Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Pollinators

AI-driven robot scans and thins apple blossoms at Roza Experimental Farm
Fall 2022

Videos: Robots in orchards

The robots are coming…to an orchard or field near you.

Robots, drones, and automation are part of the smart agriculture movement with the aim of creating the farms of the future.

Watch some of the robots in action…

 

Robotic apple harvester making headway (Good Fruit Grower, January 14, 2022)

 

Automatic fruit picker demonstration by FF Robotics (Good Fruit Grower, 2017)

 

Mechanical pollination trials on a commercial cherry crop (Good Fruit Grower, 2016)
Featuring WSU horticulturist Matthew Whiting at the Prosser-based WSU research orchard

 

LaserWeeder implement (Carbon Robotics, … » More …

Winter 2018

Build a bee hotel

Help some local pollinators by building your own bee hotel.

There are plenty of tutorials and guides out there. Below are a few easy steps to quickly building a home for solitary bees, followed by links to some other guides.

With a craft knife, cut both ends off the plastic bottle to create a cylinder.
Make your lengths of bamboo, grass or reeds 3 cm shorter than the bottle to protect them from rain – use sharp garden clippers to trim them. Bees can’t burrow through the knots in bamboo, so avoid lengths with too many knots.
Use sandpaper to smooth the … » More …

Doug Walsh
Winter 2018

Gallery: Bee beds and hotels

A unique look at the interplay between wild North American bees, European bees, and Washington farmers.

Photographer Zach Mazur ’06 highlights the apian stars of Southeast Washington’s thriving alfalfa seed industry. The spare yet stunning landscape is home to millions of native alkali bees which, together with leafcutter bees, make Walla Walla County one of the nation’s top producers.

Read more about wild bees and pollinators in “Plan Bee.