils.

“They started figuring out that autistic kids had very weak gut microbiomes,” Wylie says. “And so when you make that connection as a farmer and you start saying, ‘What are all the things I can do at home to not stress that?’”

That question eventually carried over into his work in the field. The farm’s first experiment with regenerative practices was modest.

“We started on 40 acres of pistachios, playing around with it,” he says. “What can we do here growing in a different system?”

At the same time, the regenerative agriculture movement was gaining momentum online, making it easier for farmers to explore new ideas.

“At the time, there were quite a few regenerative agronomists out there releasing podcasts and YouTube videos,” Wylie says. “So the information was there. It was never on my radar before. But once you join that community and industry, it’s pretty interesting.”

Building on What Came Before

Even as Wylie explores new biological tools, he says the farm’s current practices still build heavily on the work done by previous generations.

His father’s generation invested heavily in agronomy research and orchard management strategies, developing systems that helped the farm stay productive in California’s demanding growing environment. From pruning methods to fertilizer programs, many of those lessons still guide how the farm operates today.

Rather than abandoning those systems, Wylie says his goal is to refine them.

“It’s really a tweak,” he says. “In my mind it’s a slight change in the method, not a complete start over.”

The farm continues to rely on the knowledge accumulated through decades of conventional farming, while gradually introducing new practices aimed at improving soil biology.

“We’re just trying to make tweaks to the system that we’re already operating in on the other ranches to see if we can do this a different way,” Wylie says.

One of the biggest challenges in that transition is managing fertility.

California orchards have historically relied on precise fertilizer programs to keep trees productive. But moving toward organic or regenerative inputs can create a different nutrient dynamic, especially during the early years of transition.

Wylie says growers sometimes underestimate how sensitive orchards can be during that shift.

Managing the Transition Carefully

According to Wylie, one of the most common mistakes farmers make when transitioning to regenerative systems is reducing fertilizer too quickly.

He says orchards that have spent decades under conventional management are accustomed to intensive nutrient programs, and abruptly changing that system can cause yields to fall sharply.

On some ranches where regenerative practices have been in place for several years, Wylie says the difference in soil structure is already noticeable.

“There’s other ranches we’ve been farming regenerative for five years,” he says. “You can stick your hand in the soil and get your fingers down right there on the berms next to the trees — it’s chocolate cake.”

But he warns farmers shouldn’t assume that kind of soil health will appear immediately after switching systems.

“Until that day, do not pull back,” Wylie says.

He says the biggest mistake happens when growers assume they can immediately match their old fertility programs using organic inputs.

“That’s the mistake that growers make,” he says. “They think I’m going organic regenerative, I can match dollar for dollar, I can do the same thing I was doing conventionally.”

Instead, Wylie says the transition often produces what he calls a “J-curve.”

“You’re going to see that J-curve,” he says. “I mean, it’s going to tank.”

To avoid that, his farm relies heavily on testing.

“We pull a lot of sap samples, multiple tissues and soils per year,” Wylie says. “Kind of watching our fertility and making sure these trees are fed.”

He says growers must remember trees grown in conventional systems are used to consistent nutrient availability.

“The soil has been farmed a certain way,” he says. “These trees are used to being fed intensively in that conventional system.”

And organic fertilizers don’t always behave the same way.

“The organic fertilizers just don’t work as well,” Wylie says. “So you have to be careful.”

Introducing Algae Into the System

As Wylie searched for ways to accelerate soil improvement, one newer tool caught his attention: microalgae.

The technology comes from soil health company MyLand, which produces living algae on farms and distributes it through irrigation systems.

“We’re probably in our fourth or fifth season,” Wylie says.

The idea behind the system is relatively simple. Rather than applying microbes directly to the soil, the system produces algae that help stimulate microbial activity already present in the soil ecosystem.

Jeff Tuel says the technology centers around specialized tanks designed to grow algae on the farm itself.

“We call these APVs, algae producing vessels,” Tuel says. “And essentially, the sole purpose is to grow algae here.”

Water from the farm is stored inside the vessels, where conditions are controlled to encourage rapid algae growth.

“So for all intents and purposes, this is kind of like the algae producing container,” Tuel says.

From there, the algae are delivered through irrigation systems already used on the farm.

“And we try to keep that holding tank to a level where if the irrigator is irrigating a 12-hour set, 24, 36,” Tuel says. “Our main objective is for them to never run dry of algae.”

Production is adjusted to match the grower’s irrigation schedule.

“We harvest according to the grower’s irrigation schedule,” he says.

Another important step happens before the system is even installed. MyLand scientists collect algae samples from the farm itself, identifying native strains that are already adapted to the environment.

“The reason native is important is because it’s used to the pH, it’s used to the droughts, the floods, everything Mother Nature’s thrown at it,” Tuel says.

Because those organisms already exist in the local ecosystem, they are more likely to survive once applied to the soil.

“Its odds of surviving and actually making an impact in that ecosystem are far greater,” he says.

Microalgae also sits at the base of the soil’s microbial food web.

“Microalgae is actually the base of the microbial food chain,” Tuel says. “All the bugs and beneficials in the soil are feeding off of it.”

Rather than introducing microbes, the strategy is to stimulate the microbes already present.

