Progress 09/01/24 to 08/31/25

Outputs
Target Audience:LEAP has reached 992 nursery crop growers in 17 states through webinars, podcasts, professional development opportunities, trade shows, workshops, special topics sessions, field days, farm visits, phone calls, survey distribution, and research management team meetings. The "Labor, Efficiency, Automation, and Production: LEAP Nursery Crops Toward Sustainability" (aka LEAP) advisory board is our primary audience both for guiding our project continuously and for advocating on our behalf to stakeholders they influence to adopt automation and keep nursery crops sustainable. LEAP had 31 Advisory Board (AB) members when the original proposal was submitted in 2024 and now it has grown to 51. These members include growers; trade publication editors; national nursery commodity association leaders; owners, CEOs, engineers, and sales representatives of major nursery automation fabrication companies in the US and Europe; sales representatives and scientists at major input producing companies (substrates, nutrients, irrigation supply) in the US. Advisory board members serve on several teams, for example, the Research Management Team lead by Co-PD Fulcher met five times in 2024-2025 with several advisory board members in attendance to discuss experimental design, technology choice, data to be collected, and outputs to be created. They have significantly helped guide and in some cases change the trajectory of LEAP. LEAP, in conjunction with national commodity group organization, AmericanHort, held our Annual Meeting at Culitvate25, in Columbus, OH, and on Zoom. It was attended by 20 advisory board members and invited stakeholders. LEAP delivered both yearly outputs and future objective activities and received feedback on their direction. Advisory Board members offered their advice and encouragement about LEAP trajectory. The advisory board is our core constituency audience we are trying to first understand their current automation adoption levels in terms of nursery production automation and technology, then determine their strategies for adoption, and identify motivators and barriers to adoption. LEAP provided trialing and observation opportunities to stimulate their ability to adopt automation by installing automation and technology at their production facility. Data collected by them is used by LEAP to create economic decision aid tools, similar grower adoption strategies, and engagement with fellow growers during field days, mentoring, and presentations. Research conducted with influential members of the main target audience in production regions around the US will both create observation opportunities for other growers in that area and develop research based tools that growers elsewhere can use to determine their adoption strategy choices. LEAP held monthly All Hands Meetings to provide opportunities for collaboration among other LEAP scientists. To optimize this schedule, LEAP also invited stakeholders to present new automation ideas, technologies, labor saving ideas, and products from automation companies for the first 20 minutes, take questions for 10 minutes. LEAP invited stakeholders from around the country to attend those first 30 minutes. LEAP organized automation and technology based field days in Oregon, Florida, and Tennessee, as well as demonstrated LEAP developed automation on nurseries in Ohio. Additionally, CI Gan teaches two undergraduate courses called BsE 351 Basic Electrical and BsE 451 Electronic Principles and Electronic Systems as well as mentor the student ASBAE Robotics Club to build automation, gain experience with robotics, and demonstrate capabilities of the Pot in Pot Extraction Robot (PIPER) in contests. A tertiary target audience is fellow nursery production scientists in adjacent USDA-SCRIs and academic scientists working in the same or related fields by developing a special topics session at the American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference. PD LeBude and Co-PD Fulcher visited automation and robotics companies and producers of nursery stock in Italy and Germany to design a future tour of those countries with US growers in attendance. They met with two Extension support personnel, 25 growers at 17 nurseries, and eight engineers at Urbinati, Holmac, and Seed2Soil. The Consumer Preference team distributed a survey about automation and consumer preference to nearly 1000 consumers in their target audience. One Post-Doctorate scientist, two Ph.D. students, two M.S. students, and four undergraduate students received specific training, made scientific presentations, conducted research, and addressed our core target audience at both the Annual Meeting and various workshops during year one. Changes/Problems:The current uncertainty with federal and state government funding policy has impacted the hiring process; therefore, some new employees have not been hired that otherwise would be employed on this project. Scientists within LEAP that currently hold a J1-VISA are leaving the program and returning to their country of origin, which has slowed research and increased time to hire new employees to replace them. