Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this proposal falls under topic…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this proposal falls under topic area 8.13: plant production and protection (engineering), focusing on research priority 2B: plant protection against abiotic and/or biotic stresses: monitoring, detection, and management. The system that root applied sciences (RAS) has engineered allows for species-specific monitoring of plant pathogens in the air by combining a highly efficient air sampler with robust DNA-based quantification assays. Using this system, RAS provides risk alerts of grapevine powdery mildew (PM) based on airborne inoculum concentrations enabling growers to trigger fungicide sprays only when needed. Our phase i proposal helped US to understand our sampler's spatial coverage for PM in commercial vineyards and the limitations of the DNA-based quantification assay that must be overcome to develop a fully automated system able to operate under field conditions. Therefore, in our phase II proposal, we aim to expand the number, and type, of pests our system can detect, delivering an automated system capable of simultaneously monitoring PM spores and the airborne instars of the economically important vine mealybug (VMB).this proposal focuses on PM and VMB, two pests that are major pain points, costly to control, and threaten the sustainable production of wine grapes in the western U.S. An inoculum monitoring system able to trigger management strategies at optimal times for disease and pest control can reduce the total number of pesticide applications (up to 70%), with each avoided application saving fuel and labor. Thus, this application is also connected to energy efficiency as fewer tractor passes to apply pesticides will require less energy.