“I like to say instead of a bug-and-a-jug approach, we are ringing the dinner bell for the microbes,” Tuel says. “It’s kind of an all-you-can-eat buffet for microbes to get them moving and active.”

Tackling Difficult Soils

For Wylie, improving soil biology could help solve one of the Central Valley’s most persistent challenges: poor soil structure.

Many orchard soils in the region contain very low levels of organic matter, which limits their ability to hold water and maintain structure through the growing season.

“We have about 0.5% soil organic matter,” Wylie says. “Our water holding capacity is very low.”

That lack of organic matter can cause irrigation problems later in the summer.

“A lot of times these soils as we’re irrigating during the season will lock up,” he says.

Early in the season, irrigation water infiltrates the soil fairly easily.

“You start with very good water infiltration in April, May, June,” Wylie says.

But conditions change as the summer progresses.

“By the time you get to July, August, when you really need it, it’s very difficult to push water down in the soil,” he says.

For farmers trying to manage water carefully in California’s dry climate, that creates a major challenge.

“These soils are not very functional for us as farmers,” Wylie says.

Tuel says stimulating microbial activity can gradually improve those conditions.

“When you get those microbes to start moving and firing, you’re going to start to build soil aggregate,” he says.

Better aggregation can help water move through the soil while also improving nutrient availability.

“If it’s a high-salt ground, we can start to leach out some of those salts,” Tuel says.

Algae may also influence soil chemistry.

“Algae is also going to help regulate the pH in the soil so we can start to free up some locked-up nutrients,” he says.

Thinking Long-Term

While installing an on-farm algae system requires investment, Wylie says he sees it as part of a long-term strategy for improving soil performance.

“In a biological system like MyLand, it’s about the same cost as a soil amendment program out here, depending on how much acreage you’re using,” Wylie says.

The difference is the system focuses on building biological activity rather than simply adding nutrients.

“But it’s a long-term solution,” he says. “It’s not going to work overnight.”

Instead, the goal is to strengthen the soil’s microbiome so it can better buffer environmental stresses.

“It’s actually creating a buffer by just supercharging the microbiome that’s in the soil,” Wylie says.

That biological activity may help address several common soil issues in California orchards.

“Everything feeds on it,” he says. “It’s overcoming high salt, high chlorides.”

Even trace mineral challenges may improve over time.

“In some cases in California, we have very high boron in some areas,” Wylie says.

He believes increased biological activity may help mitigate those problems faster than traditional soil-building methods alone.

“Microalgae being put into the system can actually overcome those salts that might take 10 or 15 years of compost and cover crops,” he says. “You can accomplish in a few years by using MyLand.”

The Pressure on California Farmers

The search for new tools is happening at a time when farming in California is becoming increasingly expensive.

Data from USDA shows the state continues to rank as the most expensive place in the country to grow crops, driven by high labor, energy and input costs.

Those economic pressures are compounded by growing regulatory expectations.

Wylie believes California farmers are already facing some of the strictest scrutiny in global agriculture.

“I think the state’s already looking at it very closely,” he says. “I think they’re going to put more pressure on farmers in California.”

Compared with other agricultural regions, he says California producers are operating under unique constraints.

“Other than the European Union, there is no one in the world that’s under as much pressure as a California farmer to change the way we do things,” Wylie says.

Because of that, he believes farmers must take the lead in finding workable solutions.

“We need to figure this out,” he says. “And I want to figure it out before the government gets involved and tries to tell me how to do it.”

Government incentive programs exist, but Wylie believes the real challenge is making soil health practices economically viable.

“They can offer me some incentives,” he says. “We have healthy soils out here. They give you a little compost and cover crop seed.”

Ultimately, though, growers need systems that work on their own.

“We need to figure this out and we need to make it economical and profitable before the state comes in,” Wylie says.

Because once regulations remove certain tools, farmers may have little room to adapt.

“Now you’re forced to figure it out with your back against the wall,” he says. “We don’t want that.”

For Wylie, the answer may lie beneath the soil surface where billions of microbes, fueled by algae, could quietly reshape how California farms grow their crops. And by doing so now, Wylie hopes he’s able to find ways to continue to grow productive crops in California, despite increased regulations.

California’s HLB Quarantine Expands

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 13:32:41 GMT

The California Department of Food and Agriculture says it has expanded the state’s quarantine boundary for huanglongbing (HLB) in the San Clemente area of Orange and San Diego counties.

CDFA says the agency also expands the Asian Citrus Psyllid Bulk Citrus Regional Quarantine in San Clemente area of San Diego County, which reflects this updated HLB quarantine.

Also known as citrus greening or HLB, the disease is caused by the Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus bacteria, with the Asian citrus psyllid as its vector.

This follows the addition of 33 square miles in the Perris area of Riverside County in August , which included 8.84 acres of commercial citrus.

Apeel Sciences Sues ‘Green Smoothie Girl’

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 14:06:51 GMT

Food technology company Apeel Sciences says it’s been under attack since 2023 by a widespread disinformation campaign aimed against the company and its primary technology — a plant based, edible coating that extends freshness and reduces spoilage of produce. On Sept. 3, the Goleta, Calif.-based company said it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against one of those alleged disseminators of disinformation: wellness influencer Robyn Openshaw and her company, GreenSmoothieGirl.com Inc.