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?LEAP created the Peer Mentoring network for growers who have adopted automation to mentor those interested in adopting the same or similar automation and technology. Our goal is to have 20 growers be mentored by the network and so far, one of our collaborating nurseries visited another Advisory Board Member that is hosting research to observe automation use and ask questions. And then two growers talked with an engineering firm that serves as an allied industry Advisory board member about purchasing equipment designed for their nursery. Dr. Karla Addesso trained 21 LEAP members in the USDA PUB AG and AG Data Commons procedures at one of our monthly All Hands Meetings. Dr. Chris Marble provided training for 16 growers for 1.5 hours at the Nursery Scout Training Workshop: Weed identification, management, and herbicides for the nursery. UF/IFAS Nursery Scout Training Workshop Series in Apopka, FL, on 13 November 24. Dr. Amy Fulcher demonstrated the use of the Fertileeze fertilizer applicator to 10 employees at two nurseries as a demonstration before those employees used the device while their outputs were recorded for an experiment. U. Georgia: Hasan Jahanifar: PhD Student, 01/2025 to present, Mr. Jahanifar will be developing the A-IPM technology under the direction of Dr. Md Sultan Mahmud, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, as a part of completing his PhD degree. He is conducting this A-IPM project and will continue to work on this project until completion. U. Tennessee: Keegan Cole - undergraduate received 10 hours training on accessing, graphing and interpreting irrigation instrumentation to monitor Obj 1.2.3. He also recevied 20 hours on-site training installing instrumentation, practicing with Bluetooth controllers in greenhouse and nursery before installing the equipment. Tenn. State U.: 2 UG students helped with JMS propagation. U. Tennesee Post Doctorate Student Hui Liu researched GPS positioning system use in ground based electric tractors and presented findings to all LEAP CIs collaborating on Objective 1: Production, Robotics, and Engineering so they can decide about purchase and use. U. Florida: Vashti Tatman, PhD student, completed 6 hours of Institutional Review Board training as a LEAP project onboarding Zoe Turner (undergraduate student) was trained in data collection to conduct economic feasibility analysis of mechanical aids' adoption in nursery production. She learned about herbicide sprayers during a visit to a nursery operation in Florida. She received about 54 hours of training and hands-on experience in July 2025. Shovit Nepal: M.S. Student, 08/2025 to present. is currently developing the A-IPM technology under the direction of Dr. Md Sultan Mahmud, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, as part of completing his MS degree. Krish Kothari: Undergraduate Student, worked on developing a pipeline to autonomously run Bonsai Robotics (formerly Farm-ng) Amiga Flex electric tractor. Daniel Laij: Undergraduate Student processed lidar data to identify tree trunks and measure distance. Dr. Hao Gan brough one MS and 2 Ph.D students to three pot-in-pot nurseries in Tennessee for introductory training to the procedures their designs will be addressing. Dr. Amy Fulcher mentored three graduate students in Biosystems Engineering and Soil Sciences who are also advised by Hao Gan at monthly meetings, demonstrations, and robotics competitions. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?LEAP has reached 992 nursery crop growers in 17 states and four countries through delivering 20 presentations, hosting or presenting at 8 field days, traveling internationally to visit growers and allied engineering companies, publishing 3 podcasts, 6 extension articles, published 3 trade publications, submitted 1 peer-reviewed journal article, and published 2 peer-reviewed journal articles. Nurseryleap.com was the primary avenue for disseminating content to all stakeholders as it was renovated, renewed, and updated with all LEAP content from both the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, SPECIALTY CROPS RESEARCH INITIATIVE Coordinated Agriculture Project: Labor, Efficiency, Automation, and Production: LEAP Nursery Crops Toward Sustainability CAP 2024-51181-43291 & Planning Grant 2020-51181-32137. In 2025 there were 235 unique visitors to the website viewing 298 pages for an average of 1.3 seconds. For the LEAP YouTube channel, which is linked to the nurseryleap.com webpage but viewed via YouTube, approximately 356 people watched 21 videos for 11.5 hours. The highest watched videos were adoption philosophies of advisory board members, employee perspectives about automation, potting machines, and automated pruners and conveyors. The "Labor, Efficiency, Automation, and Production: LEAP Nursery Crops Toward Sustainability" (aka LEAP) advisory board is our primary audience both for guiding our project continuously and for advocating on our behalf to stakeholders they influence to adopt automation and keep nursery crops sustainable. LEAP had 31 Advisory Board (AB) members when the original proposal