AI Offering Wiser Way To Kill Weeds in Vegetable Crops

Watch out, weeds! A new study led by University of Florida researchers is using AI to reduce herbicide sprayed on crops. UF/IFAS Weed Scientist Dr. Nathan Boyd and his colleagues developed and evaluated a precision-spraying system designed to make sure herbicide goes through holes that scientists punch in the plastic mulch and into the soil where tomatoes are growing.

Using what Boyd calls an “AI smart sprayer,” researchers showed the new technology found the punch holes 86% of the time, which translates to a savings of more than 90% on herbicide use in tomato fields.

“This equipment applies herbicide on the soil wherever there is a hole in the plastic, because that is the only place that weeds can emerge rather than over the entire bed top,” Boyd adds.

In crops grown with plastic mulch, growers traditionally apply herbicides to the top of the entire soil bed just before the plastic is installed. But applying such chemicals over an entire bed is inefficient. Non-targeted applications increase production costs, the risk of crop damage and the amount of unnecessary pesticide in the soil.

“We are only applying herbicides into holes in the plastic mulch, which means far less herbicide use,” Boyd says. “This is pretty dramatic. The purpose of our technology is to develop a way to apply herbicide only where weeds can emerge — in the planting hole — rather than the entire bed top.”

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Researchers are now looking to get the technology onto farms, so growers can use it.

“Further research is needed to assess the economic implications of herbicide reductions and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the technology,” Boyd says.

For more details, continue reading at blogs.ifas.ufl.edu.