In the lawsuit, Apeel accuses Openshaw and her company of waging a yearslong disinformation campaign intended to harm Apeel’s business and reputation.

Apeel says the lawsuit asserts claims for false advertising under the Lanham Act; defamation; trade libel; disparagement of perishable agricultural products; tortious interference with business relationships; and unfair and deceptive trade practices.

According to the complaint, Openshaw — known online as the “Green Smoothie Girl” — began posting false claims about Apeel in July 2023. Between then and May 2025, she published at least 60 posts across Instagram, YouTube, X, Rumble, her own website and elsewhere online falsely stating Apeel’s plant-based coating is toxic and that Apeel’s products are made with solvents and heavy metals, the company said in a news release.

Luis Beling is CEO of Apeel Sciences, a food technology company that produces a plant-based, edible coating that extends freshness and reduces spoilage of produce.

(Photo courtesy of Apeel Sciences)

“Beginning in 2023, a coordinated disinformation campaign weaponized countless falsehoods to undermine the verified safety of Apeel’s products, stifle innovation, and profit from deception,” Apeel Sciences CEO Luiz Beling told The Packer in an email. “But bad actors cannot act maliciously without accountability. We have therefore taken legal action to protect our reputation, our products, and the countless Apeel teammates who work each day to make the world a better place.”

Among the “malicious” actions alleged in the lawsuit are that Openshaw used false claims to rally her “Green Smoothie Girl Army” of followers to boycott Apeel, urging them to pressure retailers such as Costco, suppliers such as Limoneira and Driscoll’s, and others to abandon Apeel-protected produce.

Apeel says she also published the personal contact information of executives at grocery chains, encouraged phone, email and in-store campaigns, and sold a downloadable “wallet card” listing stores that did not sell Apeel-treated produce.

In some posts, Openshaw falsely claimed Apeel used a chemical found in “gasoline” in its process, and in others, she said the company’s products contained “palladium, arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury,” the release said.

The complaint says Openshaw’s statements misrepresented FDA filings and omitted facts showing Apeel’s commercial process has never used the solvents Openshaw described.

Apeel says, in fact, its primary technology is a plant-based, edible coating that extends the freshness of produce without the need for refrigeration or synthetic preservatives. It is tasteless, odorless and made from naturally occurring ingredients such as mono- and diglycerides, baking soda and citric acid. These coatings mimic a fruit’s natural peel to slow spoilage, reduce food waste and lower grocery costs. The company adds that its products are approved by regulators in the U.S., the European Union and dozens of other markets worldwide.

‘Freedom of Speech’ vs. ‘Freedom to Defame’

Apeel’s legal representation says the implications of the disinformation campaign are far reaching and financially harmful.

“Apeel has been the victim of a deliberate smear campaign that weaponized disinformation for financial gain,” Thomas A. Clare, one of the founding partners of Clare Locke LLP, which represents Apeel, said in a release. “These falsehoods were not just defamatory. They misled consumers and caused real financial harm to Apeel, its employees and its partners.

“Free speech does not mean freedom to defame,” Clare continued. “This lawsuit is about accountability, and ensuring disinformation cannot be used to destabilize safe and needed innovation and mislead the public.”

Social Media Disinformation

The lawsuit follows actress Michelle Pfeiffer’s July 31, 2025, retraction of inaccurate social media claims about Apeel and its connection to Bill Gates. Pfeiffer acknowledged reposting false information and emphasized the importance of accuracy in public conversations about food safety.

Apeel says the case is part of a larger disinformation campaign that began in April 2023, when dozens of coordinated posts spread across Facebook, X and Telegram warned consumers not to “eat anything with the Apeel sticker on it.” Those posts falsely linked to a safety sheet for an unrelated industrial cleaner manufactured by a wholly different company based in the United Kingdom, presenting it as if it described Apeel’s products.

The complaint states that Openshaw amplified those narratives to her hundreds of thousands of followers, repeating them at least 60 times and intentionally mischaracterizing Apeel’s FDA submissions. Independent fact checks by Reuters, the Associated Press, USA Today and Politifact later confirmed the claims were false and that Apeel’s products are safe and FDA-approved.

Despite this, Apeel said Openshaw and other influencers continued to drive the false narrative, creating consumer fear, harassment of retail partners and disruption of the company’s business.

“Our hope is for an amicable resolution in litigation we pursue, including a retraction of false posts to set the record straight,” Beling told The Packer. “Apeel Sciences will continue to vigorously protect its name, its mission, and the trust of consumers everywhere.”

For more information about Apeel’s products, ingredient safety and global mission, visit its FAQ or read company leadership’s open letter on disinformation here .

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Why U.S. Agriculture Needs More AI Investment to Stay Ahead in Global Crop Innovation Race

Tue, 20 May 2025 18:15:48 GMT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key tool in accelerating the discovery, development and manufacturing of new crop protection molecules to fight yield-robbing weeds, pests, and diseases in U.S. farm fields.

The technology helps researchers shorten the discovery window and find new and novel active-ingredient molecules that are much more difficult and expensive to uncover using traditional research methods.

