This week Dr. Dave Brown, Director at POMETA, presented the latest updates to the POMETA precision crop load management platform at an Precision Apple Crop Management (PACMAN) Extension briefing event.

During his presentation, Dr. Brown outlined the development of POMETA’s computer vision technology and what makes the POMETA system unique.

With POMETA, orchardists can make thousands of fruitlet measurements from every block – size, position, color, and growth rate are all recorded with an ATV-mounted smartphone. Post-harvest, POMETA will generate size distribution and color reports for bins of fruit.

POMETA doesn’t require users to tag fruits or create lists, just add reference markers to a few trellis posts.

“What really differentiates us in this market is that all of our solutions are 3D. When you scan an orchard, we build a three-dimensional model of the canopy. We locate every piece of fruit. Then when you go back and rescan, we remember where all the fruit was. We can see if it’s still there, and if it is, how much it grew – which allows us to then forecast what your drop rate will be and whether you’ll need another application of chemical thinner,” Dr. Brown said.

POMETA is one of the PACMAN Extension’s industry partners, contributing research and data to advance their goal of developing precision crop load management tools consisting of computer vision, robotics, geo-referenced maps, and decision support tools to help apple growers to accurately calculate crop load, inform pruning and thinning, and maximize crop value.

The entire briefing is available on WSU’s CAHNRS YouTube channel.