was submitted in 2024 and now it has grown to 51. These members include growers; trade publication editors; national nursery commodity association leaders; owners, CEOs, engineers, and sales representatives of major nursery automation fabrication companies in the US and Europe; sales representatives and scientists at major input producing companies (substrates, nutrients, irrigation supply) in the US. LEAP, in conjunction with the national commodity group organization, AmericanHort, held our Annual Meeting at Culitvate25, in Columbus, OH, and on Zoom. It was attended by 20 advisory board members and invited stakeholders. LEAP delivered both yearly outputs and future objective activities and received feedback on their direction. Advisory Board members offered their advice and encouragement about LEAP trajectory. A faciliated discussion about electric tractors was held during the strategic planing session so both growers and the actual developers and fabricators of the automation could discuss challenges and opportunites. LEAP created "LEAP FORWARD: Innovations in Nursery Automation" as an overall outreach vehicle for professional development for stakeholders. LEAP had 4 guest speakers throughout the year give presentations to 40 stakeholders, allied support industry, Extension support personnel and growers, as well 60 cumulative LEAP members attending. Dr. Margarita Velandia, Socioeconomic Objective 2 Lead created the podcast "Let's Talk Labor" and published three podcasts devoted to the nursery industry's labor challenges. Episode 8: Labor Challenges and Strategies to Overcome These Challenges - Lessons Learned by a Tennessee Nursery Operation; Episode 9: Mechanization as a Strategy to Overcome Labor Challenges; Episode 18: Labor Challenges and Strategies to Overcome These Challenges. It was listened to by 77 people in 2025. LEAP organized or participated in automation and technology-based field days in Oregon, Florida, Tennessee, and New Zealand, as well as demonstrated LEAP developed automation on nurseries in Ohio. Additionally, CI Gan teaches two undergraduate courses called BsE 351 Basic Electrical and BsE 451 Electronic Principles and Electronic Systems as well as mentor the student ASBAE Robotics Club to build automation, gain experience with robotics, and demonstrate capabilities of the Pot in Pot Extraction Robot (PIPER) in contests. LEAP PD LeBude, CO-PD Fulcher, and CI Altland co-organized the Special Topics Session: Labor in Nursery Crops at the Annual Conference of the American Society for Horticultural Science to provide professional development for fellow scientists. PD LeBude and Co-PD Fulcher visited automation and robotics companies and producers of nursery stock in Italy, Germany, and New Zealand to design a future tour of Germany and Italy with US growers in attendance. They met with two Extension support personnel, 55 growers at 27 nurseries, and nine engineers at Urbinati and Holmac (Italy), Seed2Soil (Germany), and Intelligro and BA Marlboro (New Zealand). The Consumer Preference team distributed a survey about automation and consumer preference to nearly 1000 consumers in their target audience. LEAP CIs employed or mentored one Post-Doctorate scientist, two Ph.D. students, two M.S. students, and four undergraduate students who received specific training, made scientific presentations, conducted research, and addressed our core target audience at both the Annual Meeting and various workshops during year one. A television station in Athens, Georgia reported PD LeBude speaking at the Georgia Green Industry Convention and one in Channel 8 news coverage in Tennessee of the 2025 Green Industry Field Day featuring nursery automation, which aired June 15, 2025, and reached a national audience of 7,900 viewers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1: Production, Engineering & Robotics (PE) Summary: Objective1 will transition from design and simulation into field level validation. Teams will acquire and configure robotic platforms, integrate sensing and navigation payloads, and begin nursery scale demonstrations. Each sub-objective (ANDREW, PIPER, TALI, A-IPM) will advance toward functional prototypes, while multi-state collaborations will continue benchmarking existing application technologies. Plans: ANDREW: Acquire/configure Amiga; port navigation software; demonstrate in Carnegie Mellon University Robotics lab; integrate payload; deploy at nursery; define spraying subsystem; build two wheeled Amiga and begin mobility testing; iterate tree segmentation for real time accuracy. PIPER: Finalize platform; train team on Amiga controls; begin harvesting design; complete end effector and overall robot design; finalize digital simulation setup. TALI: Advance programming for laser signal analysis; implement automated segmentation of trees in point clouds; upgrade data savingmodule for multi-threaded framework. A-IPM: Build weather sealed prototype [Jetson Orin + Light Detecting And Ranging (LiDAR) + Near Infrared (NIR) camera]; collect/annotate Japanese Maple Scale (JMS) images; propagate infestations; refine deep learning model; present at American Society for