That was among the talking points that emerged from Tuesday’s congressional hearing on AI in farming, held in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology Committee in Washington, D.C.

Related: The New Space Race: Why America Must Focus On AI

At the hearing, key agricultural stakeholders advocated for increasing government investment in AI technology and infrastructure. The group warned Congress that America’s status as a world leader in AI has been usurped by Japan and China, while other rival countries are also gunning for top positions.

Testifying on behalf of U.S. agriculture was Corteva Vice President of Agricultural Solutions Brian Lutz, University of Florida associate professor Chris Swale and University of Illinois assistant professor Boris Camiletti.

“AI is without a doubt one of the most profound technologies ever to be invented,” Lutz said. “We believe there is tremendous opportunity for our government to support and incentivize advanced innovation — including by leveraging the benefits of AI — to benefit American farmers. If we want to win, we need to move smarter and faster than our competition. Corteva believes with the support of our government, we will do exactly that.”

Lutz said researchers at Corteva recently used AI to model how 10,000 different molecules might be used in crop protection, all within a matter of weeks. The Corteva model was able to identify dozens of new potential crop protection molecules that its overworked chemists could not have found otherwise. He said the company is currently testing a handful of these molecules and AI will also play a role in moving the testing phase along more quickly than traditional lab-based methods.

Lutz also told Congress how Corteva scientists have deployed AI technology in its fermentation processes, which the company uses to create what he called “molecules of interest” for evaluation. Over the past few years, Corteva has used AI modeling to engineer various bacterial strains that drive fermentation reactions and optimize reaction conditions, allowing the company to run a manufacturing operation that is as efficient as possible. This application of AI helps Corteva maintain a strong U.S. manufacturing base in the Midwest, Lutz said.

“This is the new face of ag innovation,” he added. “We can accelerate discovery of new classes of crop protection products, like biologicals — nature-based solutions that help farmers grow more food by working alongside traditional crop protection products. With AI, we can begin to predict the incredible diversity of biomolecules and metabolites that are produced by microbes and other organisms, with the goal of unlocking the secrets within plant biology to develop the next generation of safe, highly targeted, nature-inspired products.”

Swale testified to AI’s role in helping researchers on his team find and develop biological-based treatments to combat Asian citrus psyllid, an invasive pest that has left the Florida citrus industry — valued at almost $10 billion just five years ago — teetering on the brink of collapse. Effective synthetic chemicals to manage the Asian citrus psyllid exist, but the regulatory hurdles to get those products onto the market are too high, he said

“We have turned to using AI to help discover chemicals of the natural world because the registration requirements are significantly lower when compared to synthetic insecticides,” Swale said.

Camiletti leads a team of researchers combining plant pathology, remote sensing and AI to help U.S. soybean farmers overcome red crown rot, a soil-borne disease first detected in Illinois soybean fields in 2018.

Illinois has been hit the hardest by the yield-robbing disease, Camiletti said, and the pathogen is spreading rapidly to Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. The disease is difficult to detect visually, he added, and once symptoms appear it’s often too late for successful remediation.

“My team uses satellite imagery and machine learning to identify red crown rot hot spots, and we train the models with high resolution multi-spectral data to near-infrared bands and use ground observations to teach the algorithm what diseased plants look like,” Camiletti said. “This technology has real on-farm impact. We are building tools that generate prescription maps so instead of applying fungicides across entire fields farmers can target only the affected areas.”

After key witness testimony concluded, the committee opened the floor to questions from members of Congress. Watch the full hearing via the video embedded below:

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John Deere Introducing Next Generation Perception Autonomy Kits

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 20:46:44 GMT

John Deere is taking a step forward in autonomy and the technology retrofit market.

Chief Technology Officer Jahmy Hindman describes the effort as “real purpose, real autonomy”. He says the manufacturer is responding to the ongoing labor crunch that is causing headaches across the agriculture industry both domestically and abroad.

To help its users continue to farm with less reliance on human labor, John Deere has announced a suite of new retrofit autonomy kits for tractors and tillage implements, orchard sprayers, and even for the commercial landscape and construction equipment segments.

The kits feature redesigned camera arrays and rugged NVIDIA processing units paired with Blue River Technology’s machine learning algorithms, enabling John Deere machines to autonomously mimic how a human operator would react in the driver’s seat, without anyone actually sitting in the driver’s seat.

Let’s dive in and learn more about what John Deere is launching this week at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What’s New for Tractors?
John Deere and its integrated Blue River Technologies team have re-architected what it is calling its Next Generation Perception System autonomy retrofit kits. The kits are made for model year 2022 and newer 9R and 9RX tractors, and model year 20.5 and newer 8R and 8RX tractors. Also coming from John Deere is autonomy on its 5ML Series tractors.

To go along with its autonomous tractor kits, there are retrofit kits that outfit select 2017 and newer John Deere tillage implements with additional lighting, a GPS receiver mast, and harnessing for fully autonomous tiling. These autonomy ready features are factory installed as a base package for select model year 2025 tillage tools. Today, the system is only compatible with John Deere tillage implements with the autonomy kits installed, but in the future Deere is working towards compatibility with third-party tillage tools.

