Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/283151
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER APRIL 1, 2014 23 It works on the Apple iPhone system. In the field, if there's no Internet service, the phone holds the data. It becomes part of Apple's iCloud system, which shares the data automatically with computer and iPad. The system creates a number of records and reports from the arrival and departure times. "It's the simplest and most basic sys- tem I've seen," Byrd said. "It's efficient and accurate." Bugwood (www.bugwood.org), hosted by the University of Georgia's Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, has a library of almost 200,000 pictures of pests and diseases. Dr. Joe LaForest, entomologist and plant pathologist at the center, describes the smartphone as "the ultimate digital device," where "you carry your life in your pocket." The university has developed a number of apps, includ- ing IveGot1, for identifying and reporting invasive animals and plants; What's Inva- sive!, which displays local lists of top inva- sive plants and animals with pictures; and Stink Bug Scout, for identifying and mapping stinkbug populations. An IPM toolkit app is coming soon. Plant Diagnostic Sample Submission (search the iTunes store) is a favorite app of John Clements, University of Massa- chusetts fruit advisor. "It lets you submit a diagnostic sample with description of the problem, and pictures, and it submits to one of several university plant diagnos- tic services," he explained. "I did one last summer to test it, using what I thought was x-disease as a test, and I think they diagnosed it correctly." MyTraps (mytraps.com) is an app designed to help growers to collect and manage pest data from their fields or orchards. Pennsylvania State University professor emeritus of entomology Dr. Larry Hull has endorsed it, saying "MyTraps makes it easy for me to rap- idly enter pest data in the field on my smartphone." Fruit Tracker (fruittracker.com) is a recordkeeping and orchard management system that helps growers with food and worker safety, resistance management, and production. By entering spray and other event data into the system, grow- ers can track chemical usage, preharvest intervals, reentry intervals, and generate reports on their orchards and blocks. Fruit Tracker sends you an e-mail when your treatment preharvest interval or reentry interval has passed, gives you instructions for treatments and tank mixes, warns you when you need to change chemicals for resistance management, and saves you time recording sprays. Clements said Fruit Tracker is heav- ily oriented to apple, grape, and tender fruit growers in Canada's Ontario prov- ince, but it includes both the Ontario and U.S. pesticide lists. Developer Matt Deir, with Dragonfly IT in Ontario, has not yet commercialized this for individual users, but is willing to talk to organizations that might want to use it, Clements said. • "It's efficient and accurate." —Jason Byrd Jeff Leonardini uses a laptop computer, tablet, smartphone, and a printer to work in the field from his pickup truck. His most- used app is the pesticide sharing database Agrian. PHOTO BY MELISSA HANSEN