XChateau Wine Podcast

More Data, Less Sprays w/ Sarah Placella, Root Applied Sciences


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Spraying for powdery mildew can be ~25% of the cost of farming a vineyard and be one of the key elements of a grower’s carbon footprint. Sarah Placella, Founder and CEO of Root Applied Sciences, has taken her deep research in microbes and created a data-driven solution to monitor the air for mildew and spray only when needed. Root can cut ~5 sprays per season, and growers have an average 5x ROI using the system.  


Detailed Show Notes: 

Root Applied Sciences (“Root”) - airborne pathogen monitoring for farmers, like an “early warning system”

  • Founded in 2018, 1st work with/ growers in 2021
  • Powdery mildew (“PM”) is a big problem for vineyards in CA (March - August)
  • Currently only markets to vineyards, done work with/ strawberries, leafy greens, can do anything with/ DNA and small insects
  • Napa, Sonoma, Central Coast today

HW enabled SaaS model - Root owns and maintains devices

  • Device in the field, just above the canopy
  • Send data (battery status, device status, temp, humidity) to the cloud over LTEM connection
  • SW to see the data
  • The grower collects samples from devices 2x/week and sends them to the lab
  • Growers can share data with/ each other

Has an automated prototype in process

  • Will not need a grower to collect and send samples
  • Fundraising “seed” round for an automated system

~25% of operational costs are spent managing PM

  • 6-16 pesticide applications/season
  • Conventional growers have fewer applications, but spend more for each one
  • Organic may be spraying every week
  • PM takes 7-10 days to enter plants. See 2 peaks of PM before growers can see it, once PM exists, it's hard to control
  • Root can cut 20-80% of sprays (~5 sprays/season), lengthens spray intervals when low risk
  • ~$100/acre spray cost per application, ~$300/acre if need to spray by hand (e.g., steep slopes)
  • 2024 - saw PM on Mar 29 in Carneros, growers planned 1st spray 4/16, moved up 1st spray to 4/2; cut sprays and more clean fruit
  • Root data enables more biological sprays (have shorter efficacy windows, are more environmentally friendly, and data gives more confidence to try them)

Other benefits of Root

  • Clean fruit - faster fermentation (5 days faster), higher quality, possible increase in yields
  • Environmental (less sprays, tractor use) - less diesel use, lower soil compaction; for 1 grower, 1 spray is a 13% reduction in carbon footprint
  • Farmworker health - fewer chemicals in the air

Pricing

  • $3,000/season/monitoring station all-in
  • Avg grower has 4 stations, 1 every ~30-50 acres
  • Precision growers or rolling hills, 1 station every ~10 acres

~5x ROI

Barriers to adoption

  • Risk aversion
  • No access to a carrier to send samples
  • Grape prices down (budgets)
  • More adaptive sprays can make operational scheduling harder for vineyard management companies

Other PM solutions

  • “Spray and pray” (~90% of growers) - calendar-based system
  • Weather-based tools don’t work well and may be impacted by climate change
  • Spore trapping tools (e.g., spinning rods, roto rods) have sticky material that reduces sample size and efficacy, UV light exposure degrades PM
  • Image-based analysis (new) - lots of data to send, samples ~2L air/min vs 400L air/min Root, does not specify type of PM present (~40 types)

Product roadmap - more power efficiency, integrating a solar panel

Has done work with/ downy mildew, botrytis, vine mealybug, and can detect them, but does not add a lot of value

Excited about growth in microbial mildewcides (biologicals)


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XChateau Wine PodcastBy Robert Vernick, Peter Yeung

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