The new autonomy kits are made for model year 2022 and newer 9R and 9RX tractors , and model year 20.5 and newer 8R and 8RX tractors, as well as select John Deere tillage tools.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

Both autonomy kits will be sold within John Deere’s Precision Upgrades product segment, which the company re-branded in 2023. So far, the kits have been field tested across thousands of acres of cropland. John Deere representatives anticipate the kits will one day be compatible with planting, harvesting, and broad acre application machines. But today, autonomous field tillage is the first domino to fall.

“This expands our autonomous capabilities dramatically,” says Willy Pell, CEO, Blue River Technologies. “Farmers should not have to buy a new tractor to experience autonomy.

Pell adds the kits were designed with ease of installation in mind, especially for tractors and implements that come autonomy ready from the factory.

Let’s dive deeper into some of the components that enable autonomous capabilities within the Next Generation Perception Kits.

Let’s start with the kit’s redesigned camera arrays, which are installed onto the top of a compatible tractor model’s cab and wired into the control module. Within that new camera array are 16 stereo cameras that shoot continuously at triple overlap, giving the system a 360-degree field of vision around the tractor with plenty of redundancy for sensing crops, obstacles, potential humans and other hazards in the field.

What those cameras “see” is processed on ruggedized NVIDIA Jetson GPUs that can withstand temperatures down to -40 degrees F. With the cameras operating as the eyes of the system, the Jetson units serve as the brains and connective tissue, using edge processing to read, react, and fire off commands to the machine just as a human operator would.

Farmers that experienced John Deere’s tractor autonomy kits in the past – this version represents the second evolution of the technology since John Deere introduced it in 2022 – told the company they wanted the driver-less machines to cover more acres in a day, or night. John Deere made that happen, increasing speeds 40% to 12 mph with this iteration, and lighting kits have been added on to allow around-the-clock field work.

“We want to meet customers where they’re at today; our customers across the Midwest want to customize their tillage setups with various tools of different sizes and configurations, and we want to make as many of those tools autonomy capable with one system as possible, and that’s what we’ve done with the Generation 2 Perception System,” says Aaron Wells, Engineering and AI Systems, Blue River Technologies. “This is real autonomy that I can set, forget, and run in the field or monitor using John Deere Operations Center Mobile.”

Local John Deere dealers will have a limited number of kits available for 2025 with a full launch tabbed for 2026.

Orchard tractors and sprayers
The Next Generation Perception System kit has been slightly tweaked for permanent orchard crop growers. Those growers generally use lower horsepower machines with narrower footprints to complete tasks between trellised rows of grapes, tree nuts, and other orchard crops like apples.

In California’s massive specialty crop industry, John Deere says that over 50% of machine operator jobs posted by farming operations are going unfilled. John Deere believes its autonomy kits can lessen that reliance on seasonal labor and help farmers hit tight production windows in order to maximize yields.

The Next Generation Perception kit for orchard tractors and sprayers features fewer camera arrays than the row crop kit but adds an integrated LiDAR sensor to 3D image tree canopies and orchard trellising in real-time.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

Whether we’re talking about the large tractor autonomy kits or the orchard tractor-sprayer kit, the systems share many common components. Rather than needing 16 stereo cameras, the autonomous orchard tractor kit deploys seven cameras alongside three LiDAR sensors. The LiDAR sensors provide a real-time 3D image of vine and orchard crops as the tractor moves around the orchard, giving the machine the ability to tell the pull-behind sprayer implement where to apply and where not to apply.

The 5ML Specialty Tractor, along with the key Precision Essentials technology that will enable autonomy, JDLink Modem, StarFire Receiver, G5 Display, and John Deere Operations Center are all available today, with the autonomy kit being available in limited quantities in 2026.

“We’ve developed this incredible second-generation technology that allows us to scale across different crops and new industries,” says Igino Cafiero, CEO and founder, Bear Flag Robotics. John Deere acquired Bear Flag in 2021 for $250 million.

Something for your side hustle?
I have no data to back this up, but I would guess there might be some row crop farmers out there that might own commercial landscaping, construction, or excavation businesses in addition to farming full time.

For the commercial landscape segment, John Deere has extended its next Generation Perception kit to automate a new green and yellow autonomous battery electric zero-turn mower.

This autonomous battery powered commercial lawn mower remains in the concept stage today but John Deere anticipates it being available for landscape professionals in the future.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

While still in the concept stage of development, the commercial mower can be programmed to autonomously cut common professional landscaping patterns while its operator monitors the machine from nearby with what looks and feels like a beefed-up Xbox controller. There is also a rear standing deck that can be flipped down, with dedicated operator controls on the machine, in case the operator feels like hopping onboard and steering the mower.

And for the construction world, John Deere has applied the next Generation perception kit to create a driverless commercial dump truck. The truck can autonomously move material from Point A to Point B and even know exactly where it needs to dump its load. Site workers can use the John Deere Operations Center to define ideal routes and start, stop, and unload the giant diesel-powered machines from outside of the cab.

Again, like their row crop and specialty crop farming brethren, commercial landscape and construction firms are also feeling the squeeze of the labor shortage.

“There’s no better story, I think, than using technology for the benefit of humanity. It is our purpose and what pulls all of this together,” Hindman says. “Our number one mission in developing these kits is to help reduce the dependency on unskilled labor. We think autonomy is a significant answer to solving that dilemma for our customers.”

