Tag: Southwest Florida Research and Education Center

Thanks to NASA, farmers may ask, ‘Hey Alexa, what’s the best way to keep my soil healthy?’

by Brad Buck
July 29, 2025

Someday soon, farmers might use technology equivalent to Siri or Alexa to check the status of their soil’s quality. Anastasia Kritharoula, a doctoral student in the Soil Science Artificial Intelligence lab of the University of Florida, ... READ MORE

Category: UF/IFAS
Tags: #aiatuf, Anastasia Kritharoula, Artificial Intelligence, Farmers, Generative AI, Grant, NASA, Nikolaos Tziolas, Non-expert Users, Prec-ag, Soil, Soil Health, Soil Science Artificial Intelligence Lab, Soil Water And Ecosystem Sciences, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Water

UF scientists to develop AI technology to help growers assess crop damage after hurricanes

by Brad Buck
June 30, 2025

Imagine using a generative AI platform similar to ChatGPT to get crop-damage information after a hurricane. That’s what University of Florida artificial intelligence (AI) scientist Nikolaos Tziolas plans to provide to farmers statewide. With ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, Crops
Tags: #aiatuf, ChatGPT, Computers, Crop Damage, Damage Assessment, Generative AI, Hurricanes, Nifa, NIFA Grant, Nikolaos Tziolas, Prec-ag, Recovery, Satellite, Satellite Imagery, Smartphone, Soil, Soil Water And Ecosystem Sciences, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Water

Hurricanes can bring crop diseases, but plant clinics help farmers quickly and accurately battle pathogens spread by storms

by Brad Buck
May 28, 2025

Last fall, strawberry fields in the Tampa Bay region and at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC) were riddled by colletotrichum crown rot disease, which was spread by winds and rain from Hurricane Milton. The Category ... READ MORE

Category: UF/IFAS
Tags: Crops, Crown Rot, Disease Control, Diseases, Florida Strawberry Growers Association, Gulf Coast Research And Education Center, Hurricane Milton, Hurricanes, Kenneth Parker, Marcus Marin, Mathews Paret, Mid-Florida Research And Education Center, Natalia Peres, North Florida Research And Education Center, Pathogens, Plant Diagnostic Clinic, Plant Diseases, Plant Pathology, Rapid Diagnosis, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Soybean Rust, Strawberries, Tropical Research And Education Center

Florida farms reduce water use by 25% with simple change in crop beds

by Brad Buck
March 6, 2025

Lipman Family Farms wanted to mitigate flood risk associated with heavy rain on their 2,000-acre farm in Naples. As general manager, Lucas Conran helps oversee seven farming operations for Lipman in Florida and other states along the East ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, Farm Management
Tags: Agricultural And Biological Engineering, Compact-bed Geometry, Environmental Stewardship, Flood Mitigation, Flooding, Labor, Lipman Family Farms, Lucas Conran, Nutrients, Sanjay Shukla, Soil, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Sowing Sustainability, Tomatoes, Water, Water Savings

From problem to on-farm solution: The journey of one UF/IFAS AI technology

by Brad Buck
February 11, 2025

A few weeks after Yiannis Ampatzidis started working at the University of Florida in 2017, Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc on the Florida peninsula and its citrus groves. Growers needed to count their trees with precision to get crop insurance, ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, UF/IFAS
Tags: #aiatuf, Agricutural And Biological Engineering, Agroview, Artificial Intellgience, Citrus, Counting, Crop Insurance, Diseases, Farms, Insurance, Inventory, Lab, Pests, Prec-ag, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Trees, Yiannis Ampatzidis

UF/IFAS researchers work to advance grapevine health, helping California’s wine industry

by Stella Canfield
January 15, 2025

UF/IFAS researchers are tackling a critical challenge: protecting California’s $73 billion wine and wine grape industry. Grapevine red blotch disease (GRBD) and grapevine leafroll disease (GLD), caused by complex insect vector-borne viruses, ... READ MORE

Category: Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Research
Tags: Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski, Mid-Florida Research And Education Center, MREC, National Academy Of Sciences, Ozgur Batuman, Research, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Wine

Herbicide plus fertilizer equals fewer weeds and, thus more tomatoes

by Brad Buck
October 24, 2024

A combination of herbicide and fertilizer can prevent the nasty nutsedge weed from harming tomatoes, new University of Florida research shows. That, in turn, should mean more of the fruit going to the grocery store and your kitchen. An increase ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, UF/IFAS
Tags: Control, Fertilizer, Herbicide, Horticultural Sciences Department, Nutsedge, Plastic Mulch, Pre-emergence Herbicide, Ramdas Kanissery, Ruby Tiwari, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Tomatoes, Vegetables, Weed Scientist

AI may help kill weeds, preserve peppers, tomatoes

by Brad Buck
October 3, 2024

First, University of Florida scientists developed technology to kill weeds, instead of strawberries. Now, UF/IFAS researchers are designing a machine that can surgically eliminate weeds while preserving the tomatoes and peppers around them, ... READ MORE

Category: UF/IFAS
Tags: #aiatuf, Agricultural And Biological Engineering, Algorithm, Computer Vision, Detection, Doctoral Student, Peppers, Plastic Beds, Precision Ag, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Tomatoes, Vinay Vijayakumar, Weed Sprayer, Yiannis Ampatzidis

Southern scientists use artificial intelligence to reduce costs, labor on farms

by Brad Buck
September 17, 2024

Scientists throughout the South are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help growers save labor costs and time, spray with precision, detect diseases, control food quality, maintain animal health and help grow wheat. University of Florida ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture
Tags: #aiatuf, Agricultural And Biological Engineering, Agroview, Arnold Schumann, Citrus Research And Education Center, Daniel Lee, Drones, Fort Valley State University, Gulf Coast Research And Education Center, Land-grant Universities, Nathan Boyd, Oklahoma State University, Precision Ag, Precision Agriculture, Precision Weed-spraying, Soil, Soil Water And Ecosystem Sciences, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Strawberries, Tree Canopy, University Of Georgia, Variable-rate Fertilizer, Virginia Tech, Water, Yiannis Ampatzidis

Aspiring food entrepreneurs can call UF/IFAS specialist for more information on food safety

by Brad Buck
September 10, 2024

Want to make cheesecake from home and sell it? You’re hardly alone, but that’s a tricky prospect. “People love cheesecake. But it doesn’t meet Florida’s Cottage Food Law. You can’t make it from your home. If you have to refrigerate ... READ MORE

Category: Food Safety
Tags: Entrepreneurs, Florida Cottage Food Law, Food Safety, Food Science, Guidance, Office Hours, Southwest Florida Research And Education Center, Stephanie Brown, UF/IFAS Extension Collier County, UF/IFAS Extension Statewide Specialized Agent In Food Science, Virtual Office Hours

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