Horticultural Science 2025; improve imaging with zoomed camera; expand dataset annotations; finetune model; integrate Amiga navigation; coordinate between Dr. Karla Addesso at Tennessee State that is raising JMS and Dr. Mahmud at U. Georgia, who is developing A-IPM to detect JMS for 2026. Application Technologies: In FL collect and analyze herbicide data from various applicator technologies, disseminate surveys nationally to stakeholders, report at American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) and International Plant Production Society, Southern Region; In TN continue Holden Nursery monitoring, deploy surveys, complete fertilizer dispenser case study; OR clarify Green Elf availability, confirm fertilizer trial feasibility, continue irrigation collaborations; FL begin national herbicide survey dissemination, expand baseline data, complete case study article; TN continue fertilizer dispenser outreach, complete irrigation survey, finalize case study, prepare ASHS abstracts. In NC, begin irrigation controller experiments at both nurseries; facilitate grower interviews with Dr. Velandia in Objective 2 for grower adoption of fertilizer applicators and irrigation controllers to build out case studies with economic information. Objective 2: Socioeconomics (SE) Summary: Objective 2 will expand economic analyses by completing additional nursery profiles, gathering detailed income statement data, and refining protocols for evaluating automation technologies such as potting machines and pruners. A literature review on employee productivity and satisfaction will complement these efforts, ensuring feasibility assessments capture both financial and workforce impacts. Plans: Complete two additional nursery profiles and gather income statement data. Develop protocols for potting/pruning economic feasibility. Complete literature review on employee productivity, health, and satisfaction. Objective 3: Behavioral Adoption (BA) Summary: Objective3 will move into active data collection, expanding interviews with growers to capture motivations, barriers, and decision-making processes around automation adoption. With IRB approval secured, the team will finalizerecruitment strategies and begin building a robust dataset. Manuscript development will continue, focusing on theoretical framing and methods. Plans: Continue expanded grower interviews. Draft introduction, framework, and methods for a manuscript began in 2025. Submit trade magazine article for series LEAP Forward: Innovations in Nursery Automation. Objective 4: Consumer Preference (CP) Summary: Objective4 will build on the first nationwide consumer survey by analyzing results and developing a second survey to segment audiences and test messaging strategies. The team will also begin planning for marketing and eye tracking studies, while creating educational materials to support outreach. Plans: Continue analysis of Survey 1 data. Submit abstracts to Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists and Sustainable Agriculture Education Association. Develop Survey 2 for audience segmentation and messaging. Begin planning for eye trackingand marketing strategy studies. Further develop educational materials for future surveys. Objective 5: Extension, Outreach & Communication (EX) Summary: Objective 5 will expand outreach and engagement activities to accelerate adoption of automation technologies. Plans include delivering workshops and presentations at major industry events, hosting additional field days, and publishing new extension resources. The team will also strengthen digital platforms such as NurseryLEAP.com, recruit more mentors for the grower network, and promote the 2026 international trip. Plans: Hold annual advisory board/collaborator meeting at Cultivate26. Deliver LEAP workshop about first year outputs for stakeholders at Cultivate26; present at ASHS. Host additional field days/workshops in Florida and Oregon; attend Florida Nursery & Greenhouse Landscape Association Landscape Show. Publish extension articles; expand NurseryLEAP.com resources. Promote and recruit for 2026 international trip. Film and produce sixty minutes of videos about automation use in the US and Europe. Publish approximately 12 trade journal articles in Nursery Management Magazine with help from Advisory Board Member, Kelli Rodda, GIE Media Editor. The series will be called LEAP FORWARD: INNOVATIONS IN NURSERY AUTOMATION and will publish monthly articles about LEAP created content, stakeholder driven ideas, and tips and tricks for adopting automation among several nursery platforms. Continue monthly professional development opportunities for stakeholders by inviting guest speakers from around the world to present at our All Hands Meeting where we invite other stakeholders to learn about automation adoption opportunities. Recruit additional mentors; plan mentor/mentee events. Continue developing case studies, digital/print resources, and LEAP Learning Center content. Hold irrigation technology workshop in Oregon (Oct 2026). Participate in IPPSSR annual meeting in Houston, TX (presentations, posters, tours).