To learn more about the Next Generation Perception System head to Deere.com/autonomy

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Florida Citrus Growers Brace for Hurricane Milton as Forecasters Warn of 'Complete Destruction'

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 21:24:50 GMT

Milton strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane on a path toward Florida, with Governor Ron DeSantis declaring an emergency and millions of residents ordered to evacuate.

“Unless we get extremely lucky, Milton will be one of the biggest hurricane disasters in history,” leading Fox Weather hurricane meteorologist Bryan Norcross predicted Monday, shortly after the hurricane was upgraded to a Category 5 storm with winds of 180 mph.

Milton is forecast to make landfall on Florida’s west coast on Wednesday, likely between 6 PM and midnight. The center of the cone is near Tampa, but there is still uncertainty in the exact track. Norcross said it is too early to call where the storm will hit when it makes landfall Wednesday, but that if it follows the current trajectory and strikes Tampa Bay directly the city “will go underwater.” Meanwhile, Tampa’s mayor issued a dire warning before Hurricane Milton: “If you choose to stay … you are going to die.”

A forecast from the National Hurricane Center predicted storm surge for Tampa Bay could hit up to 15 feet. The storm is expected to cross the Florida peninsula and move into the Atlantic Ocean afterwards. There is an increased risk of tornadoes, with 11 million people under threat of tropical tornadoes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hurricane Milton is threatening to be one of the largest ever hurricanes with wind gusts already topping 200 miles per hour — leading to calls for a new Category 6 designation for such an intense superstorm. “This is nothing short of astronomical,” Florida meteorologist Noah Bergren said late Monday as Milton reached sustained winds of 180 mph and “gusts 200+ mph.” “I am at a loss for words to meteorologically describe to you the storm’s small eye and intensity,” he marveled. “This hurricane is nearing the mathematical limit of what Earth’s atmosphere over this ocean water can produce.”

Milton threatens to inflict wind damage in the northern two-thirds of Florida’s citrus belt this week, according to Commodity Weather Group. Orange juice futures rose up to 4.3% on Monday due to the threat to Florida’s citrus industry. U.S. natural gas futures fell over 4% in anticipation of reduced demand if power outages occur. Various events have been cancelled, including a championship ring ceremony for the Florida Panthers hockey team.

Citrus producers are urged to keep accurate records to document any damage or loss, including dated photos1. It’s critical for growers to report farm damage to their local USDA Service Center before starting any cleanup or repair activities. This documentation is essential for potential financial assistance from USDA.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has suspended size and weight restrictions for vehicles transporting emergency equipment, services, supplies, and agricultural commodities, including citrus. This emergency measure allows these vehicles to travel at all hours and is set to expire on Oct. 21 or upon rescission of the executive orders.

Hurricane season generally lasts through November.

Of note: New estimates reveal Hurricane Helene caused more than $47 billion in losses for property owners. The price tag for climate-related disasters is growing. Last year, storms in the U.S. caused $93.1 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Their cumulative toll, dating to 1980, now stands at $2.6 trillion.

Florida citrus crop expected to top last year’s

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:20:26 GMT

Florida ’s 2023-24 citrus crop should be significantly more robust than last season’s, according to the latest USDA forecast.

The 2022-23 season was marred by two hurricanes and a December freeze, said Matt Joyner, CEO of Bartow-based Florida Citrus Mutual .

This year’s citrus crop experienced some early drought conditions, but rain eventually picked up, and as of late October, the state’s citrus-growing regions had not been hit by any hurricanes, though there still were a few weeks left in hurricane season.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll get through that,” Joyner said.

USDA’s July forecast estimated that Florida growers will pack 20.5 million 90-pound boxes of oranges, 1.9 million 85-pound boxes of grapefruit and 500,000 95-pound boxes of tangerines and tangelos during the 2023-24 season.

Those are increases from the 2022-23 season, when growers produced about 15.8 million boxes of oranges, 1.8 million boxes of grapefruit and 480,000 boxes of tangerines and tangelos.

The Sunshine State’s citrus growers have a lot going on this season.

Vero Beach, Fla.-based Riverfront Packing , a partner of Dundee Citrus Growers Association , a cooperative of more than 200 growers, has added to its grower base, which will allow the association to expand its offerings, said association CEO Steven Callaham.

“Riverfront’s grower base includes some of the most well-known and respected Indian River growers,” Callaham said.

The co-op is expanding its Citrus Under Protective Screen, or CUPS, acreage with a new, 500-acre planting that will boost its CUPS acreage to 1,000 by spring of 2025.

And starting this fall, the co-op’s CUPS-grown fruit will be marketed under new brands.

“Our Rubies-branded grapefruit will be marketed under our Eco-Grown Citrus family of products,” he said. “Our CUPS-grown mandarins will be marketed under our Sunnies brand.”

Dundee Citrus Growers Association will offer red grapefruit, dark red grapefruit, juice oranges, navel oranges and seedless tangerines this fall with year-over-year volume up on all varieties.

The early drought conditions have resulted in smaller fruit sizes this season, Callaham said, but the fruit quality is excellent.

