If you crossed WALL-E with a floor lamp, it might look a little like the PhytoPatholoBot. These robots aren't roving through space or decorating a living room — they're monitoring the stems, leaves and fruit of Cornell AgriTech's vineyards, rolling down each row and scanning for mildew.In this episode, host Emily Kwong and producer Hannah Chinn take a trip to Cornell to check out these new robots. How do they work? How effective are they? And what do local grape farmers – and neighbors – think about them? Interested in more robotics stories? Email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
What is the PhytoPatholoBot and how does it work?
No, not at all. Philip told me one is caused by a fungus and the other one is caused by a fungal organism. Kind of like a water mold. Okay. But the effect is low-key similar.
The name is very descriptive of powdery mildew. It just looks like some white powder on the top of the leaves. And if you look at downy mildew infected leaves, on the top of the leaves, you're going to get sort of a yellowing color, sort of like an oil spot.
You can tell which leaves are affected because they're like flaky or dirty looking. Powdery mildew creates cracks or lesions in the grapes, and downy mildew makes them more shrivelly and discolored.
That's a sad state for these poor plants. Okay.
And these types of mildew, they aren't just gross looking, they're also really bad for the plants and their grapes.
It reduces photosynthesis. It also reduces like crop yields as well. It can also affect grape quality.
And Emily, once that mildew sets in, it's really hard to shake. What do you mean? So Philip lives in New Mexico where downy mildew isn't as much of an issue, right? Because it's so dry. And that's true also in California, which is where the majority of U.S. grapes are produced. But he says that powdery mildew, the fungus spread disease, is capable of spreading anywhere.
It can even overwinter, which means it survives through the cold season and then infects new leaves when it rains in the spring.
When you get that rainfall, that rain splash, they sort of start the growing process of the fungus on the leaf. It develops spores and then those spores splash onto the new leaf, you know, in the spring. So that's sort of that disease cycle.
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