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1: Production, Engineering & Robotics (PE): PE developed and tested robotic platforms, sensing systems, and AI driven tools aimed at improving labor efficiency and accuracy in nurseries. Parallel efforts advanced specialized robots for pot extraction, inventory management, and pest monitoring and spraying, each including prototype builds, and field data collection. Hired graduate students, created robust simulation environments, selected and configured the Farm-ng "Amiga" as a versatile base electric platform, and demonstrated early navigation, mapping, and segmentation capabilities. Multistate collaborations evaluated existing herbicide, fertilizer, and irrigation technologies, generating baseline data, grower surveys, and extension outputs. Efforts have laid the groundwork for transitioning from simulation and design to field ready prototypes, while also building the socioeconomic and agronomic context needed for adoption. The Research Management Team met with collaborating stakeholders to present findings and seek guidance on key decisions, most notably implications of row spacing and harvesting strategy on electric platform choice, irrigation controllers, and input applicators.1.1a - ANDREW (Autonomous Nursery Driving Robot for Eliminating Weeds):Built Robot Operating Systems with Gazebo for a 3D simulated pot-in-pot digital nursery that validates algorithms and robotic behavior; analyzed robotic electric platforms; selected Farm-ngAmiga as primary; Developed Simultaneous Localization and Mapping navigation that allows robots to build a map of unknown environments and track its position within that environment and Voronoi-based path planning identifies regions of maximum clearance from obstacles; Designed autonomy architecture; assembled sensing/mapping payload; Validated 3D→2D mapping; deployed payload at Willoway Nurseries, an advisory board member and collaborator; Created random forest tree segmentation filter; Designed custom two-wheeledAmiga mobility platform.1.1b - PIPER (Pot-in-Pot Extraction Robot): Hired 2 doctoral and 1 master's students; Narrowed platform to Amiga/custom; ordered Amiga with intelligent kit; Designed preliminary harvesting end effector; Began virtual simulation environment; Conducted three nursery visits to learn field operating procedures.1.1c - TALI (Terrestrial Autonomous Laser-based Inventory System): Hired post-doc; selected laser sensor; Built simulation environment; developed real-time detection/counting algorithms; Tested with artificial trees; improved point cloud processing; Developed multi?threaded framework for real-time display; Conducted preliminary field trials confirming accuracy.1.1d - A-IPM [Artificial Intelligence Pest Monitoring for Japanese Maple Scale (JMS)]:Selected/tested monochrome + RGB cameras with Near Infar-Red (NIR); Designed 3-D oF imaging prototype with actuator; Collected datasetswith PI Addesso; annotated and trained modified U-Net; Developed tree segmentation and trunk panorama stitching; Applied MiDaS (Multiple Depth Estimation Accuracy with Single Network, a deep learning model that processes a captured image and generates a depth map) + SAM (Segment Anything Model), the process of identifying and outlining objects within an image for trunk masking; Expanded dataset with augmentation; trained/tested modified model; Propagated JMS onto 60-80 maples for future trials 1.2-Evaluate Existing Application Technologies: Florida: Conducted herbicide uniformity trials, canopy penetration studies, and nine on farmvisits; developed grower/manufacturer surveys; published extension article; TN: Secured IRB approvals, installed BT irrigation controllers, flow meters, soil moisture sensors, and leachate and irrigation gauges to monitor at cooperating nursery; conducted Fertileeze trials; submitted extension publication and featured work at multiple field days and workshops; OR: Conducted site visits and measured baseline data to identify partners [Pacific Crest Ornamentals (fertilizer), Kramer Nursery (herbicide), and Grande Ronde & Cistus (irrigation)] for studies in 2026; vendor issues delayed Green Elf applicator deployment. NC: Established collaborations with McMakin Nurseries (SC) and Scottree, Inc. (NC) to install LORA based irrigation controllers for both field and container production. Objective 2: Socioeconomics (SE): Advanced the socioeconomic foundation to evaluate LEAP developed and existing automation adoption. SE accelerated its timeline to align with PE (Obj 1), ensuring that economic data collection kept pace with technology trials. Survey instruments were designed to assess the economic impact of Airtec sprayers and several herbicide applicators, while capital and partial budget analyses were completed for specific technologies. Developed protocols for economic feasibility of irrigation/fertilizer/herbicide systems; Completed two nursery profiles (TN, FL); began collecting baseline labor data; Designed Airtec sprayer survey; finalized herbicide applicator survey; Conducted capital budget analysis (herbicide sprayer, FL) and partial budget analysis (fertilizer dispenser, TN); Published/accepted Extension articles on