“It’s better than we have seen in quite a few years,” he said.

Fort Pierce, Fla.-based DLF International has a new marketing name — Feek Family Citrus — and has broken ground on a 35,000-square-foot cold facility and modern de-greening system that should be up and running by March, said Jordan Feek, director of marketing and data analytics.

The new facility means oranges won’t have to be transported more than 150 miles to a storage unit in Tampa, Fla.

“Having control over the process will be a huge plus for us,” Feek said.

The company also has installed five bag machines that can pack almost any bag available as well as automated grading and auto packers, she said.

The company also is installing a chlorine dioxide sanitation system to help keep its packinghouse clean and free of unwanted fungus and decay spores that may come in from the field.

Feek Family Citrus now is shipping hamlin oranges, navels, early golds and star ruby grapefruit.

Quality should be good this year.

“We’ve already noticed an improvement in quality over last season,” Feek said.

Florida’s citrus industry seems to be making progress against citrus greening disease — or Huanglongbing, also known as HLB.

“Research has given us some tools that can help move the needle in terms of growing citrus in a greening-endemic environment,” said Joyner of Florida Citrus Mutual.

Nearly 1,000 acres have been planted or are scheduled to be planted under protective screening, including 10-acre greenhouses, he said.

Some individual trees are covered with net bags to keep disease-bearing psyllids away.

The industry also has made tremendous strides in breeding, Joyner said.

“That’s really going to be the ultimate answer — a tree that is resistant to greening,” he said.

Citrus-Destroying Bacterial Relative May Also Be Infectious

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 19:35:28 GMT

A bacterial species closely related to deadly citrus greening disease is rapidly evolving its ability to infect insect hosts, and possibly plants as well.

The newly identified species belongs to Liberibacter, a family of bacteria known to infect several economically important crops. There are nine known Liberibacter species, including one that infects potatoes and three that are associated with citrus greening.

Citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing, is the number one killer of citrus trees worldwide. Though many are working on solutions, there is presently no effective prevention or treatment option on the market.

Given its relatives’ destructive qualities, UC Riverside scientists set out to understand the ways the new species, L. capsica, genetically resembles other types of Liberibacter.

“As with new strains of COVID-19, bacteria become variants of concern if their mutations can impact pathogenic or transmissible properties,” said Allison Hansen, UCR entomologist and study lead.
Many Liberibacters share genes that enable their ability to live inside a host.

“These bacteria acquire DNA from their hosts, so without a host, they’re gone, they will die,” Hansen said.
For this study, the research team identified 21 genes in L. capsica that are rapidly evolving amino acid mutations associated with infectious qualities. This evolution is documented in a new Microbiology Spectrum journal paper.

One subset of mutations the team found repeatedly are on genes affecting pilus, tiny bacterial “hairs” that allow the bacteria to move into host insects and uptake DNA. Insects then transmit the bacteria to plants.
L. capsica was found by chance in a pair of flying insects on a pepper plant in Brazil. These insects, psyllids, are known pepper pests. However, it’s not yet known whether L. capsica infect peppers or other crops.

Gathering direct evidence about whether the bacteria infect pepper tissues may prove difficult, as Hansen’s team only had a single sample, and L. capsica cannot be grown in a laboratory.

The psyllids were collected in Brazil by Diana Percy, an entomologist at the University of British Columbia and Hansen’s frequent collaborator. Percy travels the world searching for psyllids but did not know these would harbor novel bacteria. That discovery was later made in Hansen’s laboratory after Percy shared the psyllids she obtained abroad.

“We’re informing scientists in Brazil and other places to screen plants for it,” Hansen said. “It should be on everyone’s radar for outbreak potential given the propensity of Liberibacter for being serious plant pathogens on domesticated crops.”

Integral to this study was the work of Ariana Sanchez, a UCR undergraduate microbiology major interested in bacterial pathogens transmitted by insects. Sanchez is the entomology department’s first Inclusivity Scholar.

The department created the Advancing Inclusivity in Entomology scholarship in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and death of George Floyd in 2020. Faculty recognized the need to support students from marginalized groups who have a passion for studying insects but face systemic barriers excluding them from research opportunities.

By helping identify the ways in which L. capsica is evolving, Sanchez has made an important contribution to Liberibacter knowledge.

“Being able to understand pathogens like these, and how they interact with the insects that carry them, is so critical for the security of our food supply,” Hansen said.

written by Jules Bernstein, UC Riverside

UF ag engineer develops smart-spray technology to help reduce fertilizer, pesticides

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 18:01:12 GMT

Growers need to spray efficiently so they can apply pesticides and fertilizer only to crops – and minimize the chemicals that may contaminate natural resources.

As they battle the economically devastating citrus greening disease, farmers must look to control costs wherever possible.

With that in mind, Yiannis Ampatzidis is engaging artificial intelligence to develop a low-cost, smart tree-crop sprayer that can automatically detect citrus trees, calculate their height and leaf density and count fruit. That way, the farmers target their spray more efficiently, so it lands on trees and leaves – and reduces chemical use by about 30%, compared to traditional spray methods.

“These smart technologies can save the fruit tree industry millions of dollars per year by optimizing chemical applications,” said Ampatzidis, a UF/IFAS associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center.

