July - A 2007 View On Advances In Technology

By John Inman

THE Tillivator, although it was supposed to eliminate hand weeding, was not a successful venture. Technology that is currently under development will greatly reduce the need for hand weeding in vegetable crops.

There are several projects going on with this objective in mind. One, in particular, at the University of California-Davis, uses a camera to scan the plant row and process the image to distinguish between the crop and weed plants and then spray the weeds with a nonselective herbicide or hot oil.

A project at Robocrop in England uses a camera to guide a spinning half disk down the row. The cultivator system then is able to remove the weeds while at the same time avoiding any damage to the crop plants. Robocrop is marketed in California by the Solex Corporation.

These are viable technologies that I expect to be available to growers in the near future.

Inman is a professional engineer and farm adviser emeritus with the Monterey County Agricultural Extension, Salinas, CA;
jwinman@comcast.net