Get a jump on diseases

摘要

More timely information is now available to California fruit growers -- for free. Syngenta Crop Protection will expand its sponsorship of two regional modeling networks in northern California for the 2002 growing season. FieldWise (www.fieldwise.com) in Bodega Bay and Terra Spase (www.terraspase.com) in St. Helena use weather stations to collect data. They transmit this information to computers at their corporate headquarters where they do predictive modeling of disease pressure in various crops. The information is then posted on their Web sites, along with local weather conditions and information to help growers identify common disease, insect, and weed problems on their farms. The companies also post statewide and localized weather forecasts. FieldWise and Terra Spase provide this information free to growers. Financial backing is provided by Syngenta and other agribusiness sponsors. FieldWise collects data from 52 weather stations in the northern Central Valley, covering almonds, grapes, figs,prunes, and walnuts. Terra Spase collects data from 80 weather stations in Napa and Sonoma counties, focusing on wine grapes.