Every day our technology helps farmers around the world. This almond producer in California managed to control the infection in his trees through our Health Zones tool.
While unpredictable weather conditions and limited water supplies have challenged almond producing areas such as California, the almond industry has shown to be resilient to change. In spite of the negative effects these changes may have on the industry, an almond grower always finds a way to bounce back.
Pests and diseases will target almond trees that are under stress before they infest healthier trees. One of our almond growers in California used our Aeroview software to identify the root cause of stress in areas of his orchard.
After a drone flight, he noticed that there were sections of his orchard that showed leaf discoloration. From the drone imagery, he could clearly see where his almond trees were showing leaf yellowing.
After consulting per tree chlorophyll and health data for his orchard, he found that this issue presents itself in a regular pattern, indicating that some sort of outbreak had occurred. The grower set up a scout route so that he could further investigate on the ground.
Using our Aeroview InField mobile app, the grower was guided to the scout points he had set up while he was in his office. When he got to the first marker, he immediately noticed what the problem was shot hole disease. The infestation was clearly visible in the field and the grower estimated a loss of between 15–30% of yield for the trees affected by the serious infection that had taken place. Had the grower not found this problem using Aeroview, the losses would have increased year on year and affected more trees in the following seasons.
San Antonio Fruits makes available to growers a service which offers valuable, accurate and actionable insights into the most important production analytics. Contact us to find out how our Health Zones can benefit your operations.