WSU Smart Apple Orchard | Washington State University

WSU Smart Apple Orchard

Automated precision orchard management technologies evaluation & grower education

About Smart Orchard

Keith Veselka, the Orchard Operations Manager at Northwest Farm Management LLC, standing next to a row of apple trees in a smart orchard.

An Innov8Ag employee mapping the bloom inside the orchard using a cartographer.

An employee of vivid machines performing blossom mapping on the smart orchard.

Grad students from WSU installing soil moisture probes.

An employee performing electric weeding on the smart orchard.

An employee of Wiseconn installing irrigation automation hardware in the smart orchard block.

Welcome to the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission (WTFRC) funded WSU Smart Apple Orchard Testbed and Demonstration site. This is a pioneering initiative that synergies public-private partnerships to test, evaluate, & validate emerging smart agricultural technologies in a commercial setting, tied to the commission’s technology roadmap. We are committed to providing comprehensive outreach and extension education through on-site field days, workshops, instructional videos, and fact sheets. Our goal is to disseminate knowledge and help realize meaningful adoption of the relevant innovative technologies in WA apple orchards.

Site

The aerial view of the smart orchard. The GRCC1 (19.89 acres) and GRCC3 (8.47 acres) are marked with orange bounding boxes.

Live stream of the WSU Smart Apple Orchard.

This is a Cosmic Crisp apple orchard block, trained as tall spindle at 12 ft by 3 ft spacing on M9/Nic29 rootstocks, managed by grower cooperator (Keith Veselka, NWFM, LLC.) in Mattawa, WA. Block is representative of many modern orchards in WA. First commercial harvest is planned for 2024 season. Block is drip irrigated and already have overhead fognet (fogging and netting) installed for heat stress mitigation.

Smart Agricultural Technologies

A sensor node that measures weather and canopy temperature mounted at the orchard canopy.

Irrigation & Heat Stress Automation

Validating soil-plant-atmospheric sensors data integration with automation control system for precise irrigation & heat stress management.

A row of bee hives sits in the smart orchard. The bee hives are wooden boxes with peaked tops, and there are green apple trees in the background.

Pollination: Bee Tracking & Optimal Hive Placement

Evaluating commercial bee monitoring technologies for effective pollination.

A blossom map overlayed on the aerial view of the smart orchard.

Blossom Mapping & Crop Load Management

Validating multiple ground & aerial precision blossom mapping and crop load management solutions.

Three devices displaying the Agromanager platform: a desktop monitor with a farm map and plot details, a tablet with a grid layout, and a smartphone with function icons.

Multi-modal Data Integration & Prescriptive Task maps

Testing an ecosystem to store, analyze, and visualize multi-modal data and task specific prescription maps generation and sharing.

A robotic sprayer operates in the smart orchard, moving between rows of apple trees under a clear blue sky.

Tractor Autonomy, Precision Spraying, Nutrient Management

Optimizing the autonomous sprayers as well as task map driven precision spraying & nutrient management solutions

A tractor equipped with an XPower Zasso electric weeders operates in the smart orchard. The tractor positioned between rows of trees under a clear sky.

Electric Weeding

Evaluating nonchemical and novel weed management technologies.

Events

WSU Smart Apple Orchard Field Day Flyer. The field day takes place on July 26, 2024, from 8:30am to 12pm at 16518 Road 26 SW Mattawa, WA 99349. The contact information included in the flyer are Lav Khot (lav.khot@wsu.edu), Bernadita Sallato (b.sallato@wsu.edu), Steve Mantle (steve@innovate.ag) and Keith Veselka (keithv@nwfm.biz)

2024 Smart Orchard Field Day

Join us and learn more about the on-the-market as well as commercialization ready orchard automation and precision input management technologies being experimented at our grower cooperator (Northwest Farm Management LLC) managed WSU Smart Apple Orchard technology testbed and demonstration site in Mattawa, WA.