Smart-spray technology lets the grower vary the amount applied based on tree size and leaf density, and it will not spray if there is no tree or if a tree appears dead. It also does not spray if it finds other objects, such as a water pump, a pole or a person, as examples.

“This new technology will further enhance the tree-profiling systems we have in place today, with the ability to detect and only spray the target foliage,” Ampatzidis said. “Our data, collected by smart sensors, can control the amount of spray applied to the tree, in real time, and is stored in the controller to be downloaded for further processing.”

The system utilizes machine vision, GPS and LiDAR -- a light detection and ranging remote sensing system. Ampatzidis also developed algorithms to process the data as well as software to control the sensors.

The technology, cited in new research published by Ampatzidis, can also help farmers predict their crop yields. To test the system, Ampatzidis conducted several experiments in citrus orchards at the center and in commercial farms and found they used less pesticide and fertilizer.

Protecting citrus trees and their fruit makes up a significant chunk of any grower’s budget. In Southwest Florida orange orchards alone, plant protection product applications cost about 34% of the total production costs .

An industry partner, Chemical Containers Inc, has evaluated the technology and entered an agreement with UF Innovate | Tech Licensing to license and commercialize the smart-spray technology.

As they continue to evaluate the system’s efficiency, Ampatzidis and his team will study how well it detects and sprays trees in fields with tall weeds in more commercial groves. He and his team are also going to evaluate the system on other fruits, including peaches, apples and pecans to see how well it works on those tree crop systems.

“We also plan to develop smart fertilizer spreader applicators to improve nutrient management,” he said. “Target-based management can help farmers apply nutrients as needed within the field, rather than applying fertilizers uniformly.”

Nutrien Ag Solutions Partners with Elemental Enzymes to Combat Citrus Greening

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 18:25:53 GMT

Nutrien Ag Solutions announces a partnership with Elemental Enzymes, a leading agricultural biotechnology company, for a peptide-based biochemical pesticide to combat fungal and bacterial diseases including Huanglongbing, otherwise known as citrus greening. Currently, 100% of the acres in Florida are being impacted by citrus greening.

The biochemical peptide-based product, delivered as a foliar spray or trunk injection, is currently under review by the EPA. The specific peptide, containing Vismax technology, increases yield and accelerates the recovery of trees infected with the pathogen that causes citrus greening.

“Since 2005, citrus growers have been plagued by citrus greening — a yield- and quality-robbing disease complex that has devastated the industry — causing farm gate losses of more than $8 billion,” says Ryan Bond, Ph.D., senior director of innovation, research and development at Nutrien Ag Solutions. “Growers are calling for new alternative biological technologies, and today, we’re taking the first step toward mitigating future losses with a science-based solution.”

Elemental Enzymes and Nutrien Ag Solutions will launch this product on other specialty crops across North America. In addition to its effect on citrus greening, the biochemical peptide is active on a wide variety of diseases, such as blossom blight in almonds and powdery mildew in various fruiting vegetables and leafy greens. Elemental Enzymes and Nutrien Ag Solutions are working to bring this powerful alternative biochemical to the market with no negative environmental or crop safety impact.

“We’re excited to partner with industry leader Nutrien Ag Solutions to provide agronomic solutions to growers across the citrus and specialty markets,” says Brian Thompson, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Elemental Enzymes. “And given this year’s record for fruit drop in Florida, it is clear that growers need this additional tool against citrus greening now more than ever.”

Since 2016, Elemental Enzymes has actively engaged in the discovery and development of Vismax for use in citrus to mitigate the effects of citrus greening, with more than 65 field trials in Florida. In replicated field trials on multiple citrus varieties, foliar-applied Vismax improved fruit retention 95% of the time, increasing field boxes harvested by 17% on average. Additionally, CLas bacterial titers decreased by up to 96% when Vismax was applied as a foliar spray or trunk injection.

Together, Elemental Enzymes and Nutrien Ag Solutions have worked together to create an effective and economical alternative to conventional chemistries and are dedicated to bringing this novel solution to growers in 2022.

Texas expands citrus greening quarantine area

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:17:54 GMT

The quarantined area for citrus greening disease in Texas has expanded to Brazoria and Galveston counties.

More than two dozen counties in Texas, mostly in South Texas and the Coastal Bend areas, are quarantined due to the disease, also known as huanglongbing. It is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid.

The quarantine restricts movement of plant material and all varieties that are affected by HLB, according to a Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service news release.

“I think the message we want to get out to the public is that everyone needs to take precautions to prevent the spread of this disease and to report the vector psyllids when found,” Stephen Breuggerhoff, AgLife Extension horticulture agent, said in the release. “We want people to be able to identify the disease symptoms and the psyllid. Announcing the quarantine is part of that effort.”

HLB has devastated citrus crops in Florida, and has been detected in Texas and California.

In Texas, it was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Texas Department of Agriculture in a commercial citrus grove in Hidalgo County, in January 2012. Hidalgo and Cameron counties, the two largest citrus producing counties in Texas, were placed in quarantine for citrus in spring 2014, according to Agrilife Extension Service.
Texas A&M Agrilife Extension received more than $1.7 million from the USDA for two citrus greening projects, according to the release.

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