Page 76 - Spring2018

means that the farmer can go down a row “two or three times faster,” that pushes weeds about three centimeters into
translating into less labor time and less propane use. The optimal time the soil. According to trade magazine report-
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to steam weed is when target weeds are one to three inches tall, resulting ing, the robot primarily is “designed to detect
in the added bonus of leaving a fair amount of biomass on the growing (through leaf shape) and destroy small weeds
space floor to feed the soil food web. that have just sprouted,” but it can also “ham-
Not all weeds or growing set-ups respond well to flame or steam mer” larger weeds “multiple times in a row”
weeding, and more research is needed to determine optimal temperatures, with a cycle time of less than one hundred mil-
application speeds and the like. Nonetheless, these promising options are liseconds. Describing the results of field tests
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showing good field results for many farmers. on carrot crops—where carrots were spaced at
two centimeters, weeds were growing very close
ROBOTIC WEED WARS to the carrots and there were twenty weeds per
Heat isn’t the only new weed control method available to growers. meter, on average—“the robot had no trouble
Other solutions that are mak- at all.” With a maximum
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ing headway in providing non- capability of roughly 1.75
chemical alternatives include weeds per second at a speed
those that employ robots to get of 3.7 centimeters per sec-
the weeding work done. For ond at higher weed densities
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certain types of crops, the fu- (forty-three weeds per me-
ture foretold in the Terminator ter), as well as the possibility
movies is steadily approaching. of increasing the speed at
A number of companies have lower weed densities, what
developed field prototypes of this type of robot can do so
robots that efficiently and effec- far is impressive. As the sys-
tively deal with weeds without tems continue to drop in cost
damaging plants or the soil—no and increase in speed, accu-
chemicals required. They use a racy and efficiency, we may
number of methods, with most see a dramatic reduction in
opting for either a cutting blade the need for herbicides in the
to chop tops off of young weeds Photo credit: Deepfield Robotics near future of farming.
or a mini-hammer that smashes their main
stem. Other robot systems still rely on herbicides but reduce the amount THE OLD AND THE NEW
used by up to 90 percent. 13 Imagine a new kind of farm. On this farm,
For robot systems that forgo herbicides, the approach represents a robots weed during the early season until cover
double bonus, because the weeds feed the soil as their tops and roots de- crops protect the paths between plants. Some of
compose. This is something that is sorely missing in modern agriculture’s the cover crops serve as trap crops, attracting
current model. Robot systems also can work with cover crops, helping pests so that a vacuum can come along occa-
control early-season weeds until the weed-suppressing cover crops be- sionally to remove the ones that are particularly
come fully established. This type of weed control is even superior to a populous and problematic. A thermal system is
lot of traditional approaches of pulling or tilling weeds, as it leaves the available to protect other crops from both frost
soil undisturbed, while protecting and improving soil health. and a number of plant pests and diseases. Such
Although many robot systems are designed for large-scale, industrial is the possible farm of the future, one where
farming, some are specifically for home or smaller-scale growers and new and old work together to grow food. By
gardens. Tertill™, created by the same people who invented the Roomba wedding the low-tech to the high-tech—such
vacuuming robot, “lives” outside in the garden during the growing season, as pairing the simple trap crop approach with
requiring neither shelter nor power to weed the garden daily. The little the powerful bug vacuum—modern farmers
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Tertill™ machine shows a great deal of promise; as its speed increases, can create sustainable, effective and efficient
a single unit will be able to take care of more and more square footage. non-chemical solutions.
What Tertill™ is for backyard and small growers, Deepfield Ro- No technology can conquer or undo the
botics and similar machines hope to be for larger growers. Deepfield’s problems posed by monoculture and industrial
“enormous agricultural robot” uses a one-centimeter-wide stamping tool agriculture alone. Those problems, which in-

74 Wise Traditions SPRING 2018