Specialty crops
Take care of specialty/high value crops with WEED-IT precision technology
Specialty crops in orchards and vineyards deserve to be cared for by the best technology available, don’t they? By creating optimal circumstances for your high value crops to grow, you can yield the best and tastiest berries, fruits and nuts. WEED-IT helps you optimise weed, spray deposition, spray drift and thinning management. How? Let’s take a look!
It might not be in the name, but with WEED-IT you can do so much more than just manage weeds in orchards, vineyards and other permanent tree crops like almond, avocado, citruses and pistachio. The reason, or rather secret behind the multifunctionality and versatility of the technology? The Power of Fluorescence!
WEED-IT detects living plant material
Since its foundation in 1999, WEED-IT has been ‘loyal’ to its unique plant physics based principle to detect individual or groups of plants. Detecting plants that are unwanted such as weeds and volunteer plants. But also crops and plants that require individual plant specific care with liquid fertilisers, biostimulants as well as insecticides and fungicides.
The detection technology relies on the law of nature that every plant and weed requires chlorophyll for its photosynthesis to live and grow. This means that every living plant, no matter how small, is naturally detected by a WEED-IT Quadro sensor. Moreover, the more chlorophyl a plant contains, the stronger the signal gets and the more ‘chlorophyll fluorescence’ is captured by the sensor. This natural feature enables the system to not only determine where a weed, a plant, a leaf or foliage is located, it also provides feedback on the size and quantity of the detected plant material! That’s what we call the Power of Fluorescence.
WEED-IT has been the saviour to thousands of farmers worldwide for managing weeds in the most affordable, efficient and durable way possible. By targeting individual weeds only, it helps growers save up to 95% on crop protection products costs. Each WEED-IT Quadro sensor scans up to 1 metre (40 inches) wide and distinguishes 4 individual zones of 25 centimetres (10 inches) that can be managed individually. The lower a sensor is fitted to the surface, the narrower the detection widths are. This feature makes the technology ideal for weed detection and treatment in both the berms and middles of orchards, vineyards and other permanent (tree) crops.
By customising the individual sensor location(s) and orientation, every desired setup is possible to take optimal care of weed and tree management. Some orchard managers for instance, prefer to run cover crops on their middles and have a single WEED-IT sensor mounted over the berms for weed control. Customised solutions are available through our distributors such as Agritech America, Croplands Australia and Rometron Australia with their Optispot 7 orchard sprayer with six or 12 WEED-IT Quadro sensors to suit individual grower’s needs.
Farmers all over the world save up to 95% with WEED-IT.
The ideal match for robotic sprayers
The WEED-IT system distinguishes itself because the accuracy and reliability are unaffected by shade, moisture nor daylight or darkness. It has its own active light source for day and night operation. The system furthermore incorporates automatic continuous background calibration. Once set, WEED-IT can run unsupervised and fully autonomous as long as spray liquid is available. It delivers a precisely uncomplicated solution for autonomous farming on plant level. Commercially available robotic solutions for weed management in orchards, vineyards and other permanent crops that have adopted WEED-IT Quadro sensors include Herbicide GUSS and Bluewhite Robotics.
Apply only where needed
One of the unique features and benefits of the Power of Fluorescence is that every living plant, no matter how small, is naturally detected by the WEED-IT sensor. If needed, the system can be set to detect even a single leaf up to the foliage of a tree. This capability and versatility enables growers to deploy the technology to detect individual trees and tree foliage in orchards and vineyards and other permanent crops. By detecting trees, individual trees can be treated with liquid fertilisers, plant biostimulants, insecticides, fungicides and thinning products allowing for growers to optimise deposition and lower input costs. And by separating trees from open areas, spray drift is minimised to allow for more sustainable berry, fruit and nut production.
Furthermore, the WEED-IT algorithms are even capable of determining foliage biomass density of fruit trees and other trees to tune the amount and dosage of crop protection products, liquid fertilisers and plant biostimulants to the amount of biomass. And thus optimising the efficacy of crop care measurements and lowering crop care costs drastically. Products taking advantage of WEED-IT biomass dependent crop care capabilities include Hol Spraying Systems I.S.A. saving up to 25 percent on water, crop protection products and fertilisers per year.
Advantages of WEED-IT for spot spraying in high value crops
- Weed elimination on a per plant level
- Not affected by moving or waving foliage nor by dusty or wet weeds
- Tackles partly covered weeds evenly good as visible weeds
- Helps prevent weeds becoming resistant to affordable and generic herbicides
- The ideal and in some cases only resolution to eradicate hard to kill weeds
- Ability to use a more potent tank mixture
- Helps diminish and prevent weed seed banks from building up
- Works day and night thanks to its own active light source
- Requires no calibration, never, ever
- PWM technology ensures correct application rate
- Retrofittable to any type of autonomous (robotic) sprayer
- Treat individual trees with liquid fertilisers, plant biostimulants, insecticides, fungicides and thinning products
- Spray foliage variable rate based on the amount of biomass present
- No pay-per-use based on algorithms, type of weed or acreage covered
- Create heat maps of different activities or rate maps