H-2A visa program impacts. Objective 3: Behavioral Adoption (BA): Laid groundwork for understanding behavioral drivers of automation adoption. A Ph.D. student leads qualitative research, and BA developed recruitment materials, interview guides, and IRB submissions. Initial interviews with growers provided insights into barriers to adopting irrigation timers, forming the basis of the first manuscript. Outreach efforts began through trade articles and advisory board updates. These steps established the foundation for mapping motivators, barriers, and information networks that influence adoption; Drafted a manuscript on irrigation timer nonadopters; Presented adoption characteristics at Cultivate'25 workshop and Advisory Board meeting; Began trade magazine article for series LEAP Forward: Innovations in Nursery Automation; Began data collection through interviews Objective 4: Consumer Preference (CP):Developed nationwide survey, IRB approved and deployed to nearly 1,000 consumers. Early analysis has already informed abstracts submitted to professional conferences and Extension presentations. CP also began developing educational materials to support future surveys, ensuring that consumer perspectives will be integrated into adoption strategies and outreach. Submitted abstracts to American Society for Horticultural Science and Sustainable Agriculture Education Association; Presented early findings to UT County Cooperative Extension Agents. Initiated development of educational materials for future surveys. Objective 5: Extension, Outreach & Communication (EX): Increased awareness of existing automation technologies and built communication channels for stakeholders to learn and experience automation use at other nurseries. Workshops were organized at major industry events, and the NurseryLEAP.com website was expanded. Delivered 20 presentations, 8 field days, 3 podcasts, 6 Extension articles, published 3 trade publications, submitted 1 and published 2 peer-reviewed journal articles; Organized LEAP workshops at Cultivate25, American Society for Horticultural Science (2024), International Plant Production Society, Southern Region Conference, FL; Held the First Annual Advisory Board Meeting at Cultivate'25. 20 stakeholders, objective leaders and other LEAP members attended; Created LEAP FORWARD: Innovations in Nursery Automation as an overall outreach vehicle for professional development for stakeholders. 4 guest speakers gave presentations to 40 stakeholders and growers; Reached 992 growers, 13 Cooperative Extension agents, 1000+ consumers, and 35 allied industry businesses and 9 automation & technology companies; Planned 2026 international trip; Recruited mentors for grower network.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2025 Citation: Marble, C. 2025. Determining the accuracy and efficiency of commercially available herbicide application equipment used in container nursery production. American Society for Horticultural Sciences. HortScience 60(7):S306. (Abstract)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2025 Citation: Pietsch, G., McKim, K., Harrell, W., Johnson, J., Velandia, M., and Fulcher, A. 2025. An Inexpensive fertilizer dispenser can reduce labor costs and over-application, but may offer less dexterity�than manual applications. HortScience 60(9):307.
• Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2025 Citation: Rayamajhi, A., Lu, G., Tollner, E. W., Williams-Woodward, J., & Mahmud, M. S. 2025. Assessing Ornamental Tree Maturity and Spray Requirement Using a Depth Sensing and LiDAR System.�Smart Agricultural Technology, 101120.
• Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2025 Citation: NurseryLEAP.com
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2025 Citation: Jahanifar, H., Addesso, K., & Mahmud, M.S. (2025). Enhanced Detection of Japanese Maple Scale Using Cutting-Edge Artificial Intelligence Technology. 2025 ASHS Conference, New Orleans, LA, July 28 - August 1, 2025. Oral Presentation
• Type: Other Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: McKim, K., Fulcher, A., Rihn, A., Warner, L, LeBude, A., Velandia, M., Bumgarner, N., and Schexnayder, S. 2024. The Role of Automation in Addressing the Nursery Industry Labor Shortage. Part II. Advances in Automation within Task. UT Extension Publication. W1235. https://utia.tennessee.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/269/2024/10/W1235.pdf
• Type: Other Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2025 Citation: Nackley, L. Leaping Forward. 2025. Digger Magazine, Oregon Association of Nurseries, Sept. 2025. https://diggermagazine.com/how-a-unique-research-collaboration-is-shaping-the-future-of-nursery-production/.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2025 Citation: Marble, C., Mahmud, S.,Zhu, H., Nackley, L.,Fulcher, A., Lebdude, A., Valendia,M, Warner, L, Rihn, A., Bumgarner, N., Addesso, K., Altland, J., Chen, L., Gan, H., Hered, W., Kantor, G., Liu, H., Palma, M., and Ribera, L. 2025. Labor, Efficiency, Automation, Production: LEAP Nursery crops towards sustainability. American Society for Horticultural Sciences. HortScience 60(7):S310. (Abstract)